Karen's Little Sister Read online

  When Mommy and Seth finally pulled up in front of Daddy’s house, I ran out to their car.

  “Good-bye!” I called to my big-house family.

  I did not even stop to kiss or hug anyone. I just slid into the car. “Is Magic Tastee okay?” I asked.

  Andrew climbed in next to me.

  “He’s fine, honey,” said Mommy.

  “Where is he?”

  “Around somewhere,” said Seth. “Don’t worry.”

  “What do you mean ‘around somewhere’?”

  “You’ll see when we get home,” Mommy answered.

  As soon as our car was parked by the little house, I scrambled out, dropped my knapsack, and ran to the backyard.

  There was Magic Tastee’s box. I looked inside. It was empty.

  “Mommy! Seth!” I called. “Magic Tastee is gone! You let him escape!”

  I was about to start crying when I heard a chirp. I looked up. Magic Tastee was perched on the edge of the porch roof.

  “How did he get up there?” I asked Seth. He had come running into the yard.

  “He flew. He’s been flying a lot this weekend. To the bird feeder, even to a tree branch. He hardly uses his box anymore.”

  Suddenly I knew the truth. It was awful. “Magic Tastee isn’t going to be my pet anymore, is he?” I said.

  Mommy had joined us in the yard. “I think he’s going to stick around,” she said. “He just won’t need his box. He’s going to be on his own. He is wild, you know.”

  I nodded. I understood. Magic Tastee wouldn’t leave — but he wasn’t going to be my special pet, either.

  Tastee Bird

  Two weeks went by, and guess what? Magic Tastee didn’t leave. He really didn’t. He never used his box again, but he was always in our yard.

  He perched in the branches of our trees. He ate from the bird feeder. He splashed in the bird bath. He learned how to stay away from Rocky.

  I could tell him from all the other birds in the yard.

  He was my bird, but he wasn’t my pet.

  * * *

  The next time I was at Daddy’s house, Emily did something that surprised me. One morning, she handed me the coloring book I’d given her.

  “Yook,” she said. (That means “Look.”)

  I wasn’t sure what I was yooking for, but I flipped through the book anyway. Suddenly Emily stopped me.

  “Bird!” she announced triumphantly.

  Sure enough, she had scribbled over a picture of a bird that looked like Magic Tastee.

  “You bird,” she said.

  “My bird?” Did Emily really remember Magic Tastee? I was surprised.

  And then I got a good idea. I talked to Daddy about it. Daddy thought the good idea was a great idea.

  So Daddy and Kristy and Charlie and I arranged a special surprise for Emily. The surprise would take place on Monday, the day after Andrew and I went back to the little house.

  In school on Monday I was very excited. I could not wait for the afternoon. Ms. Colman had to keep saying, “Karen, pay attention.”

  I tried to, but it was not easy.

  * * *

  At last, school was over and I was at home again. I looked at my watch three million times. (Not really.) I was waiting for four-thirty.

  At four-thirty on the dot, Elizabeth’s station wagon stopped in front of our house. Charlie was driving it. Kristy was sitting next to him. Emily was in her car seat behind them.

  When they got out of the car, I began to laugh. Emily was wearing a shirt that said, “I’m the little sister.” Kristy was wearing a shirt that said, “I’m the big sister.”

  “There’s one for you, too,” she said. She handed me a shirt of my own. It read, “I’m the middle sister … and proud of it!”

  I laughed. Then I said, “Come on, you guys. I’ll show you Magic Tastee.” I took Emily by the hand. Kristy and Charlie and Emily and I walked to the back of the house.

  I whistled my special whistle for Magic Tastee.

  A few moments later he swooped down from somewhere. He landed on a low tree branch.

  I lifted Emily up to see him.

  “There he is, Emily,” I said. “There’s Magic Tastee. Can you say ‘Magic Tastee’? Can you say ‘bird’?”

  Emily paused. Finally she said, “Tastee bird,” and smiled.

  I giggled. Little sisters can be fun … sometimes.

  When Magic Tastee flew away, I set Emily on the ground. “Okay, put on your new shirt,” said Charlie.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  I ran inside and changed into the shirt.

  When I went back outdoors, Charlie was holding a camera.

  “Line up, you guys,” he said.

  Kristy and Emily and I stood in a line.

  Click! went the camera.

  Now I keep a copy of the three-sisters picture on my mirror at the little house.

  Emily Junior

  Magic Tastee had been a wild bird for more than a month when Mommy and Seth came into my room one night. I was sitting at my desk. I was wearing my blue glasses and doing my homework.

  “Karen,” said Mommy, “Seth and I have been thinking.”

  “We’ve been thinking hard,” said Seth. “Our brains are aching.”

  I laughed. “Oh, Seth!”

  “We were thinking,” said Mommy, “that we promised you a pet of your own, but in the end, you didn’t really get one. You have Magic Tastee, but he lives outdoors and you do not get to take care of him.”

  “That’s true,” I said. “I miss feeding him and watching him hop around in his box. I miss talking to him, too.”

  “So,” Mommy went on, “we were wondering if you would like to get another pet — a real pet — since Magic Tastee is not what you had in mind.”

  “Really?” I cried. I jumped up from my desk. “I can really get another pet? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  I threw my arms around Mommy. Then I gave Seth a big hug, too.

  * * *

  That night, when my homework was done, I sat on my bed. I held Goosie in my lap.

  “What kind of pet should I get?” I asked Goosie. “I do not think I want another bird. And no hamsters or mice or gerbils or fish. And Seth said no more cats or dogs.”

  Goosie looked like he had an idea. I held him up to my ear so he could whisper it to me.

  “An animal from a book that I like?” I repeated. “That’s a great idea! Let me see. There’s Paddington, but I can’t get a bear. And there’s Ferdinand, but I can’t get a bull…. Wait a minute! I just loved Nicodemus in Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. He was a wonderful, kind, smart rat. That’s it! I will get a nice rat like Nicodemus. A rat will be small, but not too small.”

  I ran downstairs. “Mommy? Seth?” I said.

  They were sitting in the living room. “Yes, honey?” said Mommy.

  “I know what kind of pet I want. I want a rat like Nicodemus.”

  Mommy and Seth looked at each other. For just a second, I thought they were going to say, “No. No rats.”

  Instead, Mommy said, “We’ll go to the pet store tomorrow.”

  * * *

  The man at the store was very nice. He said, “We don’t have any rats right now, but we can order one. It will take a week. Will that be all right?”

  “Yes,” I said. “It will be fine.”

  I did not like waiting for a whole week. The week dragged by. But I knew that when it was over I would have a pet of my own at last.

  The next Tuesday, Mommy drove Andrew and me to the pet store. There was my rat. He was waiting in a cage. We bought an aquarium for him, plus some cedar shavings, a water bottle, and some special rat food.

  As soon as we were home again, I fixed up my rat’s cage.

  “This is your house,” I told him. “You have everything you need…. Everything except a name,” I added.

  I thought and thought.

  At last I said, “I’m going to call you Emily
Junior, after my little sister.”

  And so I did.

  About the Author

  ANN M. MARTIN is the acclaimed and bestselling author of a number of novels and series, including Belle Teal, A Corner of the Universe (a Newbery Honor book), A Dog’s Life, Here Today, P.S. Longer Letter Later (written with Paula Danziger), the Family Tree series, the Doll People series (written with Laura Godwin), the Main Street series, and the generation-defining series The Baby-sitters Club. She lives in New York.

  Copyright © 1989 by Ann M. Martin

  All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, BABY-SITTERS LITTLE SISTER, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

  The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  First edition, 1989

  e-ISBN 978-1-338-05561-0

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