Karen's Lucky Penny Read online

  At first I was not sure how I felt about this. My friends had started B & N Gardeners. They had asked my brother to help them. But they had not asked me. And I was Nancy’s best friend. Still, I knew they just wanted to earn money for Funland. If they did not earn any, they wouldn’t have much fun. And I wouldn’t have fun if they were not having fun.

  I followed B & N Gardeners to their first stop. I wanted to see if someone would give them a huge job. Maybe they would only need one huge job, and then they could quit and we could play together.

  At the first house, Mr. Drucker asked B & N Gardeners to pull the weeds out of the cracks in his front walk. He paid them two dollars. Nancy got seventy-five cents, Bobby got seventy-five cents, and Andrew got fifty cents for being a good helper and always having the bucket ready.

  At the second house they were paid fifty cents to water a garden.

  At the third house they worked for two hours pulling dandelions, but they only earned four dollars.

  “Boy,” said Nancy, “this is hard work. And so far I have only earned two dollars and eighty cents.” She wiped her forehead.

  I felt a little sorry for my friends. They were all sweaty and dirty, and I did not need to earn a single penny. “You guys,” I said, “come over to my house. I think I have some work for you.”

  “Really?” said Bobby.

  “Sure,” I replied. “Come on over.”

  We stood in my front yard. I looked around. “Well,” I said, “I am sure Mommy would like those dandelions to be pulled up.”

  “More dandelions,” muttered Andrew.

  “And that new rosebush should be watered. And so should those flowers.”

  My friends set to work. When they finished, Nancy asked, “Who is going to pay us?”

  “I am,” I replied. I ran inside.

  Broke

  I opened my piggy bank and dumped the money on the floor. I counted it out. One dollar, two dollars, three, four … nine. Nine-ten, nine-twenty … nine eighty-seven. “Nine eighty-seven!” I cried. Where was the rest of my money? What had happened to it? I thought for a moment. Well, I had taken my friends to the movies. I had treated everyone to Mr. Tastee’s ice cream. I had given out lemonade money. And of course I had bought myself some things at the toy store. Somehow the money had just dwindled away.

  I counted it again to be sure. Yup. Nine eighty-seven. That was all. And I owed B & N Gardeners two dollars and fifty cents. After I paid them I would have (I counted again) only seven thirty-seven for Funland.

  Seven thirty-seven. That was no more than the other kids had. It was probably less than some of them had.

  I stood up. I just could not believe it. I had had one hundred dollars for Funland. I was going to buy every souvenir and play every game in sight. Now I did not even have ten dollars. And what did I have to show for all the money I had spent? Not much. Just a few toys. Boy. No fair. If only Mr. Beadle had not shown up. (I could think of a few more “if onlys,” too.)

  I snatched up the two-fifty. I ran outside. I slapped it into Bobby’s hand. “There!” I cried. “There’s your old money.”

  “Hey, Karen. What is wrong?” asked Nancy.

  “I spent all my money!” I replied. “That is what is wrong. I spent it on you guys. I took you to the movies. I bought you popcorn. I bought everyone ice cream. I gave people quarters to buy lemonade from Andrew. And now I am almost broke. I only have seven dollars. And by the way, you two still owe Mommy ten dollars.”

  My friends and my brother just stared at me. Finally Bobby said, “Karen, we did not ask you to spend your money on us.”

  “Yeah, you offered to take Hannie and me to the movies,” said Nancy.

  “And you offered us the ice cream,” said Bobby.

  “And I did not want you to go around giving out quarters,” said Andrew.

  “Anyway,” said Bobby, “if you were going to spend all that money on us, why didn’t you just pay your mother back instead?”

  “Because I gave you the money!”

  “Oh, forget about the stupid ten dollars,” said Nancy. “Karen, I thought you wanted to treat us to those things. Because we are your friends. I thought you spent the money because you like us.”

  “Well, I did! But I did not mean to spend so much of it.”

  I was standing on one side of our walk. My friends were standing on the other. We glared at each other.

  “Karen?” said Andrew finally. “Did you spend your money wisely?”

  “No! No, I did not.”

  “But Mommy — ”

  “I know what Mommy said. And I thought I was spending my money wisely. I thought doing nice things for other people was wise. I guess I was wrong.”

  “Are you mad, Karen?” asked Nancy.

  “Yes!” I cried. “Of course I am mad!”

  “Well, I am mad, too. You said some things that were not very nice.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Fine,” replied Nancy. “Good-bye.” She spun around and walked away.

  “Double good-bye,” said Bobby, and he walked away, too.

  Only Andrew and I were left. We stomped into the house.

  “Karen? Andrew? What is going on?” called Mommy.

  “Karen is mean!” yelled Andrew.

  “Karen, please come here,” said Mommy.

  I went to the living room. “I did not spend my money wisely,” I announced.

  Mommy sighed. “Let’s talk about it.”

  A Hundred Bottles of Pop

  The day of our trip to Funland had finally arrived. In my wallet was nine dollars and eighty-one cents, not counting my lucky penny. I was not sure, by the way, that the lucky penny was really so lucky anymore. For one thing, Andrew had more money than I did — eleven dollars and fifty cents. He had earned it all himself. For another things, Bobby and Nancy were still mad at me, and I was still mad at them. (I had apologized to Andrew, though.) But I was afraid to throw the lucky penny away. Throwing it away might be bad luck. So it was still in my pocket.

  I had thought I might have more than nine eighty-one for Funland. I had thought Mommy might say, “Poor Karen. Let me give you five dollars for the trip.” But she had not. Instead she said, “I guess you learned some things about keeping track of what you spend your money on.” And then she had said, “Well, the trip is not for several more days. You have time to earn some money. And you will get your allowance.” That is how I wound up with nine eighty-one.

  On the morning of Funland day, my big stepbrother Charlie drove Hannie over to the little house. Guess who else he drove over. Kristy. She was going to spend the day sitting for Danny Dawes, Nancy’s baby brother.

  “Okay, time for Funland!” called Seth. “Everybody in the car!”

  Andrew and Hannie and I scurried into our car. Next door, Nancy and her parents were climbing into their car. (Kristy stood on their front steps holding Danny.) Across the street, Kathryn and Willie were getting ready to leave, too. The Gianellis were probably doing the same thing.

  “ ’Bye!” Hannie yelled to Nancy. “See you at Funland!” She closed her door. “Karen,” she said, “are you and Nancy still mad at each other?”

  “Yes,” I replied.

  “Okay. Then I want you to know that I am not mad at Nancy. And I am not mad at you. So I do not want to be part of your fight.”

  “That’s all right. You do not have to be.” I was wishing that our fight were over anyway. I did not want to be mad at Nancy at Funland.

  Seth started the car and we were off. The trip was going to last about an hour. We decided to sing songs. The last song we chose was “A Hundred Bottles of Pop.” We were singing it when Hannie suddenly cried, “Oh, I see it! I see it!”

  She was pointing out her window. And suddenly I saw it, too. T. Rex. “The giant dinosaur!” I said. “There it is!”

  “And there’s the Ferris wheel!” exclaimed Andrew.

  Seth drove to the Funland parking lot. He parked our car with our friends’ cars, and
then we walked to the entrance in a big group. The grown-ups paid the admission fees, and we got our hands stamped. Now we could go on any ride we wanted all day long as many times as we wanted.

  We hurried inside. “What shall we do first?” asked Mr. Dawes.

  “The Ferris wheel!” cried Andrew and Alicia.

  But the rest of us kids wanted to ride on T. Rex. So we walked through Funland, heading for the dinosaur. We passed souvenir stands. We passed cotton candy stands. We passed the midway games. We passed Cap’n Billy’s Pirate Ship and Wild Water Mountain and the Jet Plane and Rocket to the Moon. So many excellent rides. But we kept going until we reached T. Rex.

  The entrance to T. Rex was a dinosaur’s mouth. We climbed into cars shaped like dinosaur eggs, two or three in each row. Andrew and Alicia sat together and of course, the Three Musketeers sat together. We heard a deep rumble and suddenly our egg lurched forward, into the dinosaur’s mouth, under his red flashing eyes. And then we were in pitch darkness, zooming around corners, with dinosaurs leaping out at us.

  We screamed until the ride was over. When our egg finally burst into the daylight, I saw that I was holding Nancy’s hand. We looked at each other and began to giggle. Our fight was over. After I apologized to Nancy, I would apologize to Bobby. Then I could really have fun at Funland.

  Mr. Beadle Again

  “Nancy, I am so, so sorry,” I said as the Three Musketeers climbed out of the dinosaur egg. “I did not want to be in a fight with you.”

  “I did not want to be in a fight either,” said Nancy.

  I looked around for Bobby. “Bobby!” I called. “Come here.”

  Bobby ran to us. “Wasn’t that a cool ride?” he said.

  “It was awesome,” I replied. “Bobby, I want to tell you something. I want to say I’m sorry about our fight. I was mad at myself because I spent all my money. But I blamed you and Nancy. That was not fair.”

  “Well, I am sorry, too,” said Bobby.

  “You are? For what?”

  “For telling you to pay your mom back the ten dollars. That was not fair either.”

  “Yeah, I’m sorry,” added Nancy.

  “It is hard to know what to do about that,” I said. “I mean, who owes who the money? Plus you know what? Mommy has not even asked for it.”

  “Well, I have been thinking about it,” said Bobby. “I decided Nancy and I should pay your mom back, even if she did not ask for the money.”

  “Yeah, B & N Gardeners is doing pretty well,” agreed Nancy. “We can earn the money after Funland. No problem.”

  I smiled at my friends. Then I said, “Boy, money sure is hard to understand, isn’t it? Look at all the problems it caused.”

  “It is very complicated,” said Nancy.

  “But let’s not worry about it now,” said Hannie. “I am just glad you guys are friends again. Come on. Let’s go on another ride.”

  We went on lots of rides that morning. The Ferris wheel was next. After that, we could not agree on the third ride, so Mommy and Mrs. Dawes took the Three Musketeers until lunchtime. We could always decide what we wanted to do together. After our fourth ride, we decided to play some midway games, since we all wanted to win a stuffed animal. We played very carefully, since we were paying for the games ourselves.

  By lunchtime, we had not won anything except rubber snakes, but we were having fun scaring each other with them.

  “Girls! Come on!” called Mrs. Dawes. “Time to meet the others.”

  We had agreed to meet up with everybody for lunch. We met back at T. Rex, since the dinosaur is so easy to see. Then we tried to figure out where to go for lunch. This was not easy.

  “No hot dogs,” said Kathryn’s father.

  “Something healthy,” said Mrs. Gianelli.

  “I want ice cream,” said Andrew.

  I sat on a bench. I looked around Funland. I was thinking about which souvenir to buy when I saw someone who looked familiar.

  The man smiled at me. “Karen Brewer?” he said.

  “Mr. Beadle?” I replied.

  “Yes! Well, how wonderful to see you. Please come meet my family.” Mr. Beadle pointed to some tables at a refreshment stand. I saw a woman (she must be Mrs. Beadle, I thought), and a whole bunch of children. I counted them. Seven. Seven kids.

  “This is our vacation,” Mr. Beadle said proudly, after he had introduced me to his family. “We’ve been saving for it forever. Today Funland, and tomorrow the beach. That is why I was so happy you returned my money.”

  This was Mr. Beadle’s big vacation? Boy. It was just a day at an amusement park. I had been to New York City for a weekend, and I had flown out west to visit my grandparents, and in August my little-house family was going to the beach for two weeks. Whoa. I began to feel bad about wanting all of Mr. Beadle’s money. I even felt bad about taking the reward. I could not return it now. But I was glad I had run into Mr. Beadle.

  Lost and Found

  I was tired. It was late in the afternoon. We had been at Funland for hours. And we had had a blast. But now my legs were beginning to ache. And I was hot from running around in the sun all day.

  Hannie and Nancy and I took a rest on a bench while the other kids rode on a water ride for the third time. Andrew and Alicia were sitting together, of course. We had liked the ride, too, but we were tired of drying off after it. (I think Mommy and Mrs. Dawes were glad we were tired. They were resting on the bench next to us. They had taken their shoes off.)

  “I cannot believe you saw Mr. Beadle,” said Nancy.

  “I know,” I replied. “I am so happy I did. And embarrassed.”

  “Why are you embarrassed?” asked Hannie.

  “Because I had kept hoping Mr. Beadle would not turn up and I could keep his money. All I wanted was that eight hundred dollars so I could buy toys and Funland souvenirs. But Mr. Beadle really needed his money. He hardly has any. And he has seven children. And this is their vacation. Can you believe it? Boy, was I greedy. I wish I could give him back the one hundred dollars. But I can’t. Anyway, I do not know where he lives.”

  “Karen? How much money do you have left?” asked Nancy.

  “About two dollars. Why?”

  “Let’s all go buy a souvenir. I see a stand over there.” Nancy was pointing. “And we have not bought souvenirs yet. Do you have enough money, Hannie?”

  “I think so.”

  Mommy and Mrs. Dawes let us go to the stand by ourselves. They said they could watch us from their bench. Hannie and Nancy and I stood there forever, deciding. Some of the souvenirs were too expensive. But we could buy Funland sunglasses, or Funland visors, or Funland crazy straws. I really liked the red beanie hats with Funland stitched across the front.

  We looked and looked and looked. Somewhere behind me I heard people bustling around, and voices saying, “Where is it? Where is it?” But I did not pay much attention. I had finally decided to buy the beanie. And Hannie and Nancy had finally decided on the sunglasses. I was reaching for my wallet when I looked down. Lying on the ground not too far away was … another wallet. No, this could not be happening.

  I grabbed for it. Oh, please, oh, please, oh, please. Let it be stuffed with money, I thought. And no name inside.

  I opened the wallet. The first thing I saw was a card with a name on it: Seth Engle. Seth Engle? This was Seth’s wallet?

  I turned around. I saw the people and the commotion behind me. There were Mommy and Seth and Andrew and Bobby and everyone else who had come to Funland with us. And they were all looking for something.

  “Where could it be?” Mommy was saying to Seth. “How could you have lost your wallet? You just had it.”

  I began to laugh. I ran to Seth. “I found it! I found your wallet!” I cried. “It was lying right here on the ground.”

  “Oh, thank goodness,” said Seth. “It must have fallen out of my pocket after that last ride.” Then Seth began to laugh, too.

  It was time to go home. Hannie and Nancy and I bought our souvenirs. Th
en we headed back to the parking lot. As we walked through Funland, I said to my friends, “You know what? We spent an awful lot of money here today. And the only thing I have to show for it is my hat. And the rubber snake. But I still had a good time. I spent the rest of my money playing games and buying cotton candy. That was fun. I should not have been so upset about how I spent my one hundred dollars. You do not have to buy things when you spend your money. Having a good time is important, too. Maybe I did not spend my money the way I had planned, but I think I spent it pretty well, after all.”

  I rubbed the lucky penny. It was still in my pocket. I decided I might leave it there for awhile.

  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 © 1994 by Ann M. Martin

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