Karen's Snow Day

  Dr. G. said, “Bundle up, folks! The storm is coming.” But he did not say a single thing about school closing.

  So I got dressed.

  By the time Seth was driving Nancy and me through town, the snow was falling a little harder. The street was turning white.

  “Seth, what if we get stuck at school?” I asked.

  “I do not think that will happen,” he replied.

  “But what if it does?”

  “Then I will come and rescue you. I will save the day.”

  I giggled. “ ’Bye, Seth!” I called, when he stopped in front of our school.

  That morning, Ms. Colman said, “The storm is coming, class.”

  I raised my hand. “That is what Doctor G. said on the radio today,” I announced. “And he said eight to twelve inches of snow.”

  “Thank you, Karen,” Ms. Colman replied. “That is just why I thought today would be perfect for our snow unit. We are going to study snow crystals. What have we already learned about snow crystals?”

  Bobby Gianelli waved his hand around until Ms. Colman called on him. “No two crystals are ever the same,” he said. “Each one is different from every other crystal in the entire world. And from every other snowflake that has ever, ever fallen, or ever will fall.”

  Well, for heaven’s sake. Bobby was right, of course. But usually he does not give such long answers.

  Anyway, while the snow fell outside, my friends and I looked at pictures of snow crystals. We looked at some books about crystals that Ms. Colman had taken out of our school library. Then Ms. Colman let us go into the courtyard outside of our classroom. We tried to collect real snowflakes so we could look at them under microscopes. This was hard. The flakes kept melting. But I saw three, and they really were different from each other.

  By lunchtime the snow was piling up in the courtyard. The wind was beginning to blow, and it swirled the flakes around. My friends and I kept looking out the window. After lunch, we got a little bit noisy. Nobody could sit still. Ms. Colman let us cut out paper snowflakes and tack them onto the bulletin board.

  The sky grew dark and the snow fell harder. And then a voice came over the intercom in our classroom. “May I have your attention, please?” said our principal. “Due to the storm, school will close early today. Buses will be arriving shortly. Your parents have been notified. Please get ready to leave as quickly as possible.”

  I turned to look at Ricky. Ooh, that storm must be big!

  Mrs. Dawes picked up Nancy and me and drove us home. She had to drive very slowly. Once the car went wiggling across the road. Mrs. Dawes said she was glad she did not live in Alaska.

  When we reached Nancy’s house, I called, “Thank you, Mrs. Dawes! ’Bye, Nancy! Remember our snow day schedule for tomorrow!” Then I ran to Mommy’s. I did not bother to listen to Dr. G. that afternoon. The storm had arrived. I knew school would be closed the next day. Thursday would be great. The Thomas Brothers would earn money for the Three Musketeers, my friends and I would play in the snow, and Ms. Colman would come for dinner.

  Karen’s Snow Day

  That night I was too excited to fall asleep.

  “Bedtime, Karen!” called Mommy.

  “Okay,” I replied. But when she and Seth came into my room, I was jumping up and down on my bed. “I love storms!” I announced.

  “Settle down, honey,” said Seth.

  I tried to. But after I turned out my light, I kept sitting up to look out the window. Once, the snow was coming down so hard I could not even see the house across the street.

  I woke up early on Thursday morning. I tuned into Dr. G. I knew school would be closed, but I wanted to hear Dr. G. say so himself. When he said, “In Stoneybrook, all public, private, and parochial schools are closed,” I cheered. “Yea! Hooray!”

  Andrew ran into my room. “Is today a snow day, Karen?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I replied. “Today is a snow day. School is closed because we got so much snow.” (In fact, it was still snowing.) “Just like the blizzard. Remember that, Andrew?”

  He nodded. Then he said, “Well, let’s go make a snowman.”

  “Andrew, it is still dark outside. We have to wait.”

  While we waited, we went downstairs. I found the snow day schedule that the Three Musketeers had made. I hoped Hannie would be able to get to the little house. The snow day would not be as much fun without her. The Three Musketeers were supposed to be together. But the roads were still covered with snow. The plows had not come through town yet. Maybe they would not come until the snow stopped. I wondered if I should call Hannie. No, it was too early.

  But then the phone rang. Maybe Hannie was calling me!

  I raced for the phone. “Hello?” I said.

  “Hello, is this Karen?”

  I did not recognize the voice, so all I replied was, “Who is calling, please?”

  “This is Mr. Hsu.”

  Mr. Hsu. He lives down the street from Daddy. “Oh, hi. This is Karen,” I said.

  “Hi. I was wondering where your brothers are,” said Mr. Hsu. “They have not arrived yet. They are supposed to shovel our driveway.”

  I looked at the clock in the kitchen. “Well, it is still very early,” I told Mr. Hsu. “They will be there soon.”

  As soon as I hung up, the phone rang again. This time Mrs. Meyer was calling. She asked about Sam and Charlie, too.

  Hmm. I thought back to Tuesday when Hannie and Nancy and I found the new customers for the Thomas Brothers. Had I remembered to tell Sam and Charlie about that? I had called them, and no one had answered the phone, and then … I had never called back.

  Uh-oh.

  I looked outside. Daylight. The night was over. Snow was still falling, but not as hard as on the day before. Sam and Charlie were probably outside already. I would not even reach them if I called the big house. But I would have to try anyway. Kristy or someone would have to tell my brothers what I had done. They had to shovel out five more driveways, and they did not even know it.

  I dialed the number at Daddy’s house. Sam answered the phone.

  “Sam!” I exclaimed. “I did not think you would be at home.”

  “Hi, Karen,” said Sam. “I just came back for a pair of dry gloves.”

  “Um, Sam?” I began. I told him about the new customers.

  “Karen! I cannot believe you did this. How could you forget to call Charlie and me? And besides, it will take us forever to shovel out all those people.”

  “Well, you do have all day to work,” I pointed out. “No school.”

  “And you are going to help us,” replied Sam.

  The Thomas Brothers and the Three Musketeers

  I did not like the sound of that. What had Sam meant when he said, “And you are going to help us”? It was a snow day. I had waited for it for weeks. I had made plans. I had a snow day schedule.

  “You stay right by the phone, Karen,” said Sam. “I am going to talk to Charlie. Then I will call you back.”

  Boo. Sam was mad at me. Charlie would probably be mad, too. And then maybe Hannie and Nancy would be mad when they heard what was happening to our snow day.

  Fifteen minutes later Sam called back. “Karen, you have to come help us. Charlie is going to borrow Mr. Korman’s truck. It has four-wheel drive.” (I did not know what four-wheel drive was, but I did not bother to ask.) “He is going to drive over to your house and bring you back here. Then you are going to help us today.”

  “Okay,” I said. “ ’Bye.”

  I told Mommy and Seth what had happened. Then I called Nancy and Hannie. We decided that Nancy should go over to the big house with me. Maybe the Three Musketeers could have their snow day together at Daddy’s instead of Mommy’s. (Part of the snow day, anyway.)

  When Charlie arrived at the little house, he was grumpy. Nancy and I tried not to notice. We were bundled up in our snow day clothes — layers and layers of sweaters and scarves and hats and gloves and mittens and jackets. Nancy was even wearing plastic bags
inside her boots. She said they kept her feet extra dry.

  “Hi, Charlie!” I called as Nancy and I climbed into the truck. We squished together in the cab next to him.

  “Hi,” he answered. After a pause, he added, “Nice of you to let me know we have nine customers now, instead of four.”

  “I said I was sorry.”

  “I am sorry, too,” added Nancy.

  “Karen, don’t you know that on school mornings, Sam and I would never have enough time to shovel out nine driveways?”

  “Oops,” said Nancy and I.

  “After today we will have to get rid of the five new customers.”

  “Okay.”

  Charlie did not say another word until we reached the big house. The ride through town was slow and slippery. Charlie tried to drive on streets that had already been plowed. Even so, that truck just crept along like a sleepy turtle.

  Hannie was waiting for us at Daddy’s. She was standing in the yard in her snowsuit, waving and smiling. At least my friends were not made at me. Nancy and I waded through the snow to Hannie. “We just have to help Sam and Charlie a little,” I told her. “Then we can start our snow day. I even remembered to bring our schedule with me. It is in my pocket.”

  The Thomas Brothers and the Three Musketeers sat in the kitchen at the big house. “First,” said Charlie, “Sam and I need a list of the new customers. Then we need you to find all the dry gloves and mittens you can. Ours keep getting soaked.”

  “Also,” said Sam, “we have already shoveled out Mrs. Porter’s house and Hannie’s house, and we are in the middle of work over at the Kilbournes’. Karen, you guys better call the other customers and tell them we will get to their houses later than you said. And tell the new people you have to cancel their service after today.”

  I sighed. By the time we did all that, the morning would be half gone.

  The Snowman

  I was right. Nancy and Hannie and I could not even look at our snow day schedule until after eleven o’clock.

  “But the schedule started at nine!” cried Nancy.

  “We have missed two hours,” added Hannie.

  “I know,” I said. I felt horrible since this was my fault. “Well, let’s see. We could skip the first two hours of the schedule — ”

  “No!” exclaimed Hannie. “Then we do not get to build a snowman.”

  “You want to build a snowman?” I asked.

  “Yes,” replied my friends.

  “Well … then let’s go!” I said.

  We put on our layers of clothes again. We wasted a little time searching for plastic bags. Hannie and I wanted our feet to look just like Nancy’s. When we were as bundled up as could be, we went outside. (We could not move very fast.) We stood in the front yard.

  “Look at all the snow,” I said.

  “It is very beautiful,” said Nancy.

  Snow covered the neighborhood. It was piled on the roofs of the houses. It dripped off every branch of every tree. A sea of snow.

  “I wish it would snow every night,” said Hannie.

  My friends and I tramped across the yard. We had to lift our feet high. From down the street came the sound of the snowblower. I could see Charlie clearing a driveway. Nearby, Sam was using a shovel to clear a sidewalk. I waved to Sam but he did not see me.

  Hannie and Nancy and I packed a big snowball. Then we began to roll it around the yard. After a few minutes, Hannie yelled, “Okay, stop! This is the perfect size for the snowman’s head.”

  We put the head by a tree.

  “Now let’s start his middle,” said Nancy.

  But we did not have a chance. Sam came trudging into the yard then. “We need gloves and change,” he announced.

  “Change?” I repeated.

  “For the Hsus. They could not pay us the exact amount of money. Do you have four quarters for a dollar?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I will have to check. I will get you the gloves for now. Then we will look for change.”

  I ran inside and got two pairs of dry gloves. I gave them to Sam. “I still do not know about the change,” I said. “You better go back to work. Give me the dollar. When I get four quarters I will bring them to you.”

  The Three Musketeers had to stop working on the snowman. We left his head by the tree and went inside. I looked in my piggy bank. “Nope,” I said, shaking my head. “I only have sixty-two cents.”

  “That’s all?” said Hannie.

  “The rest is at the little house, in my other bank.” What a pain.

  “How about you, Hannie?” asked Nancy.

  “I have two dollars at home,” she replied. “But they are bills.”

  Well, that was no help.

  Kristy had three quarters.

  “Give Sam one of your quarters, plus Kristy’s three,” suggested Nancy.

  “Who do I give the dollar to?” I asked.

  We kept asking people for money. Finally Elizabeth said she had four quarters. We gave her the dollar and ran outside with the change for Sam.

  “Thanks,” he said. “Just in time.”

  The Three Musketeers went back to my house. We looked at the poor, lonely snowman’s head. But we decided not to finish him. We were just too tired.

  The Picnic in the Living Room

  “Karen, what time is it?” asked Nancy.

  The Three Musketeers had just come back from giving Sam the quarters. We were taking off our wet clothes (again). I felt as if I had spent half the day putting on and taking off my snow clothes.

  I looked at my watch. “Uh-oh. It is after twelve-thirty!” I said.

  “The morning is over,” added Hannie, “and we did not even finish the snowman. Our schedule is no good now.”

  “Anyway, Sam and Charlie are still working. I bet they will need us to help them some more,” I said. “I have a feeling we are not done working.”

  “Girls?” said Elizabeth when we went into the kitchen.

  “Yeah?” I replied. I knew I did not look happy or sound happy.

  “I’m sorry you cannot follow your snow day schedule. I know you were looking forward to that,” said Elizabeth.

  I nodded. “Thank you.”

  “I also know you did not mean to cause any trouble for Sam and Charlie. You were just trying to do your job.”

  “That’s right,” I said.

  “But we do have to help Sam and Charlie,” added Nancy.

  “That is our duty,” spoke up Hannie.

  “Well, how about taking a little break,” said Elizabeth. She was smiling. “How would you like to come to a picnic in the living room?”

  “Sure!” exclaimed Hannie. “But what is a picnic in the living room?”

  “Just what it sounds like. You can eat lunch on the floor by the fireplace. I will see if anyone else wants to come.”

  Elizabeth invited everyone at the big house to the picnic. And everyone came except for Sam and Charlie. They said they could not take a break, even though they were starving.

  Nannie spread a yellow checkered tablecloth on the floor by the fireplace. Earlier, Kristy had built a big fire. We all helped carry things into the living room: plastic bowls, soup spoons, paper cups, and napkins. Daddy and Elizabeth carried in a plate of sandwiches, a pot of soup, and a thermos of hot chocolate.

  Nancy and Hannie and I played Lovely Ladies.

  “Mmm, this hot chocolate is delectable,” I said.

  “Scrumptious,” said Nancy.

  “Everyone raise your pinkies,” added Hannie.

  I had so much fun at the Lovely Ladies luncheon in the living room that I almost forgot about the Thomas Brothers and the ruined snow day. In fact, I said, “Hey, let’s go finish our snowman, okay?”

  “His head has been buried in a snowdrift,” Hannie told me.

  “Then we will just start over again,” I replied. “Let’s not waste another second.”

  The Three Musketeers helped clean up the picnic. We put on our snow clothes again. We were stamping o
ur feet into our boots when Charlie banged through the back door.

  “Oh, there you are,” he said to my friends and me. “I need more gas for the snowblower. And Sam and I decided to eat on the job. Could you and your friends bring us some lunch?”

  Oh, no. Not again. We would never finish our poor snowman. I sighed loudly.

  Elizabeth helped Hannie and Nancy fix some food for the Thomas Brothers. I went out to the garage with Charlie. I helped him look for the gasoline can. After the boys got their lunch and the gas, they said they needed dry gloves again. Then they wanted hot chocolate.

  The Three Musketeers gave up on the snowman.

  A Bad End to a Bad Day

  At three-thirty that afternoon Hannie and Nancy and I were standing in my front yard again.

  “Does anyone feel like playing?” asked Hannie.

  “There is no point,” I answered. “Here comes Sam again.”

  “I wonder what he wants this time,” said Nancy.

  So I yelled, “What do you want, Sam?”

  Sam was trudging along the sidewalk. He was carrying his shovel. “Nothing,” he replied. “Charlie and I are finished. Mr. Meyer is paying Charlie. At least we earned a lot of money today.”

  “Hey, so did we!” I cried. I had almost forgotten about that.

  “How much?” Hannie wanted to know.

  “Let’s see,” said Sam. “Nine people times fifty cents. That’s four dollars and fifty cents. So for each of you, that is …”

  “I think it is a dollar-fifty,” said Nancy.

  “A dollar-fifty!” I exclaimed. “For all that work? And for missing our snow day? Bull-frogs. That is not enough.”

  “Well, this will not happen again. Will it, Karen?” said Sam.

  “No. I called the five new people just like you told me to. They know you cannot work for them anymore,” I replied.

  “Good.”

  “Well, we are done. Finally,” called Charlie. He was lugging the snowblower along the sidewalk.

  “Charlie? Are you still mad at me?” I asked in a small voice.