When rain woke her up the next morning, the idea that had been dancing around the edges of her dreams jumped right up in front of her face.
A party!
A party for Teddy!!
A surprise party for Teddy!!!
Not a birthday party, because it wasn’t his birthday, and not a party Teddy gave, because the party was to cheer Teddy up. Because it seemed to Prinny that when Teddy didn’t have any ideas or anything to say on any subject, he might be feeling sad. And it seemed to her that if Teddy was sad, she wanted to cheer him up. Prinny knew that when she needed cheering up, she liked people to pay attention to her, and do nice things for her, give her presents—
They could all give presents to Teddy!
They could have a present party for Teddy!!
A surprise present party!!!
She ran to tell Zia. “I had an idea! I had a really good idea, Zia! Why don’t we give Teddy a surprise present party to cheer him up?”
Zia had doubts. “It’s a kind thought, Prinny, but there has been too much rain for too many days and I don’t think anyone feels like doing anything today.”
“Not today, tomorrow,” Prinny said. “Maybe the sun will come out tomorrow.”
“I don’t know about that,” said Zia. “I suppose I could give him some ice cream. Chocolate ice cream is always a treat.”
Prinny put on her yellow rain hat and splashed over to Sid’s burrow. “I want to give Teddy a party,” she said.
“I don’t feel like doing anything today,” said Sid.
“Not a party today. A party tomorrow,” Prinny said. “Today you can think of a present.”
“I can’t think of anything, in all this rain,” said Sid.
“Just try,” Prinny urged him. She waited while Sid curled and uncurled himself, trying.
At last Sid said, “Teddy likes games.”
“Do you have any games you can give him?” Prinny asked.
“You know I don’t,” Sid said. He coiled and uncoiled, thinking. “Not a single one. But—you know?” he asked her, rising up tall, almost onto the tip of his tail, in sudden excitement, “I could make one up. I could make up a game, maybe with counting, and with words, too, and I could give that to Teddy, for a present. We could all play, and there could be prizes for the winners,” Sid said, and he realized, “The prizes could be muffins!”
Reminded, he opened a cupboard door and took out a plate of muffins. “I need food for thought,” he said. “You’d better go away now, Prinny. I have some serious thinking to do.”
Next, Prinny went to Clara’s palace, where she found Clara looking out at the rain. “Good morning, Prinny,” Clara said. “We’re not going anywhere and we’re not doing anything.” She sighed.
Mr. B opened his eyes and said, “I’m trying to sleep and you are disturbing me.” He closed his eyes again.
“We should have a party tomorrow, for Teddy, with presents. Don’t you want to?” asked Prinny. “It’s my very own idea!”
Mr. B decided to stay awake. “Will we all get presents?”
“No,” Prinny told him. “We’ll all give presents, to Teddy.”
“Why?” asked Mr. B.
“Because he’s sad,” said Prinny.
“I have a hat,” Clara said. “I have a blue straw hat I could give him, with a long green ribbon. He’d like that. A hat would make the best present.”
“I suppose I could give him my ruff,” said Mr. B. “Teddy would like wearing my ruff.” This was the perfect present, he thought. He was getting rid of something he didn’t want and giving it to someone who might like it. “I can wrap it up in tissue paper and tie a bow around it.”
“What if it rains tomorrow?” asked Clara.
“Maybe it won’t rain,” Prinny said.
“But if it is still raining, we could have the party right here in the Royal Audience Room,” Clara decided. “I better find some decorations,” she said. “Come help me, Mr. B. We have an awful lot to do. We’re too busy to play with you today, Prinny. You may leave us. Right now.”
So Prinny went to tell Peng her idea.
When Peng opened his round door to Prinny, all he said was “You’re not Mr. B.” He didn’t say Please come in or even Hello.
“I have an idea,” Prinny said as rain splashed down around her.
“I thought that today I might go for a walk with Mr. B,” Peng said. “If you had been him, I would have told you that. I thought that we might go to wherever it is he goes off to every day. With all this rain, I’m not getting enough exercise.”
“You can walk with me instead,” Prinny offered.
While they went down the hill, she told him her plan.
“Tomorrow is awfully soon,” Peng pointed out. “It’s not as if I have a closet full of presents.”
“You can think of something.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. “Maybe not,” he pointed out.
Peng didn’t tell Prinny this, but he had already decided on his present. He would give Teddy one of the lucky stones that sometimes washed up on the island. He had a small collection of the dark gray white-belted stones that brought good luck to whoever had them. Maybe he would give Teddy two.
Peng didn’t tell Prinny this, either, but he had to admit that three days was a long time to be alone on your own, all the time, with nothing to do except think up new ways to say No to Mr. B.
“I’d better go to the palace,” he said to the little pig. “Mr. B will want to ask my advice. Goodbye, Prinny.”
At the red house, Teddy was sitting beside the window, looking out at the bad weather, and Umpah was out in his kitchen, but neither one of them was busy.
“This rain stinks,” Teddy said to Prinny. Then he turned to look out the window again. “I don’t know why you came over.”
Prinny went out to the kitchen.
“There are no peach muffins left, I’m afraid,” said Umpah. “Sid took all of them and it’s too rainy to make more.”
“Oh dear,” Prinny said. “That’s bad news.” In a soft, soft voice, she explained her idea to Umpah, ending, “I hoped you would make the muffins for your present.”
“Oh,” Umpah said. “Oh, well, in that case, if it’s a special occasion, maybe I can. Maybe I will. Maybe I could make blueberry muffins. Or maybe I could make a cake. Or maybe? I could make a cake out of blueberry muffins. I could make a circle of blueberry muffins to be the bottom layer and I could put more circle layers on top. Each layer could be smaller than the one below. I wonder how tall I can make it. And I’ll need a present, too.”
“Do you have one?” Prinny asked. She had thought that the blueberry muffin cake was Umpah’s present, but two presents are always better than one.
“I haven’t given Teddy a present for a long time. I can’t think of what— Oh!” said Umpah, and he rushed around the table. “I have to go see Zia. Will you stay with Teddy while I’m gone? Because I’ll need her help with my idea for a special present, and I don’t want Teddy to be lonely.” He headed out the door, into the rain. “There’s so much to do! I hope I have enough time.”
Teddy didn’t even ask Umpah where he was going. He didn’t ask Prinny why she was staying. All he said was “This rain really stinks.”
“Why are you such a Gloomy Gus today?” Prinny asked. She herself was feeling pretty cheerful, what with all this thinking about presents to give and parties to keep a secret.
“Gloomy Gus,” said Teddy. “Gloomy Gus. That’s like a sad sack.”
“It’s like Sad Sally,” Prinny told him. “Because Gus is a name and sack isn’t.”
“Happy Harry,” said Teddy.
“Merry Mary,” said Prinny.
“Angry Andy.”
“Mad Marilyn.”
They went name-calling back and forth around the alphabet. Q and Y were difficult, “Maybe impossible,” Teddy said, but then he remembered, “Quentin!”
Prinny added, “Quiet. Quiet Quentin,” and said, “Yellow?”
&
nbsp; “Yolanda!” cried Teddy.
They could only think of one pair of words for Z, Zany Zachariah, and for a long time it looked as if they’d need to skip X. Until Prinny asked, “Isn’t Xavier a name?” and Teddy laughed. “Xtra-special Xavier!” he cried.
That night, Prinny was almost too excited to go to sleep. She was drifting off, thinking that if Quentin really was a name there were lots of words besides Quiet. There was Quarrelsome Quentin and Quick Quentin and Quivering Quentin too. She wondered how Teddy would look wearing Mr. B’s ruff and Clara’s blue straw hat with a long green ribbon down the back. She was busy wondering what Umpah’s present idea was, when she had a terrible thought.
“Zia!” she called. “Zia, come quick!”
Zia rushed in. “Oh dear, oh dearie dear, Prinny, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“Everybody has a present to give Teddy tomorrow! But I don’t have any!” cried Prinny. “I don’t have any present to give him! And it will probably rain!” All the cheerfulness of having her very own good idea was melting away.
Zia just laughed, but nicely. “Don’t you know, Prinny? The whole party is your present,” Zia said.
“It is?” asked Prinny.
“Imagine how Teddy will feel,” Zia said.
Prinny did. She imagined it all, and then she decided: “It is!”
As she was falling asleep to the sound of pattering rain, Prinny kept on imagining about Teddy’s party. She imagined how the table would look, piled with brightly wrapped presents, with a blueberry muffin cake right in the middle. She imagined all the guests waiting on the beach for Teddy to arrive. She even imagined a bright sun high in a blue sky. And in fact, the next morning the sun did come out, to shine down warm and bright on Teddy’s Surprise Present Party, just the way Prinny wanted.
When Umpah pushed the red wagon down to the beach, Teddy saw: a round table, four wrapped boxes in different shapes on the table, a round muffin cake three layers high in the middle of the table right next to a bowl of chocolate ice cream cones, and, tucked under the table, a strange lumpy-shaped thing, covered by a pink sheet. He also saw that everyone was there, even Peng, and he heard their shout as soon as he came into view.
“Surprise! Surprise!” they shouted.
“Surprise?” asked Teddy. “For me? Why?”
“Because,” Prinny explained, and Teddy didn’t really care if that wasn’t a real reason.
“Are those presents for me?” he asked.
“Yes!” Prinny said. She was so excited that her four little feet kept dancing her around. “And the cake is from Umpah!”
“Oh. Thank you, Umpah,” Teddy said. “It looks delicious.”
“Would you like me to take a taste to test it?” Sid offered.
“No thank you,” Teddy said, and he wanted to laugh.
“And the ice cream cones are from me,” Zia said. “We should have them before the ice cream melts away. It’s chocolate,” she told Teddy.
“Chocolate ice cream is the best kind,” Teddy said. “Thank you, Zia.”
“I’ll start passing the bowl for you,” Sid offered. “I’ll take my cone now,” and this time Teddy did laugh, a friendly little laugh so as not to hurt Sid’s feelings.
“What’s that big pink lumpy shape?” Teddy asked.
“First, open this,” said Clara, and she passed him a round package in gold paper with a gold ribbon around it.
Teddy put the hat right on, and he moved his head back and forth to feel the green ribbon floating up against his back. “Thank you, Clara. It’s the first hat I ever had,” he said. “Do you know what’s under the pink sheet?”
Of course she didn’t. Then Mr. B put a lumpy soft package wrapped in blue paper into Teddy’s arms. “Now mine,” he insisted.
“You’ve lost your ruff,” Teddy observed.
“No I haven’t,” said Mr. B. “Open it.”
“Oh,” Teddy said, when he saw what Mr. B had given him. “Are you sure you want me to have this?”
Mr. B was positive. “I’ll tie it for you,” he offered.
But Teddy’s neck was too fat for the ruff to go around. For a minute, Mr. B was afraid he’d have to take it back and think of another present, but then Teddy said, “It would be perfect for a bracelet. Can you tie it around my wrist?” and that problem was solved. When Teddy sat so splendidly attired in his wagon, with the blue straw hat on his head and the green ribbon down his back and the ruffled bracelet around his wrist, everybody said he looked like a bear dressed up for a Surprise Present Party.
“That’s what I look like because that’s what I am!” cried Teddy. “Thank you for the bracelet, Mr. B,” he said happily.
“You are very welcome,” said Mr. B, just as happily. He’d known it was the perfect gift.
“What about that strange, big—” Teddy began, but Peng had gone up close to the table, and looked away from a little package wrapped in plain white paper with a plain black bow, as if he didn’t care about it one little bit.
Of course Teddy understood. The more Peng wanted everyone to think he didn’t care, the more he really cared. So, “Will someone please pass me that little white present?” he asked. “Peng, you’re the closest, can you please give it to me?”
“If you insist,” Peng answered.
Teddy unwrapped two smooth stones, both a warm dark gray color, like summer storm clouds. He saw immediately that each one had a thin white belt that went all the way around. “Lucky stones!” he cried. “These are lucky stones, aren’t they? Did you give them to me, Peng?”
“I might have,” said Peng.
“He did!” cried Prinny. “I saw him!”
“Thank you, Peng,” said Teddy, because a bear can always use a little more luck, even if he has begun to think that he is already a very lucky bear indeed. He put them carefully down into his red wagon, close enough to touch whenever he wanted.
“I had to think of something,” said Peng.
“You thought of a very good something,” said Teddy, and then he couldn’t wait any longer, not even to open the long box wrapped in paper that had polka dots of every color anyone has ever seen all over it. “Prinny, what is under the table?”
He thought Prinny would be the least able to keep anything a secret, and maybe he was right, but still, “I don’t know,” Prinny said. “Ask Umpah,” she suggested. “Or Zia.”
Before he had to ask, Umpah reached his trunk under the table and pulled the shape out, while Zia kept a careful eye on it to be sure it stayed hidden under its pink sheet. Teddy stretched out from his wagon to pull on the sheet with both arms.
“I’ll fold the sheet and put it away,” Zia told him.
Teddy didn’t even look at the sheet. He didn’t look at Umpah, either. All of his attention was on the pile of tall sticks and coils of rope and heavy brown canvas. He was wondering what it was and guessing what it might be and hoping he had guessed correctly. He was hoping so hard that he didn’t dare ask in words, so he just looked at Umpah.
Umpah nodded proudly.
“What is it?” Prinny wondered.
“A boat,” Peng decided. “So Teddy and I can go around the island together.”
“A hammock,” Sid said, “so Teddy can sleep with me up in my beech when I sleep wrapped around a branch.”
Teddy kept looking at Umpah, and hoping.
“Yes,” Umpah said. “It is a tent. Zia sewed it, and I cut the sticks and found the rope. When it is a fine night, we will set it up, and you can sit in front of it and look at the stars until you are ready to go into it, and sleep.”
“Oh,” said Teddy. “Oh, Umpah, and oh, Zia, too—thank you, thank you.”
“I wonder if a tent wouldn’t be something a queen would like to have,” Clara suggested, but Mr. B told her, “You could get dirty, sleeping outside, on the hard ground, in a tent.”
“I could sleep in a tent,” Sid offered. “I could sleep with you in your tent.”
“Yes you could, sometimes, unless
I wanted the adventure of sleeping alone,” Teddy said.
“And could I sometimes too?” asked Prinny.
“Oh dear, oh dearie me, I don’t know about that,” Zia said.
“I could look after her,” Teddy said. “Sid could help.”
“And we could play with my present,” Sid said. “Open mine, Teddy. I thought it up myself, and all the rules too, and once you’ve opened mine, we can eat the muffin cake while I explain.”
Umpah passed out muffins from his cake, from the top first and then from the middle layer. There were enough muffins for everybody to have as many as they wanted, even Sid, and they were so tasty that Mr. B said, “Don’t eat them all, Sid. I want to have a second one.”
Sid swallowed three muffins and then took a rest, to explain the game of Explore, where you had to take turns listing what you could see going all the way around the island, and remember to start out with what every other player had said, and the list got longer and longer and harder and harder to remember, but if you forgot anything, everybody had to go back to the beginning and start over, but nobody was allowed to complain if that happened. “That’s the most important rule,” Sid told them as he reached out for his fourth muffin. “Because everybody can’t remember everything all the time.”
“That’s a game that could last for a very long time, and maybe even never end,” Peng warned.
“The perfect game for a rainy day!” Teddy cried. “Thank you, Sid. Games are the best presents,” he said. Then, “Not the only best. Because hats and ruffs and lucky stones are also the best, and a tent, and a blueberry muffin cake, and chocolate ice cream too.”
He thought for a minute. “This whole party is the best present,” he decided.
“It was my idea!” cried Prinny, her four little feet dancing even faster. “I thought of it, didn’t I, Zia? And I asked everybody, didn’t I, everybody? And everybody wanted to do my idea!”
“Thank you, everybody,” Teddy laughed. “And thank you, Prinny.”
He looked down at the waves rushing up onto the sand. He looked over to the branches of the beech tree. He saw the stony hill where Peng had his cave and the two little houses, one pink, one red, and the pathway that led to the apple trees, where there was a white palace with a red door that he had had the idea for. He looked back at all of the guests at his party, and he felt glad and happy, lucky, and full of ideas for all of the new days lined up ahead, waiting to begin.