Karen's Paper Route

  “That is short for opportunity,” said Nannie.

  I read on. The ad said the opportunity of a lifetime was to be an oil trucker for a big midwestern company. It sounded exciting, but not for me. I do not drive. I kept reading.

  I came to an ad I could not understand at all. But I had to know what it said. It could be the perfect job.

  “What is a fincl resrchr?” I asked.

  Nannie looked at the page again.

  “That means financial researcher.”

  “Why don’t they spell these things the way they are supposed to?” I said. “I think the people who write these ads need to go back to second grade. They would learn how to be good spellers like me.”

  Nannie laughed. “Words that are shortened like these are called abbreviations. They take up less space in the newspaper so the ads cost less money.”

  “Well, I do not like them one bit,” I said.

  I decided to read only the ads that used whole words. That did not leave too many. I looked at one after another. In the very last column, an ad jumped out and called my name! It said:

  WANTED

  Delivery boys and girls

  for a new community newspaper

  printed three times a week.

  I was so excited I could hardly sit still. Then I read the last line which was written in smaller print. It said:

  Must be thirteen or older.

  I did some fast math in my head and figured out I would have to wait six years before I could become a newspaper deliverer. Boo.

  Teamwork

  A few minutes later Kristy passed by the den. Suddenly I had a great idea.

  I was already working as a team with David Michael to buy Moonbeam. Maybe I could work as a team with Kristy to deliver papers. Kristy is thirteen.

  “See you later, Nannie,” I said. “Thank you for helping me read the ads. I may have found the perfect job after all!”

  I followed my big sister upstairs to her room. I knocked on the door.

  “Come in,” Kristy called.

  “Guess what! I have an excellent oppty for you,” I said.

  “An excellent what?”

  “Oppty. That is short for opportunity,” I replied. “How would you like to make money delivering newspapers with me?”

  “I am sorry, Karen. I do not think that would be a good idea,” said Kristy. “I already have my schoolwork and baby-sitting jobs.” (Kristy is the president of a baby-sitting business she runs with her friends.)

  “But this will be so much fun. And it will not take much time. The paper only comes out three times a week.”

  “Really? That would not be too bad,” said Kristy. “I can always use a little extra money.”

  “And you would not have to do the job by yourself. We could share the job and the money,” I said.

  “I think you are too young to deliver newspapers,” said Kristy.

  “I am not too young to fold them and put on rubber bands. I could do that part of the job all by myself. Then we could deliver the papers together.”

  I could see that Kristy was starting to like the idea.

  “You know who else could be on our team?” I said. “Scout.”

  Kristy’s face brightened. She just loves our training-to-be-a-guide-dog puppy.

  “Scout would love the extra morning walks,” said Kristy.

  “I have the ad right here. All we have to do is call the number to get more information,” I said.

  “It cannot hurt to have the information.”

  “Hooray!” I cried.

  Kristy dialed the number. She found out how much the job paid. And what the paper route would be.

  “This sounds very interesting,” said Kristy. “Thank you for the information.”

  “What did they say?” I asked when Kristy hung up.

  “You are right, Karen,” said Kristy. “This job sounds pretty easy. It is three mornings a week. And the route is not very long.”

  “When can we start?” I asked.

  “The person I spoke with said we can start this week. I will go to the office tomorrow and pick up an application.”

  “Yippee!”

  I gave Kristy a big hug.

  Bright and Early

  The following afternoon Kristy brought home the application. We answered all the questions and then Daddy and Elizabeth signed the paper. Charlie drove us to the office, and our application was approved on the spot.

  “You can begin tomorrow,” said the man who hired us. “The papers will be dropped off at your house.”

  I was so excited. First I had to call my friends and tell them about my new job.

  Then I had to pick out what I was going to wear the next morning. I wanted an outfit I could put on fast. I did not want to get up any earlier than I had to. So I picked out sneakers that close with Velcro instead of laces. And I picked a shirt that slips over my head.

  A little while later Kristy came in to say good night.

  “Good night? It is only nine o’clock. You never go to bed so early,” I said.

  “I set my alarm clock for five tomorrow morning,” replied Kristy. “That does not leave much time for sleeping. We do not want to be tired on our first day.”

  “I guess you are right,” I said. “Good night. See you in the morning.”

  I decided to read a few pages in my mystery story to make me sleepy. But it turned out to be an exciting part. I had to keep turning the pages to see what happened. Finally I turned out the lights and went to sleep.

  * * *

  Bleep-bleep-bleep … bleep-bleep-bleep …

  I opened my eyes. It was hardly light out. There had to be some mistake. No one could be expected to get up in the middle of the night to deliver newspapers.

  I shut off my bleeping alarm clock and closed my eyes.

  The next thing I knew, someone was shaking me awake.

  “Karen! Karen, wake up!” said Kristy. “The newspapers are here. We have to get to work.”

  “I am on my way,” I said. I rolled over.

  “Karen, I am not kidding. Wake up!” said Kristy.

  “All right,” I replied. “I am getting up.”

  Kristy waited until I was out of bed and standing up before she left the room.

  When I got downstairs, she had juice and a muffin waiting for me. I felt a little better after I ate.

  “It is time to fold the papers. I have already done some for you,” said Kristy.

  We were supposed to fold each paper in thirds, then put on the rubber band. I folded one paper. Then another. My head started sinking lower and lower.

  “Karen, do not fall asleep!” said Kristy.

  “Sorry.” I shook myself awake and folded some more papers. When we finished, a little pile of papers was in front of me and a big stack was in front of Kristy.

  “Next time, you fold them all,” Kristy said. “Folding was supposed to be your job.”

  It was time to deliver. I thought that would be the fun part. But my legs were not cooperating. I felt as if I had jelly knees. They hardly held me up. I watched Scout race out of the house. I wondered where she got her energy. I wished she could give a little of it to me.

  “Could you walk a little faster, please?” said Kristy. “At this rate we will never get finished.”

  “I am right behind you!” I said.

  I did a sleepwalk shuffle up one street and down the next. My sack of papers grew lighter as we walked along. Finally the last paper was gone.

  Picky, Picky!

  On Thursday night I got into bed at nine o’clock on the dot. I did not want to be as tired on my second day of delivering papers as I was on my first.

  I was just drifting off when I heard the telephone ring. At first I thought my alarm clock was ringing. I pushed the off button. Then I heard Elizabeth talking.

  “I think Karen has already gone to bed,” she said.

  I popped up and called, “I am not asleep yet!” I did not want to miss an exciting phone call.
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  It turned out to be Natalie Springer, who is in my class. She had a question about our math homework. The call was not exciting. But it was enough to wake me up.

  I went back to bed. After a long time I fell asleep. The next thing I knew, Kristy was shaking me.

  “Wake up!” she said.

  “What happened? I did not hear my clock,” I replied.

  Uh-oh. I remembered turning it off when the phone rang the night before. I forgot to reset it.

  “I will get dressed extra fast,” I said.

  I tried. But first I put my shirt on backward. I had to take it off and put it on again. Then I could not find my socks. Finally I found them stuffed in my sneakers. (I had put them there so they would be easy to find.)

  Most of the papers were already folded and banded by the time I got downstairs. Kristy gave me a Look.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  I gobbled my breakfast, then followed Kristy and Scout out the door.

  At the fourth house on our paper route, we saw a man standing on his porch.

  “Excuse me,” he said. “May I speak with you?”

  “Of course,” said Kristy. “We hope you are happy with your paper delivery.”

  “The truth is, I could be a little happier,” replied the man. “I will tell you exactly how I like my paper delivered.”

  “Karen, I put a notepad and pen in our paper sack. Please be sure to write this down so we do not forget anything,” said Kristy. Kristy is very organized.

  I found the pad and pen and started writing. The man had a lot of instructions. He wanted his paper delivered headline up and facing toward the house. That way he could read it just by looking out the window. He also wanted his paper placed gently on the porch and never tossed because it might hit the door and wake him if he slept late. I wrote this down as fast as I could.

  The next few houses were quiet. Then we saw a woman holding a little dog in her arms.

  “Good morning,” said the woman. “I have been waiting to talk to you.”

  The woman did not look very happy.

  “Frisco ate my paper on Wednesday,” she said.

  “We are sorry,” replied Kristy.

  “Yes, well, you did not know,” said the woman. “From now on, please put my newspaper in the box on my lawn. That way Frisco cannot get his little teeth into it.”

  “Of course,” said Kristy. She turned to me. “Karen? Are you writing this down?”

  “Every word,” I replied. I smiled at the woman. I was too sleepy to have a conversation. (When I am awake, I am usually very talkative.)

  Three more people were waiting for us with special instructions. Two more called us after we got home. There were a lot of instructions to write down. When it came to having papers delivered, some people were picky, picky!

  A Mysterious Friend

  On Saturday morning I opened my eyes and popped up in bed.

  I have to get up, I thought. I cannot be late.

  I shook myself awake. Then I remembered there was no weekend edition of the newspaper. I was free! My head dropped back to the pillow. I was asleep in no time.

  I slept a lot over the weekend. It felt so good. There was only one problem. I got so caught up on my sleep that I was not tired on Sunday night. But I needed to go to sleep early so I could get up for work on Monday.

  I got into bed at nine o’clock. I tossed and turned for hours. When my clock went off on Monday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and started to dress. I was gigundoly tired. But I did not want Kristy to be upset with me. I was almost ready when she poked her head into my room.

  “I am glad to see you are up, Karen,” she said. “Be sure to bring the notepad with everyone’s instructions.”

  I went downstairs with the notepad in my pocket. Kristy and I folded and banded the papers. We ate breakfast. Then we headed out the door.

  “Please read our first special instruction,” said Kristy.

  I opened the pad. What I had written looked like this:

  “Um, I am having a little trouble making out what I wrote,” I said. “Maybe you can read it.”

  I passed the notepad to Kristy. She looked at one page, then flipped to the next. And the next.

  “Karen! These notes are a mess!” she said.

  “I guess I was writing too fast,” I replied. “Do not worry. If we deliver the papers the wrong way, people will call and tell us.”

  “I bet they will!” said Kristy. “They will also be very angry.”

  She stomped ahead. I had to run to catch up.

  Together we remembered most of the instructions. At one house Kristy put the paper headline up and not too close to the door. A few houses down, she put the paper in the box on the lawn so the dog could not get it.

  I thought we were doing pretty well. Then we came to a house where we were sure there had been no special instructions. We had never seen or heard from the person who lived there. As we got closer, we saw the shadow of a woman at the window.

  “Maybe she has instructions for us today,” I said to Kristy. “I promise to write neatly so we can read them.”

  But the shadow quickly disappeared.

  “I did not think this woman would talk to us,” said Kristy. “In fact, I am surprised we deliver papers to her house at all. I did not think she was interested in community news. She keeps to herself.”

  Kristy handed me a paper. I hurried up the porch steps and placed the paper by the door. On the way back, I noticed a little package sitting on the window ledge. It was tied with red ribbon. A tag hanging from it said, FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERERS.

  Hmm. What was it? I picked up the package and looked back at the window. No one was there. I ran to the street. Kristy was already heading to the next house.

  “Kristy, look! I found this on the woman’s porch,” I said.

  “Let’s see what it is. Open it,” said Kristy.

  I untied the ribbon. Inside was a sealed package with two granola bars in it.

  “She left us breakfast!” I exclaimed.

  “That is a mysterious thing to do.”

  “I think it is a nice thing to do!” I said. “She wants to be our friend.”

  Ribbons or Rubber Bands?

  Our next delivery day was Wednesday. When the alarm went off at five o’clock, I was as tired as ever. But I got out of bed fast anyway. I was thinking about our mysterious new friend. I wondered if she would leave another goody for Kristy and me.

  “Wow! You are already dressed!” said Kristy when she peeked in my door. “Come on. You can start folding and banding while I get some breakfast ready.”

  “I will be down in a minute,” I replied.

  I had thought of something I needed to do first. It was the right and friendly thing to do. I found a piece of paper and my favorite purple marker. I wrote a thank-you note to our new friend. It said:

  (I did not tell her we had had to wait to ask Daddy’s permission to eat the bars. But we did. We are not allowed to eat food from strangers unless a grown-up at our house says it is okay.)

  By the time I got downstairs, Kristy was angry.

  “Karen Brewer, I do not understand you!” she said. “You were already up and dressed and you are still late. I am almost finished folding the papers.”

  “I am sorry. I wanted to write a thank-you note to the person who gave us the present,” I replied. “It is the polite thing to do, and I wanted our customer to be happy.”

  “Our customers will be happy if they get their papers on time,” said Kristy. “Please eat your breakfast so we can go.”

  I ate my breakfast in record time, and we were out the door with minutes to spare.

  I could not wait to finish the first part of our paper route. I decided that delivering papers was pretty boring. Unless you have a new friend who leaves you a present every now and then.

  I raced up the stairs to our friend’s porch. I had a paper and a thank-you note to deliver.

  Guess what! Another package was waiting f
or us. I hurried down the stairs to show Kristy.

  “Well, we do seem to have a new friend,” Kristy said. “Let’s see what she gave us today.”

  I tore open the paper. Inside were two tortoiseshell barrettes.

  “I cannot believe this! What great presents,” I said.

  By the time I got home, I decided a note would not be enough of a thank-you for our friend. I wanted to give her something in return. At school we were making origami animals. (Origami is the art of Japanese paper folding.) A beautiful paper bird would be the perfect gift for our new friend.

  On Thursday night I wrapped the bird carefully in tissue paper. But when I got up on Friday morning and looked at it, I knew the gift was not right. It did not look pretty enough. I decided to tie some colored ribbons on the package.

  “Karen, what are you doing?” said Kristy, poking her head into my room.

  “I was just tying some ribbons on the gift for our friend. Will you sign a note if I write one?” I asked.

  “There is no time for notes and no time for ribbons! We have papers to deliver. But first we have to fold and band them.”

  “I will be right down,” I said.

  “I have heard that one before,” said Kristy. And she disappeared downstairs.

  I knew it was not nice of me to let Kristy do all the work. But tying ribbons on presents was much more fun than putting rubber bands on newspapers. And Kristy is an excellent big sister. I was sure she would forgive me.

  The Rules

  Kristy forgave me.

  “But please do not do it again,” she said. “Remember, we are a team. That is what you said when we took this job together.”

  “You are right. I promise to be a good teammate from now on,” I replied.

  On Monday school was closed because of a teacher meeting. I was happy to have the day off. I needed my rest.

  When I went to sleep Sunday night, I did not set my clock. I planned to sleep until I could not sleep anymore.

  But the next morning someone shook me awake. It was Kristy.

  “Karen, what are you doing?” she asked.