Karen's Gift

  The author gratefully acknowledges

  Stephanie Calmenson

  for her help

  with this book.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 An Exciting Job

  2 Two Houses

  3 Hands Up!

  4 Karen’s Plan

  5 A Friend in Need

  6 Dogs and More Dogs!

  7 Window-shopping

  8 Poor Hank

  9 Woof!

  10 Grrr!

  11 Disappointing News

  12 Do Not Worry!

  13 An Unusual Guest

  14 Money Troubles

  15 Where’s Maggie?

  16 Daddy to the Rescue

  17 A Secret Phone Call

  18 Party!

  19 The Perfect Presents

  20 Happy Mother’s Day

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  An Exciting Job

  Dingdong! Woof! Woof! Dingdong! Woof!

  It was a Monday afternoon, the first day of May. I was ringing the doorbell at my neighbors’ house. I had to ring twice because I did not think anyone could hear it the first time. There was too much barking inside. Finally the door opened.

  Duke, the Hsus’ golden retriever, trotted up to greet me. He is a gentle old dog with gray around his muzzle.

  “Hello, Karen!” said Mrs. Hsu. “Duke and I are both happy to see you.”

  The Hsu family are my big-house neighbors. (I have two houses. A big house and a little house. I will tell you more about them later.) The people in the Hsu family are Scott, who is seven like me, Timmy, who is five, and Mr. and Mrs. Hsu. Mrs. Hsu was the only one home that afternoon.

  “I am so glad you will be able to walk Duke while we are out of town,” she said. “Come inside. I will give you the key and show you where things are.”

  I followed Mrs. Hsu into the house. This was going to be an exciting job. I love exciting jobs!

  Wait a minute. I have told you about the Hsus. But I have not told you about me yet. My name is Karen Brewer. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, and freckles. Also, I am a glasses-wearer. I wear blue glasses for reading. I wear pink glasses the rest of the time.

  Slurp! Slurp! Duke stopped following me around long enough to get a drink of water.

  “Here are our keys, Karen. On the way out I will show you how to use them,” said Mrs. Hsu.

  She showed me where Duke’s leash is kept. It was red with black paw prints on it. Then she showed me where to find Duke’s treats.

  “I usually give him one after his walk,” said Mrs. Hsu. “Speaking of treats, we keep the people treats in this cabinet, in case you are hungry when you come over.”

  “Thank you,” I replied. “Duke and I can have snack time together.”

  Mrs. Hsu smiled.

  “How about taking a walk around the block with Duke and me? That way you can see where he likes to go,” said Mrs. Hsu.

  We went from tree to bush to lamppost. Duke carefully sniffed every one. When he stopped to do his business, Mrs. Hsu cleaned up after him with a plastic bag.

  “I will give you a supply of these,” she said. “That way we can keep the neighborhood nice and clean.”

  When we got back to the Hsus’ house, I took Duke’s leash off and we washed up. Then Mrs. Hsu gave me a homemade oatmeal-raisin cookie and showed me how to use the keys.

  “I will be here every day you’re gone, right after school!” I said.

  I petted Duke, waved good-bye, and walked off with the keys in my pocket. I felt gigundoly grown-up. I, Karen Brewer, had an important job. And I was going to be paid very well to do it.

  As I walked home, I thought about the things I could buy with the money I would earn. I could buy myself a car, I thought. Or maybe I could buy a house!

  I was just having fun. I did not really think my dog-walking money would buy those things. And I already had enough houses. Oh, I promised to tell you about the two houses I live in. I will do that now.

  Two Houses

  Here is the story of how I came to have two houses. And two mommies. And two daddies. And even two dogs.

  A long time ago when I was little, the people in my family were Mommy, Daddy, my little brother Andrew (he is four going on five), and me. We all lived together in a big house in Stoneybrook, Connecticut.

  But Mommy and Daddy began having a lot of trouble getting along. It was a sad time. They tried their best to work things out, but they could not do it. They explained to Andrew and me that they loved each of us very much and always would. But they did not want to be married to each other. Then they got divorced.

  Mommy moved out with Andrew and me to a little house not far away. She met a very nice man named Seth. Mommy and Seth got married and now Seth is my stepfather.

  So the people in my little-house family are Mommy, Seth, Andrew, and me. Our pets are Emily Junior, my pet rat; Bob, Andrew’s hermit crab; Midgie, Seth’s dog, who is now our family dog; and Rocky, Seth’s cat, who is now our family cat.

  Daddy stayed in the big house after he and Mommy got divorced. (It is the house he grew up in.) He met and married a very nice woman named Elizabeth. Now Elizabeth is my stepmother.

  Elizabeth was married once before she married Daddy, and has four children. They are my stepbrothers and stepsister. David Michael is seven like me. Kristy is thirteen and the best stepsister ever. (She is also president of a club she started with her friends. It is called the Baby-sitters Club.) Sam and Charlie are so old they are in high school.

  I also have a little sister, Emily Michelle, who is two and a half. I love her a lot, which is why I named my rat after her. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted Emily from a faraway country called Vietnam.

  The other person living at the big house is Nannie. She is Elizabeth’s mother, which makes her my stepgrandmother. She came to live at the big house to help with Emily. But she helps with everyone.

  Now, here are the pets at the big house: Shannon, David Michael’s big Bernese mountain dog puppy; Pumpkin, our new black kitten; Crystal Light the Second, my goldfish; and Goldfishie, Andrew’s you-know-what.

  Andrew and I switch houses almost every month. We usually spend one month at the big house, then one month at the little house. (This month was a big-house month.) To make the switching easier, we have two of lots of things. Andrew and I have two of so many things that I gave us special names. I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I thought up those names after my teacher read a book to our class. It was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) We have two bicycles, one at each house. We have two sets of toys and clothes and books. And of course, we have our two families.

  I also have two best friends. Hannie Papadakis lives across the street and one house over from the big house. Nancy Dawes lives next door to the little house. (We are all in the same second-grade class at Stoneybrook Academy.)

  By the way, having two houses means having two sets of keys. And if you add in the keys I got today, I have three sets of keys! I better not carry them all at the same time. I would jingle and jangle so much that everyone in town would have to cover their ears!

  Hands Up!

  On Tuesday, while we were waiting in our classroom for our teacher, I told Hannie and Nancy about my dog-walking job.

  “If my family ever goes away, we could hire you to walk Noodle for us,” said Hannie. (Noodle is Hannie’s poodle.)

  “Have you decided what you are going to do with the money you make?” asked Nancy.

  “Not yet. But I will think of something,” I replied.

  Just then Ms. Colman arrived.

  “Good morning, class,” she said. “Please be seated.”

  I am so lucky Ms. Colman is my teacher
! She is the nicest, most interesting teacher a second-grader could have. She never raises her voice, even when I do things some other teachers might get upset about. For example, a lot of times I forget to raise my hand and I call out pretty loudly. Ms. Colman just reminds me to use my indoor voice.

  That is not all. Sometimes she gives me important jobs to do. (You know I love important jobs!) Today she asked me to take attendance.

  I checked my own name off first. Then I checked off Nancy and Hannie, who waved to me from the back of the room. (I used to sit in the back with them. But Ms. Colman moved me up front when I got my glasses so I could see better.)

  I checked off Hank Reubens, who also sits in the back.

  I checked off my best enemy, Pamela Harding. She can be a meanie-mo sometimes. Her friends are Jannie Gilbert and Leslie Morris. They were in class too.

  So was Addie Sidney. She sits in the front of the room. She has a wheelchair with its own desk.

  Natalie Springer sits on one side of me. I did not see her. But I knew she was in class. (She was bending down to pick up her drooping socks.) I checked off her name.

  Ricky Torres sits on the other side of me. (He is my pretend husband. We got married on the playground one day at recess.) I checked off his name.

  I checked off Bobby Gianelli, Omar Harris, and Audrey Green. I checked off Terri and Tammy Barkan, who are twins.

  I checked off a few more names. Check, check. Then I handed the book and pencil back to Ms. Colman.

  Knock, knock. I looked at the door. Mr. Mackey was there.

  “Yippee!” I called out.

  “Indoor voice, please, Karen,” said Ms. Colman.

  Mr. Mackey is our art teacher. He goes from room to room with his art cart. We settled down and waited to hear what we were going to be working on.

  “I have a new project in mind for today,” said Mr. Mackey. “Everyone, please raise your hand.”

  We did not know why he wanted us to raise our hands. But we followed his instructions.

  “Your hands are your art projects,” said Mr. Mackey.

  Hmm. This sounded interesting.

  “During my next few visits you will be making a papier-mâché model of one of your hands,” he said. “When it is dry, you will paint pictures on it. The pictures will tell us who you are.”

  “Do you mean we have to paint pictures of ourselves?” asked Tammy.

  “You can if you like. But you can also draw pictures of things that you are interested in,” Mr. Mackey replied. “If you like to play baseball, you could draw a bat and a ball. If you have a pet you love, you could draw the face of your pet. Take some time to think about what you would like to draw. When you are ready, you can start making some sketches.”

  I looked at my hand and tried to think what I would like to draw on it. But as hard as I tried, all I could see was my plain old hand.

  “I am going to draw a picture of myself to give my mother for Mother’s Day,” said Natalie.

  “I am sure she will like that,” I replied.

  It was not something I wanted to do. But thinking about Mother’s Day helped me answer Nancy’s question. I knew what I would buy with my dog-walking money. I would buy a really great gift for Mommy.

  “Thanks, Natalie!” I said.

  “I do not know what I did,” she replied. “But you are welcome.”

  Karen’s Plan

  School was fun. But I could hardly wait to get home. It was the first day of my dog-walking job.

  I used the keys just the way Mrs. Hsu had showed me. Through the window, I could see Duke. His tail was wagging wildly. He was excited to hear the key in the door.

  When I walked inside, he raced to me and leaned against my legs. I scratched him behind his ears. Then he lay down and rolled over.

  “Come on, we are going for your walk,” I said.

  He popped back up.

  “Woof!”

  I clipped his paw-print leash to his collar, and we went for our walk around the block. Nice and slow. Lots of sniffing. Cleaning up with baggies. (Guess what. That was my least favorite part of the job.)

  Then I walked Duke to Hannie’s house. Mrs. Hsu said the more exercise Duke got, the better. And Hannie said Duke and Noodle got along very well.

  Hannie and I took turns throwing a ball for Noodle and Duke to fetch. They played the game like this: Duke fetched the ball. Noodle ran after Duke and barked a lot.

  I had already told Hannie my idea about using the money I earned to buy a gift for Mommy. Now I was trying to think of what that gift should be.

  “I just thought of something,” said Hannie. “You will need to buy a gift for Elizabeth too.”

  “You are right,” I replied. “But how am I going to make enough money at one job to buy two presents?”

  “I do not know,” said Hannie. “Anything nice is sure to be expensive. Maybe you should make gifts instead.”

  “No. This year I want to do something different. I want to buy gifts with money that I earn myself. But presents are expensive, and now I have two presents to buy. There is only one thing to do. I will just have to walk two dogs.”

  “But what other dog are you going to walk? Most families do not go away in May,” said Hannie.

  Hmm. Hannie was right. I needed a plan. It was getting late anyway. So I decided to go home and have a talk with Daddy.

  “See you later,” I said.

  I walked Duke home and gave him a treat. (I did not take a cookie for myself because I had already eaten a snack at Hannie’s house.) I carefully locked the door. When I peered through the window, Duke was looking back at me. He looked sad. I was glad the house sitter would be home in just a few hours. (The Hsus had hired someone to feed Duke and to sleep over so Duke would not be alone all night.)

  When I got home, Daddy was in the den reading. Daddy works at home most days. His office is downstairs.

  “Hi, Karen,” he said. “How was your first dog-walking day?”

  “It was fun,” I replied. “I took Duke to Hannie’s house. He and Noodle played together. But there is something I need to talk to you about.”

  I told him my problem.

  “I need another dog-walking job. But it might be hard to find one. People do not go away much in May.”

  “Someone who works might still need your help with a dog,” said Daddy. “People worry about leaving their dogs alone all day.”

  “You are right!” I said. “I will ask around in the neighborhood.”

  “I am glad you are enjoying your job. Just remember to leave enough time for your homework,” said Daddy. “And of course you’ll want to leave time to see your friends.”

  “I will leave time,” I said.

  I was glad I had talked to Daddy. Now I had a very good plan.

  A Friend in Need

  On Wednesday morning Ms. Colman chose Hank to take attendance. Hank is pretty nice. He is smart too.

  “Thank you, Hank,” said Ms. Colman when he had finished. “Class, I have been looking at the calendar for the weeks ahead, and I see we have a holiday coming up.”

  “Mother’s Day!” I called out. Oops.

  “Raise your hand, please, Karen,” said Ms. Colman. “But you are right. Mother’s Day is coming up. Is there anything you would like to do in class for this holiday?”

  Natalie raised her hand.

  “I am going to give the papier-mâché hand to my mother as a present,” she said.

  “That is a good idea,” said Ms. Colman. She called on Addie next.

  “Can we make Mother’s Day cards in class?” asked Addie.

  “Sure,” said Ms. Colman. “Anything else?”

  Ms. Colman called on Pamela.

  “Can we have a Mother’s Day party?” asked Pamela.

  Ooh! I hate to admit it. But my best enemy had a very good idea. Ms. Colman thought so too.

  “I like that idea very much,” she said. “All in favor of the party, raise your hands.”

  I looked around the ro
om. Almost every hand was up. Natalie’s hand was not up because she was under the desk again pulling up her socks. And I did not see Hank’s hand raised. But just about everyone else seemed excited about the idea.

  “I know that many mothers work and will not be able to come. So feel free to invite other people — aunts, cousins, special friends,” said Ms. Colman. “We can make up invitations this afternoon and have the party a week from Friday.”

  We talked a little more about the party and decided we would make a display of work we are proud of. Then we broke into our book-talk groups. I am in a group with Hank, Sara, and Omar. Every month each group reads a different book. At the end of the month we give reports to the class. My group is reading a book of Greek myths. They are very exciting.

  Hank and I were waiting for Sara and Omar. (They were having trouble finding their books.)

  “I am glad we are having a party,” I said. “It will be fun.”

  “It would be fun if I had someone to bring,” said Hank.

  He seemed sad. Then I remembered something. Hank’s parents are divorced, like mine. Only he is not lucky enough to have two houses in the same town. Hank’s mother moved all the way to Florida to be with the rest of her family. He and his sisters stayed in Stoneybrook with their father.

  “Ms. Colman said we do not have to invite our mothers,” I reminded him. “I am sure we do not have to have any guest at all.”

  “I would like a guest,” said Hank. “But I cannot think of anyone who can come.”

  Hmm. I have a very big family. I was sure I could think of someone for Hank to invite. Mommy would be my guest. (She works, but only part-time.) Elizabeth probably could not come because she works full-time. Nannie! That was it!

  “I am sure you could borrow my step-grandmother, Nannie. She is really nice. I could ask her for you,” I said.

  Just then, Omar and Sara showed up with their books. Hank smiled and gave me the thumbs-up sign.

  “Thanks, Karen,” he said.

  Dogs and More Dogs!

  After school, I did not have time to think about mothers or Mother’s Day. I had dogs on my mind.