Kendall
Kendall was so relieved to be able to sleep in on Saturday. Unfortunately, Tinkerbell did not get the same memo. She thought it was her job to bark furiously at every single garage-sale shopper that came and went from the house. Finally Kendall gave up and got out of bed, and it wasn’t even nine yet. Still, she felt hopeful as she pulled on her sweats. With all that traffic down there, she’d probably made several hundred dollars by now. Maybe even more.
But when Kendall went into the garage to check the progress, Anna glumly informed her that there’d only been three sales. “A chipped teapot that sold for seven dollars. A first edition Clancy book for ten and a pair of sunglasses for three.”
“You’re sure they weren’t the real Christian Dior ones that are marked thirty?” demanded Kendall as she glanced nervously at the designer section right next to the money table. “You’re keeping a close eye on those things, aren’t you? I saw a teen girl who looked like she was going to steal something from there yesterday.”
“Yeah, yeah,” said Anna. “So you told me last night. And I was watching it. Trust me, the lady bought the counterfeit shades, the ones with the rhinestone CC on the sides, right?”
“Yeah. Those were the Coco Chanel fakes.”
“Three sales for a grand total of twenty dollars.”
Kendall frowned. “With Tinker barking her head off upstairs, I was certain that you were down here raking it in. All I’ve made is a measly twenty bucks?”
Anna glared at her. “Don’t you mean a measly sixteen bucks? Don’t forget that I’m getting my 20 percent commission, which means I’ve made a whopping four dollars for almost two hours out here. At this rate, I might be able to buy a ticket—for the bus!”
“Maybe you should try harder.” Kendall noticed an older Mercedes parking in front of the house now. “Here come some customers. Make some money, Anna!”
Then Kendall slipped back into the house, where Tinkerbell was barking like a crazed dog again. This was looking to be a long weekend. If only there was someplace where she could go to escape the madness. After all, she had “hired” Anna to take over for her.
Kendall went back to her room and dug in her closet until she finally found a clean set of pale pink sweats. Then she showered and dressed and even put on makeup. She put a matching pink hoodie on Tinkerbell.
“We’re going shopping,” she informed Tinker as she slipped the little dog into her carrying case. “Mama needs some new clothes.” And the truth was, she did need some new clothes, because there was no way she could go through this pregnancy looking like a bag lady in dirty old sweats. If she was really going to have this baby, which after her talk with Megan’s mom seemed to be the only thing to do, she was going to do it in style!
But first she stopped by the garage sale, where Megan had finally joined Anna and was just selling the brass spittoon, and a few other items, to an older woman who said she planned to use it as a container for silk flowers. Kendall waited for Megan to make change from the woman’s two twenties.
“It’s about time you came down to help,” said Megan as she put the cash in the money box.
“Didn’t Anna tell you that I hired her to help? She’s getting a commission.”
“Yes, she told me that. But does that mean you don’t plan to work at all today?”
“Not today or tomorrow.” Kendall reached under the table to the place where they were keeping the money tin.
“What are you doing with that?” Megan watched suspiciously as Kendall opened the box.
“I don’t think it’s safe to leave all this money out here at the garage sale,” Kendall whispered. “Your mom said that sometimes people try to steal the money box.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Megan nodded. “I forgot.”
“Anyway, I’ll leave enough cash to keep making change and put the rest in a safe place,” Kendall assured her. But Megan was already heading over to help a customer who wanted to know if he could try out Kendall’s old treadmill.
Kendall removed most of the cash as well as the checks, leaving plenty for change. Then, feeling slightly like a thief, she slipped the thick wad of bills into her purse and headed straight for her car, which was parked down the street. She knew that Megan might get irritated at her for spending some of the garage-sale money, but after all, it was Kendall’s money. And besides she really did need some maternity clothes. Not only that, but she planned to be frugal about it. She’d gotten a Macy’s flyer last week, and they were having a big sale in their new maternity department. And some of the clothes weren’t that bad looking. In fact, a lot of them didn’t even look like maternity clothes. Who knew? Maybe this would actually be fun.
In a way, it was fun. Other pregnant women were shopping and happily discussing which clothes looked best and which trimester expanded waistlines the most and what they were going to name their babies and when they were due.
“You don’t look too far along,” the sales woman said to Kendall. “When are you due?”
Kendall blinked and tried to remember when her obstetrician had said. “Uh, in the summer.”
“Must be late summer.”
“Oh, yeah.” Kendall remembered now. “Not until the end of August.”
“You poor thing,” said a woman who looked fairly far along. “I had to go through summer with my first baby. Let me tell you, that was one long, hot summer too.”
“When are you due?” Kendall asked her.
“May 14. Right around Mother’s Day.” The woman put her hand on top of her rounded tummy. “But I’ve already outgrown some of my old maternity clothes that I wore to full term last time. They say that happens with your second pregnancy.”
Kendall nodded like she knew all about this, although it was news to her.
“Is this your first?”
Kendall nodded again. “How did you know?”
The woman chuckled as she pointed at Tinker in the dog carrier. “Once you have a baby, you won’t be dressing up your little dog anymore.”
The sales woman helped Kendall to find the right sizes and showed her how some of the garments would adjust to the growing size of her stomach. Kendall found it hard to believe she’d ever need all that room. “I can’t imagine my belly ever getting that big,” said Kendall as the woman expanded the waist so that it looked like it might fit around a midsized cow.
“You’ll be surprised,” the sales woman told her. “Your body will change drastically before you give birth.”
Kendall pushed those kinds of thoughts from her mind as she tried on clothes, finally settling on an assortment of things. Her favorites were the mix-and-match stretchy knit pieces, including yoga pants, a wrap skirt, several expandable camisoles, a hoodie. But she also picked a little black dress and even a pair of jeans. She was tempted to get some summer pieces in case she went to Maui but decided that was pretty unlikely.
“Did you know they’re having a sale in the baby department too?” asked the woman who was due on Mother’s Day.
“Really?” Kendall tried to feign interest.
“Come on,” urged the woman, “everything is at least 20 percent off, and some of the markdown racks are an additional 60 percent off. I swear they’re practically giving some things away.”
And so Kendall tagged along with this woman, whose name she learned was Beth. She taught at the same middle school that Kendall had attended ten years ago.
“I was a cheerleader in eighth grade,” Kendall proudly told her. “If you looked up an old journal, you’d see me in it.”
But Beth wasn’t interested in Kendall’s illustrious history as a Madison Middle School Pirate. All Beth could think about was baby things, and since her next baby was going to be a girl (the first one, now three years old, was a boy) everything she picked out was pink-pink-pink. Not that Kendall didn’t like pink. And not that Kendall couldn’t imagine a sweet little infant swaddled in pale pink ruffles, but she just couldn’t imagine herself with a baby, period. Buying maternity clothes (which didn’t really look like maternity clothes) was one thing. But envisioning herself walking around with a Cadillac stroller was something else.
Despite all that, and to Kendall’s own surprise, she got slightly caught up in the baby craze too. And, before she left that busy baby department, she had purchased a khaki diaper bag that could almost pass for a D&G; a soft robin’s-egg blue chenille baby blanket that she wished were big enough for her own bed; and what Beth told her was a “newborn layette”—something the baby (either for a boy or girl since it was a buttery yellow) would wear home from the hospital. Now that was an event that Kendall could not even begin to imagine.
Kendall put her out-of-character purchases and Tinkerbell into the car and, since she could now afford it, went to get gas. Finally, she stopped at Quiznos for a late lunch—because she was, after all, eating for two. After that she wasn’t sure where to go or what to do to kill a few more hours, but she knew she should probably avoid any more shopping. Especially if she didn’t want Megan freaking out and yelling at her.
Kendall hadn’t kept really close track, but she suspected she’d spent around three hundred dollars, and what had once been a thick wad of cash had definitely dwindled. Not that Megan had to be privy to that. Still, Kendall did not want to go home and be tortured by that bothersome garage sale. And so it was she found herself pulling into the parking lot of Nana’s nursing home.
“Kendall!” Nana looked pleasantly surprised when she opened the door. But then she frowned. “What are you doing here? You didn’t come here to get money from me, did you?”
“No, of course, not,” Kendall assured her. She held out Tinkerbell’s carrying case. “We just stopped in to say hello.”
“Well, hello.” Nana still looked concerned. “What are you doing here?” she asked again.
Kendall thought for a moment. “Hey, do you want to go get ice cream?”
Nana brightened up and went immediately to get her favorite old handbag—it used to be cream colored, but now looked more like tan, although Kendall suspected it would clean up nicely, since it was vinyl. She used to make fun of that old purse, but then she realized it was a Gucci from the sixties and actually quite valuable, not to mention rather chic in that Jackie-O sort of way. Anyway, Kendall had told Nana more than once that if she ever wanted to get rid of it, she should toss it Kendall’s way. Of course, Kendall knew there was no money in Nana’s bag. Sticky fingers in the nursing home had taught Nana to hide her cash in smarter places. Sometimes Nana forgot where she’d hidden her money, and at times when Kendall was desperate, she would go hunting. Not today.
“Ice cream,” said Nana as they walked through the parking lot. “You scream, I scream, everyone scream for ice cream.”
Kendall laughed. “I can’t believe you remember that.”
“Isn’t that what you kids used to say?”
“Pretty close anyway.” Kendall opened the door and helped Nana into the car.
As they drove to a nearby ice-cream shop, Nana pointed to a sign. “Garage sale!” she cried so loudly that Kendall hit the brakes. “Stop, Kendall. Stop!”
The last thing Kendall wanted to do was go to a garage sale, but Nana would not give up. And so she parked and helped Nana out of the car, and together they walked past the tables loaded with junk. Real junk too. It actually made Kendall’s garage sale look good. And Kendall even mentioned to the other shoppers about how there was a really good garage sale over on Bloomberg Place.
“Oh, that’s a nice neighborhood,” said one woman.
“And they have nice stuff too,” Kendall quietly told her. “Even designer clothes. And some antiques and collectibles.”
The woman nudged her friend. “Hey, let’s head over to Bloomberg Place.”
That’s when it hit Kendall. “Nana,” she said. “Do you want to go to more garage sales?”
Naturally Nana was game. So, every time Kendall spotted a sale, she stopped and helped her grandmother out of the car. Then, while Nana browsed, Kendall informed the other shoppers about the fantastic sale she’d been to over on Bloomberg Place.
“I think I’ll have to go back over there,” she told a girl about her age. “I keep thinking about these really gorgeous black Prada boots that I could’ve gotten for a fraction of their original price. And they looked like new.”
“Seriously?” the girl looked surprised. “Do you think they’re still there?”
“I don’t know, but there were lots of other cool things.” Kendall checked her watch. “Maybe I’ll head back there now.”
And so it went. At the rate that Kendall was advertising her own garage sale, the girls should be swamped in no time. Perhaps they’d be sold out by closing time, six o’clock. And then Kendall wouldn’t have to put up with it for another whole day!
Nana eventually wore out and, to Kendall’s surprise, remembered that they were supposed to be getting ice cream. Since Nana was tired, Kendall got their ice cream to go and they ate in the car as she drove back to the nursing home. Then she helped Nana out, did her best to wipe the spilt droplets of orange sherbet off Nana’s favorite white sweater, and walked her back to her room. Along the way, Nana bragged to all her friends about where she’d been.
“My granddaughter took me for ice cream,” she told them.
“And to a bunch of garage sales too,” Kendall would add. Naturally, the other inmates all got jealous. And that just made Nana cackle and grin like she’d won the lottery. Kendall thought it might be nice if life were so simple. Not that she wanted to be old and live in a place like this. But sometimes it had its appeal.
After she got Nana safely to her room and settled into her comfy recliner, where she immediately went to sleep, Kendall walked back through the home via the activities room, which, as usual, was not very active. But she spied Walt, a friendly old coot she’d met the time she hid out at Nana’s for a day or two. He was sitting by himself in his wheelchair.
“Hey, Walt,” she called out. “What’s up?”
“Well, if it ain’t my best girl.” He grinned. “What’s your name again?”
“Kendall.”
“Yes, yes, Kendall. You’re Gert Weis’s granddaughter.”
She held up the doggy carrier. “And this is Tinkerbell.”
“Glad to meet you, Tinkerbell.” He chuckled. “Don’t recall you having a dog last time you were here, Kendall.”
“I got her a few months ago.”
“Where’s your grandmother? Is she okay?”
So Kendall explained about the garage sales and ice cream and how it had all worn her grandmother out.
“What a good girl you are to come take your grandmother out like that.”
She just smiled. It wasn’t every day that someone called her a good girl. It felt strange but nice. Maybe now that she was going to become a mommy—someday—she would turn into a nicer, better person. It seemed possible somehow … at least something she might aspire to.
“How’s about a little game of checkers?” Walt asked hopefully.
Since she still had time to kill, plus because she liked the idea of being a nice girl, she agreed. But, after two games, the dinner bell rang and Walt, worried that he’d miss out on his favorite meal of corned beef and cabbage and scalloped potatoes, excused himself.
“Thanks for the games, honey,” he called out as he wheeled himself across the room. “Next time, I’ll let you win.”
Kendall considered joining Nana for dinner, but the smell of cooked cabbage made her want to hurl, and it wasn’t even morning. So she hurried on out to her car. It was only five, but Kendall decided that it might be interesting to get home in time to see if any of her free advertising was paying off. To her delight, there were cars parked along both sides of the street and the garage sale seemed to be hopping.
“I’m back,” she cheerfully told her friends after she’d put Tinker in the house.
“It’s about time.” Megan scowled. “It’s been a zoo here.”
“Yeah,” said Anna. “Make yourself useful.”
For the next hour, Kendall worked the garage sale, and when someone recognized her from one of the other sales, she just laughed. “Well, I told you the truth, didn’t I?” she said to a frumpy middle-aged woman. “This garage sale is way better than all the other ones I saw today.”
“You’ve been going to garage sales today?” asked Anna as they started packing things up.
“Just to advertise this one,” Kendall told her as she counted out change to a girl who finally decided to purchase her old rollerblades for eighteen dollars.
“Well, maybe your marketing plan worked,” admitted Lelani, “because we’ve sure been busy. I had to come out and help when it got too crazy out here.”
“Thanks,” said Kendall.
“Well, you’re going to pay her for helping,” said Anna. “We all agreed to that.”
Kendall just shrugged. “That’s okay.”
“We promised Lelani ten bucks an hour,” Megan told her. “And so far she’s put in five hours.”
“You can just deduct it from next month’s rent for me,” Lelani told Kendall.
“Just remind me when the time comes,” Kendall said.
“Don’t worry,” said Megan. “We’ll both be reminding you. Don’t forget you promised me a break on the rent too.”
She had, and though now she was regretting having to spread out her profits, she supposed a break on rent later was better than cash out of hand now.
Finally the last customer left and the girls finished putting stuff away and closed the garage doors.
“I’m exhausted,” declared Anna.
“And I’m starving,” said Megan.
“I’ll call out for pizza,” offered Lelani.
“And Kendall is buying.” Megan handed Kendall the cash box.
“That’s fair.” Kendall shook the heavy box. “This feels full.”
“And there’s more in the house,” said Anna. “I stashed it in the top drawer of the china hutch. I was trying to keep track of how much we took in, except it got too busy. But I’ve been keeping the money from my garage sale things separate from yours.” Anna kind of laughed. “Not that I’m getting rich. Unlike you, I’ve only made a little more than thirty dollars so far. But I’m curious to hear your total.”
“I’ll count it all out very carefully,” Kendall assured them. Then she took the cash box to her room and dumped it on her bed and started to count the bills. To her amazement, it was nearly eight hundred dollars. Combined with what she’d spent today, she’d earned more than a thousand total. And that didn’t even include the checks! Who knew you could make that much from a garage sale? Then she remembered that she needed to give Anna her cut. But she also knew that part of the money had been from the previous day, since she’d left some to be used for change. Why hadn’t she thought to count it earlier?
So she did a quick estimate and figured it had to be less than a hundred, which she set aside. She added in today’s checks for a total of $978.50, then set aside money for pizza. Finally, she had to use pen and paper to figure Anna’s portion, which was about $190. Not bad for a day’s work. But now Kendall was rethinking her deal with Anna. Lelani had worked for ten dollars an hour. Why shouldn’t Anna do the same? But when she suggested as much to Anna, it was as if she’d suggested that Anna should cut off her arm.
“You promised me,” Anna yelled at her. “And now you’re backing out?”
“It’s just not fair that—”
“It’s not fair that you don’t honor your word.”
“I’ll pay you ten bucks an—”
“Keep your money,” snapped Anna. “I’ve had it.” Then she stomped off to her room.
Kendall felt a twinge of guilt, but it was her garage sale. It didn’t seem fair that everyone else was profiting from it. Who needed them anyway? So far Kendall had made around a thousand bucks—and without paying for their help she stood to make more.