ON A MIDSUMMER day that felt more like October than August, Missy Piggle-Wiggle bustled around the farmyard behind the upside-down house. Penelope swooped after her. “Chilly!” she squawked.
“It won’t last,” said Missy. She turned to Warren and Evelyn’s goslings, who had grown so fast that they were already as big as their parents. “Here you go,” she said. “Lunchtime.” She scattered corn across the ground for them. When she dropped the bucket back in the corn bin, she heard a clunk. The bin was now empty.
“Tsk, tsk,” tutted Penelope. “Down to nothing. What are you going to do?”
“Forge ahead,” Missy replied.
“Hello!” called a chorus of voices.
Running across the yard came Honoriah and Petulance Freeforall, Tulip Goodenough, and Samantha Tickle. They were wearing sweatshirts and rubbing their hands together.
“It’s freezing!” cried Petulance.
“Tell her why we’re here,” Samantha whispered to Tulip.
“You’re here for a particular reason?” asked Missy.
“Yes.” Tulip nodded her head. “We have a problem.”
“Aha,” said Missy, her fingertips tingling.
“We have a severe problem,” said Honoriah.
“Don’t exaggerate,” said Tulip.
“I’m not exaggerating!”
The girls were jumping up and down.
“We need help!”
“It’s dire!”
“Goodness, let’s go inside,” said Missy, and she led her guests into the kitchen of the upside-down house, where they crowded around the table.
“Lester,” said Missy, “I think we have just enough powder left to make six mugs of hot chocolate. Don’t we?”
Lester looked uncomfortable, but then he checked the hot chocolate tin, nodded at Missy, and reached for the kettle, which was already boiling.
“Okay,” Missy said to the girls. “What seems to be the trouble?”
There was a pause followed by an eruption of voices that tumbled over one another.
“It’s Melody!”
“She’s driving us crazy.”
“We can’t talk to her anymore.”
“She’s all, ‘In Utopia we did it this way’ and ‘Utopia is so great’ and ‘My friends in Utopia were perfect.’”
“She’s a pain in my brain.”
Missy accepted a warm mug from Lester. “Thank you,” she said. She took a sip of hot chocolate. Then she turned to the girls. “I think you need to talk to Melody.”
“Talk to her?!”
“We can’t.”
“We tried.”
“It didn’t help.”
“Do you want to patch things up with Melody?” asked Missy.
“Yes,” said Samantha.
“Why?”
Samantha looked surprised. “Because she’s our friend.”
“All right, then,” said Missy. “That’s a good starting place. Now the next step is to think about how you’re going to patch things up.”
“How we’re going to patch things up?” repeated Tulip. “We thought you were going to do that. We thought you would cure Melody.”
“With your magic,” added Petulance.
“Like you cured us,” said Honoriah.
“Not everything can be fixed with magic,” replied Missy Piggle-Wiggle.
“Why not? Magic is magic,” said Samantha.
Missy drew herself up tall and recalled her days teaching at the Magic Institute for Children. “Magic,” she said primly, “is different for everyone. We all have magic in us. Some of us have a lot of magic; some have a little. Everyone’s magic is different. I am very good with cures, that’s true, but I have my limits. For instance, I can’t just wave my hand and”—Missy thought about the empty corn bin and the empty chocolate tin and the enormous bill she was about to get from Serena Clutter—“make dollar bills appear in my pocketbook. Some things must be worked for.”
“Well, that is not what I wanted to hear,” said Tulip crossly.
Honoriah frowned. “We thought you could do anything.”
“Anyone can do anything,” said Missy. “You need to find the proper way to go about whatever it is you want to do.”
“Will you help us?” asked Petulance.
“Of course. Now, have you ever heard of Girls’ Day?”
Honoriah, Petulance, Tulip, and Samantha shook their heads.
Missy hadn’t heard of Girls’ Day, either, since she had just that very second made it up.
“Is it a special day for girls only?” asked Honoriah.
“Why, yes it is,” replied Missy.
“Here at your house?” asked Samantha.
“All right.”
“Are there special activities?” asked Tulip.
“Yes.”
“Like art projects and making brownies and maybe having a dress-up picnic?” asked Samantha.
“Absolutely,” said Missy. “And who do you think should be invited to Girls’ Day?”
“Well, all of us,” answered Petulance. “And you.”
“And the girl animals,” said Tulip. “Lightfoot and Penelope.”
“Anyone else?” asked Missy.
“Melody?” said Honoriah in a small voice.
“I think that would be splendid,” said Missy. “And of course, you can invite other girls as well. It’s up to you.”
“But Girls’ Day,” said Samantha slowly, “will be a way for us to show Melody how much we like her?”
“And that we truly want to be her friends?” added Petulance.
“Yes,” said Missy. “That’s important, because she still misses her old home and her old friends and her old life. It can be hard to be the new kid. But Melody does want to be friends with you.”
“She’s always—” Tulip began to protest.
“Sometimes you have to make an extra effort,” Missy continued. “Beyond whatever you’ve already done.” Missy produced a pad of paper and a pencil from somewhere the girls couldn’t quite see, even though Honoriah peeped under the table and Samantha tried to peek up Missy’s sleeves. “All right. Let’s start planning,” said Missy. “Penelope, Lightfoot, why don’t you join us?”
Penelope swooped into the kitchen from her perch by the front door, where she liked to watch for visitors to the upside-down house. Lightfoot, however, who was napping in the hallway, only opened one eye before going back to sleep.
“Let’s talk about food!” squawked Penelope.
But Tulip said, “I don’t want the boys to feel bad about Girls’ Day. Especially you, Lester.”
Lester, who was seated at one end of the table with a mug of coffee now that he’d finished his hot chocolate, dipped his bristly head and waved one hoof to let everyone know he wasn’t offended.
“Still,” Tulip continued, “I think the boys should be allowed to come over at the end of the day.”
“Good idea,” agreed Missy.
* * *
The girls planned activities and wrote out a menu for the Girls’ Day picnic. They made an invitation for Melody. “We’ll call up everyone else who’s invited,” said Honoriah, “but Melody gets a special invitation.”
The girls took it to her personally at the end of the day after they had called good-bye to Missy and Lester. They hurried up the street and turned in at Melody’s gate, whispering and giggling all the way to her porch.
“Should we ring the bell, leave the invitation, and hide?”
“No, put it in the mailbox.”
“No, give it to her in person!”
In the end they didn’t have a choice, because Melody heard the whispering and giggling and opened the door while they were still standing on her porch, holding the invitation.
“Hi!” said Melody. She felt surprised and just slightly suspicious, since her friends hadn’t been to her house in quite some time. And hadn’t spoken to her in almost as long.
Samantha, who was holding the envelope, stopped giggling and stood on one foot, scratching the back of her ankle with the other foot. She glanced at her friends, then thrust the invitation at Melody and said, “This is for you.”
“What is it?”
“Open it.”
Melody stepped all the way out onto the porch, letting the screen door swing shut behind her. She slit the envelope with her thumb and drew out a sheet of pink paper. This is what she saw:
Please join us for a girls’ day
WHEN: Next Saturday, 11:00 A.M.
WHERE: The upside-down house
WHY: For a day of fun with your friends—girls only!
Games! Contests! Crafts! Picnic!
“And you’re our special guest,” said Petulance.
“Really? Me?” said Melody in a small voice. “Thank you.”
* * *
When Melody woke up on Girls’ Day, she found a foggy, soggy morning, but she didn’t care. She put on a yellow blouse and a pair of flowered shorts and tied a striped ribbon around her ponytail. At exactly 10:55 a.m., she left her house, turned right at the end of her walk, and continued down the lane to Missy’s house. She felt that walking to the special party for girls all by herself was just a bit lonely. In Utopia, she would have walked to a party for girls with Pollyanna and Ashley-Sarah.
But Little Spring Valley was not Utopia.
Still, Melody put a smile on her face as she approached the porch of the upside-down house. From inside, she heard Penelope cry, “Melody Flowers is here!”
Moments later, the door was thrust open by Tulip. Crowded behind her were the Freeforall twins, Samantha Tickle, Veronica Cupcake, Heavenly Earwig, Tallulah Treadupon, Caramel Dolittle, and Austin Forthright.
“Surprise!” shouted Veronica.
Samantha nudged Veronica. “It isn’t actually a surprise.”
“I know, but I thought it would be fun to shout ‘Surprise!’ and it was.”
“Welcome to Girls’ Day,” said Missy. “House decorated the hallway for you.”
Brightly colored balloons rolled gently over the rugs. Crepe paper streamers crisscrossed the floor. A banner was stretched across the doorway to the parlor. Melody had to stand on her head in order to read it. It said WELCOME TO GIRLS’ DAY!
“Everything is beautiful,” said Melody softly.
“Now,” said Missy, “the first thing we do on Girls’ Day is hold a costume contest.”
The girls dove for the costume box in the parlor.
“I’m going to be a mermaid!” cried Veronica.
“I’m going to be a Martian,” said Heavenly.
Melody watched as the girls began claiming hats and wands and coats and false noses from the box.
“What are you going to be, Melody?” asked Missy.
“I—Maybe a parrot.”
“Hurry up, then.”
Melody looked at her friends, who were already wriggling into their costumes. She was sure nothing would be left in the box. But when she peered into it, she saw that it was still full and that, even better, a pile of orange-and-green feathers lay on the very top.
“Parrot wings!” she exclaimed. She had never seen parrot wings in the box before.
“Are there prizes?” Veronica asked a few minutes later when the girls were admiring their finished costumes.
“The prize,” Missy replied, “is that it’s time to look for pirate treasure.”
“But it’s raining!” exclaimed Caramel.
“That’s why we’re going on an indoor treasure hunt.”
The girls spent the next hour searching the upside-down house. Melody found a very old toy truck under a chair. Veronica found a nickel and gave it to Missy to put in her purse. Austin found two marbles.
“We all found something,” said Tallulah later. “Every single one of us. This must be our good-luck day.”
It was too wet to hold the picnic outside, so the Girls’ Day picnic took place in the parlor. It started on the floor, and then the guests, who were still wearing their costumes, and the food and the picnic blanket slowly rose toward the ceiling. Later, when Petulance was opening a floating box of cookies, Melody offered her a smile. Petulance smiled back.
“Thank you for inviting me to Girls’ Day,” said Melody.
Missy reached up to steady herself on the ceiling. “Your friends planned it for you. They wanted to do something special.”
Melody nodded. “I know I’ve been talking about Utopia a lot, but guess what? There are a lot of things here in Little Spring Valley that Utopia doesn’t have. Like an upside-down house. And a pig that can read and make coffee. And magic. And, of course, you and all my new friends.”
Tulip beamed, but Missy said, “It isn’t a contest between Utopia and Little Spring Valley, though. Both places have wonderful things and wonderful people. You can miss Utopia, Melody, but still appreciate what you have here. There’s room for both.”
Lightfoot crawled out from under a chair then and curled up in Melody’s lap. She began to purr loudly.
“Hmm,” said Missy.
“What?” asked Melody.
“Lightfoot really likes you. I don’t think I’ve seen her this happy since before my aunt left.”
Melody smiled, and Lightfoot rolled onto her back and stuck her feet in the air.
* * *
At three that afternoon, the girls, who were lying on the floor in the parlor while Missy read to them, heard a tentative knock on the front door, and Penelope screeched, “Linden Pettigrew and Rusty Goodenough are here!”
Lester opened the door and Linden said, “Is it okay for the boys to come in now?”
“Absolutely,” said Missy.
Lester left the door standing open, and soon other boys began to trickle inside: Frankfort Freeforall, Houston Forthright, Einstein J. Treadupon. They joined the girls and listened to Missy read from The Wind in the Willows. Later, when dinnertime was drawing near and rumbling stomachs sent the children back to their homes, Melody helped Missy tidy the upside-down house. Before she left, she hugged Missy and said, “I had a talk with Lightfoot about being homesick. We both feel better now, and I didn’t even need any magic.”