I held hands with Henry and Charlie, one on each side, as we trudged down the unshoveled sidewalk toward Dream Central. I had so much to do today, but we were running late because Mrs. Petite had insisted on throwing our jackets in her dryer to warm them before we headed out into the freezing cold afternoon.
As usual, Eleanor was already sitting at our regular picnic table, but for once she wasn’t drawing. Instead she squinted at a tiny piece of paper.
“BOO!”
Eleanor shrieked, then stuffed the note into her pocket without folding it up. And she’s the kind of person who neatly folds everything first.
“You startled me,” she said.
The boys took off at full speed toward the tall slide.
“What’s with you and those notes lately?”
She grinned, but didn’t answer, then she studied me up and down.
“What are you looking at?” I asked. “Do I have an icky smudge or a stain?”
“Nope,” she replied, “the opposite. You look great.”
“I do?” I stared down at my old red boots, trying to figure out what she saw that I didn’t.
“I was wondering, Ruby—do you want to go over to The Avalanche and get a mocha ripple milkshake?”
“You can’t be serious, Eleanor. Do you have any idea how much I have to get done this afternoon?”
I spread my fingers and began counting off my list of plans.
“After the boys wear themselves out on the playground, I need to drag them all over town, starting with Jenny’s Jewelry—BTW, they asked about more crocheted flower earring—then I have to take another order for headbands at the Ski and Snowboard Palace; meet Mrs. Wilder over at the Treasure Chest; and finally, check on the macramé bookmarks at Wonderland’s Used Books, all before it’s pitch dark and Mim arrives home with dinner.”
But instead of commenting on any of that, she said, “I brought an extra banana, if you want one?”
“Sure,” I replied, and peeled it without taking off my gloves.
“You know,” said Eleanor as she fished around in her backpack, “I wish we knew what happened to Madame Magnifique. I feel like I should knit a gift for her, since her readings were free, and so far everything she predicted is coming true.”
“Ohmygosh, I’ve been thinking about that too,” I replied, as I watched Eleanor pull out her box of colored pencils and sketchpad, and set them on the table. “How could she appear one day, then vanish into thin air forever? Maybe she really is some kind of fairy godmother, you know? Like, she only appears when you really, really need her?”
“Normally I would dismiss that line of reasoning,” Eleanor said as she began to draw, “but I have to admit, magic could be involved. Otherwise, how could we have accomplished everything we’ve done so far?”
“I know! It’s like she bonked us on our heads with her wand and made our dreams come true.”
I took another bite and swallowed.
“Oh, I almost forgot, Ruby—look what I have.”
Eleanor dug into her jacket pocket and revealed our latest brainstorm: a pink and purple phone cover that she was modeling on her emergency cell phone.
“Wow, it’s wicked cute! We’ll sell a million.”
“I hope not,” she laughed. “Otherwise we’ll have to expand and hire staff.”
I liked the sound of that: our very own company headquarters.
“By the way, I think I’ve saved up almost enough money to start ski lessons,” I told her. “I need to get really good so I can meet the Outers just like JB did. The Snow Ball’s only forty-one days away.”
Eleanor didn’t say anything, which was always her response when I talked about JB or the Snow Ball. I couldn’t understand why she never seemed as excited for my dream as I was for hers, buying that expensive sewing machine. I was beginning to wonder if she was jealous of the idea of me hanging out with the Outers.
“I called Sugar Mountain yesterday to ask how much it would cost.”
Still no response as she continued to sketch.
I finished up the banana, then tossed the peel in the trash can.
“Anyway, the lady on the phone said they have this special package, called the Snow Bunny, where you get ski equipment, a private lesson, then a lift pass for the rest of the day, plus a hot chocolate in the lodge, which I can drink by the stone fireplace, just like my real mom did with my pop when they were in high school.”
Finally Eleanor looked up.
“How much is the Snow Bunny?”
“For kids under twelve, it’s $129, which would still leave me with about fifty bucks left over.”
“Wait, Ruby, that doesn’t make sense.”
“Come on, Eleanor,” I said. “Can’t you at least be a little happy for me? I mean, it’s not like we’re going to stop being best friends once I get to know the Outers.”
“What are you talking about? I mean, your calculations don’t make sense.”
She bent over and pulled a notebook from her backpack and flipped through the pages.
“You said $129? And you would only have fifty left? We’ve made more money than that. What happened to the rest of your profits?”
“Umm . . . I guess most of it went to bribing the twins with junk, like parts for their Clink ’n’ Link collections, which I have to buy every time I drag them along to visit our customers, so they’ll be quiet and behave.”
“But you couldn’t have spent that much on Clink ’n’ Links. Maybe I made a mistake in my accounting system?”
It was my job to collect our earnings from our customers whenever I dropped off new pieces, and Mim agreed to cash our checks and give us the money. But Eleanor was the one who counted it, recorded it, and then divided it between us down to the last penny.
She flipped to the back of her notebook and pointed at the top of the page.
“So far we’ve made a total of $540.96 after being in business about ten weeks. We spent $37.42 on various supplies, which leaves us with $251.77 each. I still have to save $268.23, excluding shipping, before I can purchase the Pluckarama online for $520. But Ruby, you should have been able to start your lessons weeks ago.”
“Well . . .”
“Well, what?”
“There’s also this dress.”
“What dress?”
“A gorgeous dress, Eleanor! One that I saw in a catalog, which would be so perfect for the Snow Ball! It’s pure white, which is the color everyone has to wear to look wintry, and it has these puffy princess sleeves, fake fur all along the hem, plus tiny clear buttons down the front, which, according to the catalog, ‘twinkle like stars at night under the lights!’ And I want it more than anything. But it’s really expensive, and if I spend my money now on ski lessons, I may not have enough left over for the dress.”
Eleanor sighed.
“If I only had my sewing machine . . . I could probably make one exactly like it.”
All of a sudden, Charlie and Henry ran over, hollering like they were being chased by a flock of wild turkeys.
“HEY! That kid was here!”
“What?” I jumped up and scanned the playground. “Where is he?”
“He ran away when we talked to him,” said Charlie as puffs of cold air circled his red cheeks.
“That same boy you saw last month?” asked Eleanor.
“We see him all the time,” said Henry.
“You do?” I crossed my arms. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because this time he got really close.”
“And when we asked his name,” Charlie said, “he ran off!”
“All right, calm down,” I said. “It’s not a national emergency, but it is a little creepy. Was he wearing the big green jacket?”
“Yep, and a hat squishing his hair down,” added Henry.
“It’s definitely that rich kid from the mansion. Were binoculars hanging from his neck?”
The boys looked at each other and shrugged, then ran off to chase a squirrel behind a tree.
“The weird thing is,” I said to Eleanor, “I haven’t seen him outside in his yard for weeks. I wonder what he’s up to, and why he keeps sneaking around like this.”
“He may be extremely introverted,” said Eleanor as she continued to sketch, “or suffer from a social anxiety disorder, or any number of phobias.”
“Are you kidding? How can anyone suffer from anything living in a million-dollar mansion?”
“Money doesn’t buy happiness, Ruby,” she replied, without looking up. “In fact, money has very little to do with happiness other than covering the basic necessities for a reasonably comfortable existence.”
Honestly, I don’t know where she gets these ideas.
“What are you talking about, Eleanor? Have you seen those Outers? Beautiful, rich, and happier than anyone on earth!”
A cloud passed over the sun, which was low in the sky.
“Who truly knows what an individual feels, or what makes him or her uniquely happy, other than that individual?”
Eleanor stopped drawing and turned her picture around for me to see: a pretty girl in a beautiful white gown.
“That’s it!” I said. “The dress in the catalog. How did you do that?”
She smiled one of her extra-curly grins and closed the pad of paper.
“It’s getting late, Ruby. You need to call on customers, and I need to crochet phone covers in case we get some orders.”
“Shoot, I forgot about my appointments.”
I jumped up and called the boys.
“Charlie, Henry, get back here—we gotta go!”
“Wait,” said Eleanor. “Don’t forget the new phone-cover sample.”
Maybe Eleanor and I didn’t always think about the world in the same way, but we sure made a great team.
“I’m telling you, these things are gonna sell like ice melt before a storm. Make as many as you can!”