The Beautiful Family Contest

“Who can play with me? Who can play with me?” I called.

“I can play with you, Karen,” said Sam, “but I do not want to.”

“All right, who wants to play with me?” I called.

“I’m busy,” Charlie replied.

“I have homework,” Kristy replied.

“I am finishing my model airplane,” said David Michael.

“I am trying to read,” said Andrew. (That might have been true. Andrew is trying to learn to read.)

Emily Michelle was not busy, but I did not feel like playing with her.

I sighed. Andrew and I were at Daddy’s house for the weekend. I did not know what to do with myself. So I wandered into the playroom upstairs. I flopped onto the couch. I picked up a magazine. It was a grown-up magazine, but I looked at it anyway. The magazine was called Beautiful Home. On the cover was a picture of a very lovely dining room. With very lovely food on the table.

I opened the magazine and turned the pages. I saw lots of pictures of rooms and houses. The pictures were pretty, but they were boring. I was about to close the magazine when I saw the word CONTEST. I just love contests. I love them as much as holidays. So I stopped and read the page. This is what it said: Do you have a beautiful family? Beautiful Home is searching for the beautiful family of the year. Win prizes! Get your picture in our magazine! To enter, follow these simple directions.

Guess what first prize was — a trip to Hawaii. I have always wanted to go to Hawaii. I want to see a volcano. Also, I want to wear a lei. (That is a necklace made of flowers.) I want to put on a grass skirt and learn the hula dance.

Second prize was a vacuum cleaner, and third prize was a hat or something. I did not care about the vacuum or the hat. But I wanted to go to Hawaii. So I read the instructions for entering the contest. I would have to write a short essay about my beautiful family, and I would have to find a picture of us, too. Those things were easy, I thought. But which of my families would I enter in the contest? I decided on my big-house family. I think it is a teeny bit more interesting than my little-house family.

I found a pad of paper and began my essay. “I have one brother, three stepbrothers, one stepsister, and an adopted sister,” I wrote. “My family is very beautiful even if my brothers are rude. They embarrass me. Sam burps at the table. Andrew usually spills stuff in restaurants. But I love my brothers. I think we are a beautiful family anyway….”

“Karen?” called Daddy. “Bedtime!”

“Okay!” I called back. “Coming!”

I gathered up the magazine and my paper. I had decided not to tell anyone about the contest. My brothers would tease me. They would laugh at me. They would say I would never get to go to Hawaii and dance the hula.

I heard someone in the hallway.

Yikes! What should I do with my contest things? I stuffed them underneath a cushion in the couch. I could get them the next day.

I walked slowly out of the playroom. My heart was pounding. I had almost been caught! But when I ran into Sam, I just said, “Hi, Sam. Good night, Sam. See you in the morning.”

And then I went to bed.

That night I dreamed of leis and grass skirts and volcanoes.