A Big Box of Memories Read online

  CHAPTER 4

  The Perfect Thing for the Capsule

  “It was just perfect!” cried Molly. “I’ll never find another one anywhere!”

  “What was perfect?” said her father. “You must mean me! And you’re right, you’ll never find another one—but you won’t need one! One perfect dad is enough!”

  Molly laughed. “It was a dream,” she said. “It was a dream about Roger.”

  “Well, speaking of someone who isn’t perfect …,” her dad laughed.

  “You can say that again,” said Molly.

  “Speaking of someone who isn’t perfect …,” her father repeated, tickling Molly under her chin.

  Molly’s dad was a lot of fun. And he was close to perfect, thought Molly.

  At supper Molly mentioned the new badge.

  “I’d put my bowling trophy in, I think,” said her mom thoughtfully.

  “It’s too big,” said Molly. Anyway, Molly didn’t bowl. It wouldn’t do her any good.

  “I’d put in my new fish scaler,” said her dad. “That’s small enough, and people would know how we scaled our sunfish back in 2000.”

  Molly didn’t fish. Her mom and dad weren’t much help.

  “Molly should put in one of her famous lists,” her dad went on, taking another piece of pizza. “The kids of the future could see how organized she was.”

  Molly thought about that suggestion as she cleared the table. After dessert she went to her room and decided that a list might be a good idea. But a list of what? What would say the most about her life?

  A list of chores, a list of what she did all day, a list of books she’d read?

  All of a sudden, she had it! Her diary! Molly’s diary was like a story of what she did and how she lived. It would be perfect for the kids of 2100! She was so excited, she couldn’t wait to begin! But when she looked at her diary, she realized it was too big for the capsule. Rat’s knees! Nothing was ever easy. Then she had a great idea. She could copy her diary into a very small notebook. She would have to do teeny-tiny writing to make everything fit. The children in 2100 would probably be able to read small writing because they would have very good eyesight by then. Doctors would probably have discovered pills or shots for people to take instead of wearing glasses or contacts.

  Molly found a small notebook in her desk drawer. It had an old list of things she wanted for Christmas in it. But Christmas was over and now she really wanted a teeny-tiny diary.

  She tore out the used pages and threw them away. Then she sat down and wrote “Diary of Molly Duff, Pee Wee Scout, 2000. By Molly Duff,” she added.

  She very carefully copied some entries in very small writing. She remembered fun things she had done. “Went swimming in the park.” And “Roger pushed Rachel off her bike. He’s mean.” She found she could get a whole week of the diary on one little page if she took her time and wrote carefully.

  So many good things had happened, Molly thought. She wrote until her hand got tired, and then she got ready for bed. Her mom came up to brush her hair and tuck her in.

  “No TV tonight?” her mom asked.

  “I was too busy,” Molly answered. “Working on my project.”

  “Good,” said her mom, giving her a good-night kiss.

  In the morning before school, Molly wrote some more in the notebook. She had fun remembering Jody’s birthday party. The Pee Wees in 2100 would have fun reading about it, she thought.

  After school she raced home and kept writing. She wished she could write with her left hand, because her right hand ached. The next day she wrote more, and the next day more than that. Rat’s knees, she thought, this is a lot of work. She hoped Mrs. Peters would appreciate it. And the Pee Wees of 2100.

  By the time the next Pee Wee Scout meeting came, she had only a few more weeks of her diary to copy. She was almost finished!

  Some of the Pee Wees had things ready for the capsule.

  Tim gave Mrs. Peters a rusty fishhook. “I caught my first fish with this,” he said proudly.

  Kevin had his rare baseball card. “Think how valuable that will be in one hundred years!” he said. “It’s worth ten dollars even today!”

  Mary Beth handed in her blue barrette.

  Sonny had a bottle cap. “Bottles won’t have caps then,” he said. “This will be valuable too.”

  “I doubt it,” said Mary Beth. “Who wants a dirty old bottle cap?”

  Then the Pee Wees told their good deeds and ate their cupcakes. When they were done eating, Roger walked up to Molly and whispered, “Have you got it? Have you got something for me to put in the capsule?”

  “You have to get your own!” said Molly. “I’m putting my diary in.”

  “Oh,” said Roger eagerly. “Make a copy for me too.”

  Molly stamped her foot. “It’s a lot of work to copy my diary,” she said. “It takes a long time!”

  “I can wait,” said Roger.

  “You don’t want my diary,” she went on, “with my name on it!”

  “I’ll change the name,” said Roger. “Easy. I’ll just cross your name out and write mine on the cover.”

  “What a dumb idea,” said Mary Beth when she heard. “He’s so lazy! Who’d want someone else’s diary? It would be like a lie.”

  “Roger would do anything to keep from having to work,” said Rachel.

  “Well, he’s not getting my diary,” said Molly. “Rat’s knees, it’s a lot of work.”

  “But it’s a good idea,” said Rachel. “I think it’s the very best idea of all. It’s what kids would really like to read in 2100.”

  Mary Beth agreed. Molly was glad to hear her friends say this. She was glad she had thought of it.

  “I’ll have my capsule piece ready next Tuesday,” she told Mrs. Peters when the meeting was over.

  “That’s the last day,” their leader warned her.

  Mrs. Peters didn’t have to warn her. Molly was reliable. What could possibly keep her from having her diary ready on time?

  CHAPTER 5

  Emergency!

  Molly decided not to take any chances. When she got home, she went to her room and finished copying her diary. Finally it was done! Her badge was a sure thing!

  She closed the little notebook and tried to think of the safest place to put it until next Tuesday. She didn’t want any harm to come to it before then. And she didn’t want anyone to find it. Molly remembered seeing a TV show that said to hide valuables in an unusual place, somewhere a burglar wouldn’t think to look.

  A burglar would look in a desk first, she thought. Notebooks and diaries go in desks. Then she remembered that on the TV show, the person put her valuable jewels in a soup can and put it in the refrigerator. What a good idea! Molly had learned some valuable things from TV! She could take the soup can from her dad’s lunch, wash it out, and hide her notebook in it!

  Molly dashed downstairs. No one was around. Perfect! She took the tomato soup can out of the recycling bin and washed and dried it. She tucked the notebook in it and put it on the top shelf of the refrigerator, near the back. Now she could relax, like the other Pee Wees. Her project was done, and it was a good one. The very best. She wished she could be around in 2100 to see the expressions on the faces of the children who would open her diary and read it. They would say, “Oh, Molly sounds like such a great person! I wish she were still around so we could meet her!”

  Molly could almost see those children. Instead of books they probably would carry little computers. Smaller than her dad’s laptop. Maybe they would never have seen a real notebook before till they saw Molly’s! Molly would be someone historical, like the children in the Little House books. Maybe somebody would even publish her diary as a book! Children would stand in line in bookstores when it came out! They would ask for it in libraries. Teachers in 2100 would read it to their classes. Molly would be famous! Maybe they would even make a movie of it. Very often, she knew, books became movies. If Molly was in a movie, everyone would remember her. Like Cinderell
a or Tiny Tim.

  This was more than a badge—this was a historical landmark!

  Suddenly the front door slammed and Molly jumped. For a minute she had forgotten where she was and what year it was! Her imagination again!

  “I’m home!” called Mrs. Duff.

  Molly helped her mom get supper. Then she called Mary Beth to tell her the news.

  “I’m glad you finished it,” said Mary Beth.

  “It was worth all the work,” said Molly. “It could be a book, you know, or even a movie.”

  “Really?” said her friend. “Isn’t it too short for that?”

  “It’s long,” said Molly. “It looks short because the writing is so small. Anyway, they get those screenwriter people to make it bigger. They put in lots of action and stuff. They’ll get some kid like Roger to play Roger. Some kid from 2100.”

  “I don’t know …,” said Mary Beth. “No one could play Roger but Roger.”

  When the weekend came, Molly was glad she didn’t have any badge worries. She rode her bike and went to Tracy’s house to play Monopoly. Her project was safe and sound, waiting for Tuesday.

  On Sunday she got her library books together to take back on Monday. She decided to get her notebook out of the refrigerator and put it in the bag she always took to Pee Wee Scouts. Molly liked to be ready ahead of time.

  She ran into the kitchen. The sun was shining through the window and sparkling on the clean floor. It was quiet. The clock ticked and the refrigerator hummed.

  Molly opened the refrigerator and reached in the back for the tomato can.

  But there was no tomato can!

  She decided not to panic. She looked on every shelf. Then she took everything out of the refrigerator so she could see better. She pulled open the vegetable crisper and the meat keeper. And even the freezer. No tomato can!

  Where was it? Had a burglar found it, even though it was hidden so well? Had the burglar seen the same program on TV about hiding things? Had Roger come and taken the can from the refrigerator? But he didn’t know it was there. And he couldn’t have gotten into her house without a key!

  Where was that tomato can?

  Molly’s stomach began to ache the way it did when she got a bad mark on her report card. Or when she had made up a little fib and knew she shouldn’t have.

  Molly’s mother and dad came home from taking a walk.

  “Have you seen my tomato soup can that was in the refrigerator?” Molly asked.

  “Soup can?” said her father.

  “I think I did see a soup can in the refrigerator,” said her mother. “I wondered how it got there. Your dad ate all the tomato soup.”

  Her mother opened the refrigerator and looked. She moved things around.

  “It’s gone now,” she said.

  “Why do you want a soup can?” asked her dad.

  Tears rolled down Molly’s face. “It was my project,” she said. “My diary to put in the time capsule was in that can.”

  “Why was it in the refrigerator?” asked her mother.

  “So it would be safe,” sobbed Molly. “From burglars.”

  Her dad looked as if he might make a bad joke, but he changed his mind.

  “I saw it on TV,” said Molly. “But they were wrong. It wasn’t safe. It’s gone.”

  “I don’t know how it could have disappeared,” said Mr. Duff. “We’re the only ones using our refrigerator. Unless Skippy took it.” Skippy was Molly’s dog.

  Molly could hardly smile even at the funny thought of Skippy opening the refrigerator door and taking the soup can out with his paw.

  Suddenly Mrs. Duff snapped her fingers.

  “I think I know what happened,” she said.

  CHAPTER 6

  Second Best

  “Mrs. Noon!” she said. “She cleaned the kitchen for me when I was at work! I’ll call her.”

  Mrs. Noon was Tim’s mother. She cleaned houses for a living. Molly liked her. But how could she have thrown out Molly’s important Scout project?

  When Mrs. Duff came back into the kitchen, she was frowning.

  “Mrs. Noon remembered it,” she said. “She cleaned out the refrigerator. She thought the can was empty and she threw it out. The truck picked it up on Friday. I’m sorry, Molly.”

  The trash. The truck had taken her precious diary for the space capsule to the recycling center. Maybe she could go to the center! But the center was big. Huge. Things were put into machines and scrunched up. Her notebook was absolutely, positively gone.

  “Can you get another one?” asked her dad.

  Molly shook her head. “It takes a long time to write so much in little tiny writing,” she said. “And it has to be little to fit into the time capsule.”

  She showed her dad her regular diary. “It’s too big,” she said.

  “We’ll help you copy it again,” said Mr. Duff.

  But Molly did not want her parents reading her personal diary! Diaries were private! Especially from parents. They couldn’t copy it without reading it!

  “It’s all right,” said Molly. “I’ll get something else.”

  But what? Molly had to find something else to put into the time capsule, and she had to find it fast. What in the world would it be?

  Molly ran to the phone and called Mary Beth. She needed help. This was no time to be proud. She needed other minds to work on this.

  “I’ll call Rachel and the others,” said Mary Beth. “We can meet at my house in an hour and talk about what to do.”

  Mary Beth and some of the other Pee Wees were on the Kellys’ front porch when Molly got there. Mrs. Kelly brought out a plate of fresh cookies.

  “I’m so sorry to hear the bad news,” she said to Molly.

  Rat’s knees, everyone knew about Molly’s problem. People felt sorry for her! Even parents.

  But it was great to have friends. Friends cared about her. Friends would help her!

  “It’s pretty late to start all over again,” said Rachel, biting into a chocolate chip cookie. “I’m glad I turned mine in early.”

  This did not feel like help to Molly. It made her feel worse.

  “We’ll think of something,” said Lisa. “There are lots of things that would be good.”

  “None as good as that diary,” said Mary Beth. “That was really cool.”

  “What’s your favorite food?” asked Jody.

  “Food doesn’t last a hundred years,” said Molly.

  “Some does,” said Jody. “Like wine and cheese. They age and get better.”

  “My grandpa had a bottle of wine that was fifty years old,” said Mary Beth.

  “I’m sorry to be so fussy,” said Molly, “but I don’t like wine or cheese. It has to be something I like.”

  The Pee Wees kept thinking. And they kept eating cookies. Then they were thirsty, and Mary Beth’s sister brought out glasses of milk. This was turning into a party. A what-in-the-world-will-Molly-do-now party. But Molly did not feel in a party mood.

  “Why don’t you just put in an old hair ribbon or something?” asked Lisa.

  “Yeah, or a pencil you used, or a notebook,” said Tracy.

  The mention of a notebook reminded Molly of her diary, and she felt like crying. She didn’t want to hear the word notebook for a long time.

  “You always have to be different,” said Roger, who had been riding by on his bike and had smelled the cookies.

  Molly hated those words. They were what her mom often said to her!

  “It’s okay to be different,” said Jody. “It’s just that it’s a lot of work.”

  Molly felt warm toward Jody. He knew how she felt! He knew it was okay to want something that was not ordinary.

  “Molly is creative,” said Rachel. “Like artists and writers. It takes more to please them.”

  “It’s her imagination,” said Kevin.

  Rat’s knees, her friends were talking about her as if she weren’t there! As if she were some weird person who thought she was better than anyone e
lse. She didn’t. She just didn’t like to be second best.

  She looked at Roger, who never worried about things. And Sonny, who couldn’t care less what he put in the capsule. He and Tim were busy taking the chocolate chips out of their cookies, throwing them in the air, and catching them in their mouths.

  “All right,” said Jody. “I think the first thing to do is make a list of Molly’s interests. We have to think of what kind of thing she’d like to be remembered by.”

  Mary Beth got some paper and a pencil. Jody wrote the number 1 on it.

  “Do you like sports?” asked Kevin.

  Molly shook her head. She didn’t mind playing softball in the empty lot in summer, but it was definitely not her favorite thing.

  “If you liked football, you could have had my Vikings cap to put in,” he added.

  Molly did not want to be remembered in 2100 for a Vikings cap. But it was nice of Kevin to offer.

  “Thanks anyway,” she said.

  “How about a hunk of your hair?” said Kenny. “My mom has my first curl from when I was little in my baby book.”

  Molly did not think her hair was that important. What did her hair say about her? Especially if it wasn’t on her head!

  “That would be small,” said Mary Beth helpfully. “And it would last.”

  “What are your interests?” asked Jody, still waiting to write something after the number 1.

  “You like movies,” said Lisa.

  “And pets,” said Tracy.

  Jody wrote those down.

  “I mostly like to read,” said Molly. “And write. That’s why I liked the diary. It was my favorite thing to do, and it told all about me.”

  Jody wrote that down. “So reading and writing should be number one,” he said.

  “Well, the diary is gone and that’s that,” said Rachel. “I have an idea. Let’s have a treasure hunt! A treasure hunt for Molly’s best thing! Whoever finds the best thing gets a prize!”

  “Who will give the prize?” asked Tracy.

  “I will,” said Rachel. “I have two copies of the same video game. I’ll give one of them away.”