Fishy Wishes Read online

  “And an artist,” said Mrs. Duff. “There’s no card like the one you make yourself. Grandma and Grandpa will love it. They’ll save it with all the other things you’ve made them.”

  When Molly showed Mary Beth her card, Mary Beth said, “Will you make me one? I can send it with my vase.”

  Before long, the other Pee Wees wanted her to make them cards too!

  “But make mine green,” said Tim. “I like green.”

  “And make mine say something about farms,” said Lisa. “My grandpa has a farm.”

  Molly drew Lisa on a pony.

  She made Tim’s card green.

  And she drew a vase full of flowers on Mary Beth’s.

  “Well, Molly, I guess you found your hobby!” said Mrs. Peters at the next meeting.

  “Really?” said Molly.

  Was Mrs. Peters right? Could she have found her hobby after all this time and not even have known it?

  Molly decided Mrs. Peters was right.

  It was something she did well.

  It was something she liked to do.

  And it was something extra clever! Something she could do for Grandparents Day!

  “It’s my hobby!” said Molly to her friends. “I can make valentines and Christmas cards and birthday cards! I can make wedding cards and baby cards and St. Patrick’s Day cards!”

  “You could make place cards for parties,” said Rachel.

  “Thank goodness you found a hobby at last, Duff,” said Roger. “I was getting tired of hearing you moan about it.”

  After the meeting, Jody wheeled himself over to her.

  “I like your card,” he said. “I can’t rhyme stuff like that.”

  “I could show you how,” said Molly warmly. “It isn’t hard. I’ve got this little book that tells which words rhyme.”

  “Really?” said Jody. “Can you come over to my house on Monday? My dad can get me colored paper and one of those books.”

  “You can use mine,” said Molly. “Monday is fine.”

  Jody wrote down his address for Molly.

  “Molly’s got a boyfriend,” sang Roger.

  Molly blushed. She could feel her cheeks turn as pink as the frosting on Mrs. Peters’s cupcakes. She liked Jody just fine. But Kevin was the one she would marry.

  The next day at recess time, Jody had invitations to pass out.

  “My mom and dad said I could have a party,” he said. “It’s a week from Saturday. It’s after Grandparents Day. It’s just for kids.”

  All the Pee Wees got an invitation. So did some of Jody’s other school friends.

  “Bring your swimsuits, because we’ve got a hot tub,” he said.

  There was no end, it seemed to Molly, to Jody’s surprises.

  “I can’t wait,” said Mary Beth. “Let’s go together,” she said to Molly.

  “My dad can drive us,” said Rachel. “It might be after dark by the time we come home.”

  A nighttime party! It would be Molly’s first.

  But there was a lot to think about before that. Grandparents Day was almost upon them.

  When Molly got home from school, she thought about Mary Beth not having her grandparents there with the others. Even though she could share Molly’s grandparents, it would be better to have someone special of her own.

  When Molly mentioned this to her mother, she said, “What about that nice neighbor who helped you learn to knit? Wouldn’t she be a good substitute grandma for Mary Beth? She is her neighbor and friend and knows the whole family. I’ll bet she would be glad to come.”

  Molly ran to the phone. She looked up Mrs. Beal’s phone number.

  “Why, I’d love to come!” said Mrs. Beal when Molly invited her. “I’d love to be Mary Beth’s grandma for the day.”

  When Molly hung up, she felt as if she’d done a good deed for Mary Beth and Mrs. Beal both.

  “Good for you,” said her dad when he came home from work and heard about it.

  Molly decided to make Mrs. Beal a card too. She went to her room after dinner and folded a fresh white piece of paper. She drew a picture of a girl knitting. Inside she wrote

  Roses are red

  And violets are blue.

  Mrs. Beal is a good knitter and teacher,

  And a good grandmother too.

  P.S. I love you. Molly.

  On Sunday morning Mr. Duff went over to Mrs. Peters’s house to help set up chairs and tables in the yard for the party.

  Molly waited at home for her grandparents to arrive so they could go over together. Finally they did.

  “We wouldn’t have missed this for anything,” said her grandma.

  Just before they left for the party, the Duffs’ phone rang.

  “Guess what?” said Mary Beth to Molly. “My grandparents can come after all! They came up in time for the party!”

  “But Mrs. Beal is going to be your grandmother today!” cried Molly. “I invited her!”

  “Two grandmas isn’t too many,” said Mary Beth. “Lots of kids will have four grandparents there.”

  Molly hadn’t thought of that. Some of the Pee Wees even had six grandparents!

  “But I don’t have another present for Mrs. Beal!” said Mary Beth.

  “I wrote her a verse and made a card,” said Molly. “I can make another one for you to give her.”

  Mary Beth thanked Molly, and they hung up. Molly ran upstairs to get a piece of paper. She would write the card on the way.

  “Roses are red,” she wrote in the car. “Violets are blue. I love my grandmas, Both number one and number two. Love and XXXX, Mary Beth Kelly.”

  She folded the card in half and felt good about being able to rhyme words so fast. This hobby was paying off more every day.

  At the Peterses’ house, everyone was getting out of cars. There were Pee Wees and little brothers and sisters and older brothers and sisters and parents and grandparents. Even some aunts and uncles came.

  “The more the merrier,” called Mrs. Peters. “We have enough food for an army.”

  All the parents brought food. Molly’s mother made potato salad. Roger’s father brought lots and lots of corn on the cob. There was lemonade and cold ham and cold chicken. There were cakes and cookies and pies. But the grandparents didn’t have to bring anything. It was their special day.

  Before there were any introductions, Mr. Peters lined the grandparents up for the first game.

  “Each grandparent is wearing a baby picture of his or her grandson or grandaughter on their collar,” he said. “Let’s guess whose grandparents are whose by looking at the baby pictures.”

  The Pee Wees walked up and down the row of grandparents.

  One baby was round and fat.

  One had hair that stood up like a broom!

  One looked mean and tough.

  “That must be Roger,” Mary Beth whispered to Molly.

  Molly giggled.

  The Pee Wees guessed and guessed. They all guessed wrong at first. Finally they guessed right. Kevin guessed the most right and got a prize: a big puzzle of the Grand Canyon to put together.

  The mean baby wasn’t Roger. It was Lisa!

  The round fat baby was Rachel!

  “I won lots of beauty contests when I was a baby,” said Rachel.

  “Ha,” said Roger. “Try and win one now.”

  Rachel stuck out her tongue at Roger even though it was Grandparents Day. Molly didn’t blame her.

  After the game the grandparents opened presents.

  Mrs. Beal hugged both Mary Beth and Molly tightly. “I am going to get these cards framed and hang them in my hall,” she said. “I never saw anyone so talented who was only seven years old!”

  “Molly is going to be a famous poet,” said her grandfather proudly.

  “She gets her talent from me,” joked Mr. Duff.

  “It was worth coming up here for such an exciting party,” said Mary Beth’s grandfather.

  “I’m so glad I was invited,” said Mrs. Beal.

 
“We are too,” said Jody’s grandma. “Jody has been so happy since he joined the Pee Wee Scouts. We are so glad we could meet so many of his new friends.”

  The next game was a game of croquet. Jody hit the balls from his wheelchair. In fact, he won the game!

  “He’s winning everything!” said Tim.

  Tim was right. Jody won a water-balloon throw, and then a dart game.

  Mrs. Beal won a ringtoss game, and Roger’s grumpy-looking grandpa smiled when he got the most balls through a basketball hoop.

  “My grandpa could be on a professional basketball team!” bragged Roger.

  “I’ll challenge him!” said Kevin’s grandpa.

  The two grandpas played and played till they were all worn out. It was a tie. Each of them had gotten the ball through the hoop sixteen times.

  When everyone was too tired for more games, the Pee Wees sang their Pee Wee Scout song. Then they all took plates and loaded them up with food.

  Molly took a little bit of everything on the table. Even the olives and pickles. Some people sat in lawn chairs and ate. Some sat on the grass. But everyone got plenty to eat.

  Roger had five desserts.

  “Pig,” said Rachel.

  “Our family has big eaters in it,” said Roger. “Because we all have big, developed muscles.”

  Roger flexed his arm for Rachel. She ignored him.

  The fathers of the Pee Wee Scouts were beginning to pick up paper plates and napkins and litter. They were cleaning up before the badges were given out.

  When the sun began to sink in the sky, Mr. Peters turned the little lights on the trees on. They made a cozy glow come over the yard.

  Mrs. Peters tapped a spoon on the table.

  “And now after our nice day together, we will end it by giving out our hobby badges,” she said.

  Everyone sat up straight and tall to watch. Each Pee Wee listened for his or her name.

  As Mrs. Peters called out each Scout’s name, she announced the hobby and told what he or she had done or made. Then there was wild applause from the parents and grandparents and relatives of that Pee Wee Scout.

  Mrs. Peters held up Mary Beth’s vase. Her grandparents and Mrs. Beal clapped and clapped. “It’s beautiful!” they cried.

  Then she held up Sonny’s bricks. Molly wondered when she would call her name.

  Tim’s light bulbs were next.

  And then at last, Mrs. Peters called, “Molly Duff!”

  When Molly walked up to the table to get her badge, Mrs. Peters said, “It took Molly a little while to find her hobby, but it was worth waiting for.”

  Everyone clapped as Molly pinned her badge onto her blouse.

  Roger whistled through his teeth.

  “Hey, I know why you chose that hobby,” he said as she went to sit back down. “You chose it so you could make cards for us guys and use it for a good deed!”

  Molly was too happy to pay any attention to Roger.

  Everything had turned out so well!

  She had a hobby at last.

  It was extra clever because she had used it at Grandparents Day for a gift.

  She had her brand-new hobby badge.

  Her grandparents and Mrs. Beal had come to the party and had a good time.

  And on top of that, she had a new friend! She was going to Jody’s house on Monday. And to his party on Saturday. A party that might not be over until after dark!

  Rat’s knees! Sometimes being a Pee Wee Scout was the most fun thing in the world!

  Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  We sing and play when work is done,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  With a good deed here,

  And an errand there,

  Here a hand, there a hand,

  Everywhere a good hand.

  Scouts are helpers, Scouts have fun,

  Pee Wee, Pee Wee Scouts!

  Pee Wee Scout Pledge

  We love our country

  And our home,

  Our school and neighbors too.

  As Pee Wee Scouts

  We pledge our best

  In everything we do.