Karen's Goldfish

  For Sara and Matt from Aunt Martin

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  1 Good-bye, Emily Junior

  2 Two Mommies and Two Daddies

  3 What Pet to Get

  4 Goldfishies

  5 Too Many Fish

  6 Goldfishie and Crystal Light

  7 Crystal Light, My Delight

  8 The Saddest Thing

  9 Fish-Killer!

  10 Karen the Sad

  11 A Funeral for Crystal Light

  12 The Fight

  13 Who Did Swallow Jonah?

  14 Violins and Flowers

  15 “NO!”

  16 Crystal Light’s Funeral

  17 The End

  18 The Hidden Pond

  19 Witch Fish

  20 Crystal Light the Second

  About the Author

  Also Available

  Copyright

  Good-bye, Emily Junior

  “Emily!” I called. “Emily, where are you?”

  I looked all around my room. I could not see Emily Junior anywhere.

  “Emily!” I called again, even though Emily does not know her name. She does not come when I call.

  Emily Junior is a rat. A real one, I mean. She is white, except for her eyes, her tail, and her nose. They are pink.

  I checked under my bed again. I looked in every one of my shoes in the closet.

  “EMILY!” I shouted. “YOU COME OUT HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT…. Okay, I’m going to count to ten. I have to go to Daddy’s house soon, and if I can’t find you, Mommy will be very unhappy. One, two, three, four — ”

  Emily poked her nose out from under my bureau.

  “There you are!” I scooped up Emily and held her tight. “Oh, I hate saying good-bye to you,” I told her. “I hate leaving you behind when Andrew and I go to Daddy’s. But that’s the way things are.”

  I bet if Emily could talk, she would have said, “I will miss you, too, Karen.”

  I am Karen Brewer. I am seven years old. I have blonde hair, blue eyes, freckles, and a little brother. My brother’s name is Andrew and he is four, going on five. He is shy. (I am not.)

  Most of the time, Andrew and I live at our mommy’s house. But every other weekend we live at Daddy’s. When we go to Daddy’s, I have to leave Emily behind. I do not like that at all.

  I tried to say good-bye to Emily, but I could not. Then I got an idea. Maybe I could sneak Emily over to Daddy’s house! I pulled my shirt away from my neck. I started to drop Emily down my shirt, but I heard Andrew running up the stairs. Quickly, I pulled Emily out.

  “What are your doing?” asked Andrew.

  “Just saying good-bye to Emily Junior,” I told him. I stuck Emily in her cage. “I hate leaving Emily here.”

  “Yeah,” said Andrew, even though Emily is my pet, not his.

  “At Daddy’s house are Shannon and Boo-Boo” (they are a puppy and an old, mean cat), “but they aren’t really ours,” I said.

  “No,” agreed Andrew with a sigh. “Shannon is David Michael’s and Boo-Boo is Daddy’s.” Andrew sighed again. Then he said, “I wish we had a pet of our own at the big house.”

  “Me, too!” I exclaimed.

  “I would like a puppy just like David Michael’s.”

  “And I would like a cat, but not like Boo-Boo. Boo-Boo is too old. He scratches and spits. I would like a sweet little kitten.”

  “No, a puppy,” said Andrew.

  “Oh, it doesn’t matter,” I said. “A cat or a dog. What’s the difference? As long as you and I could have a pet at Daddy’s house.”

  “Well, we can’t,” said Andrew.

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  Andrew shrugged.

  “You know what?” (I had suddenly gotten another idea.) “Maybe we could have a pet at Daddy’s. We’ve never asked. But if I tell Daddy how much we would like a pet at the big house, maybe he will say yes. I will talk to Daddy this weekend. Okay, Andrew?”

  “Okay.”

  “Karen! Andrew!” Mommy called then. “Time to go to Daddy’s.”

  Two Mommies and Two Daddies

  Andrew and I live at two different houses — Mommy’s house and Daddy’s house. This is because our mommy and daddy are divorced. A long time ago, they used to be married. They loved each other very much. So they had Andrew and me. Then they stopped loving each other. They still loved Andrew and me, but they did not love each other anymore. That was when they got divorced. Daddy stayed in the big house. He had grown up there. The house was built by Great-great-grandfather Brewer. It is a Brewer house. Mommy moved to a smaller house. She brought Andrew and me with her. The little house is not too far away from the big house. Both houses are in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. That is a good thing since Andrew and I live at the little house and the big house.

  Do you know what? After Mommy and Daddy had been divorced for awhile, they each got married again. Mommy married Seth. Seth moved into the little house with us. He brought along his dog, Midgie, and his cat, Rocky. I like Seth because he likes animals and children. Seth is my stepfather. (I guess that makes Midgie my step-dog and Rocky my stepcat.)

  Daddy married a woman named Elizabeth. Elizabeth is my stepmother. She is very nice. Thank goodness Daddy’s house is a mansion, because an awful lot of people live in it. Besides Daddy and Elizabeth, there are Elizabeth’s four kids. They are Charlie, who is seventeen, and Sam, who is fifteen (they go to high school), David Michael, who is seven like me, and Kristy. Kristy is thirteen. I just love Kristy. She is the nicest person I know. I am glad she is my big stepsister.

  You know who else lives at the big house? Emily Michelle. She is two and a half. She is my adopted sister. Daddy and Elizabeth adopted her from a faraway country called Vietnam. Emily does not talk much yet, but I like her anyway. That is why I named my rat after her.

  There is still another person living at the big house. She is Nannie. Nannie is Elizabeth’s mother. That makes her my stepgrand-mother. Nannie moved in when Emily came to stay. Nannie takes care of Emily while Daddy and Elizabeth are at work. She is another one of my favorite people. She bowls and cooks and has lots of friends. She does not seem old at all.

  Since Andrew and I have two of so many things, I call us Andrew Two-Two and Karen Two-Two. (I got the names from a book my teacher read to our class. It was called Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang.) Anyway, Andrew and I have two mommies and two daddies, two families, two houses, two cats and two dogs (well, they are not really ours), and two of lots of other things. I have two stuffed cats (Moosie at the big house, Goosie at the little house). We have clothes and toys and books at each house. That is helpful, because then we don’t have to pack much when we go back and forth between Mommy’s and Daddy’s. I even have two best friends. Nancy Dawes lives next door to the little house. Hannie Papadakis lives across the street and one house down from the big house. Nancy and Hannie and I are all in Ms. Colman’s second-grade class at Stoneybrook Academy.

  You know what else I have two of? I have two pairs of glasses, pink and blue. One pair is for reading; the other pair is for the rest of the time.

  Mostly, being a two-two is fun. I like my big-house family and my little-house family — for different reasons. But sometimes I wish I were a one-one again. And that Mommy and Daddy were still married.

  What Pet to Get

  At the big house that night, we had a happy, noisy supper. (I like the noise and the bustle at the big house; Andrew does not.) Everyone was there — Daddy, Elizabeth, Kristy, Charlie, Sam, David Michael, Emily, Nannie, Andrew, me, and even Shannon and Boo-Boo. (Of course, Shannon and Boo-Boo were not sitting at the table. They were just hanging around the kitchen.)

  As soon as dinner was over, Andrew w
hispered to me, “When are you going to talk to Daddy and Elizabeth?”

  “Shh. In a little while. When things calm down.”

  “Okay,” said Andrew.

  I waited until the kitchen had been cleaned up. I waited until Charlie had gone off with some of his friends. I waited until Emily had been put to bed. I waited until Kristy had left to go baby-sitting. (Kristy loves to baby-sit. She even formed a club with some of her friends. The club is a sitting business. Kristy is the president.) Then I waited until Daddy and Elizabeth were reading the paper in the living room.

  The house was much quieter.

  “Come on, Andrew,” I said. “Let’s go talk to Daddy.”

  “Me, too? I thought you were going to talk to him.”

  “I am. But I think it might be good for you to come, too. I can remind Daddy and Elizabeth that you don’t have a pet of your own at either house. At least I have Emily Junior at Mommy’s. But you have no pet at all. So come with me, and look very, very sad while I tell Daddy how much we would like a big-house pet.”

  “A dog,” said Andrew.

  “A cat,” I said. “Oh, well. Who cares? Now is the time to talk.”

  I took Andrew by the hand. We walked into the living room.

  I cleared my throat. “Excuse us,” I said.

  Daddy and Elizabeth put their papers down. “Yes?” said Daddy.

  “Andrew and I have something to ask you,” I replied. “I know you probably won’t let us do this.” (I have found that when you really, really want something, if you say you don’t expect to get it, then parents are more likely to give it to you after all.)

  “What do you want to do?” asked Daddy.

  “Get a pet,” I told him. “A pet for Andrew and me at the big house. Daddy, you have Boo-Boo, and David Michael has Shannon. And at Mommy’s are Rocky and Midgie, but they belong to Seth. I have Emily Junior, of course, but she has to stay at the little house. And poor, poor Andrew doesn’t have any pet of his own.”

  I glanced at Andrew. He looked like he was going to burst into tears.

  Then Daddy and Elizabeth glanced at each other. Daddy said, “Why don’t you two go into the den? Elizabeth and I would like to talk in private.”

  “Okay,” I replied. And we did go into the den. I thought about standing around in the hall so I could eavesdrop. But I decided I better not.

  Andrew and I waited and waited.

  At last Daddy and Elizabeth came into the den. Daddy announced, “We have made a decision.”

  “Yes?” I said.

  “You may get a pet.”

  “All right!” I cried.

  And Andrew grinned.

  Goldfishies

  “A pet! A big-house pet of our own!” I shouted. “Isn’t that great, Andrew? Isn’t that the best?”

  “Yup,” said Andrew. Then he added, “Thank you, Daddy. Thank you, Elizabeth.”

  So I said the same thing.

  “You’re welcome,” they replied.

  “But,” Daddy went on, “before you get a pet, you have to make two promises.”

  “All right,” I replied slowly.

  “The first,” said Daddy, “is that the pet must be very small and very easy to care for. In other words, no more cats or dogs. This house is wild enough already.”

  “What about a monkey?” asked Andrew. “Could we get a monkey?”

  “No,” Daddy answered. “Much too wild.”

  “Your father,” Elizabeth said, “means that you must promise to get a small pet that will stay in a cage. A mouse, a hamster, or a guinea pig. Something like that.”

  “We promise,” I told her. “What’s our second promise?”

  “Your second promise,” replied Daddy, “is that you find somebody here to take care of the pet while you’re at Mommy’s house. And don’t ask Nannie. She’s got her hands full.”

  “Don’t ask Emily Michelle, either,” said Elizabeth, and I giggled.

  After Andrew and I made our second promise, we tore upstairs to the playroom. We had to decide what kind of pet to get.

  “A snake,” said Andrew as soon as we were sitting on the floor.

  “No way,” I replied.

  “How about a frog or a turtle?”

  “No. No gross green things. Let’s get a guinea pig. Or a gerbil.”

  “But you already have a rat at Mommy’s. That’s sort of the same.”

  “Well, we’re not getting a snake.”

  “But I want one!” cried Andrew.

  “But getting a big-house pet was my idea,” I pointed out. “So — Hey, I know! How about a fish? They’re really small.”

  “A goldfishie?” said Andrew.

  “Whatever. A fish is perfect. Maybe Daddy would even let us get two.”

  “Yeah!” exclaimed Andrew.

  “Now we just have to find someone to take care of the fish when we’re not here.”

  “What about Charlie?” suggested Andrew.

  I shook my head. “Charlie and Sam and even Kristy might think fish are for babies. Besides, they’re too busy. David Michael would probably do it, though.”

  So we asked David Michael if he would feed our fish, if we got one.

  “I don’t know,” David Michael replied. “I already have to take care of Shannon.”

  “The fish could be part yours,” I told him. “He would really be Andrew’s and mine, but he could be part yours — when we’re not around.”

  “Okay,” agreed David Michael. “I like fish.”

  “Terrific! Thank you!” I said.

  Then Andrew and I ran back down to the living room.

  “We’ve decided what we want,” I announced to Daddy and Elizabeth. “A goldfish. It will be very small. And David Michael said he would take care of it.”

  “A fish sounds fine,” said Daddy.

  I paused. Then I asked, “How about two fish — one for Andrew and one for me? They wouldn’t be too much trouble. Besides, one fish would get lonely all by itself.”

  “Two fish it is, then,” said Daddy.

  We were all set. The very next day, Daddy and Elizabeth would take Andrew and me to the pet store!

  Too Many Fish

  On Saturday morning, I was gigundo excited. So was Andrew. We could not wait to go to the pet store. But we had to wait for awhile. We had to wait until breakfast was over. We had to wait until the kitchen was cleaned up. We had to wait to make sure that someone would be at home to watch David Michael and Emily. At last, Daddy and Elizabeth were ready to go.

  The four of us climbed into the station wagon, and Elizabeth drove us downtown. She parked in front of the pet store. Andrew and I flew out of the car as soon as it had stopped.

  “Come on, Andrew!” I cried. “Let’s look at the fish!”

  In the pet store, we found a whole wall of them. Aquarium after aquarium of brightly colored fish. Some were big, some were tiny; some were pretty, some were not so pretty; some looked fierce, some looked gentle.

  “Andrew,” I began. “How are we ever going to choose our pets? There are too many fish here.”

  “Why don’t you walk from one end of the wall to the other,” suggested Daddy. “That way, you can see everything.”

  “Okay. That’s a good idea,” I replied.

  So Andrew and I examined the fish in every tank. A saleswoman helped us. She told us which fish would not get along, and which fish were hard to care for. And Daddy told us which fish were too expensive.

  Finally, Andrew and I were standing in front of one aquarium.

  “A goldfishie,” said Andrew. “That’s what I want.”

  “I think I’ll get one, too.” I looked at Daddy and Elizabeth. “Two goldfish? Is that okay?” I asked.

  “Fine,” replied Elizabeth.

  Then came the hardest part of all — choosing the right fish. Andrew and I stared and stared at the tank. After about five minutes, Andrew said, “I want that one.” He pointed to a large fish. Its color was brighter than most of the others, and it w
as perfectly shaped.

  While the saleswoman was scooping up the fish in a net, I kept on looking. At last I noticed a small fish that was not perfectly shaped. And on its tail was a black spot. It was different from the other fish.

  I fell in love with it.

  “I’ll take it,” I told the saleswoman.

  So my fish was scooped out of the tank, too. The woman put both fish into a card-board box full of water. Then she said, “Do you have an aquarium at home?”

  “No,” said Daddy. “We thought we’d just put the fish into a bowl.”

  “An aquarium is really better. It’s healthier for the fish.”

  “Okay,” said Daddy.

  “And you’ll need a filter, a light, an air pump, a thermometer, plants, gravel, and, of course, fish food.”

  Daddy didn’t look too happy about this, but he bought everything anyway. Plus a book on how to care for fish, and a very beautiful little castle to set at the bottom of the tank. The fish could swim through the windows and doors. It was sort of a goldfish playground.

  We had bought an awful lot of stuff. When we left the store, Daddy was carrying the aquarium. Elizabeth was carrying the other things. And Andrew and I were both holding the container with our fish in it.

  “I cannot wait to get home!” I said. “Thank you, Daddy.”

  “You’re welcome,” he replied. “But you and Andrew and David Michael have a big responsibility now.”

  Goldfishie and Crystal Light

  As soon as we got home, Daddy and Andrew and I went to the playroom. We put the aquarium on a table. Then Daddy began fiddling with things. He set up the filter, the light, the air pump, and the thermometer.

  “Let me pour the gravel into the tank!” Andrew cried.

  “I want to put the castle in,” I said.

  When the tank was filled with water, it was time to put our fish into it. Since Andrew and I each wanted to do that, I opened one flap of the box and Andrew opened the other. Then we both held onto the box. Together we dumped it over the tank. The goldfish fell into the water. They began swimming around. Andrew and I could not take our eyes off them.