Wolf Dreams

When Kevin and Kate stopped by their house to change into nicer clothing for Great-grandmother’s house, Kate gathered together the things she had rummaged out last night and stuffed them into her last year’s school backpack. Kevin teased to see what she had in the bag all the way to Great-grandmother’s house, but Kate wouldn’t show him. She put the back pack under the bushes by the sidewalk before them went into the house. Kevin was burning with curiosity. Kate had been annoyingly mysterious about what she planned to do.

Great-grandmother took her time going out into the back yard to garden today. She was in the middle of baking treats for a Garden Club meeting, and wasn’t in any hurry to go outside. Kate and Kevin, who normally enjoyed helping Great-grandmother bake, were fidgety. They even offered to do the dishes for her just so she would hurry.  They were sure they were going to explode before she finally picked up her big sunhat and gardening gloves and went outside.

Finally, Great-grandmother was peacefully occupied in the back yard and the dishes were washed, dried, and put away. Kate and Kevin each had two cookies and a blueberry muffin, too.

Kevin pulled the step-stool and walkie-talkies out from under Great-grandmother’s couch and handed Kate her walkie-talkie. He set the step stool up by the window, and then turned to Kate, who was still eating her muffin. “I hope you have better luck than I did!” he said. “I’ll let you know who I see and what they’re doing.”

Kate swallowed her muffin and said, “Okay. Give me a few minutes to get ready!” Then she flew out the door before Kevin could ask what she meant by getting ready.”

Kevin sighed and settled the stepstool in the right spot, so that he could see people coming from farther down the street. Five minutes later, the walkie-talkie crackled and Kate said, “Okay, I’m ready!”

Kevin looked out the window, but he couldn’t see Kate. However, he did see old Mrs. Connors coming down the street. He changed his angle just a little bit, to try and see if there was anything she shouldn’t be doing, and Bingo! He saw a car coming by, splashing everything with muddy water. He quickly told Kate about the car - by experimenting, they knew they only had a few seconds of time in which to act. Then his mouth dropped as Kate stepped out from her hiding spot near the fence.

Kate was dressed in a long, colorful dress, had a silk scarf tied on her head, and was wearing big clip-on hoop earrings. She looked like the fortune teller at the Halloween carnival.

Kate swished her skirts as she went up to Mrs. Connors. Mrs. Connors looked like she was going to laugh out loud at Kate - Kevin could see it on her face. Well, Kate did look pretty funny, at that.

Then the look on Mrs. Connors’ face changed, and Kevin could see that she was annoyed. She pushed past Kate and stomped off down the street; the car had passed harmlessly by when Kate had delayed her.

Kate’s head drooped, and she came back into the yard.

“Kate, what happened?” Kevin asked her through the walkie-talkie.

“She thought I was telling her that if she didn’t give me money, I would get her all wet and muddy. She called it extortion.” Kate was almost crying. “She said she’d let it go this time, but if she heard of me doing such a thing again, she’d tell Great-grandmother. She said she might anyway.”

“Great-grandmother knows us better than that. Mrs. Connors is always grumpy anyhow.”

“Well, I ‘m going to do something different this time. Just tell me what’s going on, and I’ll take it from there.”

Kevin took up his post again. This time Kate was on the sidewalk, waiting for passersby.

The first few people were boring, with happening to them. Then Kevin got a hit.

“Kate, tell Mr. Jacobs to look in the gutter - he’s going to find something that makes him happy.”
Kate went up to Mr. Jacobs. “Mr. Jacobs, I am Madame Katerina. I see all. And for a quarter, I’ll tell you where to find something good!”

Mr. Jacobs had a sense of humor. “How do I know it will be worth a quarter?”

“Well, um…” Kate replied

“Never mind. I’m game. Here you go!” Mr. Jacobs fished in his pocket and came out with a quarter. “Now, where is this thing I’m supposed to find?”
Kate guided him over to the gutter, where the car had splashed by a few minutes before. There, lying in the mud, was a ten-dollar bill.

Mr. Jacobs leaned down and picked it up and then turned to Kate, smiling. “Well, you certainly short-changed yourself there! I think if I were playing at fortune teller, I’d “see” the ten for myself and not for the client! This is an expensive game!” He went off chuckling.

Kate sighed and picked up her walkie-talkie. “Kevin, this didn’t work so well. He found ten dollars and all I got for us was a quarter.”

Kevin sighed. “Yeah. Let’s try it some more, though.”

Five more people came along. Three were uneventful, one didn’t want to listen to Kate (and tripped over a crack in the sidewalk) and one was angry at being bothered.

She was turning to talk to yet another person when a police car pulled up.

“So, Miss Kate, what are you up to today? You do know it’s against the law to fortune tell without a business license, don’t you?” The policeman was a friend of their father’s.

“Um, no? I didn’t?” Kate’s voice squeaked.

“Well, now you do. I wouldn’t have said anything, but someone called us and complained. I know you and Kevin like to play your games, but you need to leave the public out of it. Run along now, and play somewhere else.”

Kate gulped. “Yes sir.” And she fled back to the house.

Kevin had seen the police car come up, and had looked through the blue pane, where Kate was running up to the house, crying. A few seconds later, that was what she did. Kevin had the door open for her as she stumbled in.

Kate ran to the bathroom and took off her costume. By the time she came back out, she was calmer but still hiccupping.

“I was so embarrassed, Kevin. He was really nice about it, but I guess we made someone really mad. I don’t think this is going to work.”

“Yeah. Maybe we should just do what Mr. Jacobs said and look out for things happening to ourselves. That ten dollars could have been ours!”

Kate went out to put the costume in her backpack and when she came back in, she said, “Tomorrow, we’ll do just that. We’ll try to make good things happen for us!”

-She Wolf © 2008