Peggy Gifford_Moxy Maxwell 01 Read online

  Just another reason, thought Moxy, that she had reached the end of August without reaching the beginning of Stuart Little.

  chapter 11

  The Part

  Where the Story

  Really Starts

  to Heat Up

  This is the part where the story really starts to heat up. The part where it gets a little dicey for Moxy. “Scary” is the word Pansy later used. “Out of control” was the phrase Moxy’s stepfather, Ajax, mumbled for some years after. Mark called it “a chain of astonishing events” and left it at that.

  Since I am the first to tell this story, you will have to accept my version of what happened next, and I am quite inclined to agree with Moxy when she called this “the Third-Worst Day of My Life.”

  chapter 12

  In Which the Word

  “Consequences”

  Reappears

  As soon as Sam hung up, he called Moxy back. “I’ll come over and watch you read if you want,” said Sam. He was always looking for a reason to be around Moxy.

  But Moxy wasn’t listening. She was looking up the word “consequences” in the dictionary, and it was beginning to make her feel a little ill. It interested Moxy a great deal that a single word—twelve letters that could be erased with a #2 eraser—was powerful enough to make her feel as if she might throw up.

  Here is a close close-up picture Mark took of the definition of the word “consequence” from the Random House dictionary.

  When Moxy didn’t reply, Sam imagined he heard the words “Come right over!” in Moxy’s silence and set out for the Maxwells’ house.

  By the time he reached their front porch, Moxy’s room was clean. All the old ice cream bowls and clean and dirty towels, all the magazines and general damp debris that always accumulates over the months of June and July and up through the first twenty-three days of August in the room of a nine-year-old Moxy, had been swept sort of neatly under the bed.

  “Take a picture of it, Mark! It may never look this good again,” said Moxy to her brother, who was standing in the doorway watching her.

  Moxy could be pretty bossy.

  “But you can still see the whole mess,” he said. “Dirty clothes are practically crawling out from under your bed.”

  Here is the photograph Mark Maxwell finally took of Moxy’s room after she cleaned it. Moxy called it the “after” photograph.

  chapter 13

  Moxy’s

  Amazing

  Idea

  Moxy was just about to get down to the serious business of looking at the pictures in Stuart Little when she had an idea so wild, so unlikely, so stupendous, that when she recounted it later, her flabbergasted stepfather said, “And you thought of this all by yourself?”

  Moxy’s amazing idea was to turn her cell phone off so that she could concentrate on reading Stuart Little.

  (Let us pause.)

  “The sheer genius of it!” Moxy’s stepfather later whispered to Moxy’s mother.

  chapter 14

  In Which Moxy

  Decides Not to

  Turn Her Cell Phone

  Off After All

  A single word stopped her. That word was “extreme.” “Extreme” was a word she had learned from her stepfather. “You have a tendency to go to extremes,” he sometimes said when she had a good, if unusual, idea. Like last Wednesday when she had proposed that the family eat only foods that were white, such as bread and rice and milk and some puddings.

  Moxy’s stepfather’s name was A. Jackson Maxwell and he was a famous children’s book writer. Moxy and Mark called him Ajax because “Mr. Maxwell” was too formal and “Jackson” was too long. Pansy called him Dad because Ajax was her dad, and Mrs. Maxwell called him Bunny. But that is not part of this story and will sidetrack us and we must move on if we’re ever going to get to the darkness now descending on Moxy’s horizon.

  It turned out that “extreme” was just the sort of word Moxy was looking for as she debated whether to turn her cell phone off so she could concentrate on reading Stuart Little. If she didn’t turn off her cell phone when she practiced her daisy routine or when she ate supper or when she went to sleep, wouldn’t turning off her cell phone to read Stuart Little be extremely extreme or even more extreme than that?

  Moxy was just about to invent a word for “more extreme than extremely extreme” when she remembered the word “consequence,” which reminded her that she had to read Stuart Little. And at that very instant, just as she was looking about for the book, Mudd began to bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark and bark—yet another example of an interrupted in-between!

  “No bark! No bark!” Moxy said sharply. But as I’ve said, you couldn’t really stop Mudd from barking. Moxy tried again. “No bark! No bark!”

  Mark took this picture of Mudd barking at Sam.

  It turned out that Sam was outside swinging on the porch swing.

  “Mark!” Moxy called out. “Why don’t you try and help once in a while? I can’t make Mudd stop barking all by myself!”

  “I can’t interfere with what the camera sees,” said Mark.

  “Whatever that means,” said Moxy.

  “See what I mean about training Mudd before it’s too late?” she said as Sam walked in. Then she added, “Why is he barking at you? He’s known you for like three years.”

  “How is Stuart Little going?” asked Sam.

  “I’m feeling a bit weak after cleaning my room and all,” said Moxy. “I think I’d better go have a sandwich or something to get my strength back before I start reading Stuart Little.”

  “It is a hundred and forty-four pages,” Sam agreed.

  chapter 15

  In Which Moxy

  Finds the Note

  on the Refrigerator

  This is the photograph Mark took of the note Moxy found on the refrigerator door when she entered the kitchen.

  chapter 16

  What Moxy

  Did Not Do Next

  Moxy did not cry. She did think she might throw up. But since she despised throwing up (though she liked the word “despise”), she decided to eat a peach instead.

  “May I have one too?” asked Sam. But by then Moxy was already headed for the backyard. Sam took a peach, bit into it, and followed Moxy to the hammock.

  “Let me help,” he said. He put the peach between his teeth and held the hammock still so Moxy wouldn’t have to struggle to get in.

  “Thank you, Sam,” Moxy said. Then she lay back in the hammock and looked at the sky.

  Moxy needed to get organized. She needed a plan. She needed another peach. Another peach would help her think. Once more Sam held the hammock still, and Moxy struggled out. Sam wasn’t sure where they were going next. So he just followed her.

  Two minutes later Moxy and Sam wandered into the kitchen again. They found Pansy there. She was standing on the counter eating a peach.

  Moxy began to pace. This was a clear sign to Pansy and Sam that Moxy was thinking very hard. They’d seen Moxy think before and this was exactly how it looked.

  chapter 17

  In Which

  We Learn

  What Moxy

  Was Thinking

  Moxy was thinking about inventing a hammock that automatically stopped moving when you decided to get out.

  She did not even glance at the clock. She did not know that time was running—sprinting is the better word—out. It was thirteen minutes after two o’clock.

  Mark calls this photograph “The End of Time: Still Life with Peaches and Moxy’s Right Arm.”

  And then, just as she was about to throw the first peach pit away, it happened.

  chapter 18

  In Which Moxy

  Has the Most

  Brilliant Idea

  of Her Life

  Actually, Moxy’s mother disagreed when she found out about it. But at the time, as Moxy said later and many times over, it seemed like a fabulous, stupendous, near-genius idea.

  ch
apter 19

  Moxy’s Fabulous,

  Stupendous,

  Near-Genius

  Idea

  “A peach orchard,” said Moxy as she bit into a peach, “is the only thing that will save me.” Then she added, taking a fourth peach, “Thank goodness I’m me. Otherwise I wouldn’t have come up with this fabulous, stupendous, near-genius idea, and then where would we be?”

  Pansy and Sam leaned ever so slightly (you wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t told you) toward her.

  The kitchen clock hummed like a mosquito; the pad, pad of Ajax’s fingers on his laptop upstairs sounded like thunder.

  “You’re going to have to go out there and plant a peach orchard right now,” said Moxy, pointing at the backyard. “And thank you for your help,” she added. She knew that saying thank you encouraged people to help you even more.

  She handed Sam the peach pit she’d been holding in her hand. “Start with this,” she said. “Please.” “Please” was also a very helpful word. It encouraged people who might otherwise quit to keep going.

  Sam and Pansy stared at Moxy.

  “How else are we going to pay for my college education?” she said. It was all so obvious.

  Pansy had not blinked since—I don’t know—two pages ago, so she did.

  “Don’t you get it?” Moxy was growing the tiniest bit impatient. “When Mother sees that I can make enough money selling peaches from my peach orchard to pay for my entire college education—and possibly dental school too, if that’s a Career Path I happen to choose—she’ll say to Ajax, ‘That Moxy is so smart, why on earth does she need to read a book about a mouse!’ ”

  Moxy was not convinced that Sam and Pansy were using their quiet time constructively. “We haven’t got time to stand around staring at nothing!” Moxy exclaimed. “The whole orchard has to be planted and watered before Mother gets home.”

  chapter 20

  In Which

  Moxy Snaps

  into Action

  Moxy went back to the hammock and lay down. She was exhausted. She’d been on an emotional roller coaster for most of the day.

  Granted, there were a few problems with the Peach Orchard Plan. For example, it might take as long as three months for the peach pits to grow into peach trees. But all in all, it was a good idea. Moxy sent Pansy to the garage to get the shovel.

  It was a perfect day. There was a light September breeze, but the sun was an August sun, a warm sun. It occurred to Moxy that she should start reading Stuart Little just in case her mother did not immediately grasp the magnitude of the Peach Orchard Plan.

  Moxy was ever so slightly annoyed when Pansy started digging underneath the hammock. “Over there,” said Moxy. “There’s plenty of room for a peach orchard over there.” She pointed to a sunny stretch of lawn a few feet from her mother’s prize garden. Its location would please her brother, Mark, because he would no longer have to mow that part.

  Moxy settled back and considered the curious fact that she had preferred cleaning her room to reading a book. It was peculiar because Moxy hated cleaning her room. She hated cleaning her room so much that cleaning her room was number two on her List of Things She Hated to Do.

  chapter 21

  In Which

  Moxie Solves

  the Problem of

  World Hunger

  Could this be the solution to world hunger? Moxy wondered. Everyone must have something they had to do that they hated so much they would do almost anything but that thing. Mark would probably milk cows in Africa for starving children if it meant he didn’t have to mow the lawn. She knew her mother would give up all her worldly possessions, fly to China, and pick rice for poor people if it meant she didn’t have to keep telling Moxy to read Stuart Little. The possibilities went on and on.

  Moxy was just turning her attention to the problem of global warming when it occurred to her that someone had better remember to water the new peach orchard. It wasn’t hot out, exactly, but it wasn’t September either.

  “Sam,” Moxy called out. Sam was helping Pansy dig holes. “After you’ve buried all the peach pits, we must, must, must remember to water them. Thank you so much.”

  Even now Moxy’s mother was on her way home with the great daisy cake.

  Around the time she was thinking about Mark and cows, Moxy had begun to feel a little, well, nervous. She didn’t know why exactly. It had something to do with something she had thought about while she was thinking about something else, but she couldn’t think what it was. There was no point in thinking about it, of course. It was like trying to remember a dream—the harder you thought, the further away it got.

  Even now Moxy’s mother was getting closer to home with the great daisy cake.

  Suddenly Moxy realized she was in the middle of an in-between! It was the perfect time to read Stuart Little! Then she noticed the green hose resting between a pair of dahlias in her mother’s prize garden. Again she called out to Sam.

  “Sam, when you have a spare minute would you mind coming over here?”

  Sam always had a spare minute for Moxy. He jogged right over.

  “See how the hose in Mother’s dahlia garden is too short to reach all the way back to the orchard? What we need is a second hose to connect to the first hose so we can get it out of Mother’s dahlia garden and back to the new peach orchard ASAP—don’t you agree?”

  chapter 22

  In Which

  Impending Doom

  Comes in the

  Front Door

  On his way to get the second hose so that he could attach it to the first hose so that it would reach beyond Mrs. Maxwell’s prizewinning dahlia garden and all the way to Moxy’s new peach orchard, Sam stopped in the kitchen to eat three peaches.

  “I’ve already had five,” said Pansy. She was standing on the counter eating what must have been her sixth peach.

  Pansy was just about to reach for her seventh peach when her mother walked in.

  Reader, I tremble still when I think of the moment Moxy’s mother walked into that kitchen at exactly 2:42 on that fateful afternoon of August 23.

  “Hello, Sam,” Moxy’s mother said.

  “Hello, Mrs. Maxwell,” said Sam.

  “Hello, Pansy,” said Mother.

  “Hi, Mom,” said Pansy.

  Sam, who was always polite, took the great daisy cake in the big white cake box from Mrs. Maxwell’s arms and set it on the counter.

  Here is the photograph Mark took of three-quarters of the great daisy cake.

  “Sam, would you be kind enough to take Rosie outside and get my dahlia fertilizer from the car …” is as far as Mrs. Maxwell’s sentence got before it stopped.

  “Is that Moxy out there swinging in the hammock?” she asked.

  Sam paused.

  Pansy paused.

  The pad, pad of Ajax typing on his laptop upstairs turned back to thunder.

  “I believe that is Moxy swinging in the hammock, Mrs. Maxwell,” Sam said.

  “Oh,” said Mrs. Maxwell, “was there a fire in her room?”

  “Not that I know of, Mrs. Maxwell,” said Sam.

  chapter 23

  In Which Moxy’s

  Mother Slams the

  Door Behind Her,

  Which Is Very

  Unlike Her

  When Moxy’s mother went out to work in her prize dahlia garden, she was always very careful not to slam the screen door. Everyone else in the family, including Ajax, who was a grown-up, let it slam behind them. But Moxy’s mother always turned back around and closed it quietly. This time she let it slam.

  chapter 24

  In Which

  Moxy Realizes

  Her Mother

  Is Home

  Moxy had been frightened before. The first time she and the seven petals had linked arms and dived off the diving board to practice their Daisy Dive, Moxy had been petrified.

  But when she heard her mother slam the screen door, she thought, This must be what “terror” feels lik
e. It reminded her of when she was eight and her mother told her she couldn’t keep a (very small) portion of the money she had made selling Girl Scout cookies (ten percent).

  Let it never be said that Moxy Maxwell did not think quickly. Even before her mother’s sandals came into view, Moxy’s right hand was reaching for Stuart Little. She groped for him among the peach pits and paper towels and the hammock pillow and a little pink summer blanket I forgot to tell you about that Pansy brought out to Moxy ten pages ago, when Moxy mentioned that the ever so slight pre-September breeze was beginning to chill her knees.

  chapter 25

  In Which It Dawns

  on Moxy That

  STUART LITTLE

  Is Not with Her

  And now, as she thought about it, Moxy realized she had not seen Stuart Little all day or the day before or the day before that. She wasn’t sure about the day before that. She might have seen it then.

  Moxy’s mother was so close that she was blocking the sun. Moxy had never seen a full solar eclipse before, but she suspected it might look a little like this. At least Moxy no longer had to squint.

  Maybe this is what “shock” feels like, Moxy thought. It was a little like having a heart attack and a little like what it must feel like to be serene. (Moxy loved the word “serene” because it sounded like what it was, which was calm and clearheaded.)