Just Visiting

by Laura Dower

  “Are you sure? Because sometimes your father—”

  “Please don’t worry,” Madison said, cutting off her mother midthought. “Everything will be fine. Dad and I will have an awesome winter vacation and everything will be perfect … except that you won’t be there.”

  Mom smiled. “Thanks, sweetheart. I’ll miss you too.”

  “Rowrrooooooo!” Phinnie wailed. He scratched at his ears and belly. The green sweater itched and he wanted O-U-T Madison was happier than happy that the dog was acting up. It provided the best distraction.

  She clipped on Phin’s leash and walked down the stairs, out the front door, and into the cold.

  The pair wandered down the block at a slow pace. The air was so cold that Madison could feel her toes through her shoes and socks. Phin could see his doggy breath. Madison’s wool scarf helped keep out the chilly wind.

  After a few moments, Madison found herself walking past Aimee’s house. Her BFF lived only a few houses down from Madison on Blueberry Road. Sometimes Madison would stop by on her walks around the neighborhood.

  She climbed up the doorstep and rang the doorbell. It played a few bars of Beethoven. Mr. Gillespie loved classical music, even on his doorbell.

  “Maddie! What are you doing here?” Aimee said when she opened the door. She bent down to scratch behind Phin’s ears.

  “Do you want to go for a walk with me and Phin?” she asked. “And Blossom, of course.” Blossom was Aimee’s basset hound who hated the cold weather but loved Phinnie.

  Aimee slipped on her parka. “Let’s go!” she said.

  Phin and Blossom sniffed each other hello while their walkers walked, talking some more about the school concert, Ivy, and homework. Aimee had been in the middle of finishing her science homework when Madison arrived.

  “I have too much to do,” Aimee complained.

  Madison nodded in agreement. “Me, too.”

  “And I think science class is such a drag,” Aimee said.

  Madison agreed. “Me, too.”

  “And I wish it would snow,” Aimee said with a sigh. “Winter isn’t winter without snow and ice. The cold isn’t the same. Know what I mean?”

  “It sort of smells like snow,” Madison said.

  “I’d give anything to go skiing over vacation like you,” Aimee said. “Instead, I’m stuck at home hanging out with my dumb brothers.”

  Madison shrugged. “Yeah, I’m psyched. I haven’t been to Mount Robinson for a long time.”

  “And it’s in Longmont, which is such a cool town,” Aimee said. “They have this store with handmade ballet shoes. I remember because my mom took me there for my birthday one year. Remember? I’d give anything to go back there again.”

  “I’d give anything to—” Madison started to say, but she cut herself off. She sniffed the cold air and walked a few paces ahead with Phin.

  “Hey, Maddie, wait up!” Aimee yelled. She and Blossom ran to catch up. “You didn’t tell me. What are you wishing for this holiday?”

  Madison considered sharing her real wish, a secret one about Mom and Dad getting back together. But she didn’t. Instead she yelled up to the sky.

  “SNOW!” Madison bellowed. “SNOOOOOOOOW!”

  “You’re the best,” Aimee said, laughing.

  The two friends locked arms and continued their walk around the block.

  Chapter 2

  “SIT OVER HERE!” FIONA yelled, waving to Madison and Aimee as they entered the chorus rehearsal room.

  Madison glanced around. Most of the seventh grade had shown up for the first official Winter Jubilee singing practice. The entire class would sing at the final events; but kids were only required to attend a few rehearsals before then. Many students had afternoon conflicts with other clubs and teams.

  Aimee nudged Madison. “Don’t look now, but—” Aimee groaned.

  “Hello, Madison,” Ivy Daly said. She edged past and sat in the row directly behind Madison and her friends. The drones followed. Madison could feel the enemy breathing behind her.

  The feud between Madison and her friends and Ivy and her drones had lasted for more than three years and showed no signs of slowing. It didn’t take much to fuel bad feelings among the girls: a funny look, a long stare, or even a Winter Jubilee choral rehearsal.

  “Don’t say hello, why don’t you?” Rose Thorn snickered.

  Madison ignored her.

  Mrs. Montefiore clapped her hands and tapped her music stand. As several students helped pass around copies of sheet music, Mrs. Montefiore read through the list of songs they’d be singing.

  “Silver Bells”

  “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”

  “Winter Wonderland”

  “Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel”

  “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”

  “The Grinch song should be for them,” Fiona whispered, indicating the row where Ivy and the drones were sitting.

  Madison stifled a giggle. “Just ignore them,” she said.

  “Hey! Where’s Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah song?” Aimee said, cracking herself up.

  “ATTENTION!” Mrs. Montefiore yelled.

  Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

  The music teacher steadied her conductor’s baton and shot a glare over in the girls’ direction. She explained the week’s schedule of events for Winter Jubilee; asked the kids to sing a few scales; and led the entire room in a quick review of each song’s first verse. Madison faked it, mouthing the words. She wanted to be a part of everything but she wasn’t a great singer. So she decided she’d be a part of everything silently.

  Fiona, on the other hand, sang like a pop star. Madison knew that the drones had to be jealous of Fiona’s voice. During the first part of “Winter Wonderland,” when Fiona hit all the high notes perfectly, Madison swore she heard Rose and Joanie cough. Sabotage! Sometimes the drones were even more obnoxious than their leader.

  Their leader, Poison Ivy, didn’t say much. But Madison guessed Ivy was too busy singing herself to make fun of anyone else. Not only was Ivy the seventh-grade class president, top student, and all-around popular girl, but she could sing like a pop star, too.

  After running through the song list once, and watching the clock for an hour, the seventh graders gave themselves a roaring round of applause. As everyone gathered their book bags to leave, Mrs. Montefiore invited Señora Diaz up to the front of the rehearsal room.

  “You are not dismissed!” Mrs. Montefiore commanded the students. Everyone sank back down into their chairs.

  Señora Diaz was Madison’s friend Egg’s mother. Ever since she was little Madison had known Señora Diaz. Now Madison was even in Señora Diaz’s Spanish class at Far Hills Junior High. Madison wasn’t an A+ Spanish student, but she wasn’t failing either. As usual, she was somewhere in the middle.

  “Hola!” Señora Diaz greeted everyone with a grin. “I have an exciting volunteer project to tell you about, over at The Estates, a nursing home in town. I spoke to my sister who is a nurse at the home and she suggested that some members of our chorus might be interested in doing volunteer work there.”

  A girl in the front row raised her hand. “Do you mean more singing?”

  “No, Señorita,” Señora Diaz continued. “We are looking for a small group of students willing to give up a few afternoons from now until the holidays in an Adopt-a-Grandparent program. Students will keep company with senior citizens whose families live far away.”

  “Are these people sick?” some boy yelled from the back row.

  “Not like YOU!” Chet said, louder than he meant to. He covered his mouth and apologized.

  “To answer your question,” Señora Diaz said, “some people are sick with diseases, while others are just lonely.”

  Everyone started whispering again. The room got noisy in seconds.

  “STUDENTS, PLEASE!” Mrs. Montefiore yelled, tapping her baton, her voice booming through the din. All at once, the room hushed.

  “I’m going to put a sign
-up sheet right here on the desk,” Señora Diaz continued. “And I’d like both boys and girls to sign up. Remember that you need to have some solid free time to do this. After-school activities will be a conflict for some of you, but I do hope the rest will consider helping out.”

  Madison’s brain was already buzzing. She could sign up to volunteer! She loved to volunteer! She could make time to adopt a grandparent! It would be fun to spread a little holiday cheer.

  Plus, Madison thought, it would be great to volunteer with Fiona and Aimee.

  Before she could maneuver her way out of the row of seats, however, Madison watched Ivy and her drones rush the front desk and the sign-up sheet. Ivy stopped to say something to Señora Diaz.

  “Hurry,” Madison said. “Move, Aimee.”

  “What is your rush?” Aimee asked. “I’m getting my stuff.”

  “I want us to get to the sign-up sheet. I don’t think anyone has signed up yet and the three of us have to do it together—” Madison said, climbing over her friend.

  “The three of us?” Fiona said. “Wait. Maddie, I can’t volunteer.”

  Madison stopped short. “You can’t?”

  “Neither can I,” said Aimee.

  “I have soccer,” Fiona said.

  “And I have ballet,” Aimee said.

  “Oh, yeah,” Madison sighed. “Of course. I forgot.”

  “Why don’t you go sign up by yourself?” Aimee asked. “You like doing that kind of stuff. That would be cool if you volunteered at The Estates.”

  Madison shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. But by myself?”

  Aimee and Fiona lingered by while Madison approached the sign-up sheet. Egg and Hart were standing nearby.

  “Hey, Finnster,” Hart said, calling Madison by a name he’d made up years earlier. “You signing up?”

  Hart was Madison’s junior-high crush: cute, smart, and silly. Madison couldn’t take her eyes off him.

  “I think so,” Madison said, looking for a pencil in her orange bag. “Are you guys signing up?”

  “Well, my tía Ana, the one who’s a nurse, is super cool,” Egg explained. “So I figured it would be a good thing to help her out. I mean, I’ve got hockey practice, but my mom is bugging me to do it, so …”

  “What about you, Hart?” Madison asked.

  “Yeah, I’m doing it with Egg,” he said, smiling. “Our hockey coach said that we can miss one or two practices and still play in the game next Saturday.”

  That was all Madison needed to hear. She smiled back and leaned forward to add her name to the list. Even though Fiona and Aimee had been Madison’s first hope to join her at The Estates, Egg and Hart would be just as entertaining company.

  The list was almost filled. The name at the very top was “Hilary Klein,” a girl in Madison’s English class who always dressed up in matched sweater sets and frilly socks; carried a purse in addition to her book bag; and applied eyeliner in the girls’ room between classes. She wasn’t very friendly, so Madison wasn’t quite sure why she would volunteer to be some stranger’s friend. But there she was.

  Underneath Hilary’s name were those of Hart, Egg, Davy Miller, and Joey O’Neill, nose-picker extraordinaire.

  Then, in giant letters, was the name Ivy Daly, with a curlicue on the y. Madison groaned. Although she didn’t want to spend free afternoons with the enemy, she added her own name under Ivy’s.

  After leaving the chorus room, Madison headed to the lockers to retrieve her social studies textbook and some other papers. Fiona and Aimee were waiting there.

  “Now the three of us can walk home together,” Aimee said. She had on her lemon-colored parka with a furry white crocheted hat and gloves.

  “I think it’s cool that you volunteered,” Fiona said. She wore a baseball cap that read ANGELS, and a jean jacket with a sheepskin lining. She’d wrapped her scarf all around her braids and neck.

  “Yeah, it’s cool. Except for Ivy,” Madison said. She pulled her quilted winter jacket out of her locker and zipped up the front. “Let’s go,” she told her BFFs.

  They headed out the school doors toward home.

  As Madison approached her house, Phin saw her and made a dash for the sidewalk. But the pug couldn’t reach. He was tethered to a post in the front yard, wearing his green sweater, of course.

  “Hey, Mom!” Madison called out. Mom was bent over a hedge by the porch, wrapping it in preparation for snow.

  “Hey, honey bear!” Mom said, tying knotted rope around a wide piece of burlap. “Come and help me, would you?”

  Madison skipped over to the porch and dropped her bag. She couldn’t wait to tell Mom about her new volunteering gig at The Estates.

  Mom had other questions on her mind.

  “Did you check your e-mail today?” Mom asked.

  Madison nodded. “Yeah. Why?”

  “I was just wondering when your father is going to firm up those Christmas plans. He said he would e-mail you right away, didn’t he? I need to make reservations for myself and I can’t do it unless I know you’re going to be safe and sound somewhere with Dad. Did he e-mail?”

  Madison squirmed. “Well, I don’t know what’s happening.”

  “What?” Mom said. “You told me yesterday that he confirmed all the plans and dates. Now we were waiting for him to—”

  “Waiting!” Madison said. “Oh yeah. Well that’s true. I am waiting for… for…”

  “ROWROOOOOO!” Phin let out a howl. His leash was wound all around the post in the yard. Mom ran over to unwind him. Madison took advantage of the break in the interrogation.

  “I’m going inside, Mom, okay?”

  “Okay,” Mom said. “We’ll talk about this later.”

  Madison hurried into the front hallway. She checked the message machine first, hoping that she’d find a recorded greeting from Dad. But the only message was a garbled one from Gramma Helen. That happened sometimes when Gramma called from her cell phone out near Lake Michigan.

  Fzzzzzzzzzt. Love you. Szzzzzzbpp. Bye-bye. Kkkkkchk.

  With no greeting from Dad on the machine, Madison started to worry. She powered up her laptop and opened an Internet browser immediately. With fingers and toes crossed, she searched TweenBlurt.com for a message from Dad.

  NEW MAIL.

  Madison gasped when she saw three new messages blinking inside her e-mailbox. There were notes from Gramma, Fiona, and DAD!

  FROM SUBJECT

  GoGramma Missing You

  Wetwinz Fw: Re: Chorus

  JeffFinn Vacation

  Madison opened Dad’s mail first.

  From: JeffFinn

  To: MadFinn

  Subject: Vacation

  Date: Wed 5 Dec 1:24 PM

  I’m off to a big meeting, but I just wanted to check in with my one and only. How is school? You must be excited about the upcoming vacation. Can’t wait to see you.

  Here’s a joke for you.

  What happened when the ice monster had a fight with the zombie? He gave him the cold shoulder! LOL.

  Thinking of you all the time. I love you.

  Dad

  Madison reread Dad’s e-mail twice more just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. This was the vacation confirmation Madison had been waiting for… wasn’t it? She wasn’t sure. The only thing certain in this e-mail was the standard bad Dad joke.

  What was Madison supposed to tell Mom now?

  She hit SAVE and moved along to the other messages.

  Fiona’s note was simple. She had a few boring questions about the chorus schedule.

  Gramma Helen’s message was a little longer. She was “checking in on her family.” Madison read the e-mail and hit REPLY.

  From: MadFinn

  To: GoGramma

  Subject: I Have Super Big NEWS

  Date: Wed 5 Dec 5:01 PM

  Thanks for your nice note, Gramma. Mom and I are fine. We got your voice message too but it was all static. You have to get a new phone, I think.

  I ha
ve the coolest news about school. Remember I told you about the chorus and Winter Jubilee at FHJH? Well, I’m also going to be a volunteer at this place in Far Hills called The Estates. It’s for older people (older than you, though, because I don’t really think you’re old!). But the funny part is that the program is called Adopt-a-Grandparent, so how could I not remember you! I hope you don’t mind if I’m standing in as an adopted granddaughter for someone else. I wonder what everyone there will want to talk about? I may be calling or e-mailing you for ideas, Gramma. I love you so much. How is life by the lake? I hope I can come visit you sometime soon. Are you excited about Christmas?

  Love you lots,

  Maddie

  As Madison hit SEND, she felt teeny butterflies inside her belly. Although vacation was still a little undecided, she sensed that this Christmas season just might turn out special in some way.

  She just wasn’t sure how.

  There was a long—and hopefully snowy—road ahead.

  Chapter 3

  Winter Break

  Please let there be SNOW. Lots of it. I went through my entire closet last night after dinner and pulled out all the clothes I could find for skiing. I wish I could go shopping for more, but I can’t. My sweaters are getting soooo stretched out. Maybe Dad will take me to the mall once he makes the final plans for our trip? I hope that’s sooner than soon.

  Mom woke up this morning and asked me about the vacation again at breakfast. Arrgh! I pretended I didn’t hear. I know that Dad might change the vacation plans because he does that sometimes. But the thing is, I can deal with it. What I CAN’T deal with is the way Mom feels about Dad when he does that.

  Mom and Dad are so nice to each other all year long and then at Christmas, why does it get awkward and angry and YUCK? It’s just one of those things that bugs me since they got divorced.

  The weather forecast says we might get up to twenty inches of snow on the mountains outside Far Hills. Isn’t that wild? And even if I won’t be enjoying the ski slopes with Dad, I won’t get bummed out like Mom thinks.

  Rude Awakening: Snow news isn’t always good news. But I’m still looking forward to my winter break.