by Janice Hanna
After that, everything seemed to move in slow motion. Kate heard her name announced over the loudspeaker. “The winner of this year’s Winter Festival junior level competition is twelve-year-old Kate Oliver from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania!”
It almost felt like they were calling someone else’s name.
“Me?” she whispered. “I won?” Kate could hardly believe it! The whole thing seemed impossible…like a dream. Only this wasn’t a dream! It was true. Every bit of it!
An older man gestured for her to come to the stage, which she did with shaking knees. She climbed a few stairs and stood before the people.
“Kate Oliver, congratulations on skiing the Rat! You’re now an official member of the Rat Pack!” He handed her a T-shirt and opened it to show the icky-looking rat on the back.
Kate giggled and took the shirt. “Thank you so much!” She searched for Uncle Ollie in the crowd. When she found him, she held up the shirt and grinned.
“The Winter Festival of Mad River Valley is proud to give you this trophy for your performance today.” The man standing next to Kate gave her a big silver trophy with two skis on top. “And of course…” the man continued, handing her a check, “the grand prize of three hundred dollars!”
Kate gripped the check in her hand and whispered a prayer. “Oh, thank You, Lord! I know just what to do with this!”
The crowd started applauding, and Kate felt her cheeks warm up. They always did that when she was embarrassed. No doubt they were as red as tomatoes!
She looked through all of the people till she found her family and Sydney standing off to the left of the stage. Getting down the stairs was the easy part. Making her way through the crowd—with so many people patting her on the back and saying congratulations—was a lot harder than she imagined!
Finally she saw her mother. “Oh, Kate! You were wonderful! Congratulations! We’re so proud of you!”
“I knew you could do it!” her dad hollered.
The others in her family gathered around, looking at the trophy. Kate held it up for all to see.
“She’s a beauty!” Uncle Ollie said.
“That’s the coolest trophy I’ve ever seen!” Dexter added.
“Wonderful, wonderful!” Aunt Molly added. “I’m tickled pink, honey. And even more tickled that you were wearing my old skis! What an honor!”
Biscuit jumped up and down in excitement. Kate reached down to scratch him behind the ears. “I know, boy! You’re so excited!”
Sydney came hobbling toward her on her sore ankle. “Oh, Kate! I’m so proud of you! You’re the fastest skier here.”
Kate shook her head. “I still don’t know how it’s possible. And I know for a fact that your time would have been better than mine, if only…” She looked down at her friend’s ankle and sighed.
“No if onlys today,” Sydney said with a happy nod. “Today we’re all winners.”
Off in the distance, Michael walked by, his shoulders slumped forward in defeat. Kate noticed the sour look on his face. He looked her way and glared at her.
Wow. Not everyone is acting like a winner, Kate thought.
He reached underneath the stage and pulled out his backpack, but as he started to put it on, something fell out of it. Something small. And furry.
“Is that what I think it is, or is my imagination acting up again?” Kate whispered.
At once, Biscuit went crazy! He ran toward the small fuzzy critter, barking like a maniac. Only when Kate took a second look, did she realize for sure just what she was looking at! Right away, she began to scream!
“It’s…it’s…a…rat!”
The Mouse Takes the Cheese
As soon as Kate shouted, Michael dropped his backpack into the snow and began to run away from the crowd. Kate had never seen anyone move that fast! He shot through the throng of people, heading toward the lodge.
“Oh, I wish I could run!” Sydney said, wringing her hands together. “This bum ankle of mine won’t let me!”
Kate raced after Biscuit, who now stood at the edge of the snow barking like a maniac. She couldn’t blame him! Did I really see what I thought I saw? Did a rat…a real, live rat…just fall out of Michael’s backpack?
As she got closer to the stage, she glanced down to see what Biscuit held in his mouth. He yanked it around to the right, then the left, then the right, then the left.
“Oh, gross! If it was a rat, it’s a goner now!” Kate didn’t want to touch it. Oh, how disgusting!
A crowd gathered around. “Look, everyone!” Dexter shouted. “Biscuit caught a rat. Good boy!”
“A rat?” one man said with a smirk on his face. “How ironic!”
It took Kate a minute to realize what he meant. They were standing at the bottom of the Rat ski course, after all.
People began to laugh, but Kate didn’t feel like joining them. Not yet, anyway. She had a sinking feeling.
“Look!” another man called out. “This dog is going crazy!”
Biscuit continued his chewing and chomping frenzy, and Kate actually felt sorry for the poor little rat. What a terrible way to die!
She grabbed the dog by his collar and scolded him. “Biscuit, let go! Stop! Enough already!”
After a couple of seconds, he finally dropped the furry little thing. Kate gasped when she looked down and saw… metal pieces? Metal pieces inside a rat? What?
“What is that?” Sydney hobbled up beside her.
“Oh, wow, Kate!” Sydney looked shocked. “It’s not a real rat at all. It’s a little…”
“Robot,” Kate whispered. “It’s a robotic rat! No wonder it ran in crazy circles that day at the creamery. And no wonder McKenzie couldn’t find a photo of another rat that looked like this one. It’s not real. It never was.” Relief swept over her. “That means they never really had a rat infestation at the creamery. Not real rats, anyway. Just robotic ones. But why? Why would Michael do this?”
Uncle Ollie reached down into the snow to pick up the robotic rat, which Biscuit had almost destroyed. He rolled it from one hand to another, looking it over. “I don’t believe this. I really don’t believe this. I’m the one who taught him how to build robots, but I never dreamed he would take the things I’d taught him and use them to hurt someone!”
“There were three rats that first day at the creamery,” Sydney said, reaching for Michael’s backpack. “So there must be at least two more inside!” She looked up at Uncle Ollie. “Is it okay to open it and look inside to see?”
“I give you permission.” Michael’s mother, Maggie, drew near. “We need to know for sure before…” Her eyes filled with tears, and Kate suddenly felt very sorry for her.
Poor woman! She’s still sad about her dad dying, and now this!
Mr. and Mrs. Hampton walked up. They both looked completely shocked.
Sydney reached inside the backpack and came out with not just one but two furry critters! As soon as she saw them, she began to scream. “Ooo! More rats!”
One of them flew up into the air, then hit the ground. Kate reached down and grabbed it. “But they’re not real. See?” She rolled it around in her hand. “I can feel the metal parts inside. And look, here’s where the batteries go.” She showed everyone the belly of the rat.
By now, several people had gathered.
“Step back, everyone!” Mr. Hampton said, drawing near. “Step back!”
He approached Kate and took the rats from her, examining them carefully. “Whose bag is this?” he asked, pointing to the backpack.
“It belongs to my son, Michael,” Maggie said with tears in her eyes.
“Where did he go?” Mr. Hampton looked around. “Is he still here?”
“I saw him running toward the lodge,” an older woman said. “He was going mighty fast!”
Mr. Hampton and Uncle Ollie led the way to the lodge. Kate and her family trudged along behind him in the snow. Kate prayed all the way. Lord, please let Michael still be there. And help us understand why he would do some
thing like this to the Hamptons!
As they entered the main room of the lodge, Kate saw Michael sitting in front of the fireplace. As soon as he heard everyone come in the door, he turned and looked their way. Kate couldn’t help but notice he had tears in his eyes.
What’s up with that? What secrets are you hiding, Michael?
Mr. Hampton walked straight over to him and dropped the backpack down on the floor. “Is this yours, son?”
“Yes, sir.” Michael looked down at the ground.
“And these, um, rats. They’re yours?” Mr. Hampton continued.
Michael hung his head in shame. “Yes, sir. I made them. In my basement.”
Maggie walked to his side and slipped an arm over his shoulder. “Michael, we just need the truth. Are you the one who…” Her voice cracked. “Are you the one who put the rats in the creamery?”
Kate’s heart twisted as he gave a slow nod and then began to cry.
Why would he do such a thing? That’s horrible!
Michael turned to Uncle Ollie, talking a mile a minute. “You don’t understand what they did to my grandpa!”
With an angry look on his face, he pointed to Mr. and Mrs. Hampton, who stood in silence listening to him. “My Grandpa Joe worked for them for years as a security guard. He was a good man…” Michael’s voice cracked. “But they fired him! Fired him. For no good reason. He needed that job. We had bills to pay!”
Mr. Hampton looked stunned. “We had good reasons for firing him, Michael, whether you know it or not.”
Michael shook his head, growing angrier by the moment. “After he lost his job, Grandpa started getting sick. I know it was because he was so depressed. He was never the same after that. And my mom had to work harder than ever to pay for his medical bills.”
Michael began to shake uncontrollably. Kate watched as he clenched his fists.
“So you wanted to get even with them?” Uncle Ollie asked. “You sabotaged the creamery to get even?”
Michael nodded. “I…wanted to bring them down! They hurt my grandpa, and I wanted to hurt them!”
Ooo! Kate thought about the scripture she had learned from Aunt Molly. So that’s what happens when you hold a grudge! People really do end up getting hurt!
“What did you do, son?” Uncle Ollie asked. “Tell me everything.”
“I…I went to the old barn on the south slope and got lots of spiders. I set them loose in the creamery. But I could tell that wasn’t going to be enough to convince people, so I…” He shook his head, then stared at Uncle Ollie. “I used what you taught me about robots. Made three of them. Figured if I could…” He paused and shook his head. “I just wanted sales to go down at the creamery. I wanted to hurt the Hamptons like they hurt us!”
Michael’s mother drew near and wrapped Michael in her arms. “Oh, honey,” she spoke with tears in her eyes. “First of all, it’s wrong to get even with people, even if they really do hurt you. But in this case, you’re completely mistaken! The Hamptons are good people.”
“No, they’re not!” He looked at his mother like she was crazy.
“Oh, Michael, there’s so much you don’t know about your grandpa. He was a good man, but in those last few months before he lost his job, he was already very sick. The Hamptons didn’t know it, of course. He didn’t want them to know.”
“What do you mean, Mom?”
“He told me he’d been falling asleep on the job. A lot. It was probably the medication he was on. I always suspected that, of course. And he never told the Hamptons he was on medicine for his weak heart, so they never knew. He didn’t want anyone to know.”
Geneva Hampton began to cry. “I always thought there was something more going on with Joe. He kept falling asleep on the job. But I didn’t realize he was on medication!”
“He was,” Maggie said. “And mighty strong medicine, at that.” She turned back to Michael to finish the story. “One night your grandpa fell asleep on the job. It had happened before, but this time a fire broke out in the area where the cows were kept.”
“I remember that night,” Uncle Ollie said, scratching his head. “It was a close call! The Hamptons could have lost all of their cows that night.”
“And it was your grandpa’s fault,” Maggie said softly to Michael.
Michael shook his head. “Why didn’t you ever tell me this? Why did you let me think…” He looked up at Mr. and Mrs. Hampton and shook his head. “I just thought they were being mean to him. Now I don’t know what to think.”
“I think we’re all confused and hurt,” Uncle Ollie said. “And when we’re hurt, we often do things we don’t mean to do. I once heard a pastor say, ‘Hurt people hurt people.’ And it’s so true.”
Mr. Hampton shook his head, looking more than a little upset. “Oh, I feel terrible! I wish I had known about Joe’s heart condition! We could have worked something out. Maybe cut back on his hours or something.”
“No, he was really too frail to be working, anyway,” Maggie said. “That’s why I tried to pick up so many extra hours at the diner. I figured the more money I made, the less he would have to worry about finances. We were doing okay, until…”
“Until he had the heart attack?” Uncle Ollie asked.
Maggie nodded. “Yes. Then I knew…” She began to cry and Kate reached over to wrap her arms around her. “That’s when I knew he would never work again. At that point, I just wanted to see him get better, to come back home.”
“We just wanted everything to be…normal,” Michael said, his eyes glistening with tears. “But then…”
“Well, we all know what happened next.” Maggie sniffled then wiped her nose with a tissue. “He went to be with Jesus. And, of course, he’s in heaven celebrating right now, but we still miss him so much.”
“Enough to do some really dumb things.” Michael kicked at a pile of snow with the toe of his tennis shoe. “I…I’m so sorry. I really thought you guys fired Gramps because…well, because you didn’t like him.”
“Oh no, honey!” Geneva Hampton wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “We loved your grandpa. And we were concerned about him. That’s really why we let him go. Though he never told us about his illness, we knew something was wrong and we decided the job was putting too much stress on him.”
“You did the right thing,” Maggie said. “It wounded his pride a little, but he needed the rest.”
Michael looked at Mr. Hampton with tears in his eyes. “Can you ever forgive me? I’m so sorry.”
“Of course we forgive you, Michael,” Mr. Hampton said. “It would be wrong to hold a grudge.”
“I’ll do everything I can to make this better,” Michael said with a hopeful look in his eye. “I know! I’ll come to work for you. You won’t have to pay me or anything. I’ll work in the factory every afternoon to make up for what I’ve done. And I’ll tell everyone I know to buy Mad River Valley cheese!”
Mr. Hampton laughed. “Well, we can always use the help, but you’re a little young to be working, aren’t you?”
Michael shook his head. “I’m turning fifteen in a week! I can have a job if my mom says so, right? I just want to make up for what I’ve done. I…I can’t believe I let my anger get control of me like that. Next time I’m going to wait till I have all of the facts before acting!”
“Great plan!” Mr. Hampton gave him a pat on the back. “Now, I have an idea! Geneva made a huge pot of cheddar cheese soup for the festival. It’s out in the car. Are you folks hungry?”
“Cheddar cheese soup?” Kate’s stomach rumbled, just thinking about it. Man, did that ever sound good! She turned to Sydney with a smile on her face and whispered, “I can’t believe it! We were right! The creamery was being sabotaged!”
Just as quickly, she thought about the woman in the white coat and her husband. If Michael was the one who’d sabotaged the creamery, who were they…and what were they doing in Mad River Valley?
Christmas in Vermont
On the day after the big Winter Fe
stival, Kate went to church with her family. She knew their time in Vermont was drawing to a close, and she wanted to enjoy every moment. She couldn’t have been more surprised to hear the preacher’s topic of the day: forgiveness. What a fun coincidence. Of course, Aunt Molly called it a God-incidence. Kate couldn’t help but agree!
A couple of times during the service, Kate looked at Maggie and Michael who sat in the row beside them. He really seemed to pay attention to the sermon. And she felt pretty sure he’d learned his lesson about forgiveness.
But, had she?
As soon as they arrived back at the inn, they all ate lunch together, then Aunt Molly and Kate’s mother washed the dishes. Sydney settled into a chair across from Uncle Ollie to talk about sports, and Kate…well, Kate had something specific on her mind. There was something she needed to do. Something she should have done days before.
Heading over to Uncle Ollie’s computer, she signed into her e-mail account. Then, thinking carefully about each word, she began to type.
Dear Phillip,
I’m in Mad River Valley, Vermont, on Christmas vacation with my family. I’ve been working on my science project. It’s all about cheese! (Boy, have I learned a LOT!) I’m sure you’re hard at work on your project back in Philly or wherever you’re spending your vacation. Hope you’re having fun!
I just want you to know that I’m sorry if I ever did anything to make you feel like you’re not as smart as me. I think you’re so smart and should have told you so instead of always trying to make it look like I’m the best!
When you made fun of my project a few weeks ago, it hurt my feelings, but I have forgiven you. Will you forgive me for the mean things I was thinking about you since then? Please? When I get back to school, I’m going to ask Mrs. Mueller if we can work together on our next project. The Bible says that one can put a thousand to flight but two can put ten thousand to flight. That’s kind of a fancy way of saying we can do more if we work together!
I learned a lot about that this week in Vermont. I worked with my friend Sydney and together we accomplished great things. I can’t wait to tell you all about it! The rest of the school year is going to be better if we’re friends!
