Kendall put her out-of-character purchases and Tinkerbell into the car and, since she could now afford it, went to get gas. Finally, she stopped at Quiznos for a late lunch—because she was, after all, eating for two. After that she wasn’t sure where to go or what to do to kill a few more hours, but she knew she should probably avoid any more shopping. Especially if she didn’t want Megan freaking out and yelling at her.
Kendall hadn’t kept really close track, but she suspected she’d spent around three hundred dollars, and what had once been a thick wad of cash had definitely dwindled. Not that Megan had to be privy to that. Still, Kendall did not want to go home and be tortured by that bothersome garage sale. And so it was she found herself pulling into the parking lot of Nana’s nursing home.
“Kendall!” Nana looked pleasantly surprised when she opened the door. But then she frowned. “What are you doing here? You didn’t come here to get money from me, did you?”
“No, of course, not,” Kendall assured her. She held out Tinkerbell’s carrying case. “We just stopped in to say hello.”
“Well, hello.” Nana still looked concerned. “What are you doing here?” she asked again.
Kendall thought for a moment. “Hey, do you want to go get ice cream?”
Nana brightened up and went immediately to get her favorite old handbag—it used to be cream colored, but now looked more like tan, although Kendall suspected it would clean up nicely, since it was vinyl. She used to make fun of that old purse, but then she realized it was a Gucci from the sixties and actually quite valuable, not to mention rather chic in that Jackie-O sort of way. Anyway, Kendall had told Nana more than once that if she ever wanted to get rid of it, she should toss it Kendall’s way. Of course, Kendall knew there was no money in Nana’s bag. Sticky fingers in the nursing home had taught Nana to hide her cash in smarter places. Sometimes Nana forgot where she’d hidden her money, and at times when Kendall was desperate, she would go hunting. Not today.
“Ice cream,” said Nana as they walked through the parking lot. “You scream, I scream, everyone scream for ice cream.”
Kendall laughed. “I can’t believe you remember that.”
“Isn’t that what you kids used to say?”
“Pretty close anyway.” Kendall opened the door and helped Nana into the car.
As they drove to a nearby ice-cream shop, Nana pointed to a sign. “Garage sale!” she cried so loudly that Kendall hit the brakes. “Stop, Kendall. Stop!”
The last thing Kendall wanted to do was go to a garage sale, but Nana would not give up. And so she parked and helped Nana out of the car, and together they walked past the tables loaded with junk. Real junk too. It actually made Kendall’s garage sale look good. And Kendall even mentioned to the other shoppers about how there was a really good garage sale over on Bloomberg Place.
“Oh, that’s a nice neighborhood,” said one woman.
“And they have nice stuff too,” Kendall quietly told her. “Even designer clothes. And some antiques and collectibles.”
The woman nudged her friend. “Hey, let’s head over to Bloomberg Place.”
That’s when it hit Kendall. “Nana,” she said. “Do you want to go to more garage sales?”
Naturally Nana was game. So, every time Kendall spotted a sale, she stopped and helped her grandmother out of the car. Then, while Nana browsed, Kendall informed the other shoppers about the fantastic sale she’d been to over on Bloomberg Place.
“I think I’ll have to go back over there,” she told a girl about her age. “I keep thinking about these really gorgeous black Prada boots that I could’ve gotten for a fraction of their original price. And they looked like new.”
“Seriously?” the girl looked surprised. “Do you think they’re still there?”
“I don’t know, but there were lots of other cool things.” Kendall checked her watch. “Maybe I’ll head back there now.”
And so it went. At the rate that Kendall was advertising her own garage sale, the girls should be swamped in no time. Perhaps they’d be sold out by closing time, six o’clock. And then Kendall wouldn’t have to put up with it for another whole day!
Nana eventually wore out and, to Kendall’s surprise, remembered that they were supposed to be getting ice cream. Since Nana was tired, Kendall got their ice cream to go and they ate in the car as she drove back to the nursing home. Then she helped Nana out, did her best to wipe the spilt droplets of orange sherbet off Nana’s favorite white sweater, and walked her back to her room. Along the way, Nana bragged to all her friends about where she’d been.
“My granddaughter took me for ice cream,” she told them.
“And to a bunch of garage sales too,” Kendall would add. Naturally, the other inmates all got jealous. And that just made Nana cackle and grin like she’d won the lottery. Kendall thought it might be nice if life were so simple. Not that she wanted to be old and live in a place like this. But sometimes it had its appeal.
After she got Nana safely to her room and settled into her comfy recliner, where she immediately went to sleep, Kendall walked back through the home via the activities room, which, as usual, was not very active. But she spied Walt, a friendly old coot she’d met the time she hid out at Nana’s for a day or two. He was sitting by himself in his wheelchair.
“Hey, Walt,” she called out. “What’s up?”
“Well, if it ain’t my best girl.” He grinned. “What’s your name again?”
“Kendall.”
“Yes, yes, Kendall. You’re Gert Weis’s granddaughter.”
She held up the doggy carrier. “And this is Tinkerbell.”
“Glad to meet you, Tinkerbell.” He chuckled. “Don’t recall you having a dog last time you were here, Kendall.”
“I got her a few months ago.”
“Where’s your grandmother? Is she okay?”
So Kendall explained about the garage sales and ice cream and how it had all worn her grandmother out.
“What a good girl you are to come take your grandmother out like that.”
She just smiled. It wasn’t every day that someone called her a good girl. It felt strange but nice. Maybe now that she was going to become a mommy—someday—she would turn into a nicer, better person. It seemed possible somehow … at least something she might aspire to.
“How’s about a little game of checkers?” Walt asked hopefully.
Since she still had time to kill, plus because she liked the idea of being a nice girl, she agreed. But, after two games, the dinner bell rang and Walt, worried that he’d miss out on his favorite meal of corned beef and cabbage and scalloped potatoes, excused himself.
“Thanks for the games, honey,” he called out as he wheeled himself across the room. “Next time, I’ll let you win.”
Kendall considered joining Nana for dinner, but the smell of cooked cabbage made her want to hurl, and it wasn’t even morning. So she hurried on out to her car. It was only five, but Kendall decided that it might be interesting to get home in time to see if any of her free advertising was paying off. To her delight, there were cars parked along both sides of the street and the garage sale seemed to be hopping.
“I’m back,” she cheerfully told her friends after she’d put Tinker in the house.
“It’s about time.” Megan scowled. “It’s been a zoo here.”
“Yeah,” said Anna. “Make yourself useful.”
For the next hour, Kendall worked the garage sale, and when someone recognized her from one of the other sales, she just laughed. “Well, I told you the truth, didn’t I?” she said to a frumpy middle-aged woman. “This garage sale is way better than all the other ones I saw today.”
“You’ve been going to garage sales today?” asked Anna as they started packing things up.
“Just to advertise this one,” Kendall told
her as she counted out change to a girl who finally decided to purchase her old rollerblades for eighteen dollars.
“Well, maybe your marketing plan worked,” admitted Lelani, “because we’ve sure been busy. I had to come out and help when it got too crazy out here.”
“Thanks,” said Kendall.
“Well, you’re going to pay her for helping,” said Anna. “We all agreed to that.”
Kendall just shrugged. “That’s okay.”
“We promised Lelani ten bucks an hour,” Megan told her. “And so far she’s put in five hours.”
“You can just deduct it from next month’s rent for me,” Lelani told Kendall.
“Just remind me when the time comes,” Kendall said.
“Don’t worry,” said Megan. “We’ll both be reminding you. Don’t forget you promised me a break on the rent too.”
She had, and though now she was regretting having to spread out her profits, she supposed a break on rent later was better than cash out of hand now.
Finally the last customer left and the girls finished putting stuff away and closed the garage doors.
“I’m exhausted,” declared Anna.
“And I’m starving,” said Megan.
“I’ll call out for pizza,” offered Lelani.
“And Kendall is buying.” Megan handed Kendall the cash box.
“That’s fair.” Kendall shook the heavy box. “This feels full.”
“And there’s more in the house,” said Anna. “I stashed it in the top drawer of the china hutch. I was trying to keep track of how much we took in, except it got too busy. But I’ve been keeping the money from my garage sale things separate from yours.” Anna kind of laughed. “Not that I’m getting rich. Unlike you, I’ve only made a little more than thirty dollars so far. But I’m curious to hear your total.”
“I’ll count it all out very carefully,” Kendall assured them. Then she took the cash box to her room and dumped it on her bed and started to count the bills. To her amazement, it was nearly eight hundred dollars. Combined with what she’d spent today, she’d earned more than a thousand total. And that didn’t even include the checks! Who knew you could make that much from a garage sale? Then she remembered that she needed to give Anna her cut. But she also knew that part of the money had been from the previous day, since she’d left some to be used for change. Why hadn’t she thought to count it earlier?
So she did a quick estimate and figured it had to be less than a hundred, which she set aside. She added in today’s checks for a total of $978.50, then set aside money for pizza. Finally, she had to use pen and paper to figure Anna’s portion, which was about $190. Not bad for a day’s work. But now Kendall was rethinking her deal with Anna. Lelani had worked for ten dollars an hour. Why shouldn’t Anna do the same? But when she suggested as much to Anna, it was as if she’d suggested that Anna should cut off her arm.
“You promised me,” Anna yelled at her. “And now you’re backing out?”
“It’s just not fair that—”
“It’s not fair that you don’t honor your word.”
“I’ll pay you ten bucks an—”
“Keep your money,” snapped Anna. “I’ve had it.” Then she stomped off to her room.
Kendall felt a twinge of guilt, but it was her garage sale. It didn’t seem fair that everyone else was profiting from it. Who needed them anyway? So far Kendall had made around a thousand bucks—and without paying for their help she stood to make more.
Seventeen
Megan
Sunday’s garage sale didn’t open until ten, and Megan told Kendall that she wouldn’t be able to help until she and Marcus returned from church around noon. Just the same, Kendall had already left two messages asking where Megan was and why wasn’t she there to help? As Marcus drove her back to the house, Megan held the phone to his ear so he could hear it too.
“Kendall is such a nut case.” He laughed. “How do you put up with her?”
“Well, according to this morning’s sermon, I put up with her because Jesus in me is able to put up with her. Right?”
“I remind myself that Kendall can be her own worst enemy,” Megan admitted. “And then I remember that she needs real friends. Even though I know I fall short most of the time, I figure I better keep working at it. I know that Anna has just about given up on her.” Then she told Marcus about how Kendall had cut Anna out of the working-for-20-percent deal. “And Anna would have made around two hundred dollars yesterday. With another day like that, she could’ve gone to Maui. Now she can’t afford a ticket, which has Lelani worried. She’d been counting on having Anna along.”
“But Kendall pulled the plug?”
“Pretty much. Anna thinks it’s because Kendall wants to go to Maui, and she thinks if no one else can go her chances will improve.”
“What does Lelani think?”
“It’s hard to say. She’s been kind of quiet. I think the whole trip, plus not knowing who is going with her—besides Gil and Edmond—is getting to her.”
“So Anna’s pretty mad at Kendall today?”
“She’s not helping her with the garage sale. And Lelani had plans to have brunch with Gil this morning.”
“So that’s why Kendall’s calling you?”
Megan nodded. “And I know this sounds mean, but it’s the truth: I think she deserves to be a little stressed. She brought it on herself.”
“In other words, don’t hurry to get home.”
“Don’t get any speeding tickets. Honestly, if I hadn’t promised to help her, and if she wasn’t giving me a break on next month’s rent, I would probably just say forget it.” Megan leaned back and sighed. “Man, I’ll be glad when that stupid sale is over with. And I will definitely think twice before coming up with any more brilliant ideas for getting Kendall out of debt.” She laughed. “I actually thought that a little garage sale would motivate her to want to go out and find a real job. But then she turned the little sale into this great big production.”
“Which reminds me, some of her things are doing pretty well on eBay.”
“Great. Kendall will probably never want to get a real job now.”
“Speaking of real jobs, have you decided not to quit yours?”
“Yeah. I mean I still toy with the idea of walking into Cynthia’s office and telling her to take this job and shove it. But then I realize how immature that would be. And, like my mom said, if you want to get another job, it’s better to look while you’re still employed.”
“That makes sense.”
“And I’ve been trying to surrender the whole Maui thing to God. I figure if I was supposed to go, things would’ve gone differently. Maybe there’s a reason I’m staying home.”
He reached over and patted her head. “I’m glad to see you’re not still bummed.”
“Oh, I’m still bummed. I’m just trying to act like I’m not bummed in the hopes that it will rub off into reality.”
He laughed as he turned onto Bloomberg Place. “Hey, looks like Kendall’s sale is still going great guns.”
Now Megan sat up straight and looked to see there were quite a few cars in front of the house. Apparently Kendall hadn’t been exaggerating about being busy.
“You better just drop me off,” Megan told him. “It looks like she really does need help.”
“Want me to stick around and lend a hand?”
“If you really want to. I’m sure Kendall would appreciate it.”
“I’ll go find a place to park,” he called as she got out of the car.
“Business appears to be good,” said Megan as she joined Kendall.
“It’s about time you got here.”
Megan was tempted to remind her about church but decided to help an elderly woman add up her purchases instead. Then
Marcus joined them and the threesome worked steadily until Lelani showed up.
“You don’t have to keep working now,” Megan told Marcus.
“I don’t mind,” he said as he straightened a pile of books. “It’s kind of fun.”
She rolled her eyes.
But by midafternoon the wind blew up and the sales slowed down and Marcus decided to make a break for it. Megan didn’t blame him. If she hadn’t promised Kendall she’d stay until they shut the thing down, she would’ve gladly gone with him.
“If you guys don’t mind, I’ll call it a day,” Lelani told them. “Anna and I have this family dinner to go to at the Mendez’s restaurant tonight.”
“Meet the grandparents again?” asked Megan.
“This time it’s saying good-bye to the grandparents.” Lelani sighed. “Gil promised that if things get ugly, we’ll leave.”
“Let the good times roll,” teased Kendall.
“We might as well start packing it up anyway,” Megan told Kendall as a few raindrops started to splat down.
Kendall frowned. “It might stop.”
“We don’t even have any shoppers,” pointed out Megan.
“But there’s still another hour until we were supposed to close.”
“I don’t think it really matters.” Megan was already putting old books into a box. “Besides, if someone comes, we can always let them poke around.”
Kendall reluctantly began to put things away.
As they quietly worked together, Megan began to feel guilty about the way she’d talked about Kendall to Marcus. Megan knew that it wasn’t the way Jesus would act. And yet she wasn’t even sure how to turn it off. Perhaps she just needed to apologize. Megan set down the box that she’d just filled and turned to Kendall.
“Kendall,” she began, “I need to tell you I’m sorry.”
“Huh?” Kendall looked up from where she was folding a pair of jeans. “For what?”
“For being kind of mean spirited toward you. I mean about the garage sale and everything.”
“But you’ve been helping me with it.” Kendall looked confused.
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