Zinnia's Zaniness

by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

  As Jackie spoke, we watched Annie's face change from stern to confused and finally to sad. Even the least observant of us marked these changes. And then that made us sad, not just for Annie but also for Jackie, who we knew never liked to be the cause of sadness in anyone else.

  Oh no. Was that a tear in Annie's eye?

  "Do you have any idea," Annie said, her voice quavering, "how hard these past seven months and five days have been on me? I knew someone had to take charge of leading the family in Mommy's and Daddy's absence, or we'd all get split up. We'd lose each other. I did it because I felt I had to, so our lives wouldn't turn to chaos and ruin. But do you honestly think I enjoy being thought of as the bossy Eight?"

  "Yes," Rebecca said, "I do think that."

  "That's not helpful," Jackie told Rebecca as she put her arm around Annie.

  "You're right," Rebecca said. "I don't honestly think she enjoys being thought of as the bossy Eight. But I do think she enjoys being bossy. A lot."

  "That's not helpful either," Jackie said.

  "No, no," Annie said, sounding so very sad. "Rebecca's right. Perhaps I have enjoyed it too much, you know, being bossy."

  Oh, we hated seeing Annie like this. Seeing Annie looking sad and broken was far worse than having her order us around. We were almost certain that, despite the nasty things she said, even Rebecca felt this way.

  After Annie's tears and all that she'd said, we felt we understood her a little better. True, there was some choice in her behavior toward us, but mostly it just had to do with her being her. Why, Annie couldn't stop herself from acting as though she were in charge of everything any more than Marcia could stop herself from blurting out the answer to 2 times 16.766. It was just her nature.

  Suddenly, we felt we had to do something to make Annie feel good.

  "You know, Annie," Zinnia said, "I really do feel like doing Summer Workbook."

  "If you dry your tears," Petal promised, "I'll get out my Summer Workbook right now."'

  "I know we only just had breakfast a short time ago," Durinda offered, "but I could make us all a snack for extra brainpower while we work."

  "I'll go get the pencils," Georgia offered.

  "This is great," Marcia said when we all had our pencils and workbooks in front of us. "I love doing Summer Workbook!"

  "There's no need to lay it on quite that thick, Marcia," Rebecca said.

  "What are you talking about?" Marcia said. "I do love doing Summer Workbook.." Marcia gave a happy sigh. "I just love learning things."'

  "Could someone look at my forehead?" Petal said. "I feel as though my brain is expanding already and I am worried it might be beginning to bulge."'

  Oh, Petal.

  Jackie studied the proffered forehead kindly. "No worries," Jackie said. "It looks like your brain is probably still the same size."

  Annie cleared her throat. "You do know," she said, "that I do love all of you and that's partly why I am the way I am, right?"

  Yeah. We did know that.

  Just then there came a rumble of thunder followed by a downpour of rain, sheets of it.

  "That roof never did look sound," Pete said. "I'll go find some buckets to catch the water that's leaking through the ceiling."

  While Pete did that, Petal grabbed one of Pete's work boots and placed it under the biggest leak. "Stinky but effective," she pronounced.

  It was a good thing, we thought as lightning crackled through the sky, that we hadn't left for the beach.

  And it was a good thing, we thought as it continued to rain throughout the day, that we had something with which to keep ourselves occupied inside.

  ***

  It is funny how summer can affect a person's brain. You go through the school year, learning all sorts of things, and then summer comes and you think: Well, that's enough of that for now. Yippee!

  But doing Summer Workbook that day as a summer storm raged outside reminded us of all we'd been missing, the excitement of learning about new things a person hadn't even dreamed existed.

  By the time Zinnia lifted her head up, we'd long passed the combined quota for that day and the day before, and none of us had complained about all the work we were doing, not once, not even Rebecca. Perhaps we hadn't complained because we were too busy having fun seeing how much we did know and how much we could know.

  "What's this?" Zinnia asked, her finger marking a spot on the page.

  We all gathered round Zinnia and saw that she was working in the Mathematics section.

  "It's an infinity symbol," Annie said.

  "Yes, I know that," Zinnia said. "I can read the caption under the diagram as well as you can, but I still don't understand what it means or what it does."

  "Sorry, I haven't gotten to that page in Mathematics yet," Annie said. "I've been working mostly in other sections. Marcia?"

  But it turned out Marcia hadn't gotten to that page in Mathematics yet because she'd been too busy focusing on getting through Language Arts all in one go. None of the rest of us had gotten to that page either.

  So we did the sensible thing.

  We read what the page had to say about infinity, some of us reading more quickly than others. We waited for those others to finish.

  "If I understand correctly," Jackie said, "infinity is a word meaning an unlimited extent of time, space, or quantity. So that symbol in relation to numbers is like saying that the number in question is endless. If you could live forever and count forever during that forever life, the number would still be going on."

  "Huh," Zinnia said. "It's still a bit confusing, but somewhat less so than before."

  Zinnia tilted her head to one side, studying the symbol on the page from a new angle. "Huh," she said again. "When you look at it this way, the infinity symbol looks a bit like an eight lying down."

  Seven more heads tilted, plus the heads of the Petes, who'd come in just then to check on us.

  We saw that Zinnia was right. An infinity symbol did look like an eight lying down.

  "I wonder," Zinnia said, "if we could make our own infinity symbol."

  "Could you show us what you have in mind, Zinnia?" Annie said somewhat formally.

  How odd for Annie to speak to one of us like that, we thought. And then we realized what Annie was doing: she was trying to let one of us be in charge of something for a change.

  "Let's clear a big space in the middle of the floor," Zinnia suggested.

  We did that.

  "Now let's arrange ourselves," Zinnia said, "like we're one big eight."

  "Do you want us to be an infinity symbol or one big eight?" Jackie asked.

  Zinnia shrugged. "Both," she said.

  "I'm not seeing this," Rebecca said.

  We ignored Rebecca although we couldn't see it yet either.

  "Annie," Zinnia directed, "lie down on your side and curve your body a little to form one curved end of the eight. Durinda, you hold on to Annie's ankles and curve your hands just slightly. Georgia, you hold on to Durinda's ankles so you can be the line in the center. Jackie, you hold on to Georgia's ankles to continue the line, but curve your legs a bit. Marcia, you grab on to Jackie's curved legs and curve your whole body like Annie's doing to form the other curved end of the eight. Petal, you grab on to Marcia's curved ankles and curve your hands slightly. Rebecca, you hold on to Petal's ankles so you can be the other line in the center, crossing Georgia's line. And now I'll hold on to Rebecca's ankles, and then Annie can grab on to mine when I curve them slightly, like so. There!"

  Well, now that we were all in position...

  "Do you see now?" Zinnia asked excitedly.

  "How can I see anything," Rebecca said, "other than Petal's stinky feet. Petal, did you wash these today?"

  "Well..." Petal said.

  The Petes came over and studied the shape we were in on the floor.

  "You know," Pete said after a long moment, "I can see it. The eight of you have joined together to form a single eight."

  "But if I look at you this
way," Mrs. Pete said, tilting her head, "you look like an eight lying down, or an infinity symbol."

  "That's what I was getting at!" Zinnia said triumphantly.

  "Since a few people finally get it," Georgia said, "can we stop doing this now?"

  Not waiting for Zinnia's answer, we pulled apart from one another.

  "I'm not being critical," Annie said, "but I am curious, Zinnia: what was that about?"

  "I don't know." Zinnia shrugged. "Impulse?" she asked as much as answered. "I just suddenly felt as though we should do it, see if we could do it. In our world, you never know what might come in handy one day."

  ELEVEN

  Being able to turn our eight bodies into one infinity symbol may have felt like a potentially handy thing to know on August 5, but nothing could save us the next day, not when we woke up and realized...

  It was August 6! Our eighth birthday was just two days away, and none of us had done a bit of shopping yet!

  "Oh no!" Annie said, being the one to say "Oh no!" for once. Then she proceeded to explain the situation to the Petes.

  "With our parents being ... not around," she concluded after a fair bit of talking, "we'll have no presents for our birthday in two days."

  "Of course you'll have presents, pet," Pete said gently.

  "We will?" Annie said, shocked.

  "Of course you will," Mrs. Pete said. "We have presents for you."

  Oh, the Petes were good people.

  But...

  "That truly is wonderful," Annie said, "and we are not ungrateful, but we usually get things for each other as well."

  "I don't see why you can't still do that," Pete said. "How do you propose we go about it?"

  "Well," Annie said, "the way it usually works is Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, and I go shopping for Zinnia. We go with Mommy while Zinnia stays home with Daddy. Then when we're done with that, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia—"

  "I think I see the pattern already," Pete said. "What you're saying is that you go on eight separate shopping trips to get eight separate presents for each other, seven of you going off with your mother while that particular present recipient stays at home with your father."

  We were grateful for Pete's quick grasp of the situation, for his immediate understanding of how we did things in our family. If he hadn't understood so fast, we would have waited while Annie listed the eight different casts of characters for the eight separate shopping trips.

  We were also grateful, for once, for Annie's ability to take charge of a situation and explain what was required.

  "Sure, we can do that," Pete said. "The seven shoppers on each trip will go with Mrs. Pete while I stay here with the particular present recipient."

  We did find it odd that he referred to his own wife as Mrs. Pete, but in the face of his generosity we let it go.

  "It does sound," Pete added, "as though such an involved shopping process could take all day."

  ***

  As it turned out, Pete was right.

  It did take all day, going on eight separate shopping excursions, selecting the perfect present for each particular present recipient, and then getting each present wrapped before returning with it to the cottage.

  In fact, we missed the whole day at the beach.

  But it was worth it to ensure that at least one part of our birthday would be the same as it always had been in our family.

  ***

  We awoke the next morning, August 7, to a gorgeous summer day, the kind of day that would be perfect to spend at the beach. But we also awoke to...

  "Why so glum, chums?" Pete asked.

  It was true. We were glum again, depressed.

  "I thought," Zinnia said, speaking for all of us, "that it would be best to be away from home for our eighth birthday—you know, because Mommy and Daddy aren't with us this year. But I'm finding that as tomorrow looms closer, the idea of being away from home on our birthday is even worse, like it's just one change too many in our lives."'

  "Are you saying you want to go back early?" Pete asked.

  "Yes, please," Zinnia said.

  We gave her credit for having stellar manners in trying times.

  "But we have this cottage for two more days," Mrs. Pete said gently.

  "Even still," Zinnia said, "we would like to go today, if you don't mind."'

  "Of course we don't mind," Pete said.

  "Of course we don't," Mrs. Pete said. "We only ever wanted to make you happy."'

  "So we'll just load up the car," Pete said.

  "We won't forget Daddy Sparky and Mommy Sally," Mrs. Pete said.

  "Or the Summer Workbooks," Annie put in.

  "And we'll be on our way," Pete said.

  "Well," Mrs. Pete said, "after we drop the keys off with that man at the Little Hotel."

  We were going home; we'd make it home in time for our eighth birthday.

  We can't say we were cheerful, not at the idea of spending our first birthday ever without Mommy and Daddy. What a significant birthday to spend without them—the Eights turning eight!

  But we were cheered.

  ***

  "Ninety-nine boxes of juice on the wall, ninety-nine boxes of juice!"

  Somehow, the trip coming home was never half so fun or exciting as the trip going away.

  "I know what we can do to liven things up," Pete said.

  He did?

  "We could stop at that roadside attraction over there!" Pete suggested enthusiastically when none of us responded.

  "What's a roadside attraction?" Petal asked as we piled out of the Hummer.

  "It's something on the side of the road," Jackie explained, "almost like a little museum of stuff you'd never get the chance to see at home."

  "While you lot look at the roadside attraction," Pete said, "I need to go make a phone call. Back in a tick!"

  Huh. We wondered who he'd gone to call so quickly and why he couldn't use the phone in the Hummer.

  "So what's this roadside attraction about?" Durinda asked.

  "It says that it's a snail farm," Marcia said, reading the little sign.

  "My, that looks lively," Rebecca said. "Are any of them even moving?"

  ***

  "Fifty-three boxes of juice on the wall, fifty-three boxes of juice!"

  Wow, we realized. That could get old quickly.

  "Time for another roadside attraction," Pete said, "and another phone call."

  "Who do you think he's calling?" Marcia wondered.

  "And why doesn't he just use our car phone to do it?" Georgia wondered further.

  We shrugged.

  "What's this roadside attraction for?" Zinnia asked.

  "I hope it's not another snail museum." Petal shuddered. "That last one was almost too much excitement for my delicate heart. I nearly fainted."

  "Oh, look," Durinda said. "It's a combination museum. On one side, it's a museum of unusual buttons, while on the other, it's a museum of unusual kitchen appliances."

  "I'll bet," Rebecca said, "our family could make a better roadside attraction."

  ***

  All those stops for roadside attractions and one more phone call on Pete's part—as it turned out, the trip back was far longer than the trip out had been.

  We arrived back at 6:00 a.m. on August 8, exactly two hours before the official beginning moment of our eighth birthday, 8:00 a.m. being the time Annie was born, with the rest of us being born a minute apart for the next seven minutes.

  But that was all okay, because we were home.

  Home.

  TWELVE

  But what was that banner doing draped across our front door? That banner that read—we squinted our eyes against the early-morning light—in tall, rainbow-colored letters...

  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EIGHTS!

  It hadn't been there when we left home six days ago. We were almost certain we would have noticed it. Had Carl the talking refrigerator and robot Betty somehow done this? But, we thought, Carl couldn't walk, and Betty's handwr
iting was never this neat.

  "Surprise!" Will Simms shouted, coming around the house from one side.

  "Surprise!" Mandy Stenko shouted, coming around the house from the other side.

  "Happy birthday, Eights!" the McG and the Mr. McG shouted, coming from wherever such people come from.

  "Surprise!" Will and Mandy and the McG and the Mr. McG and the Petes yelled all together.

  "You did this," Zinnia said, turning to Pete. "You called them all from the road."

  "Well, yes," Pete admitted, "but the missus helped me come up with the idea."

  We were relieved he'd stopped calling her Mrs. Pete and was back to calling her the missus.

  "Now let's go inside," Pete said, herding us along. "I suspect there are presents and a great big cake waiting for you in there."

  ***

  The cake waiting for us was big and it was great too; the rainbow lettering on it said Happy Birthday Annie, Durinda, Georgia, Jackie, Marcia, Petal, Rebecca, Zinnia!

  We were grateful for that cake, the bigness and greatness of it, and we were doubly grateful that they'd spent the extra money to have all of our names spelled out rather than simply settling for the easier Happy Birthday, Eights! Seeing those separate names spelled out like that—it did make each of us feel special.

  But we were too excited to open presents and eat cake, too excited from everything that had happened in the past week and everything that was going on. Besides, it wasn't our official birthday yet and wouldn't be until the big clock in the drawing room struck eight.

  So instead of opening presents or eating cake, we spent a good bit of time filling in Will and Mandy and the McGs on what we'd been up to on our vacation.

  "And then there was no room at the inns," Durinda said, proceeding to tell about that part.

  "And then Annie made us do Summer Workbook," Georgia said, proceeding to tell about that part.

  We could see the McGs were both pleased and impressed about that part.