All the Answers (25 page)

After the funeral, everyone came back to the house to talk and cry and hug and eat Gram's macaroni and cheese. Gram had regular pasta instead, because of the lactose thing.

“You know, we're talking about making the world's largest brownie to get some attention for the general store,” Dad told a handful of uncles and cousins who were gathered around the crockpot dishing up pulled pork.

Ava was already imagining her poor dad with a giant pan of brownies, all soupy batter in the middle and burned to a charred crisp on the edges. She handed him a roll for his sandwich. “Actually, Dad … I've been thinking. Maybe world-famous baked goods aren't the answer.”

She'd actually been thinking a lot. Mostly, about what Grandma Marion said about being at peace with who you are, overcoming your donuts-on-fire weaknesses and knowing your strengths. Her dad's biggest strength was bringing people together and making them laugh. “I might have an even better idea for the store.”

It took a whole winter of planning and phone calls, poster making and letter writing. There were more than a few moments of can-we-really-pull-this-off and lots of late-night brainstorming sessions that ended with fits of laughter and pie around the kitchen table. But no one could deny that the First Annual Anderson's General Store Know-Your-Neighbor Festival was a spectacular success.

The weather was perfect—cool, spring sunshine that promised to warm up into picnic and short-sleeves weather by early afternoon.

Ava and Sophie spent the morning helping little kids on the miniature adventure course they'd set up in the general store's front yard using equipment borrowed from school. Mr. Avery had set up the practice balance beams, and even though they didn't have the harnesses and safety stuff for a high ropes
course, the short, low zip line that went from the tree to the telephone pole by the driveway was a big hit.

Marcus had cordoned off squares for Goat Poop Bingo on the front lawn. He was selling tickets at a table while Lucy and Ethel chowed down on oats, getting ready for the big event.

Emma had set up a booth right by the parking area, offering everyone name tags so it would be easier to meet new people. “If you don't want to use your real name, you can choose a different one, and we'll all call you that instead,” she offered. Most people chose their real names, but Ava did see Emma's teacher wandering around, wearing a tag that read “HELLO MY NAME IS RHUBARB.”

Mrs. Galvin volunteered to run a used book sale. She lured people in with her chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies and made personal recommendations for everyone, kid or adult.

Gram sold cookbooks at the next table over. Marcus helped her with the layout on the computer and she had them printed downtown. The
Anderson's General Store Cookbook
included Gram's famous mac and cheese, and she'd gotten all the old ladies at her church to share their recipes, too. Even Mrs. Dobson, who swore she'd take the secret of her butterscotch pie to her grave. So the cookbooks were a big hit.

The town council members came to help judge the First Annual Anderson's General Store Bad Baking Contest. Dad didn't enter. “That just wouldn't be fair to the rest of the community,” he
said. “They wouldn't have a chance.” Since Dad's half-baked giant blueberry muffin and flaming donuts weren't in the running, Mrs. Finnegan from the Venerable Vinyl record store took first place with a recipe she discovered by accident.

“I hadn't planned on baking molasses-peanut-butter-raisin-fudge-lemon sugar cookies,” she told the crowd, standing proudly at the microphone with her trophy, a baking sheet that Sophie and Ava had spray-painted gold. “I'd measured out all the ingredients for five different kinds of Christmas cookies, but the phone kept ringing and I forgot which kind I'd started making. So I ended up putting in everything.” She took a bite of one of the cookies and grimaced, then held her gold baking sheet over her head, and everybody cheered.

Mom handled sales in the store—and sales were brisk—while Dad wandered around and personally thanked everyone for coming. He told jokes and complimented people on their bad cookies and played with the little kids and did all the things Dad did best. On one side of the stone, Katina D.'s new song played from the speakers while a bunch of high school girls danced. On the other side, families lazed on spread-out blankets watching
I Love Lucy
episodes projected onto the wall of the shed and licking regular, scoop-shaped ice cream cones that were neither the world's largest nor the world's smallest. Everyone seemed to love them anyway.

At eleven o'clock, Ava and Sophie took a break from the obstacle course and set up their fortune-telling booth to raise
money for the activities fund at Cedar Bay. It was just for fun, and after the goldenrod gall fiasco in science class, Ava insisted that their sign be honest about that.

It didn't stop people from handing over a dollar each to have their fortunes told while Ava and Sophie looked into the reflecting ball they'd borrowed from Sophie's mom's garden.

Mrs. Galvin was first in line. “Hmm … You are going to read an amazing book that will change your life,” Ava told her.

Mrs. Galvin said, “I like that fortune. All books do that for me, even if it's just in little ways.”

“Me, too,” Ava said, “but some more than others.”

Mr. Avery stepped up to the table and put down his dollar. “Did you get your run in yet today, Ava?”

“Not yet. I've been busy helping here.” Ava had joined the school's modified track team, and Mr. Avery had let her skip the day's official practice to set up the festival. “But I
promise I'm going out right after we're done.” She looked down at his dollar. “Do you want your fortune told?”

“Of course!”

Sophie swept in, took the dollar, and told him, “You are going to have a terrific winning season, Coach.” She put an arm around Ava. “And a new star runner, too.”

He grinned. “I'm counting on it.” Then he went to look at Gram's cookbooks.

Marcus was next in line. He dropped four quarters onto the table, and Sophie looked into the shiny metallic orb on the table, waving her hands over it mysteriously. “You are going to have great success in the field of science,” she told him.

“Really?” He grinned.

“But you will need to dry the dishes tonight,” Ava added, “even though it's not your turn, to ensure that good karma allows this prophecy to come true.”

“Yeah, right.” Marcus shook his head and walked away, but Ava thought he might actually do it. You could never be too careful about karma.

“I want to know my future, but I don't have any dollars.” Emma stood on her tiptoes to see into the crystal ball. “Daddy says if you go ahead and do it, he'll pay for me later.”

“Let's see.” Ava leaned forward to look into the crystal ball. “It looks like next year, you will be the only Emma in your whole entire class,” Ava whispered.

Emma's face lit up, and she ran back to her name tag booth.

“She's going to be so mad if you're wrong,” Sophie said, laughing, as she watched Emma go, “especially if she uses up all those name tags.” Then she looked down quickly and whispered, “Okay, don't look now, but Jason is coming. Let me handle this one, okay?”

“Okay.” Ava was surprised Sophie would want to talk to Jason. “You don't like him again, do you?”

Sophie shook her head and grinned. “No. But a customer is a customer.” She'd been furious with Jason since he dumped her for Gracie Madison on New Year's Eve, but she gave him a big smile when he put his dollar down on the table.

“Let's see what the crystal ball has to say about your future.” Sophie waved her hands over it and frowned into it. She waved her hands some more and jumped back a little as if something she'd seen surprised her.

“What? What's in there?” Jason looked truly nervous. He obviously hadn't read the poster's fine print.

“I see … this is very unusual.” Sophie leaned closer to the metallic ball.

“Unusual how?”

“I see a number of girls in your future,” Sophie said.

“Really?” Jason's voice was hopeful. Ava had to suppress a laugh. “Who are they?”

Sophie shook her head. “It is too cloudy to say for certain. And the dollar only covers one minute, so your time is up.”

“Can I give you another dollar?”

“Sure.”

Jason handed over another dollar, but the crystal ball stayed cloudy. So he paid another one. Sophie waved her hands and frowned some more and shook her head.

Poor Jason was up to five bucks when Ava started to feel bad for him and kicked Sophie under the table.

“Oh!” Sophie said and looked at Ava.

“I can see it now … One of them is Rosa Benson,” Sophie said. Rosa was a quiet flute player who was always mooning over Jason in band.

“Who are the other ones?” Jason asked.

Ava jumped in. “That's all we're going to see, I'm afraid. But know that … um … you will have success in life and love.”

“Cool,” Jason said, and left for the ice cream counter.

“Success in life and love?” Sophie cracked up after he was gone.

“It was the only thing I could think of to get him to leave while he still had some of next week's lunch money. You are truly evil,” Ava told Sophie, but she couldn't help laughing.

“He had it coming to him. Plus it's all going to a good cause.” Sophie nodded over to the chairs set up on the lawn. Thomas and Betty had gotten special permission to bring some of the Cedar Bay residents out for the day in the nursing home van that took them shopping sometimes. Mrs. Raymond was there. She'd started the day bundled in her monster trucks sweatshirt but had it draped over her shoulders now that the sun was so warm.

The jazz band wasn't performing until later, but Mrs.
Grabowski's family had brought some old Ukrainian music and set up an area for dancing. They'd done their best to dress in traditional costumes. Mrs. Grabowski could only dance for a minute or two at a time, but even when she had to sit down to rest, she looked happy, wearing Sophie's flowery, ribbony tiara and tapping her white sneakers in time with the music.

Everyone seemed to enjoy it, whether they were Ukrainian or not. Mr. Ames was there, slapping his knee. Mr. Clemson was nodding in time to the music, looking around behind him every few minutes, probably sniffing for smoke. But he must have felt comfortable; he never looked anxious for long. Mrs. Yu was sitting near Mrs. Grabowski, making the chewing motions with her mouth, nodding and tapping her feet a little, too.

“Mrs. Yu's jamming,” Sophie said.

“Yeah.” Ava watched her for a minute. “She looks kind of sad, too, though. I wonder why. If we still had the pencil, we could ask.”

Sophie was quiet for a few seconds. “Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes.”

It was true. Sometimes, she missed knowing what people were thinking, knowing she could find out what they needed and help them. She missed the comfort of knowing she wasn't going to fail a math quiz, no matter what. But studying with Mrs. Galvin was almost as good as the pencil when it came to that. And Ava's new counselor, Miss Cosgrove, was helping her with her anxiety, too. Mom and Dad had set up the first appointment
after Mom's diagnosis, because even when you were stronger than you thought and braver than you believed, it helped to have some extra strategies in your pocket.