Justine McKeen, Queen of Green (3 page)
“A small corner of your parking lot,” Justine said.
“What?” he said. “Are you the Queen of Green or the Queen of Crazy? I can't give you a piece of my parking lot.”
“It's for a school fundraiser,” Justine said. “On a Saturday. Three weeks from now.”
“What kind of fundraiser?” he asked. “Not a car wash. The kids from the high school had a car wash in my parking lot once, and it was too noisy.”
“It's a vegetable-selling fundraiser,” she said. “Fresh vegetables. Made the green way.”
“Only one way to make vegetables,” he said. “Put seeds in dirt.”
“That's only part of it,” she said. “You also shouldn't use pesticides or chemicals. You see, there are natural ways to keep bugs off vegetables. All you do isâ”
“What's your name?” Mr. Tait said.
“Justine McKeen, Queen of Green.”
“Look, Miss Queen of Green,” Mr. Tait said. “I'm not interested in all this talk about green or in letting you use my parking lot.”
“What if we give you half of the money we raise as rent?”
“Well, that changes things,” he said. “Okay, you can rent a corner of my parking lot to sell your green vegetables. Just don't waste my time with all this talk about green. People talk about green this and green that because it makes them feel good. The rest of us have jobs to do.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tait,” Justine said. “By the way, if you are ever interested in putting cricket brownies on your menu, they make a good dessert. Just ask Jimmy Blatzo.”
“
Arrgg
,” Mr. Tait said.
“I knew
arrgg
was a word,” Justine said to herself as she walked out of Ice-Cream Heaven
.
Outside Ice-Cream Heaven, Michael and Safdar were waiting for Justine beside their bicycles.
“Mr. Tait told you he wouldn't do it,” Michael said. “Right? I mean, it is a crazy idea.”
“Actually,” Justine said, “Mr. Tait said it would be okay.”
“Huh?” Michael said.
Safdar put up his hand, as if he was sitting in class.
“Yes, Safdar,” Justine said, as if she were his teacher.
“Did you tell Mr. Tait exactly what your idea was?” Safdar asked. “Because I think if he knew exactly what you wanted to do, there's no way he would have agreed.”
“I told him most of what we were going to do,” Justine said.
“Most?” Michael asked.
“Most,” she said. “Some things you can't spring on people all at once. That's what my grammy says. This was partly her idea, you know.”
“To build aâ,” said Michael.
“No,” Justine said, “not to build our project. But to find a way to get Mr. Tait to be more green. My grammy said when you criticize people, it only makes them defend what they are doing, so it's harder to change their habits. She said it's much easier to get people on your side by asking them for help. So instead of a petition and marching back and forth with signs in protest, I thought we should let Mr. Tait help us build a wonderful green project in his parking lot.”
“Great,” Michael said. “And in case you are wondering, by great, I mean not so great.”
“It will be fine,” Justine said. “There's only one thing we need to do. Over the next three weeks, we need our class to help us collect fifteen hundred empty plastic soda bottles.”
“Fifteen hundred?” Safdar said. “Like one thousand five hundred?”
“Sure,” Justine said. “Great ideas take work, you know.”
“I have only one word for this,” Michael said.
Safdar and Justine looked at him.
“
Arrgg
,” he said.
Two weeks later, Michael and Safdar followed Justine home after school. She lived with her grandmother.
“Hi, Grammy,” Justine said. “These are my friends, Michael and Safdar. They are going to help me make posters.”
Grammy smiled. Judging from the wrinkles on her face, the boys could tell she smiled a lot.
“Hello, boys,” she said. “I'm glad you are helping Justine with her green project. I hear your class has collected almost fifteen hundred plastic bottles.”
“Yes, we have,” Michael said. “Helping to make posters didn't sound all that fun, but Justine promised we could use power tools.”
“Yeah,” Safdar said, “power tools. Boys LIKE power tools.”
“What I said about the power tools is mostly true,” said Justine.
“Mostly?” Safdar said.
“Yes,” Justine said. “Remember what I told you before. Some things you can't spring on people all at once. You are here now, so even if we don't need to use power tools, there's no point going home. Right?”
“
Arrgg
,” Michael said. He was beginning to think
arrgg
was a good word.
“Don't worry,” Justine said. “When I said power tools, I was talking about a paper shredder, a blender and a hair dryer.”
“Cool,” Safdar said. “I LIKE power tools. Any kind of power tools.”
“But first,” Grammy said, “Justine needs to do something about our maggots.”
“Maggots?” Michael said.
“Little white worms that turn into flies,” Justine said. “They are really good for wounds that are infected. You put maggots on a wound and they eat all the decaying flesh.”
“Nice,” Michael said. “And by nice, I mean not so nice.”
“Follow me,” Justine said.
She took Michael and Safdar into the garage. There was a big plastic bucket on the floor. It had lots of holes drilled into it. It was filled with brown stuff. It wasn't smelly. But it had lots of little white things crawling around the top.
“This is our compost bin,” Justine said. “Grammy and I throw our soft garbage into it. Things like vegetable peels and eggshells, coffee grounds and tea bags, scrapings from our plates andâ”
“Getting the picture,” Michael said.
“Later,” she said, “we can use the compost as fertilizer. For the project at Ice-Cream Heaven.”
Safdar leaned over and watched all the maggots squirming on top. “Cool! When do they turn into flies and fly away?”
“Oh, they will fly away.” Justine laughed. “But they will have help.”
She dragged the compost bin out of the garage and away from the house. She led Michael and Safdar back into the house where they could watch the bin from the front window.
“It should only take a minute,” she said.
She was right. About a minute later, several birds swooped down and began pecking at the compost.
“See,” she said. “The maggots
are
flying away. It's the natural way to get rid of pests.”
“Are you ready to use the power tools now?” Justine asked. Safdar and Michael nodded. They were gathered around Justine's kitchen table.
“Exactly how does a blender and a hair dryer help us make a poster?” Safdar asked.
“Don't forget the paper shredder,” Michael said.
“Easy,” Justine said. “Maybe I should have mentioned all the shredding has been done.”
“Let me guess,” Michael said. “Some things you can't spring on people all at once.”
“Wow,” Justine said. “You ARE smart.”
“
Arrgg
,” Michael said.
