“No!” said Maryellen. Then she said slowly, “Well, I did sort of want people to think of me as someone who could make a difference in something important. So I guess I wanted to be a little bit famous. Is that bad?”
“Not at all,” said Dad.
“The purpose of the show was to raise money for the March of Dimes and to encourage people to be vaccinated,” said Maryellen.
“I see,” said Dad. “That is a worthwhile purpose.” He turned away, picked up the hose, and gave Scooter a hose-shower-bath, which Scooter loved.
Maryellen sighed. In all the disagreement and excitement, she’d forgotten that what was truly important was the reason for the show: to fight polio.
“I think it’s too late to uncancel the show now,” she said. “I pitched a big fit. Probably no one even wants to do the show with me anymore.”
“Maybe,” said Dad. “You won’t know unless you ask.”
Maryellen hesitated. Then she blurted out, “It will be so humiliating. I’ll have to call everyone, and apologize, and say that I’m canceling the cancellation, and ask them to come tomorrow.”
“Think you can do it?” asked Dad.
Maryellen shrugged and shook her head. “I dunno.”
“Well, I think you can,” said Dad, squirting the hose at her feet so that she had to smile.
“I’ll give it a try,” she said.
“That’s my girl,” said Dad. “You know what they say in show biz: The show must go on. Good luck.”
“Thanks,” said Maryellen. She took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.” She walked inside as if she had cement blocks on her feet instead of wet flip-flops, dreading apologizing to Carolyn and Beverly. What would she say?
But it turned out to be easy. As soon as Maryellen said that she was sorry, her sisters hugged her and said they were thrilled that the show was not cancelled. Carolyn celebrated by pounding out “Shake, Rattle and Roll” as loudly as she could on the piano, and Beverly danced wildly all around the living room. Tom and Mikey hadn’t understood that the show was off in the first place, so they reacted calmly to the news that the show was on. They mostly just seemed glad that Maryellen was her usual nice, cheery self again.
Next Maryellen called Karen Stohlman, who let out a piercing shriek of joy and forgave her immediately and immediately insisted on calling Angela and Karen King and telling them the good news. Luckily, no one had taken down any of the posters. So that left only one more thing to do, one more person she had to tell. Actually, she thought, squaring her shoulders, two.
It had been a long, long time since Maryellen had cut through the hedge between her house and the Fenstermachers’. She felt nervous. Through his bedroom window, she could see Davy gluing together pieces of a model airplane. It was reassuring to see that Davy still loved airplanes, as he had back when he and Maryellen were best friends.
Probably Davy wouldn’t even remember their secret signal, Maryellen thought sadly. But she tapped on Davy’s window anyway: Tap, tappety, tap, tap. Tap, tap.
Davy flung his window open. “What’s up, Doc?” he asked, just like the old days.
“Hey,” said Maryellen. “Sorry I was such a pain before. We’re going to do the show tomorrow, and I hope you still want to be in it. So, please come. I mean, only if you want to.”
“Okay,” said Davy without hesitating.
Maryellen felt flooded with relief and gratitude. “Good,” she said. “Now, about Wayne. He’s a pain, but everyone thinks that he’s a funny pain. Do you think if I call him and say I’m sorry I hurt his feelings that he’ll agree to be in the show?”
“Try and stop him,” said Davy with a grin.
Maryellen grinned, too, in spite of herself. “Do you know his phone number?”
“Yup,” said Davy. “It’s 4628. You can remember it by saying four plus six is ten, take away two is eight.”
“Or you could say, ‘Four! Six! Two! Eight! Who do we appreciate?’” joked Maryellen. And she and Davy both said together, “Wayne!”
“Thank you, Davy,” Maryellen said. “See you tomorrow.”
“You bet,” said Davy. “See you later, alligator.”
“In a while, crocodile,” Maryellen replied.
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