Just Grace Goes Green

by Charise Mericle Harper

  SAMMY'S PROJECT

  Sammy told Gwen that he and Max were going to do some kind of special Tae Kwon Do can-chopping for their conservation project. He said they were going to show everybody that recycling cans could be fun and good for the earth at the same time. "Sounds great," said Gwen. And I couldn't tell if she was making fun of Sammy or if she really thought chopping cans was a cool idea. Suddenly she was seeming more mysterious, even though I didn't believe for a minute that she really was part of a spy family.

  WHAT I DID THAT WAS UNUSUAL

  Mom let me have dinner over at Mimi's house, and it was a school night. She said it was a special occasion since we were doing our recycling project together. That way we could work on it before and after dinner. Gwen was really helpful about looking up information on the red panda. It hardly took us any time at all to put our presentation together.

  WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE RED PANDA

  1 The red panda is super cute!

  2 They are only a little bit bigger than a normal housecat.

  3 They live in China, India, Laos, and Nepal, as well as a couple other places in Southeast Asia.

  4 They sleep up in trees during the day and move around at night. This is called being nocturnal.

  5 They eat mostly bamboo but sometimes they also eat berries, fruit, and roots.

  6 Red pandas are endangered because their homes are disappearing. People are cutting down their trees to use the wood and then building farms and towns where the trees used to be.

  I'm starting to think that mostly when you think about saving the earth you are going to be sad. It is not a feel-good problem.

  WHAT HAPPENED IN MIMI'S ROOM

  As soon as we finished our project we went upstairs to Mimi's room. Mimi wanted to start working on the scene we were going to make out of clay. I'm not allowed to have clay in my room but Mimi's mom is really picky about her downstairs being clean so she likes Mimi to keep all that kind of stuff in her own room.

  Gwen and I sat on the bed while Mimi looked for the clay. Her room is a huge mess, but she says she likes it that way. She always seems to find the exact thing she is looking for, even if you can't imagine how she could do it. While we were waiting I noticed that Gwen had picked up Willoughby. Mimi gave me a look that said, "See! She's got him!" and then she found the clay.

  Mimi is much better at making characters than I am, so she made the red panda, the tree, and her own superhero. We couldn't make our clay superhero costumes as good as the ones we had drawn, but still, from far back they looked pretty good.

  Gwen said it would be really cool if we could make a movie, like the kind people make with clay. Then our superheroes could swoop in and grab the red panda and fly off with him. Of course none of us could do that sort of thing, but still it gave us the idea to make our superheroes be flying, and that was better than having them just walk up to the panda. It is not so easy though to make superheroes look like they are flying.

  After a while we called Mimi's dad and he helped us make that part of it. He's really good at construction stuff.

  MIMI'S DAD'S BIG IDEA

  To go downstairs and eat ice cream sandwiches.

  MIMI'S BIG IDEA

  While we were eating our ice cream Mimi's dad asked Gwen what she wanted to do for her birthday. I had totally and completely forgotten to remember that we were probably going to have a party for her. Gwen said she didn't know, and then that's when Mimi had her big idea. Mimi said, "I know a great idea! Let's go to one of those places where you can make your own stuffed animals."

  And I knew exactly why she had suddenly had this big idea. It was a great way for her to get Willoughby back. Gwen would fall in love with a new fancy stuffed animal and then she wouldn't want Willoughby anymore. It was brilliant and perfect! But that was only until Gwen said, "Ewww. Those places are for babies. I already did that when I was five."

  Mimi was not going to give up, though. "It could still be cool," said Mimi. "There's one at the mall that has all sorts of cool older stuff too."

  "Now, Mimi," said Mimi's dad, "this is Gwen's special day, so she gets to decide. If you really want to go to that place at the mall we can do that on your birthday."

  "No," said Mimi. "I don't want to go there on my birthday."

  "Well, good, then it's settled. Maybe you girls should work it out and let me know what you decide," said Mimi's dad, and then he left the room shaking his head.

  IT'S NOT EASY TO FIX EVERYTHING

  My empathy feelings were suddenly working super hard, and that was because both Mimi and Gwen were sad. Mimi because her excellent plan had not worked out, and Gwen probably because she was sure her birthday was going to be terrible. I was wishing with all my energy that I could think of a great way to solve both Mimi's and Gwen's problems at the same time. But I could tell that that was probably not going to happen.

  There are lots of fun things you can do on your birthday, but most of them are not so fun if you are not with your best friends. Just when I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to think of anything, Mimi's dad came back into the room. He said, "Girls, this is just a suggestion. We could get a group together and go out to one of those Japanese restaurants. You know, the kind where they do the fire show at your table. I'll let you talk about it. Let me know." And then he was gone again.

  I was surprised, but suddenly Mimi was all excited about the idea. She said the chefs twirled knives and even made volcanoes out of onions. It sounded pretty great. It took Gwen a minute to think about it, but then she said, "Yeah, that sounds like fun." One problem solved; now just one to go.

  DINNER

  Mimi's mom is a great cook, so it's always nice to eat over at her house. They eat stuff that I'm surprised I even like. Weird stuff like asparagus and clams and olives—grown-up food. The only thing they never have is sushi, and that's too bad for Mimi because she likes it almost as much as I do. I try to get Mom to order it when Mimi is over at our house—that way she gets to have some.

  After dinner we all went up to Mimi's room to work on our plastic bottle project. Gwen said she thought it was important to scare everyone first with facts about what happens if you just throw away your plastic. That way people would want to recycle more. This was not a hard thing to do. Everything about pollution and garbage is 100 percent scary and sad.

  FACTS ABOUT PLASTIC

  1 Recycling plastic saves two times more energy than burning plastic in an incinerator.

  2 Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour, and most are just thrown away.

  3 Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a light bulb for more than five hours.

  4 The average American drinks about 167 bottles of water each year. That is about 50 billion plastic bottles a year for the whole country. Almost 38 billion of those are not recycled and are instead just thrown away.

  5 It will take almost five hundred years for a plastic bottle to decompose in a landfill. There were a lot more facts, but sometimes a little information is just perfect and maybe even better than too much information. It was all saying the same thing anyway, which was that if you didn't recycle your plastic bottle, you were hurting the earth, and that was really bad for everyone.

  Finding out all this information was making us feel like we really had to help the earth.

  SAVING THE EARTH

  When I got home I still had to do my one conservation thing for my chart. I wanted it to be something big and important so that I would feel better about the world before going to bed.

  I walked all over the house but I couldn't find anything big and important to do. I tried to get Mom not to flush the toilet after she used it, but she said that was disgusting. In the end I just brushed my teeth without letting the water run.

  Brushed teeth without letting water run in the tap.

  It hardly seemed like any savings to the world at all. But that was how this whole recycling thing was working out anyway. It didn't really make much difference if only
one person was doing all the recycling all by themselves. Everyone had to do it together or else it wouldn't work out.

  I made Mom and Dad promise not to run the water while they brushed their teeth too. So in the end, that made me feel a little better.

  GOOD NIGHT TO MIMI AND GWEN

  I flashed my lights and looked out my window to say good night to Mimi and Gwen, but they were not there. I was kind of glad about that. I did not want to see Gwen holding Willoughby and Mimi being all sad with Bunny. I let Chip-Up sleep on my bed with me. I was sad that he was not a real dog. Something soft and warm and furry would have been perfect for tonight. I was going to have to remember to start bugging Mom and Dad about a dog again.

  LOOKING AROUND MY ROOM

  When I woke up the next morning I just lay in bed under the cozy covers and looked around my room. Sometimes a big idea can happen when you are not even expecting or thinking about it.

  LOOKING SOME MORE

  BIG IDEA

  BREAKFAST

  I asked Mom for some French toast for breakfast. French toast is something I like to eat when my empathy power is hard at work. It's my superhero breakfast. Mom said, "French toast? Well, you haven't had that in a while." She was 100 percent right. I have not been feeling my superpowers lately, even though I am supposed to be a superhero of conservation on top of my regular empathy power.

  I was glad that tomorrow was Saturday, because that was perfect for my big plan of action.

  PRESENTATIONS

  Today was the first day of presentations. Mimi, Gwen, and I don't have to do ours until next week. This was perfect, because mostly all you have to do during presentations is sit in your chair and look like you are paying attention. So I had lots of time to think about my plan for tomorrow. I even had time to draw up a poster.

  When it was lunchtime I could hardly wait to show my poster to Gwen and Mimi. I was surprised when Mimi said she wanted to be part of the sale too. She loves her stuff so much, she usually doesn't even let other people borrow her things. It was hard to imagine her letting anything go ... even for money. Then, when Sammy found out Gwen was going to be there, he said he had some stuff he could sell too. We didn't see Max at lunch, but I was pretty sure he was going to want to be there as well. Pretty much everyone likes the chance to make money.

  The good thing about having other people selling stuff was that it madethe sale bigger and more exciting—plus they could also help put up the posters. There was only one rule and that was ... you can't sell junk!

  MISS LOIS SAYS YES

  At the end of the day I asked Miss Lois if having a yard sale counted as a thing for the conservation chart. She said that getting people to reuse products that already exist counted a lot. She said she was sorry that class was over because she would have told everyone about my sale. Then she said that she would be excited to hear all about it on Monday morning when I came back to school. Having Miss Lois be excited about me and my project did one big thing. It made me smile.

  WHAT MOM SAID

  After school I had to go home and ask Mom for permission to go to the photocopy store. She doesn't like for me to wander all over town without knowing where I am. She's lucky that a new photocopy store opened up only three blocks away. That way she doesn't have to do anything but say yes when I ask her. Before that she had to drive me to the old one because it was too far away to walk. Mostly she doesn't ask what I want to copy, and if she doesn't want to know, then I don't tell her.

  If I were a mom and saw five kids who were me, Mimi, Gwen, Sammy, and Max all waiting to get permission to go to the photocopy store, I would be suspicious. I would think, "What are those kids up to?" But not Mom. I think she just thinks, Oh, good, they're leaving—now I can get some peace and quiet.

  ADVERTISING

  You have to put up posters everywhere or else people won't know you are having a sale. Mostly the best places to put them up are at corners. That way the customers see them from all the directions. After the posters were up, we didn't hang around together at all. Getting stuff ready for a sale is hard work and you have to be organized, so we all went home to get ready.

  WHAT IS NOT EASY TO DECIDE

  There are some things that you just know are going to be easy to let go of and that is because they are not so special.

  There are other things that are much harder than you thought, and that is mostly because they have a story with them.

  When I was all finished organizing, I had two whole boxes filled with stuff and my room was much neater and more organized. Mom could not be unhappy about that.

  Secretly I was hoping to make twenty dollars—that way I could buy something fun and new to wear to Gwen's birthday party. Mom gives me money to buy presents for parties, but unless it's a special occasion I don't usually get to have presents for myself too. If I try to ask she just says, "You've got enough stuff already."

  I was lucky about my conservation jour nal tonight. Mom forgot to turn the light out in the bathroom when she was finished.

  Turned out light that was not needed since no one was in the bathroom.

  SAVING THE EARTH ON A SATURDAY

  I set my alarm for extra early—that way there would be enough time to get ready before everyone came to the sale. Most people like to go to sales early. That way they can find all the extra-good stuff before anyone else gets there. I was glad that Mimi and Gwen were waiting outside for me, because the big folding tables were way too big for me to set up all by myself. I guess Mom must have heard the garage door open because both she and Dad were suddenly standing in the driveway in their pajamas. Now Mom was curious and full of questions.

  "Do you know what time it is?"

  "What are you doing out here?"

  "What's going on?"

  "Mimi, does your mother know you are here?"

  "What are all these boxes?"

  Just then Sammy and Max showed up. Sammy said, "Good morning, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart. Are you helping with the sale? I've got some great stuff here. Maybe even something you'd like to buy?"

  I think Sammy was kind of showing off because Gwen was there. He's not usually that talky around parents.

  "Grace, I need to see you in the kitchen," said Mom. While we were walking away, I heard Dad say, "I'll give you a hand setting up the tables," so that was good news.

  Mom had lots to say. Mostly she was just saying the same thing over and over again but in different ways, and that was pretty much, "You can't have a yard sale without asking first. You can't have a yard sale without asking first." When I said, "But I thought you'd be happy about me cleaning my room and getting rid of stuff," she just held up her hand. That's Mom's way of saying I don't want to hear any more about it.

  She started to make her coffee, so I just stood there watching her until finally she said, "Oh, go and help your friends. I'm up now."

  VICTORY!

  WHAT IS NOT SO EASY ABOUT A YARD SALE

  Knowing how much to charge for your stuff is not easy. If the price is too high, then no one will buy it. If the price is too low, then you will lose money because you could have maybe charged a higher price and made even more money. It's all very tricky.

  When I got back outside, Mimi and Gwen were already finished setting up Mimi's stuff. She was only selling five things. I couldn't believe that was it. I know for certain that Mimi has loads of stuff she doesn't use anymore. Mimi said it was hard to give things up. Every time she put something in the "to sell" box she thought, What if I need that one day? And then she'd take it out and keep it. She said it took all night just to find the five things on the table. Gwen was shaking her head while Mimi was talking. She said, "It was unbelievable."

  SAMMY'S STUFF

  As soon as I saw Sammy's things I said, "Sammy, you weren't supposed to sell junk. No one is going to buy all this."

  "It's not junk!" said Sammy. "It's all good stuff. See this glass jar?" Sammy was holding up an old mayonnaise jar. It didn't have the label on it anymore, but I could tell
it was a mayonnaise jar because Mom buys the same kind and I recognized the shape and the green lid. "It's an excellent jar for catching fireflies. Once I had twenty-five fireflies in this jar all at the same time. It's a lucky firefly jar."

  I couldn't believe Sammy, so I said, "Well, no one is going to buy your lucky jar, because they don't even know it's a lucky jar. It just looks like an old mayonnaise jar that should be thrown into the recycling bin!"

  "Then I'll make a sign or something," said Sammy. I could have stood there all day and argued with him about his junk, but I was more excited to set up all my good, amazing, and not-junk things on my table. Sammy would understand everything when my cash box was full of money and his was still empty.

  SETTING UP THE YARD SALE

  I set up all the big things in the back and all the small things in the front, and that way Gwen would not be able to miss the most important thing of all. That way Gwen would see it for sure. She was helping Mimi set up her five things on the little card table next to me.

  MIMI'S TABLE

  Mimi kept rearranging everything to make it look like more stuff, but five things look like only five things no matter how you set them up.

  MY TABLE

  I was pretty excited about my table. It was like the excellent sandwich filling in between Sammy's junk table and Mimi's tiny table. For sure customers were going to walk straight over to me and buy up all my stuff.

  Just as soon as I had finished putting on the last price tag, Mom walked over with her coffee. She spent a lot more time looking at Sammy's table than I would have thought, but that was mostly because she was reading all the notes he was writing to put on his junk. Finally I just had to get her attention away by asking her what she thought of my table.