Spring Broke

by Melody Carlson

  Kendall frowned. “So how much then?”

  “Well, depending on their condition and the demand, some could go for as much as thirty dollars. And they should all be worth a minimum of ten dollars each.”

  Kendall eyed the stack. “It looks like there’s about twenty there. So would that be worth around two to three hundred dollars?”

  “Quite possibly. But you wouldn’t get that much for them unless you sold them directly to a serious collector. And, although Megan said she used the word collectibles in the garage-sale ad, she couldn’t be specific about it. So the chances of getting the right person at your garage sale might be slim. Do you know anyone who knows how to sell things on eBay?”

  Kendall thought for a moment. “Oh, yeah, I think Marcus knows how to do that.”

  “Marcus?” Linda looked confused. “You mean Megan’s Marcus?”

  Kendall smiled coyly. “Megan’s Marcus used to be my Marcus.”

  “Really?” Linda looked skeptical but didn’t question this.

  And, although Kendall knew that Marcus would give the story his own spin, acting like he’d never been that into Kendall, he had to admit that he never would’ve met Megan if not for Kendall. Really, Megan should be more grateful!

  “Well, let’s continue sorting.”

  And so they worked together. Actually, Linda directed and Kendall tried to do what she was told, but by noon she was tired, and it looked like they had made no progress. “This place is still a mess,” she pointed out.

  “It’s an organized mess.” Linda pointed to a box of glassware. “If we hadn’t sorted through, you’d never know that some of those pieces are rather valuable.” She frowned. “By the way, Megan mentioned something about your grandmother, Kendall. Have you secured her permission to sell these things yet?”

  Kendall looked down at the hardwood floor and shrugged.

  “Kendall?”

  “Well, she pretty much gave me the house. Why should she care about the junk in the attic?”

  “Because some of these things might be mementos. It’s possible that the value to your family members might be more than just monetary.”

  “Huh?”

  “Does anyone in your family want to save any of these things?” Linda looked slightly irritated now. “You know, for sentimental reasons?”

  Kendall waved her hand. “No one in my family is into old stuff.”

  “Are you certain?”

  She nodded.

  “Well, just to make sure, I’d like you to phone your grandmother, while I’m here.” Linda sat down in one of the dining room chairs. “I refuse to help you anymore until you speak to your grandmother, Kendall.”

  “Fine.” Kendall reached for the phone. “If that’ll make you happy.”

  It took about six rings before her grandmother picked it up. “Hello?” Nana’s voice crackled, then she loudly cleared her throat. “Who is this anyway?”

  “Hi, Nana. This is Kendall,” she said sweetly. “How are you doing today?”

  “I’ve been better. What do you want, Kendall? If it’s money, you can forget it. Your mother told me clearly not to give you one red cent.”

  Kendall controlled herself, forced a smile for Linda’s sake, then continued. “Oh, that’s not why I’m calling, Nana. I was just doing some spring cleaning, you know, and there was all this junk in the attic and I thought it might be a fire hazard—”

  “A fire hazard?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did you call the fire department?”

  “No, there’s not a fire now, Nana. But I wanted to clear things out—just to be safe. And then I thought I’d have a little garage sale and—”

  “A garage sale?” The pitch in Nana’s voice rose with interest. “I used to love going to garage sales. Why, you can get all kinds of nice things at garage sales. One time I found a perfectly good brass spittoon for only fifty cents. Can you imagine? Solid brass for fifty cents. Oh, my.”

  “So do you mind if I have a garage sale then?”

  “And there was the time I found an old desk lamp just like the one my daddy used to have, back when I was a girl. Oh, it didn’t work, but it was a beauty alright.”

  “Nana?”

  “What is it?”

  “Do you mind if I have a garage sale?”

  “No. I like garage sales. I have an idea, Kendall. Why don’t you come get me today and we’ll go to some garage sales. Maybe I’ll find another spittoon.”

  “I don’t think they have any garage sales in this part of the week,” Kendall told her.

  “What day is it anyway?”

  “It’s Wednesday, Nana.”

  “Oh, phooey. I hate Wednesdays.”

  “Why?”

  “They always have meatloaf on Wednesdays and it tastes just like old sawdust soaked in watered-down ketchup.”

  “Sawdust soaked in ketchup?”

  “Yes. And the mashed potatoes are the nasty kind where you just add water and they taste like wallpaper paste. Why don’t people use real potatoes anymore?”

  “I don’t know, Nana. Maybe I can take you out for a real dinner sometime.”

  “Oh, yes,” she said eagerly. “We’ll have to do it on a Wednesday since they have pot roast on Thursday and it’s much better than meatloaf. And on Friday it’s fish. Sometimes it’s just those nasty little fish sticks that come frozen. But sometimes it’s halibut. My, how I like a good piece of halibut.”

  So Kendall agreed to take Nana to dinner next Wednesday, although she knew Nana would probably forget about it as soon as they hung up. But Kendall told herself if she made enough money at the garage sale, she would go and take Nana out for dinner. Why not?

  “So, she’s okay with this?” asked Linda.

  “Yeah, she’s fine. She loves a good garage sale.” Kendall noticed what looked like a brass spittoon amid some other junk in a big cardboard box. “Hey, that must be the brass spittoon Nana was just talking about.”

  “Did she want to save it?”

  Kendall laughed. “No. She told me she got it for fifty cents at a garage sale.”

  Linda picked it up and turned it over and sure enough, there was a bit of masking tape with fifty cents marked on it. Linda peeled off the tape and studied the bottom of the spittoon. “That stamp makes me think this is fairly old.”

  “Do you think it’s worth a lot?” asked Kendall eagerly.

  “Well, certainly more than fifty cents.” Linda frowned. “Let me do some checking on it.”

  By the end of the day, Linda had managed to find a number of treasures that she felt would do well on eBay. And she also helped Kendall to put prices on some of the older, less valuable things. Kendall went around trying to tally up what they’d marked and suddenly realized that having a garage sale wasn’t such a bad idea after all. And then Megan came home.

  “How’s it going?” she asked her mom.

  “Pretty well.” Linda set aside a box of old kitchen things that they’d just finished pricing. “Although to get a good price, it would make more sense to sell some of these things on eBay. Kendall said Marcus knows how to do that, do you think he’d want to help?”

  Megan shrugged. “Maybe.”

  “I also told your mom that Marcus was my boyfriend first,” teased Kendall.

  Megan rolled her eyes.

  “You don’t seem to be very happy today,” Kendall pointed out. “Was your witchy boss in a mean mood?”

  “Not much more than usual.”

  “How about giving you the time off to go to Maui?” her mom now asked.

  “Cynthia hasn’t returned my call.” Megan frowned. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Maybe I should go to Maui with Lelani,” suggested Kendall hopefully.

 
“You don’t have any money,” Megan reminded her.

  “But I will.” Kendall grinned at Megan’s mother. “After we sell all this stuff. Did you know that some of those old magazines are really valuable?”

  “I thought the Life magazines were only worth about five bucks apiece.”

  So Kendall told her about the hunting ones. “And if you add that all up, including the Life magazines and everything else, it’s looking pretty good.”

  “Even so,” said Megan firmly. “You cannot afford to go to Maui and pay off your credit card bills, Kendall. No way. No how. Not going to happen. Uh-uh.”

  “You are such a buzz kill, Megan.”

  Linda just laughed. “But she’s right, Kendall. You need to pay off your bills before you start planning trips to Maui.” She looked at her watch. “And I need to get going. I promised to meet my friend Karen for an early dinner tonight.” She smiled at Megan. “Would you like to join us, honey?”

  Kendall would never admit it—to anyone—but she felt a stab of jealousy just then. After spending most of the day with Linda, she had nearly forgotten that she was actually Megan’s mom. Then suddenly Linda was inviting Megan to dinner but not Kendall, and it seemed all wrong.

  “No, thanks, Mom. Marcus is coming to get me for a music thing at his church tonight.” Megan kissed her mom on the cheek as she went out.

  Kendall sighed loudly. “Marcus Barrett and church … I can’t even wrap my head around it.”

  “Maybe you should come with us,” offered Megan.

  “Thanks, but no thanks.”

  “So you think you’re going to get rich off the garage sale?” asked Megan in what sounded like a skeptical tone.

  “I think it’ll be worth the time.” Kendall held up the spittoon now. “Your mom said this could bring as much as twenty-five dollars.”

  “Hmm.” Megan didn’t look convinced. “But I have an idea how you can make even more money, Kendall.”

  “How?”

  “Sell some of your clothes and shoes and bags. Designer labels should bring in some quick cash.”

  “Sell my clothes?”

  “You’re not wearing most of them anyway,” pointed out Megan. “And you won’t be wearing them anytime soon. In fact, they’ll probably be out of style by the time you can fit into them again. That is, if you can fit into them.”

  Kendall just stared at her. “You are so mean!” she shouted. And then she tossed down the spittoon and ran upstairs with Tinkerbell trailing behind her, went into her room, slammed the door, tripped over a Prada boot, and tumbled into bed.

  Really, Megan could be so heartless sometimes. How dare she say such things about Kendall’s beautiful designer clothes … not to mention Kendall’s ability—or inability—to fit into them? How cruel!

  Thirteen

  Megan

  “Wow, you’ve made real progress here,” Megan told her mom and Kendall after she got home from work on Thursday. “It almost looks like you’re ready for a garage sale.”

  “I think Kendall is just about set,” said her mom. “Almost everything is priced. We’ve set aside the things that we think will fetch more on eBay.”

  “And the ads are in the paper today and through the weekend,” said Megan.

  “I have signs all ready to go,” said Kendall. “And, you’ll be pleased to hear that your mom helped me to pick out some clothes and shoes and things to sell too.”

  “We put them on a special rack,” Mom explained to Megan.

  “With a sign that says Designer Clothes,” added Kendall. “I don’t want anyone to think they can get my nice things for nothing.”

  “Yes,” agreed Mom. “I told Kendall that if they don’t sell at her garage sale, I know of a nice consignment center that would be happy to take them.”

  “There’s just one problem.” Kendall frowned, then looked sadly at Megan.

  “What’s that?” Megan pretended to be more interested than she felt.

  “I’ll be here all by my little lonesome,” said Kendall in a baby voice.

  “So?” Megan shrugged.

  “So, I thought maybe you could get off work around noon and come help me.” Kendall smiled hopefully.

  “Yeah, right.” Megan shook her head. “I can’t even get time off for Maui. Do you honestly think I can get off for a garage sale?”

  “I just thought maybe—”

  “Sorry, Kendall.” Megan just shook her head, then went to her room.

  She had barely closed the door when she heard someone knocking. Thinking it was Kendall coming to beg, she answered with a grumpy, “What?”

  “It’s me,” said her mom.

  “Sorry,” Megan opened the door. “What’s up?”

  “I don’t want to intrude, but I just thought you could be a bit nicer to Kendall, Megan.”

  “Why?”

  “Well, for one thing, she’s pregnant and her feelings are a little unstable.” Mom sat down on the chair across from Megan’s bed.

  “She told you about that?”

  Her mom nodded somberly. “And it’s not easy for her.”

  “Tell me about it.”

  “For another thing, you did promise to help her with the garage sale. And it was your idea.”

  “Yeah, my umpteenth idea for helping her to get out of debt. But does that mean I have to hold her hand through the whole thing?”

  “Well, she is in a tough spot right now.”

  Megan didn’t say anything. The truth was she didn’t really care.

  “And you never know how God might be using you.”

  Megan sighed. “Yeah, I know, Mom. But sometimes it’s hard. Kendall is so good at playing the poor little victim. And you know she’s the one who gets herself into these messes in the first place. I’ve already tried so hard with her.”

  “I know. Kendall and I had a very nice little chat this afternoon.”

  “About?”

  “About the baby.”

  “And?”

  “And she said that you girls have been encouraging her not to get an abortion.”

  Megan nodded and waited. Certainly her mother wasn’t going to fault her for doing that. Megan knew that her mother was as pro-life as she was.

  “It seems that Kendall has been listening to you girls. You’ve been a good influence on her.”

  “So, she’s not going to have an abortion?”

  Mom shook her head. “No. She assured me that she’s not.”

  Megan smiled. “Oh, that is a relief. Thanks.”

  “But I still think she needs your encouragement.”

  “But I can’t get off work tomorrow. I’m helping Vera with an install, and Cynthia is supposed to be back in the office and I just can’t get off. Okay?” For no really good reason, Megan felt close to tears. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about Lelani, Mom.”

  “So you still haven’t gotten the okay from Cynthia then?”

  “No.” Megan frowned then punched her pillow. “It’s just so unfair. I work really hard at a job I don’t even like and then they treat me like—”

  “Have you prayed about it, Megan?”

  “Yeah, but not a lot. I guess I’ve mostly been complaining about it.”

  “Tell you what, I’ll be really praying about it too. I think it would be wonderful if you could go, Megan.”

  “Wonderful enough to quit my job?”

  Mom didn’t answer.

  “I know, I know. The job market is tough right now.”

  “Have you been checking out teaching jobs?”

  “A little.”

  “I’m sure it’ll all work out, Megan.” Mom stood now.

  “Yeah, I’m sure it will too.” But, even as she said thi
s, Megan wasn’t so sure. For all she knew she might be working at the design firm forever. And the idea of ordering overly expensive furniture and helping to hang ridiculous drapes that would be out of style by next year was not very appealing. Wasn’t her life supposed to have more meaning than this?

  “If I wasn’t going to Victoria, I’d offer to help with Kendall,” Mom said as she opened the door.

  “You’ve already done way more than enough, Mom.” Megan stood. “I’ll see what I can do about getting off work. For sure we’ll all be around to help during the weekend.”

  Mom smiled. “Good. Because I think you were really right about having this garage sale. Between it and eBay and the consignment shop, Kendall stands to make a good deal of money. It should help out her finances considerably.”

  “Only if she uses it to pay her bills.” Megan sighed.

  “Well, hopefully you can help her with that too.”

  Megan hugged her mom now. “If I don’t see you before you leave, have fun in Victoria.”

  “Thanks, sweetie. And let me know what happens with work and Maui.”

  “Even if Cynthia does let me go, I wonder if I can get a very good deal now.”

  “Just call the travel agent as soon as you know. Hopefully tomorrow.”

  “Hopefully.”

  Shortly after Megan’s mom left, Lelani got home from work. Her first question to Megan was about going to Maui. “Did you get the week off?” she asked.

  Megan explained her dilemma. “I don’t know why Cynthia’s being so difficult about it,” she told her. “But she’ll be in the office tomorrow and I plan to give her an ultimatum.”

  “An ultimatum?”

  “Yes. Because it’s taken her so long to get back to me, I’m going to tell her that if she doesn’t give me that week off, I’m walking.”

  Lelani looked shocked. “Oh, Megan, don’t quit your job for me.”

  “Why not? I don’t like it anyway. And that would motivate me to get a teaching job.”

  “But what if you didn’t get hired?” Lelani looked truly worried now. “I’d feel like it was all my fault.”

  Megan considered this. “Of course it wouldn’t be. I’m just so frustrated.”

  Lelani kind of laughed, although her eyes looked unhappy. “Right now it looks like the boys and I are going to Maui.”