Twelve things I heard in the first few minutes of Ted and Marcus’s band performance
1. High-pitched feedback sounds as Marcus tried to adjust his guitar amp
2. A low electric hum before Ted started his drum line
3. The bass player, Lee, strumming a chord
4. Marcus’s voice singing the beginning of their opening song (He was a little hard to hear at first, but with each word his voice got stronger. I had to admit, they weren’t doing too badly. In fact, their band actually sounded, well, good.)
5. Charlie’s grandma saying, “We don’t need to hear this racket. Let’s go to the bake sale.”
6. Charlie’s response: “Grandma, my friends’ brothers are in this band. I want to stay.”
7. Charlie’s grandma again, as she frowned and squinted at the stage: “Which ones are your friends’ brothers?”
8. An interruption from Charlie’s mom: “Mother, why don’t you go ahead to the bake sale on your own. I’ll stay here with Charlie.”
9. “Fine,” Charlie’s grandma snipped as she turned to leave. “But I don’t know how you can listen to this.”
10. Zora’s mom quietly stepping up beside us and saying, “Hey, Lisa,” to Charlie’s mom.
11. Charlie’s mom saying, “Hey, Rhonda,” with a small smile. “The band sounds great.”
12. Zora cutting in with “Mom, can we go up front? Marcus said Ted might throw his drumsticks into the crowd at the end.”
I didn’t care about catching a drumstick, considering they were all over the place at my house. But I was still glad when the moms said okay (including my mom, who gave my shoulder another little squeeze). Charlie was happy too; the miserable look on his face totally disappeared when Zora grabbed his arm and said, “Let’s go!”
As I worked my way through the crowd with my friends, I wondered how much Zora’s mom had heard Charlie’s grandma complaining about the band. I wondered what Zora’s mom and Charlie’s mom would talk about after we left. I wondered how much things had changed for the two of them since they were kids growing up together.
I turned around and looked at them after we got to the front of the crowd, and they were both standing quietly, listening to the boys play. No one in our group caught a drumstick, but I did see Marcus toss Charlie a guitar pick.
One part of Clover Fest where no one is allowed until the last day
1. The Four-Leaf Clover Field
Every day while the rest of the fairgrounds are swarming with people, one field is roped off (with green ribbon, of course), and no one is allowed to walk there. I asked Kate why we couldn’t go in and she said, “That’s the Four-Leaf Clover Field. You can’t go there until the last day, when they let all the kids in to look for a four-leaf clover.”
Three things you are guaranteed to find in the Four-Leaf Clover Field
1. Grass
2. Dirt
3. Millions and millions of three-leaf clovers
One thing you are NOT guaranteed to find in the Four-Leaf Clover Field
1. A four-leaf clover
“What?!” Ted said when Marcus told him that. “They don’t even sneak in a four-leaf clover from somewhere else to make sure someone finds one?”
Marcus seemed surprised in the way that all Clover Gappers (or is it Clover Gapites? Gapians? Gapsters? Gaplanders?) get when any outsiders express confusion about Clover Fest. “No,” he explained, speaking slowly to Ted. “That would be cheating. Some years nobody finds one. But if you do find one, you’re considered the Luckiest Kid in Clover Gap for a whole year.”
Ted thought this was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard, not that it mattered, because he couldn’t be in the four-leaf clover hunt anyway. (It’s only for kids eleven and under.)
But Mom seemed to think it was charming, and Dad thought it was the coolest thing ever. With the news about the four-leaf clover hunt that might actually never turn up a four-leaf clover, it seemed that Dad’s conversion to Clover Gapper (I’m going with “Gapper”) was complete. It was also clear that I had no choice but to participate; Dad was just too excited.
Three things I want to teach kids in Clover Gap, now that I am finding my voice here
1. How to play wall ball
2. All the words to “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” (These are old songs Millie’s dad knows; he helped us memorize the words when we were bored one day after school.)
3. What an urban legend is
I decided to tackle the last one first. Because everyone here seems a little crazypants over the four-leaf clover business.
Four stories about the four-leaf clover hunt that people in town believe to be 100 percent true
1. One year, the kid who found the four-leaf clover got kicked by a horse in the petting zoo later that day, and it didn’t even give her a bruise.
2. Another year, the four-leaf clover finder went on to become the winner of the town spelling bee.
3. One magical year, the winning kid found a five-leaf clover, which is supposed to bring luck and money, and the next day, her family won a five-hundred-dollar raffle.
4. No one has ever found a six-leaf clover, but if that ever happens, get excited, because “everyone” knows that six-leaf clovers bring fame.
Three things I tried to explain about urban legends
1. The fact that no one is quite able to recall the names of these lottery-winning, phenomenal-spelling, horse-kick-surviving clover finders makes these stories suspicious.
2. One surefire sign that a story is an urban legend is that no one can remember who it happened to, or everyone says it happened to “my cousin’s friend” or “my neighbor’s aunt” or something like that.
3. Urban legends are just that—legends. Stories that are made up, but that people believe to be true. Besides, who ever heard of a six-leaf clover?
People who took my reasoning to heart
1.
No one. No one seemed to care for my logical explanations. Not even Kate the skeptic. Oh well. Even though my friends didn’t listen, I was glad I had tried. (Turns out speaking up gets easier the more you do it.)
Two reasons I decided to go ahead with the clover hunt despite my doubts
1. If you are under twelve years old in Clover Gap on the last day of Clover Fest, there is literally nothing to do other than join the hunt for a four-leaf clover.
2. I have to admit I’m a little curious.
Three instructions we were given before the start of the clover hunt
1. Do your best to walk around the clovers, not on them.
2. Please stay at least three feet away from all other clover hunters.
3. If you find a four-leaf clover, pick it carefully, raise it above your head, and yell, “Four!” A clover judge will come over to verify your finding. (At this point I saw Dad looking enviously at the clover judges with their green badges. I knew he was wondering how he could get that job next year.)
One item each kid got before the hunt started
1. A plastic magnifying glass. (That’s another rule: “Only these standard-issue magnifying glasses will be permitted. Any magnifying glasses that are smuggled into the hunt will be confiscated!” Yikes.)
Three kids who seem to have an edge in the hunt (and the weird things I remember about them that make me think this)
1. Eric Newland (I overheard him bragging to another kid about his better-than-20/20 vision on the day the school nurse checked our vision. In September.)
2. Bonnie Diaz (She is a word-hunt queen. On snowy days, when we had to have recess inside, the lunch aides would keep us busy with things like crossword puzzles and word hunts, and Bonnie always, always finished her word hunts in no time. And I figu
re that hunting for four-leaf clovers is kind of like hunting for hidden words.)
3. Bridget Rooney (As much as people here try to distance Clover Fest from Saint Patrick’s Day and Irish stuff, I don’t think Bridget is having it. She is very, very into being Irish-American, and yesterday in the Tilt-a-Whirl line, I heard her saying to some other girls, “I must make my ancestors proud. That four-leaf clover is MINE!” Yikes again.)
Three kids who likely don’t have a prayer of winning
1. Clark Middleton (He has terrible seasonal allergies. I don’t know the kid, but I have noticed him having sneezing attacks outside school every day since mid-March. I can’t imagine it’s easy to focus on a patch of clovers when you can’t stop sneezing. Frankly, I was surprised his parents even let him participate, but I guess one thing I’ve learned is that Clover Gap takes the four-leaf clover hunt very seriously.)
2. Amelia (The clover field is kind of muddy, and from what everyone has told me, you have to spend a lot of time on your knees if you want to have a chance of finding a four-leafer. It may not surprise you to hear that Amelia is not one to willingly get her clothes dirty. So I can’t see her going all-out in the hunt. Of course, as crazy as everyone gets during Clover Fest, you never know.)
3. Me (Rookie disadvantage. I’ve never participated in the hunt, nor have I even looked for a four-leaf clover anywhere else. I think it’s also fair to say that my level of interest and motivation is considerably lower than that of my opponents.)
Three rituals that preceded the beginning of the clover hunt
1. Singing of the national anthem by the Clover Chorus
2. Recitation of a brief history of Clover Fest by the mayor
3. Cutting of the ribbon that roped off the entrance to the clover field, accompanied by the charge to “Find that four-leaf clover!” (this from the president of the Clover Council)
And with that, the loudspeakers started blaring, “I’m Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover,” and we kids were released into the great green hunting ground.
Four hunting strategies employed by my friends after the ribbon was cut
1. Charlie and Zora: Run at top speed to the opposite side of the field to claim the spots that are farthest from the crowd.
2. Zach: Drop to the ground and start walking on your knees while surveying the ground with the magnifying glass.
3. Amelia: Seek out a shady spot to the side, fold a monogrammed beach towel, and sit on it while peering carefully at the clovers.
4. Kate: Wait for the crowd to disperse, then patiently sort through a trampled spot near the entrance.
And me? As usual, I was pretty distracted by people. There was way too much to watch for me to be able to focus on the ground.
A few things I noticed as the other kids were scrambling in the field
1. Eric Newland standing straight and tall while examining a spot in the middle of the field (I guess when you have better-than-20/20 vision, you don’t have to bend over to find a four-leaf clover.)
2. Bridget Rooney bending over the field like a giant bug, her face centimeters away from the ground as the shamrock antennas on her headband bobbed every time she moved
3. Bonnie Diaz unnerving the other kids each time she picked a clover and examined it closely
4. Poor Clark Middleton sneezing on his magnifying glass and wiping it clean
5. Mr. Allbright and Nurse Taylor standing together on the sidelines, laughing and drinking clover shakes
6. Mom chatting with Kate’s mom and taking pictures of the whole scene
7. Dad signing a clipboard at the Clover Council table
8. Ted throwing a Frisbee to Marcus. A Frisbee that he threw a bit too hard, so that Marcus missed it and it flew over the heads of the crowd and beyond the ribbon around the clover field, until it came to a stop about two feet from where I was standing.
Two things I did not see when I bent down to pick up the Frisbee
1. A four-leaf clover
2. A five-leaf clover
Two things I did see when I bent down to pick up the Frisbee
1. A bunch of three-leaf clovers
2. One six-leaf clover
Four things I heard after picking up the six-leafer to examine it
1. At first nothing but my own inner voice, counting to be sure: One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six.
2. Ted yelling, “Annie, what are you doing? Throw back the Frisbee!”
3. My dad saying, “I think she found something.”
4. The mayor and the president of the Clover Council saying, “Young lady, what’s going on? Do you have something there?”
One moment of my life I actually have a hard time remembering clearly
1. This one. The moment that I became the first kid ever to find a six-leaf clover in the Clover Fest clover hunt.
Seven things I do remember
1. The ten members of the Clover Council sprinting over to confirm my discovery
2. Being led to a platform, where the mayor made some kind of announcement about my finding the first-ever six-leaf clover in Clover Gap, and how this would make me and the town famous
3. My dad beaming
4. My mom keeping a hand on my shoulder the whole time
5. Ted yelling, “That’s my sister!”
6. Lots of people taking pictures
7. The Clover Council president taking the clover and promising to return it to me once it had been “properly preserved”
Four reasons the rest is so hard to recall
1. It happened very fast.
2. It was really noisy.
3. There were too many people around for me to notice much about any of them.
4. I couldn’t stop thinking.
Four things I was thinking
1. This is so crazy.
2. This is kind of fun.
3. This is also a little scary.
4. So much for blending into the background.
One person who interrupted my swirling thoughts
1. Amelia
Three things Amelia said that could have knocked me over with a feather. (Mom says that sometimes. It means something’s really surprising.)
1. Congratulations.
2. In my family, you’re already famous for the way you stood up to Hope last night. No one has ever done that before.
3. Thanks for not telling her that I threw up.
“But maybe I should have,” I said. “Then she would have been more understanding.”
Seven more things Amelia said after she stopped laughing
1. Hope never understands anyone’s problems but her own.
2. She was furious at me last night.
3. Sorry I left early, but I didn’t want to be at Clover Fest any more.
4. I was upset on the way home, but my mom gave me a good pep talk and told me Hope needs to get over herself.
5. I think that messed-up routine was the worst thing that’s ever happened to her.
6. I have to see if I can get a video of it.
7. Want to go get some clover shakes with Zora and me?
And then I felt like we had turned a corner. Amelia inviting me to do something with just her and Zora…that had definitely never happened before.
Three things I decided not to bring up as we walked to meet Zora at the shake stand
1. The times Amelia had been weird to me throughout the school year (She was trying; I had to give her credit for that. Let bygones be bygones, my dad would say.)
2. The A & Z photo album I saw in her room (It was obvious by now that Kate’s hunch was right: Amelia had been chilly to me because she and Zora had always
been tight, and she was having a hard time letting me inside the circle. I know how I would have felt if some new kid had moved to Brooklyn and suddenly become great friends with Millie while I was still there. I mean, look what happened when Millie made new friends after I was gone.)
3. The fact that I don’t really like clover shakes (With all the good vibes in the air, it just didn’t seem like the time to point out that they have a bitter aftertaste. Not surprisingly, people here love their clover shakes.)
Five remarks made by my family on the way home from the clover hunt
1. Dad: Wasn’t this an amazing day? Isn’t this an amazing little town?
Annie's Life in Lists Page 14