Kid Power

by Susan Beth Pfeffer

  “Then I can try?” I asked.

  “All right,” she said. “But I only want two other people, plus my parents.”

  “You won’t regret it,” I said.

  “I already regret it,” Lisa replied. “How many other kids are you going to exploit?”

  “As many as I can,” I told her. “I figured I’d call Ted next.”

  “Good choice,” she said. “Ted actually likes to do stuff like this. Let me know how it goes.”

  “I sure will,” I said. “Thanks, Lisa.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said, with the biggest sigh of all. Lisa had very impressive sighs. I hung up, called Ted, and told him my plan.

  “You’ll get the people to hire me?” he asked.

  “That’s the idea,” I said.

  “Including my parents?” he continued.

  “Don’t you think you could convince them better than I could?” I asked.

  “They expect me to do that stuff for free,” he said.

  “Well, if they see that other people are willing to pay you for your work, maybe they’ll agree to pay you, too,” I said. “That is the American way, after all.”

  “Get me four jobs,” Ted said. “And then we’ll tackle my parents.”

  I didn’t really look forward to tackling Ted’s parents, but nobody ever said making a fortune would be easy. So I agreed, hung up, and tried my friend Margie.

  “I love snow,” Margie said. “I love shoveling.”

  “You do?” I asked. Margie always surprised me.

  “It’s practically my favorite thing to do,” Margie replied. “After taking care of kids, that is. I don’t suppose I could take care of kids while I shovel the walks?”

  I thought about Seth and David, but I couldn’t figure out a way for Margie to shovel and baby-sit simultaneously. Still, it was worth thinking about, once I had Kid Power’s winter program in full swing.

  “So you’ll let me get you some snow-shoveling jobs?” I asked.

  “Four of them,” Margie replied. “Thank you, Janie.”

  Margie was definitely the sort of person Kid Power needed more of. I told her so, and she thanked me again.

  That left only Sheila from the kids Kid Power had used last summer. Sheila was a problem, though. Her mother changed her phone number a lot, so it wasn’t always possible to get through to her. Besides, Sheila didn’t strike me as the snow-shoveling type. Not that Margie had, either, but Margie I knew I could trust. I decided against asking Sheila to join us. Maybe later in the winter, when Kid Power had expanded, but not until then.

  The next step was to get everybody the customers I’d just promised them. I ran downstairs and made myself a sandwich. Then I grabbed my bike and rode over to Lisa’s neighborhood first, to knock on doors.

  Lisa lived in a fancy section of town, and all the houses had long stretches of sidewalk and driveway. I didn’t blame her for not wanting to shovel everybody’s, but on the other hand, it seemed like a good selling point.

  I heard the background sounds of football games on in most of the houses, and I mostly spoke to women. It wasn’t easy selling the service, but I’d gotten used to rejection that morning. Besides, one sale made me feel so good that it took care of ten rejections. And since I was only trying for two sales, the pressure wasn’t too bad.

  I got the first one fairly easily, but the second one was taking forever. I checked out the other houses in the neighborhood, trying to find an especially friendly looking one.

  What I saw instead was the biggest house in town. Lisa lived two blocks away from Mrs. Dell, the richest person in our county. Years ago, there had been a Mr. Dell, and he had been rich, too, so when he married Mrs. Dell, they got even richer together. Now Mrs. Dell was a widow living all alone, except for her housekeeper, in a genuine mansion.

  But her mansion didn’t interest me nearly as much as her sidewalk and driveway did. They were both endless. The driveway was the circular kind that winds around and around. And the sidewalk was at least twice the length of anybody else’s.

  It wouldn’t be fair to ask Lisa to shovel Mrs. Dell’s walk all by herself. Then again, we’d have to charge more than the three-fifty combined price. Five dollars at least, and seven if we could get it. I decided to ask for seven and bargain down if I had to.

  It took all my nerve to walk up to the door and ring the bell. I reminded myself that Mrs. Dell was about the same age as Mrs. Edwards, and I had no trouble talking with her. She’d been my easiest sale, and she had a lot less sidewalk to clear than Mrs. Dell did.

  Mrs. Dell opened the door herself, so I figured the housekeeper must have the day off. It was Sunday, after all.

  I smiled my biggest smile at Mrs. Dell and told her my name. “I represent Kid Power,” I said. “We’re offering a special prewinter snow-shoveling plan.”

  “That’s lovely,” Mrs. Dell said. “My brother used to do that when he was a boy. And now girls are doing it, too. How very sensible.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “Does that mean you’re interested in our plan?”

  “Absolutely,” Mrs. Dell said. “Industry should always be rewarded in the young. Twenty-five.”

  “Twenty-five dollars?” I gasped. It was a big walk, but I hadn’t realized it was that big. Of course, Mrs. Dell was rich, and she did want to reward industry.

  “Oh, no, of course not,” Mrs. Dell said, and she laughed. “Twenty-five cents. My brother only charged a dime, but times have changed.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, although it nearly broke my heart. “We can’t do it at that price.”

  “Oh, well,” Mrs. Dell said. “Let me know if you change your mind.”

  “I will,” I said, knowing I never would. There were plenty of houses left for me to try that afternoon, and after school for a while if I had to. I was determined to get good-paying jobs for everyone in Kid Power before the first flake of snow fell.

  Chapter 3

  “I don’t believe this,” Mom said, staring out the window on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. “Look at it come down.”

  So I looked. I didn’t believe it either, but what was upsetting my mother was making me very happy. The snow was falling hard and heavy, and what had looked like autumn the day before was now definitely winter.

  “I still don’t have the snow tires on!” Mom wailed. “And now I won’t be able to drive to the garage to have them put on because of the snow.”

  I tried to feel sorry for her, but I couldn’t. All that snow meant I was about to earn Kid Power’s first real money in months. I’d found work for all my friends, too, so I’d be collecting a lot of ten percents as well. Kid Power’s computer was just a few dozen blizzards away. And if it was going to start snowing in November, who knew when it would stop? We’d had a heavy snowfall the year before in the middle of April; that could happen again. If it snowed twice a month between now and then, we’d all end up very rich.

  “Do you think it’s letting up now?” I asked Mom. It had been snowing since early that morning, and I’d promised Lisa that it would never stop right before dark, so that she would have to shovel at night.

  “I guess so,” Mom said glumly. “I knew I should have had the snow tires put on last week.”

  “I think I’m going to go out and start shoveling people’s walks,” I said, thinking of Herm. “Don’t worry, I’ll be doing ours, but we’re going to be last.”

  “That’s the least of my worries,” Mom said. “Bundle up, Janie, and don’t overdo.”

  “I will,” I said. “And I won’t.” I guess Mom understood me, since she didn’t say anything back. She just kept staring out the window and sighing.

  I got the shovel and went to work. By the time I finished Herm’s driveway, I would have been happy to quit. I’d forgotten what backbreaking work shoveling was. I kept reminding myself that I was the only thing standing between Herm and a heart attack, but that was very little comfort as I sweated and shivered.

  Getting paid by Herm’s wif
e Gert helped, though. Feeling those dollar bills in my pocket eased the ache of my muscles and gave me the strength I needed to go over to my second customer’s house and dig there. I realized I had never learned Seth and David’s mom name, so while I cleared off her sidewalk and drive, I made up names for her. I’d finally decided on Coradora Appalora when I finished her driveway. I never wanted to see another driveway again. I no longer even knew why people drove, especially since they never put the snow tires on their cars.

  When Coradora paid me, I asked her what her name was. It turned out not to be Coradora at all, just Gail Howard.

  I didn’t tell her the name I’d come up with. You never know what’s going to offend people.

  My next stop was Mrs. Edward’s house, and I was really grateful I didn’t have to shovel her driveway. I kept remembering Mrs. Dell’s circular drive and how she’d offered to pay a quarter to get it done. At that point, I wouldn’t have done it for a million dollars, not that she was likely to offer it to me.

  Shoveling Mrs. Edwards’s sidewalk felt like nothing after the work I’d done, and she gave me home-baked cookies when I was finished. That gave me all the strength I needed to return home and shovel there. I have to admit I didn’t do as good a job at home as I had at Herm’s, or even Gail’s, but I did well enough so that we could get out if we wanted to. I cleared off the shovel, put it back in the garage, and came back in. I sat on the radiator for a few minutes, until I defrosted, and then I got paid by Mom. Then I went upstairs and counted the twelve dollars over and over again.

  When I had absolutely convinced myself that twelve dollars was twelve dollars, I started calling the other kids to see how they were doing. Lisa was already home, but Margie and Ted were still shoveling. So I rested on my bed and thought about all the ten percents they owed me. Out of a sense of great generosity, I decided not to take ten percent of the money they earned from their parents. But even without that, they still owed me three fifty. Never being able to move again was a small price to pay for fifteen fifty. I fell asleep fully dressed on my bed, trying to decide what sort of computer to buy.

  The next day at school, Ted and Lisa and Margie paid what they owed me. I put the money in an envelope, so I wouldn’t get it mixed up with my lunch money.

  “What are you doing there, Golden?”

  I looked up at the sound of the voice and saw Johnny Richards. Johnny was in Carol’s grade, and I knew him mostly through her. He was a real creep, big and mean. I shoved my money into the envelope and pushed the envelope into my pants pocket. If Johnny wanted it, he was going to have to steal it from me.

  “What do you want?” I asked him, trying to keep my voice from quaking.

  “I don’t want anything,” he said. “I was just wondering what you were doing, taking money from this kid here, and stuffing it in your pocket like that. That’s all. A perfectly innocent question.”

  There was nothing innocent about Johnny, and we both knew it. I considered refusing to answer his question, but then I decided that would be a mistake. “This is my friend,” I said. “And she owed me some money for Kid Power. That’s all.”

  “Kid Power,” Johnny said. “Oh, yeah, I know that. I saw the sign up in the supermarket. You do jobs.”

  “Right,” I said. “We’re shoveling snow this winter, that’s all.”

  “I shovel snow, too,” Johnny said. “All my friends, we shovel snow. Are you gonna take our business away from us?”

  “Of course not,” I said, trying to smile at him. “We just have a few contracts with people. You probably have lots and lots of people’s walks to clear. We just have a few.”

  “A few too many,” Johnny said. “Listen here, Golden, I don’t like the idea of anybody muscling in on my territory. See what I mean?”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. No reason for him to; I was worrying enough for both of us. “It’s a big town. There’s lots of snow. We’ll both end up rich by the time winter’s over.”

  “How much are you charging?” Johnny asked. I noticed Margie slipping away from us. I certainly didn’t blame her.

  “A dollar fifty for sidewalks, two dollars for driveways,” I said. Maybe all he wanted was some business tips. I’d certainly be happy to supply him with those if he spared my life.

  “That’s less than I charge,” Johnny replied. “A lot less. You trying to undercut me?”

  “Oh, no,” I said. “We just charge less because we don’t do nearly as good a job as you probably do. I’m sure you do quality work. You’re so strong and everything.” I swallowed hard. It might not have been a good idea to remind Johnny just how strong he was.

  “Me and my friends plan to stay in business,” Johnny informed me. His smile made my intestines shrivel. “We’ll do what we have to, to see to that, Golden. Get my meaning?”

  “I can certainly respect that,” I said. “No problem, Johnny. You shovel your jobs, and we’ll shovel ours.”

  “I don’t know about that,” he said. “You’d better be careful, Golden, or you’re going to end up on the wrong end of the shovel.”

  “I’ll be careful,” I said. “Thanks for the warning, Johnny. Oops, I’d better be running. I had no idea how late it was. Bye.” And I scurried down the hallway into the safety of the cafeteria.

  I sat down at the table next to Lisa and Margie. “Margie told me what was happening,” Lisa said. “Do you think Johnny is going to cause trouble?”

  “Of course not,” I said. “There’s plenty of work for all of us. Besides, it may never snow again. Maybe all we’ll have from now on is rain because of the greenhouse effect. You know about that. The world is warming up, and places where it used to snow are turning into Florida. No more snow here, I’ll bet. One snowfall at Thanksgiving time, and then it’s surf’s up for the rest of the winter.”

  “I don’t think we should count on the greenhouse effect,” Margie said.

  “I’ll talk to my father,” I replied. “Sometimes he has very good advice on problems.”

  “Maybe,” Lisa said. I could see she was thinking about quitting altogether. I knew it wouldn’t take much to get everybody to quit. We were all suffering from aching muscles. And the other kids might not have an important goal, as I did. A talk with my father was definitely in order.

  I waited until after supper to bring up the subject with him. Dad had gone into the den to read, so I followed him upstairs and knocked on the door.

  “What can I do for you?” he asked me, as I sat down.

  “There’s this guy,” I said. “Johnny Richards. Carol’s mentioned him because he’s in her grade. He’s a big bully.”

  “Sounds familiar,” Dad said. “Is Carol having problems with him?”

  “I am,” I said, and I told Dad about the conversation Johnny and I had had. Dad nodded thoughtfully when I finished.

  “That’s what happens in the open marketplace,” he said. “You didn’t think you were going to have a monopoly, did you?”

  “What’s a monopoly?” I asked. I knew what the game was, but I had the feeling Dad was talking about something else.

  “It’s when you’re the only person doing a certain kind of business,” Dad explained. “Suppose there were only one kind of car manufacturer. Then it would have a monopoly on the car industry.”

  “That sounds good,” I said. “I like that.”

  “Sure you do,” Dad said, “you little capitalist exploiter of the masses. If you have a monopoly on something, you can control what it’s going to cost. Since there’s no competition, people can’t buy your product anywhere else, so they have to pay what you ask.”

  “It’s sounding better and better,” I said. “How do you get to be a monopoly?”

  “You buy your own country and make up your own rules,” Dad said. “In the United States, we try to avoid monopolies for the most part. We’re big on freedom of choice around here.”

  “But if I had a monopoly, Johnny would have to leave me alone,” I said.

  “And if Jo
hnny had one, you’d have to leave him alone,” Dad replied.

  “That isn’t fair,” I said. “It was my idea to get Kid Power into snow shoveling. I thought of it first.”

  “I doubt that Johnny sees it that way,” Dad said. “It sounds as if he was shoveling snow last winter, before there even was a Kid Power.”

  “Does that mean I have to give it up?” I asked. “Just because he got there first? He was born before me, so he had a head start.”

  “Neither one of you has to give up anything,” Dad said. “First of all, there are plenty of walks to shovel. But even if there weren’t, that’s what the open marketplace is all about. Whoever does the better job will get more customers. It doesn’t sound as if Johnny is going to keep his because of his charming personality and delightful smile.”

  “I don’t want his customers,” I said, thinking about my aching back. “I just don’t want him to steal mine.”

  “Well, you’re going to have to be careful, then,” Dad said. “Because if he wants to, he can get into a price war with you.”

  “What’s a price war?” I asked. It sounded like a place where people threw prices at each other.

  “It’s a way of taking business away from your competition,” Dad replied. “Suppose Johnny decides to offer prices lower than yours. Your customers might all go over to him. And then you might decide to cut your prices, too, and maybe go after his customers. You could each slash your prices until you’re barely making a profit. Price wars are good for customers, but bad for businesses.”

  My head was starting to ache almost as much as my back. “You don’t think that’s going to happen, do you?” I asked. I wasn’t sure I could bear it if it did.

  “No,” Dad said. “I doubt that Johnny has the imagination to think of lowering his prices. And since yours are already lower than his, there’s no reason for you to cut yours.”

  “What else could he do to me?” I asked.

  “Not much,” Dad said. “After all, if he does something really wrong, we’ll contact his parents. Even the police, if necessary. And I’m sure he knows that. Most likely, he’ll just growl at you and try to intimidate you. If you stand your ground, you should be fine.”