Completely Clementine
Page 6
“Say hello to your sister,” she said. I said hello and bent closer to get a better look. And let me tell you, there was not much to see.
The good news was: at least my new sister wasn’t half rat. She had ten tiny fingers, and at the tips were ten even tinier fingernails, not claws. No fur, no whiskers, and no sign of a tail coming out of the blanket.
But I have to say, the bad news about my new sister was pretty bad. Her face was red and lumpy—two lumps sticking out on the sides were probably ears, and I hoped the one in the middle was a nose. She was mostly bald, with just a few little tufts of hair that looked like cotton candy. If you let the air out of a teeny-tiny, wrinkled-up old-man balloon, you’d have a good idea of what my new sister looked like. Not so hot. Here is a picture of that:
Before I could tell my mother how sorry I was that her second daughter was so homely, Aunt Claire and Uncle Frank came in with my brother. Spinach took one look at the baby, then ran into his room, howling. My dad woke up and went after him.
My aunt and uncle pulled up chairs in front of the couch. My mom unwrapped the baby so they could see her.
I patted my mom’s shoulder—it must be pretty sad to have to show this baby girl after having one like me.
“Oh, my goodness,” Aunt Claire exclaimed. “She looks just like Clementine did!”
“Exactly the same!” Uncle Frank agreed. “Same hair, same nose, same everything! Beautiful, absolutely beautiful!”
I looked at my sister again. And a miracle must have happened, because now Uncle Frank was right…she was absolutely beautiful!
“What’s her name?” my aunt asked.
My mom shook her head. “She came a little early—caught us by surprise. We’d better pick one soon.”
The baby woke up then and decided she was hungry. My mom started to feed her, and Uncle Frank and Aunt Claire put a casserole in the refrig-erator and left.
My dad came out with Garbanzo Bean and plunked him down with his dinosaur book. Then he turned to me. “Clementine,” he said, “we’ve had a call from the Pentagon. It’s time for the Final Debriefing.”
The Pentagon is a secret project my dad and I have been working on since we found out about the new baby. It’s a table with five sides—one for everybody in our new five-person family—and my dad and I built it together, every single board and nail of it. The Final Debriefing was the code we’d decided to use when it was time for us to show the present to my mom.
My mom just gave us the puzzled look she always gives us when we talk about the Pentagon, then she went back to feeding our baby.
My dad closed the kitchen door, and being absolutely silent, we carried our old four-sided kitchen table out into the hall.
Then I followed him into the workshop. We tied a big purple bow around the new table, and very quietly carried it into the kitchen and set the chairs around it.
“You stay here,” my dad whispered. “I’ll go get the troops.”
When my mother came into the kitchen, her mouth fell into a giant O. It was a good thing my dad had taken the baby, because she would have dropped her for sure, she was so surprised.
My father pulled out a chair and helped my mother sit down. Then he put our baby into her lap, and he and I took turns explaining the whole story of how we made the Pentagon.
My brother fell asleep at the table from being so bored about hearing about our carpentry stuff, but my mom just kept getting more and more excited. “Five sides…one for everybody…made it yourselves…such beautiful wood…kept it a secret…”
Usually when my mother can’t finish her sentences it’s because she’s too mad. But this time her face wore the I-Must-Be-Dreaming expression.
She held our baby close. “What a family, we are,” she said. “What a family.”
Then she leaned over and told me to hold out my arms.
I did, and into them, she placed our little baby.
“Brand-new,” Mom said. “Just born at 12:01 this morning.”
My sister was warm, and smelled sweet, like sugar and grass. Her head nestled like a grapefruit in the crook of my elbow, between Sirius and Vega. It looked as if the freckle-stars were pro-tecting her, but they didn’t need to, because I was strong and careful. I was never going to let anything happen to her.
I looked around at everyone then—my not-so-little brother conked out in a puddle of drool on our new table; my mother looking at me proudly, because she knew I wouldn’t drop our baby; and my father, who ate Mrs. Jacobi’s meat loaf, but who also built this table with me.
Then I looked down at my sister, born on the summer solstice, who was just a few hours old. She didn’t even know yet what a great family she’d gotten born into, or who she was going to be in the world. But she was peeking from her blanket as if she was ready to get started on finding out.
And two things happened at the same time! I figured out the perfect name for my new sister. And I knew who I wanted to say it to first.
“Mom,” I said, “would you please tell Dad that I have something to whisper in his ear?”
My mother smiled at my father. My father smiled at my mother. Then they both grinned at me as though I was the winning ticket in the kid lottery. My dad came over and gave me a kiss on the top of my head, then crouched down beside me.
I whispered our baby’s name in his ear.
“Perfect,” he said. “That is absolutely perfect.”
He told the name to my mom, and she said, “Perfect!” too.
And then I told it to my sister. “The sign in the lobby is for you,” I said. “Today really is your first day. Welcome, Summer.”
Collect all of the Clementines!
Praise for CLEMENTINE
“Fans of Judy Moody will welcome this portrait of another funny, independent third-grader.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Frazee’s engaging pen-and-ink drawings capture the energy and fresh-faced expressions of the irrepressible heroine.…A delightful addition to any beginning chapter-book collection.”
—School Library Journal (starred review)
Praise for THE TALENTED CLEMENTINE
“Clementine is a true original…. Libraries will need multiple copies of this one, because early chapter-book readers will jump at the chance to spend another eventful week with Clementine.”
—School Library Journal (starred review)
“Pennypacker once again demonstrates her keen insights into the third-grade mind with Clementine’s priceless observations of the world around her.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Praise for CLEMENTINE’S LETTER
“Through it all, [Clementine] shines with a vibrant spirit that can never be completely extinguished, even when she is feeling down. Frazee’s pen-and-ink drawings perfectly capture Clementine’s personality and her world.”
—School Library Journal
Praise for CLEMENTINE, FRIEND OF THE WEEK
“Pennypacker’s writing once again brings creativity, humor, and sensitivity to Clementine and her world. Black-and-white line illustrations grace the book, capturing the child’s personality and varied emotions. A must-have for most collections. Fans will be in for another fun serving of their favorite girl named after a fruit.”
—School Library Journal (starred review)
Praise for CLEMENTINE AND THE FAMILY MEETING
“Filled with familiar Clementine charm but, more importantly, a whole lot of heart, too.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Praise for CLEMENTINE AND THE SPRING TRIP
“In her sixth book…we have classic Clementine. Not only does she solve the mystery of the smelly bus but she also figures out why fussy Margaret is so neurotic and realizes that a new student might be a new friend. Clementine’s voice is growing more sophisticated as she gets older, but it’s still true to her age and her fans’ ages, too.”
—The Horn Book
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Sara Pennypacker, Completely Clementine