by Nancy Krulik
Kids were standing in front of Mr. Brigandi’s and Mrs. Derkman’s houses, taking pictures of one another with the decorations.
Dads lifted little kids onto their shoulders so the kids could see better over the crowds.
Cars moved through the streets. Drivers honked their horns as the traffic grew thicker and thicker.
News reporters stood by with their microphones in hand. Everyone seemed to be talking and pointing at once.
Katie and her parents didn’t like the crowds, but the Derkmans sure seemed to. They were standing outside their house, proudly pointing out their decorations.
Katie looked over to see if Mr. Brigandi was doing the same thing. But Mr. Brigandi wasn’t on his front lawn. In fact, he was nowhere near the crowds. Instead, he was on his roof, putting a few last-minute decorations on his house. Katie could see him up there, arranging more lights.
“Excuse me,” a woman with two little girls said to Katie. “Could you move out of the way? I’m trying to get a picture of that house.” She pointed toward the Derkmans’ home.
Pepper didn’t like having strangers on his lawn. “Aroo!” he howled.
“Wah! Wah!” One of the little girls began to cry. “No like doggie.”
“Could you stop that dog from barking at my children?” the woman demanded.
Katie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was her front lawn, after all. “But . . .”
“Why don’t you take Pepper back into the house?” Katie’s mom cut in. “He can get hurt out here.”
That was true. Katie hadn’t looked at it that way. A little cocker spaniel could get trampled with all these people around. Katie quickly scooped up her dog in her arms and carried him back inside.
As soon as they were in the house, Pepper jumped up onto the couch and buried his little brown-and-white head in his paws. “Aroo,” he whimpered.
“It’s okay, boy,” Katie said as she patted his head. “They’ll be gone soon.”
Just then, Katie felt a light breeze blowing on the back of her neck. She turned to see if she’d left the door open. No. It was shut tight. The breeze was obviously not coming from the outside.
Uh-oh! That could mean only one thing. This was no ordinary breeze. This was the magic wind. It was back!
Katie gulped. Oh, no. Not now. Not on Christmas Eve!
But the magic wind didn’t care about holidays. It came whenever it wanted to. And right now it was circling wildly around Katie. She shut her eyes tightly and tried not to cry.
The magic wind was really powerful tonight. It whirled faster and faster. It swirled like a horrible tornado. A tornado that was blowing around only Katie.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone.
And so was Katie Carew.
Chapter 10
Brrrr. Katie shivered. She wasn’t quite sure where the magic wind had blown her. But wherever it was, it was outside. And it was cold!
Slowly, Katie opened her eyes and looked around. She looked up. She looked down.
Uh-oh. Looking down had been a bad idea. The magic wind had blown Katie all the way to the roof of a two-story house! Down was very far away! Katie was scared!
“AAAAAHHHHH!!” she screamed. But her voice didn’t sound like a fourth-grade girl’s scream. It had been a low, deep scream. A man’s scream.
Katie looked at herself. Her big brown boots were definitely men’s shoes.
Her slacks were men’s work pants.
Her hands were big and blistery. And they were covered with hair. Yuck!
But it was her coat that helped Katie figure out who she was. It was a dark blue jacket with a zipper up the front and pockets on the sides. Katie had seen Mr. Brigandi wear it lots of times.
Which could mean only one thing. Katie had been switcherooed into Mr. Brigandi . . . while he was standing all the way up there on his roof!
This was so not good!
Katie did not like being so far from the ground. She really wanted to be back down with everybody else. Quickly, she looked around for some way to get down. But she didn’t see a ladder anywhere. There was no way for her to get off the roof. At least not that she could see.
There was also no way the magic wind was going to come and change her back anytime soon. Not with all those people down there staring at her. The magic wind came only when Katie was alone. And those people weren’t going to leave until after the contest was over.
Which meant Mr. Brigandi wasn’t going to be around to see if he’d actually won. That seemed very unfair to Katie. After all, Mr. Brigandi had worked very hard to make his house look so special.
At least it seemed special from down below. Katie looked around. From up on the roof, the decorations weren’t all that impressive. In fact, they looked kind of junky.
From close-up, it was obvious that the giant Santa was just a big chunk of painted plastic with a motor attached to its back. The motor whirred really loudly, making the Santa seem even more fake.
Not that Katie had ever thought that the Santa Claus was real or anything. But it had been fun to pretend.
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer didn’t look very nice from up close, either. His shiny nose was really just a big red lightbulb.
Katie bet the presents in the sleigh weren’t real either. They were probably just empty boxes. She took a few steps toward the sleigh to get a better look, and . . .
Whoa! Katie tripped over a pile of Christmas lights that had been left on the roof.
“Oh, no!” Katie shouted. She grabbed on to the nearest thing she could find—the moving Santa Claus decoration.
The next thing she knew, Katie was sliding up and down as the Santa Claus moved in and out of the chimney on Mr. Brigandi’s roof.
Up. Down. Up. Down.
“Ouch!” Katie cried.
“Hey, check out the guy on the roof !” Katie heard someone shout from down below.
“Yeah, he thinks he’s Santa Claus!” someone else shouted. The crowd began to laugh.
Katie blushed. She was so embarrassed. Quickly, she let go of the Santa and scrambled to her feet.
“Okay, that wasn’t so bad,” she said to herself as she stood there for a moment. “I didn’t fall off the roof or anything.”
At least not yet.
Chapter 11
It was getting colder up on the roof. Mr. Brigandi’s jacket wasn’t very warm. Katie shivered. She wanted to get inside.
But that meant getting off the roof somehow. And without a ladder, it seemed impossible.
Still, Katie figured the magic wind hadn’t blown the real Mr. Brigandi up onto his roof. He must have climbed up somehow.
Katie walked carefully over toward one side of the house and looked down. There was an open window on the second floor. It led to one of the bedrooms. Mr. Brigandi must have climbed out the window to get to the roof.
But how? He would have needed a ladder to get from the window to the roof. And there wasn’t one anywhere.
In fact, the only thing between the window and the roof of the house was a rose trellis. It was made of crisscrossed metal strips and attached to the side of the house. In the summer time, Mr. Brigandi’s roses covered the frame. But in the winter, it was just thick strips of metal joined together.
Sort of like a ladder.
That was it! Mr. Brigandi must have climbed the trellis to reach the roof. And that was exactly how Katie was going to get down!
At least she thought that was how she’d do it. The truth was, that trellis looked scary. Mr. Brigandi never should have been climbing on it. Katie knew her mother would be angry if she knew Katie was climbing on it.
But it was the only way Katie was going to be able to get down. She would have to take a chance.
Slowly, Katie got on her knees and placed her foot on one of the metal strips. The trellis shook slightly, but it didn’t fall.
“Okay, I can do this,” Katie said to herself. “I just can’t look down. That would
be too scary.”
Unfortunately, Katie had to look down to find the next strip in the trellis. And when she did, she realized just how high up she really was.
“Oh, no!” she gulped. Tears began to form in her eyes. This was the worst thing the magic wind had ever done to her.
She had to get inside that house! Katie carefully moved her foot down toward the next rung and . . .
Whoops! Her foot missed the metal strip.
“Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!” she cried out. Quickly, she grabbed hold of a metal box that was sticking out from the side of the house. She held on tight, until she could regain her footing.
As she placed her foot back on the trellis, Katie breathed a sigh of relief. “Everything’s okay,” she told herself quietly.
Or not.
At that very moment, everything went dark. Everything!
The lights weren’t flickering.
The Santa wasn’t moving up and down. And Rudolph no longer had a nose so bright.
“Hey, what happened?” Katie heard some of the people shout from below.
Katie figured out the answer to that one pretty quickly. That metal box must have been where all the decorations were plugged in. Katie must have disconnected the wires when she grabbed it.
Now Mr. Brigandi’s house didn’t look Christmassy at all. It just looked like a dark, empty house. And the judges were going to come by any minute.
Mr. Brigandi didn’t have a chance of winning the contest now.
And it was all Katie’s fault.
Climbing down the trellis was doubly hard in the dark. But Katie kept going. She had to.
Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, she said over and over to herself as she moved slowly down the ladder
Finally, Katie managed to reach the open window. She scrambled into the house.
Yikes. It was really dark inside. The only light came from the moon. The trees outside were leaving weird shadows on the wall.
Katie shuddered. “This is the worst Christmas Eve ever!” she shouted into the darkness.
Suddenly, Katie felt a cold blast of wind hit her. It was like icy fingers crawling up her neck.
Katie pulled up the collar on Mr. Brigandi’s coat to warm herself. But a coat was no match for this wind. This was the magic wind. And the magic wind was stronger than any jacket.
Within seconds, the breeze had turned into a full-force icy tornado that swirled and whirled around only Katie. She grabbed the bed and held on tight. She didn’t want to wind up being blown back onto Mr. Brigandi’s roof.
The wind grew colder and colder. It blew harder and harder.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone.
But Katie Carew was back.
Chapter 12
Quickly, Katie darted down the stairs and out the front door. The crowd outside Mr. Brigandi’s house was much smaller than it had been before. Most of the people had moved on to the Derkmans’ house.
“Well, this house doesn’t have a chance,” Katie heard one boy say.
“I know,” another boy replied. “Why would Mr. Brigandi turn out his lights just when the judges are coming by? How dumb is that?”
“I guess he didn’t really want the trophy this year,” the first boy answered.
Katie frowned. That wasn’t true at all. Mr. Brigandi had wanted that prize. Badly. And she had ruined everything for him.
But Mr. Brigandi didn’t know that. In fact, he was certain someone else had pulled the plug on his decorations.
“YOU!” Mr. Brigandi shouted as he ran across Katie’s front lawn toward the Derkmans’ house. “You did this to me!”
Mr. Derkman looked at him, surprised. “Did what?” he asked.
“You turned out my lights,” Mr. Brigandi said accusingly.
“We did no such thing,” Mrs. Derkman said.
“Yes you did. You were so desperate to win that you ruined my Christmas display,” Mr. Brigandi shouted.
“How could we have done that?” Mr. Derkman demanded. “We’ve been standing here the whole time.”
“I’m not sure how you did it,” Mr. Brigandi admitted. He scratched his head. “I’m not really sure of anything right now. In fact, the last thing I really remember is being on my roof, putting the finishing touches on my decorations. The next thing I knew, I was on my front lawn, and the lights were out in my house. I don’t even know how I got there.”
“Well, maybe you turned off your own lights, then,” Mrs. Derkman insisted, “because you knew we were going to win anyway. You just decided to surrender.”
“Surrender? Me?” Mr. Brigandi shouted. “Never!”
The argument was getting really loud now. Everyone was screaming at once. Even the judges, Mr. Hanson and Mrs. Diaz, couldn’t get a word in.
Katie couldn’t believe it. Her neighbors had totally forgotten what Christmas was supposed to be about! It made her really angry.
“CUT IT OUT!” Katie shouted suddenly. “STOP IT!”
Mr. and Mrs. Derkman turned and stared at her.
So did Mr. Brigandi.
In fact, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the redheaded fourth-grader who had yelled at her adult neighbors.
“What did you say?” Mrs. Derkman demanded. She sounded a lot like she had when she’d been Katie’s third-grade teacher.
But Mrs. Derkman wasn’t Katie’s teacher anymore. She couldn’t get her into any trouble here. “I said, ‘Stop it!’ ” Katie repeated. “You guys are acting ridiculous.”
“Katie!” Mrs. Carew scolded.
“No, Mom, it’s true,” Katie replied. “Christmas shouldn’t be about contests. We shouldn’t be thinking about who has the nicest lights, or who spent the most money on plastic elves and candy canes. We should be thinking about being nice to one another.”
“You tell ’em, Katie Kazoo!” George shouted.
“While you grown-ups were busy decorating your houses, my friends and I were baking cookies for the families at the shelter,” Katie told them. “We were celebrating Christmas the right way.”
“Woohoo!” The kids in the cooking club let out a huge cheer. “We rule!”
Mr. Derkman frowned and looked at the ground. Mrs. Derkman kicked at the fake snow below her feet.
“Katie’s right,” Mr. Brigandi said. “We were so focused on this contest, we forgot about Christmas.” He turned to Katie. “Would you kids like some grown-up help at the shelter tonight?”
“Definitely!” Katie told him. “I bet the kids in the shelter would love to have some Christmas lights in their windows.”
Mr. Brigandi laughed. “I have a few of those they could borrow,” he said. “And some big plastic candy canes, too.”
“Elves would look nice at the shelter,” Mr. Derkman suggested.
“And I think some of the little girls would like the dolls from our Ferris wheel,” Mrs. Derkman added. “Dolls should be played with, not looked at.”
Katie grinned. The grown-ups were acting like grown-ups again.
Finally.
Chapter 13
“Wow! This place looks amazing!” Jeremy exclaimed as he looked around the shelter.
“It really does,” Emma W. agreed. “The tree has so many lights on it!”
“And look at those kids going through the candy-cane-and-elf maze. They’re having a blast,” Miriam agreed. “Mr. Brigandi and Mr. Derkman sure put that together fast.”
“Our cookies are a big hit,” Kevin announced to everyone. “In fact, they’re almost gone.”
“The music is great,” Katie said. “I love Christmas songs.”
“I think Mrs. Derkman likes them, too,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, look at her go,” George added.
Katie giggled. Her third-grade teacher was right in the middle of the dance floor. She and her husband were doing some weird, old-fashioned kind of dance. Mr. Derkman was pretending to swim. Mrs. Derkman was moving her hands up and down like a monkey, whil
e her body jerked back and forth.
Mrs. Derkman could do a lot of things really well. But dancing sure wasn’t one of them.
“What kind of dance is that?” Mandy asked, giggling.
“It’s the Jerkman jerk,” George joked.
The kids all started to laugh.
“Too bad Suzanne had to miss that,” Mandy said as she watched Mrs. Derkman and her husband dance. “She would have loved to see Mrs. Derkman make a fool of herself.”
“Hey, check it out,” Jeremy shouted. He pointed to the door. “There are news reporters here!”
Everybody’s attention turned toward the reporters and their cameras. They were busy interviewing the kids who lived at the shelter.
“This is the best night of my whole life,” one little boy said.
“Mine too,” his sister told the reporter. She held up a doll dressed in a lacy French dress. “I got a dolly for Christmas. I never had such a fancy dolly before.”
That made Katie smile. Mrs. Derkman was right. Dolls were meant to be played with.
“Let’s talk to some of the kids who are volunteering at the party,” the reporter said. She started over toward Katie and her friends.
But the reporter wasn’t the only one trying to get near the kids. Suzanne Lock was hurrying over toward them, too. And Suzanne was a lot faster.
“Suzanne! You made it!” Katie shouted excitedly. She gave her a big hug.
“Dad and I saw the first half of the show,” Suzanne told her. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted to be here with you.”
“That’s true,” Mr. Lock said. “Suzanne and I were standing in the lobby at intermission. We heard some news reporters talking about coming down here to take pictures of the kids who were baking cookies for the shelter. She insisted we come here right away. She didn’t want to miss out on all the fun.”
Katie smiled. It was more likely that Suzanne didn’t want to miss out on a chance at being on TV. In fact, Suzanne was already talking to the reporter.