by Sam Hay
“She is!” Joe heard himself shout, pointing to Maggie. “The lady with the frizzy hair!”
He clamped his hand over his mouth. He hadn’t meant to sound rude.
But Maggie smiled at him and marched forward. “I’m Maggie Pringle. I got held up—my bus broke down. That woman is my sister!”
“Is that true?” asked the manager. He didn’t look like he wanted to argue with Maggie.
“Yes,” said Pauline in a small voice. “I thought I should pick up Maggie’s prize for her, because I . . . didn’t think she was going to be here today!”
Maggie’s face was thunderous. “Really!” she said. “Well, that’s probably because I didn’t get the letter they sent me!”
Pauline gulped. Her face turned crimson.
“Thank goodness you called me,” said Maggie, smiling at the store manager.
He looked puzzled. “But, I didn’t—”
“Can we have a picture of Maggie with her prize, please?” said the photographer.
Joe breathed a sigh of relief.
A waitress appeared pushing a large cart packed with cake.
“I don’t mind if I do,” said Dad, who’d appeared with Toby. He took a slice of cake from the waitress, then turned to Joe. “You shouldn’t have run off like that,” Dad said. “I had to find Mom and Sarah to tell them where we were going!”
“Sorry, Dad.” Joe took a slice of cake.
“We did it!” cheeped Petey, landing on Joe’s shoulder, his chest puffed up with pride. “We saved Maggie’s money!”
“Do you think she’ll forgive Pauline for stealing her letter?” Joe whispered.
Petey shrugged. “Sisters! Can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em!”
Joe giggled.
Just then, Sarah appeared. She marched up to the dessert cart and helped herself to the largest slice of cake she could find.
“Bye, Joe,” chirped Petey. “Thanks for everything.”
Joe looked around, but Petey had already vanished. A small green feather fluttered down. Joe caught it and held it in his palm.
“Hello, Joe!” It was Maggie Pringle. “Thanks for speaking up for me just now.”
“That’s okay.” Joe looked at his feet, hoping that Ms. Pringle wasn’t going to get mad at him for saying she had frizzy hair.
But she didn’t. “Doing some shopping?” she asked.
“I was going to get you another vase,” said Joe.
“Don’t worry about that. I can buy plenty of vases now—I just won the raffle!”
Pauline sidled past, looking miserable.
“I might even treat my sister to something!” said Maggie in a loud voice.
Pauline’s face lit up. “Really?”
“I saw some nice porcelain parakeet figurines,” Maggie added. “I thought we could buy a matching pair to remind us of Petey!”
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