The Luckiest Kids in the World! 1! The Pony Party!
Jun 3, 2019 14:40:42 GMT -5
Poe's Coats Host Toast, Esmé's meme is meh, and 3 more like this
Post by Foxy on Jun 3, 2019 14:40:42 GMT -5
Book #1
The Pony Party
To Herbert
affable, aesthetic, alive.
Chapter 1
Their fortune began one day at Pretty Pond. The three Lotsaluck children lived with their parents in a tiny apartment at the outskirts of a clean and idle city, and occasionally their parents gave them permission to take a long walk alone to the pond, where they would spend the day as a sort of vacation as long as they were home for dinner. This particular morning, it was hot and sunny, which didn’t bother the Lotsaluck children one bit. When it was gray and cloudy, Pretty Pond was deserted and lonely and it was impossible to make new friends. On hot and sunny days, the Lotsaluck children had plenty of new friends to make at the pond.
Laurie, the eldest, liked to study animals. Unlike most fourteen-year-olds, she was left-handed, so it was much easier to catch frogs when Laurie used her left hand than when she used her right. As she caught frogs, she was looking out at the horizon and thinking about a zoo she wanted to build. Anyone who knew Laurie well could tell she was thinking hard, because she had a big smile on her face. Laurie had a real knack for taking care of animals, so her brain was often filled with images of zebras, giraffes, and naked mole rats, and she always wanted to give them a friendly face. This morning she was thinking about how to construct a habitat for amphibious creatures so they would not dry out.
Larry Lotsaluck, the middle child, and the only boy, liked to swim in the pond. Larry was a little older than twelve and did not wear glasses, which made him look unintelligent. He wasn’t intelligent. The Lotsaluck parents had no library in their tiny apartment. Being only twelve, Larry of course had not read very many books, and had difficulty retaining information from his readings. He didn’t know how to tell and anteater from a hippopotamus. He didn’t know who killed Abraham Lincoln. But he knew much about the backstroke, which he was performing now.
Lil’ Linda, the youngest, liked to sleep. She was an infant, and rather large for her age, quite larger than a boot. What she had in size, however, she lacked in energy. Lil’ Linda was at an age where one mostly speaks in a series of unintelligible shrieks. Except when she used the few actual words in her vocabulary, like “cake,” “mommy,” and “sleep,” most people had trouble understanding what it was that Lil’ Linda was saying. For instance, this morning she was saying “Furple!” over and over, which probably meant, “Look at that man who just showed up at the pond!”
Sure enough, in the distance along the road leading to the pond there could be seen a short man striding toward the Lotsaluck children. Lil’ Linda had just started staring and shrieking at the figure when Larry backstroked to the shore and saw it too. He reached over and touched Laurie’s arm, bringing her out of her zoological thoughts.
“Look at that,” Larry said, and pointed toward the man. He was drawing closer, and the children could see many details. He was an adult wearing a cowboy hat.
“Who do you think he is?” Laurie asked.
“I don’t know,” Larry said, “But he seems to be moving right toward us.
“There are lots of people here,” Laurie said, a little excitedly. “There are lots of other people he might be here to see.” She felt the wet, squishy frog in her right hand, which she had been about to release back into the pond. She had a sudden thought to show it to the man, because he seemed like he might be interested.
“He only seems exciting,” Larry said, as if reading his sister’s thoughts, “because no one ever visits us.”
This was true. No one ever visited the Lotsalucks at their rundown shack in the city. As the figure reached them, the children saw with relief that is was somebody exciting, and somebody they knew: Mr. Foe. Mr. Foe was the attendant at the gas station the children’s parents went to in order to fill up their car with gas. One of the things Laurie, Larry, and Lil’ Linda really like about their parents was that they allowed them to ride with their heads out the windows of their ramshackle car down the road on the way to the gas station, so long as they helped wash the car. The children remembered Mr. Foe because he was always healthy and never missed a day of work at the gas station.
Mr. Foe took off his baseball cap, which had been keeping the sun out of his eyes, and stood for a moment, looking at the children. Laurie and Larry moved forward to shake his hand and say hello.
“Hello,” said Laurie.
“Hello,” said Larry.
“Howl!” said Lil’ Linda.
“Hello,” said Mr. Foe, and he looked very happy. For a few seconds nobody said anything, and the children wondered what Mr. Foe was doing there at Pretty Pond, when he should have been at the gas station back in the town, where he worked. He was not dressed for the pond.
“I have a frog,” Laurie said finally, making conversation. Lil’ Linda yawned, and Larry picked her up and held her before she fell asleep on the grass.
“Yes, it is a nice day,” Mr. Foe said intensely, staring at all the people by the pond. “I’m confident to tell you I have some very good news for you children.”
The three Lotsaluck siblings looked at him. Laurie, with some relief, felt the frog in her right hand and was glad she had shown it to Mr. Foe.
“Your parents,” Mr. Foe said, “have won the lottery.”
The children talked all at once.
“No way!” Laurie said.
“That’s awesome!” Larry shouted.
“Woohoo!” Lil’ Linda shrieked.
“They won,” Mr. Foe said, “the biggest jackpot in our town’s history. I’m very happy to tell you this, mis amigos.”
Laurie took her eyes off Mr. Foe and stared out at the pond. Mr. Foe had never called the children “mis amigos” before. She understood the words he was saying but thought he must be joking, because nothing this good ever happened to their family.
“Mis amigos,” Mr. Foe said, “Means ‘my friends.’”
“I don’t know French,” Larry said happily. He didn’t know Mr. Foe had actually spoken Spanish, and he was having trouble believing exactly what Mr. Foe had said. It seemed to him that Mr. Foe must somehow have misspoken.
“The T.V. news crews arrived, of course,” Mr. Foe said, “just in time. The entire thing is going to be on the evening news tonight. Your family is rich.”
Larry pictured all the swimming caps he would be able to buy with his parents’ money. He could have one of every color.
Mr. Foe continued. “I was sent to retrieve you here, and take you to my home, where you’ll stay for some time while I find a relative for you to stay with while your parents take a cruise around the entire world. I am the manager of your parents’ winnings. That means I will be doing investments with their fortune and figuring out where you children will go. When your parents get done on their cruise, they will come get you, and you can also use the money until then.”
Although he was the manager, Laurie felt like Mr. Foe was a superhero. He had simply walked down the pond to them and changed their lives forever.
“Come with me,” Mr. Foe said, and held out his hand. In order to take it, Laurie had to drop the frog she was holding. Larry took Laurie’s other hand, and Lil’ Linda took Larry’s other hand, and in that manner the three Lotsaluck children – the multi-billionaires, now – were led away from the pond and from their previous lives.
-------------------------------------------
Tune in once a week-ish this summer for the next chapter of The Luckiest Kids in the World!