Heidi

“Mommy!  It’s too hot.”  I need something.  I need a COLD something.  MOMMY!  ARE YOU LISTENING?”

“Vanessa, please!  I am trying to read.” 

“But Mommy, aren’t you hot?”

“I am hot, but I have to finish this homework, please go find something to do.”

Vanessa stomped off, with a big pout on her mouth which she made sure her mother couldn’t see.  She knew her mother would just make a comment like, “oh, what a nice new shelf we have in the house, here I’ll set my coffee cup on it.”  She wasn’t in the least sympathetic.

Vanessa wandered around the apartment.  She wandered around the back yard.  She wandered upstairs to her bedroom.  There was just nowhere that was not stifling hot! 

Vanessa tried drawing with her crayons, but it was so hot they stuck to her fingers and just felt… well, sticky.

Vanessa tried playing the piano, but her mom yelled at her to be quiet as she had to concentrate.  “Humph.”  Vanessa stalked away from the piano and went to the book shelf.  She pulled out a book to read, it was all about the ocean and a rainbow fish.  Vanessa couldn’t read very well yet, but she had memorized this book so she looked like she was reading it, and she felt like she was reading it, even though she could only read certain words. 

But it was making her hotter to read about the ocean—everything looked so cool there with the waves and the breeze… and then she had an idea that she knew would cool her off!

She needed to get her mother’s attention.  She needed to get her attention right now!

“MOMMY!  I know just what to do so we can both be cool while you study!”

“Alright, what is it, but be quick, I have to finish this today. “  Mommy didn’t even look up when she spoke and Vanessa knew she hadn’t gotten her attention yet.  Vanessa stood there with her little fists on her hips and a frown on her face.  Mommy didn’t even notice. 

“Mommy.  I am so hot I am going to faint.  I am hotter than the sun.  I am hotter than the BBQ grill.  I am hotter than the inside of the oven….”  Vanessa waited.  Mommy still didn’t look up. 

“Ummm” said mommy.

“AND I THINK YOU ARE TOO!” Yelled Vanessa at the top of her lungs.

“Vanessa Dawn!  Don’t you yell at me like that!  (Now she had mommy’s attention.)

“Mommy, you always tell me it’s not polite to ignore you and you are ignoring me so I HAD to yell to get your attention.”

“Well.  You have one minute, and then I am going back to work.  What is it that cannot wait.”

“Mommy, I know just how to cool us both off and I promise I won’t bug you all the rest of the day!  Let’s go to the lake!  You can work on your tablet in the grass and I can swim and you can even swim to take a break and cool off and you know it will be SO much cooler there.”

“Oh.”  Mommy looked thoughtful.  Vanessa looked hopeful.  Vanessa waited.  She waited some more.  Mommy still looked thoughtful. 

“Please Mommy.  Please?”

Mommy took a big breath.  “You are right.  What are we doing sitting in this hot sticky apartment when we can be sitting by the lake?  Get your swimsuit on and I’ll pack a lunch.”

“Yippee!  Thank you mommy!  Thank you, thank you!” Vanessa yelled as she flew upstairs to get her swimsuit.  It didn’t take long for both of them to pile into the car and be on the road.  In a half hour they were pulling up to the parking lot at Big Pond.  Vanessa thought calling the lake, ‘Big Pond,’ was hilarious, as obviously it was too big to be a pond and really, Mommy had told her, it’s name was Lake Ondawa, which was an Indian name anyway.  Vanessa thought that was a much better name AND it was more fun to say than “Big Pond.”

Mommy rolled out their blanket and got out their basket of food.  Vanessa ran down to the lake for a cool off dip before she ate, while Mommy got everything ready.  Just as Vanessa ran back to the blanket, a roll-y poll-y ball of fur ran up to her and started jumping and yipping and falling backwards and then jumping up and doing it again.  Vanessa ran around in circles and called out, “what a cute puppy!” 

“Why don’t you take her back to those nice people over there, I think she belongs to them.  Then we can eat our lunch.”

Vanessa scooped up the little puppy and took her back to her owners and came back and sat down on the blanket.  “That poor puppy doesn’t even have a name yet.  If she were my puppy I’d name her Cinderella.  When can we get a dog mommy?  I really want one and you said someday I can have one.  Wasn’t that puppy just so cute?”

“Here is your sandwich honey.   Let’s have our lunch, you must be starving.”  Mommy had a way of ignoring things she didn’t want to talk about.  As Mommy was handing Vanessa her sandwich, the puppy ran back to their blanket and was sniffing and yipping and jumping all over Vanessa’s lap. Vanessa held her sandwich over her head.

“Can I give her a piece of my sandwich mommy?” 

“You will have to ask her owners, it’s their dog.” 

“Hey!  Can your puppy have some of my chicken sandwich?” Vanessa yelled over. 

Mommy gave her ‘the look’ and Vanessa knew she shouldn’t have yelled, it wasn’t polite.  But the people yelled back, “sure, she would love a treat!” so it seemed ok to Vanessa— at least the other people thought it was ok to yell.

The puppy kept wandering back and forth between Vanessa’s blanket and their blanket all afternoon while Mommy worked on her tablet and Vanessa splashed in the water.  Sometimes the puppy splashed with her—Vanessa liked that best of all.

Vanessa ran up from the water’s edge and threw herself on the blanket.  The puppy looked over and then ran to Vanessa and gave her puppy kisses all over her face.  Vanessa couldn’t stop laughing.  The owners walked over and Mommy said, “I hope we haven’t monopolized your puppy too much, but my daughter did have a good time with her.  Thank you for sharing her.”

 

“Well actually, we came over to say hi.  And to tell you we have six more of these little critters at home and are looking to find good homes for them.  Your daughter looks like she really enjoys this one.  Would you like to take her home with you?”

Mommy just sat there with her mouth open.  Vanessa didn’t.  “PLEASE MOMMY?  PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?  I PROMISE I’LL TAKE ALL THE CARE OF HER.  I PROMISE. I PROMISE.  PLEASE?”

“Well, I… uh… well, we have talked about getting a dog.  And you are four years old now.  Do you think you could remember to feed her?”

“Oh, Mommy.  You know I would!  Thank you mommy, thank you so much!  It’s all I’ve wanted for a long time!”  Vanessa was hopping up and down and could barely contain herself.

“Now wait, we don’t have all the details worked out yet.” Mommy said to Vanessa.  She turned to the nice couple, “How much do you want for her?”

“Oh we don’t want any money!  We just want her to go to a good home and we can see that you two love her and will take good care of her.”

“OH we will take the BEST care of her,” said Vanessa with such conviction all the adults laughed.

“What will you name her,” asked Mommy.

“Hmmmm… Cinderella?  Or Maid Marion?  Or…Snow White?”  Mused Vanessa. 

“Well,” said Mommy, “she isn’t very white—more like a light tan, so Snow white doesn’t seem right, and Maid Marion and Cinderella are quite a mouthful for a little puppy.  Any other ideas?”

“Ummmm….I know, from my MOST favorite book—we’ll call her Heidi!”

At that, Heidi jumped up and wagged her tail so hard she fell over!  She seemed to be in agreement that this was the perfect name for her.  The nice people kissed Heidi goodbye and Vanessa and Mommy and Heidi packed up to make a trip to the store to buy Heidi everything she would need in her new home.  Vanessa held Heidi on her lap and thought that this hot, hot day had turned out to be the best day of her whole life.

  

Izzy’s Almost Dream Come True

This is a fictionalized account of a true story that happened to me... way back when... written as a children's picture book.  If you read this to your children--let me know how they like it!

Izzy’s Almost Dream Come True

“Everyone get ready, we’re going to Eldridge Park!” Mom yelled.  She had to yell because the four boys always yelled and if you wanted to be heard by them, you had to yell louder.  “Get dressed and Izzy, remember your shoes!” she reminded Izzy. 

Izzy was the middle child, tall, for six years old, and skinny and she HATED to wear shoes.  Her little sister was just three and her baby brother was just a toddler but he had already learned how to be a boy which meant yell a lot and run everywhere. She also had another younger brother and two older brothers.  As you can see, this is a LOT of brothers, too many really, in Izzy’s opinion.

This day was going to be glorious.  Eldridge Park!  The merry-go-round!  The bumper cars!  Best of all… ponies!  Izzy couldn’t wait to ride the ponies!  Her first word as a baby was “sorsey.”  She wanted a horse so bad she could taste it.  She wanted a horse so bad it was all she talked about.  She read books about horses and dreamed about horses and just knew that someday she would have her very own horse.

Mom packed a lunch for everyone.  This was a huge undertaking because the boys ate like they were never going to see food again.  She took two whole loaves of Wonder bread and started slathering peanut butter on one slice and grape jelly on the other and slapping them together and putting them right back in the bread bag they came out of.  When she was done it didn’t even look like she had opened the bread bag yet—it just looked like a loaf of bread.  The she grabbed a bag of apples and another of oranges and put that in the basket along with a gallon of Koolaide—orange, two bags of potato chips, some paper plates, cups and napkins and we were ready to go!

Dad put the top down on the old blue Packard.  It was the most divine bluish-green color—Izzy’s favorite color in her box of crayons- aquamarine.  The seats were like a great big old sofa.  They were huge and cushy and there were no seat belts back then—can you imagine that?  (I’m sure it wasn’t very safe.) There was no center console for water bottles—there weren’t even water bottles, and mom and dad who drank coffee all day never even thought of taking coffee with them wherever they went, so I guess you didn’t really need the center console anyway.  Weird, huh?

You could squash as many people as you wanted in that car.  The three bigger boys scrambled into the back seat with Izzy and her sister and the baby squished in the front seat between mom and dad and they were off!

It took forever to get to Elmira and then to go under the big black tunnel and when we came out of the tunnel—there was Eldridge Park!  Dad parked the car, mom handed each of us two dollars for rides and as everyone started to scatter… Mom yelled, “Be back at twelve for lunch!” 

Izzy ran straight towards the pony ride and stopped short.  She thought she was seeing a vision, the sun was shining down on the most beautiful white pony standing there tied to a tree with a ‘for sale’ sign tacked to the tree.  She approached the pony slowly, holding out her hand so he would know she was a friend.  She couldn’t believe it.  This was the perfect horse for her, just her size, pure white like a fairy tale horse, and so sweet and gentle. She petted him and told him how beautiful he was and wished she had a carrot for him. 

Izzy shyly went up to the man sitting by the pony ride.  He was sort of scary looking, with a grizzled grey beard and a baseball hat on and he just looked sort of mean.  Izzy was not going to be scared away by him though.  She asked, “What’s the pony’s name?”   

 “Snowball,” he answered gruffly.  Then he said, “you lookin’ to buy a pony?”

“Oh, I AM!” exclaimed Izzy.  “I really am!  How much is he?”

“A hundred dollars, but for you I might go a little less,” he said and he sort of smiled.  Maybe he wasn’t really so mean… “Ya better ask yur dad and ma before we seal the deal though.”

Izzy turned around and ran.  She ran as fast as her legs could carry her all the way back to the picnic area.  She felt like she was flying, she couldn’t believe it, a pony, oooh boy!  This was HER horse she could just feel it.  This is what she had been dreaming about forever!  Her very own horse.  Oh please oh please oh please let her mom say yes.  She ran and ran.

“MOM!”  She yelled as she skidded into the picnic table.  “Mom!”  She was breathing so hard from all that running she couldn’t even talk!

“Slow down now,” said her mother.  “What is it?  Is everything ok?”

Izzy took a big breath, “Mom, there’s this perfect white pony for sale and it’s only a hundred dollars though the man said he would let me have it for less and maybe only eighty dollars I think and I could work it off and it’s the most beautiful pony and his name is Snowball and please please please can we buy it?  PLEASE???”

“Oh Izzy...” began her mom.

“Mom, just come see him, he’s so perfect for me,” and Izzy dragged at her mom’s hand and pulled her towards the pony ride.

“Now Izzy, I’ll come look but you know we don’t have anywhere to keep a pony.”  Izzy kept pulling her mom towards the pony ride and soon they were standing right in front of Snowball. 

“See!”  Izzy could barely contain her excitement.  Every nerve in her body was shivering with excitement.  A pony!  A real live pony!  She just had to have him!  She knew she could earn a hundred dollars if she put her mind to it—or maybe only eighty.  She would do anything. 

Mom stroked the pony’s head.  She look at her daughter.  She knew how much Izzy wanted a horse.  It was all she talked about. 

“You interested m’am? I might could do better than a hundred” said the old man.  And mom just looked at him and then at Izzy and then back at him.

“Oh please mom? I’ll totally take care of him, you won’t have to do a thing, I’ll brush him and ride him and do everything!”

Mom looked at Izzy with a funny look.  “Come on, let’s talk about it.”  She started walking back to the picnic area.  “”first of all, how will we get him home? We don’t even have a horse trailer.”

“He could ride in the back seat with me, I could just sit Indian style and he could stand right there!  He would fit, I know he would!”

“And what about a barn?  We don’t have a barn for him.”

“Couldn’t dad build him a barn?  Dad can build anything!”  Izzy was starting to get alarmed.  “Oh Mommy, I just HAVE to have this horse.  PLEASE!”  Izzy felt desperate.

“I’m sorry honey.  It’s just not the right time.  Someday we will have a place where we can have a horse, but our yard is not big enough for a horse, or even a pony and we don’t have a horse trailer or a barn.” Mom looked as sad as Izzy felt, but Izzy couldn’t see that.

Izzy felt a hard lump rise into her throat.  She felt hot and tight and ready to cry.  “I have to have a horse mom.  I just have to.” She said shakily.  

Izzy slumped away, tears sliding silently down her cheeks, her hands jammed in her pockets.  She felt the two dollars her mom had given her for rides crumpled up in the bottom of her pocket and decided she didn’t need to ride the merry-go-round after all, this would be the beginning.  “I will get a horse, I will get a horse, I will.” 

And she knew in her bones, that someday, somehow, she would have a horse of her very own.