Excerpt of See You at Harry's by Jo Knowles
(Page 4 of 6)
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“Yay!” Charlie yells, and runs over to hug Eric’s
legs.
We all look at my mom. “Um, wow, honey!” she
says. “I had no idea!” She makes an apologetic face
at us, but she knows very well there is no amount of
money that is going to make us be OK with this plan.
“That’s why it’s a surprise!” my dad says. He’s
beaming, as if this is the best idea he has ever had. “OK,
OK. Let’s get set up.” He puts his hands on my shoulders
and walks me backward so I’m standing under the
huge sign in front of the restaurant. “You look terrific,
sweetheart!” he says in my ear. His stale coffee breath is
particularly pungent.
“ Holden? You next. Right here beside Ferny.”
“I want Ferny!” Charlie whines. He grabs hold of
my legs so tightly, I almost fall over.
“ Watch it!” I yell. “And don’t call me Ferny!” I
hate that name.
“ Daddy said it first!”
“You’re not Dad!”
“Stop it, Fern,” my mom says. “He’s paying you
a compliment.” Any time Charlie bugs me and I complain
about it, my mom tells me I should be flattered.
Flattered because he’s the only one in this family who
ever pays any attention to me? I don’t think she gets
how insulting that is.
My dad continues to line us up so that finally Sara,
Holden, and I are squeezed in between my mom and
dad. My dad picks up Charlie and perches him on his
shoulder.
“I’m not doing this,” Sara says, stepping out of line.
“Now, look, honey,” my dad says. “I’m paying these
people a lot of money. And with any luck, we’ll get it
back tenfold when the business starts booming.”
“I don’t want business to boom. That’s just more
work for me.”
“More money for you, sweetheart,” my dad says
through gritted teeth. “You want your own car to take
with you to college next year?”
My sister perks right up. “Seriously?”
My dad nods. “Now try to look happy.”
Sara gets back in line, and we all plaster on our
happy faces.
“Just try to act normal,” Eric says, fiddling with the
camera lens.
“That’ll be a first,” Holden mumbles.
“That’s us, one big normal family,” I whisper back.
“Hush, you two,” my mom hisses.
“ Harry, you ready?”
We all look at my dad. His name is George.
“ Ready when you are!” my dad says.
Eric holds up his hand and counts silently on his fingers.
Five, four, three, two, one, then points to my dad.
“ WELCOME TO HARRY’S!” my dad booms.
Holden’s sweaty arm rubs against mine. My mom is
stiff behind me. I hope the camera is zoomed in on my
dad because I think I cringed when he started talking. I
try to smile as he lists off the most popular flavors of ice
cream we sell.
“. . . and our most popular, Dinosaur Crunch!”
I hear Charlie chomp like a dinosaur. My dad
laughs way too loud, then clears his throat. “IF YOU
HAVEN’T BEEN TO HARRY’S, YOU HAVEN’T
BEEN TO HEAVEN!” he yells.
Sky motions for all of us to wave. Charlie flaps his
arm frantically and shouts, “See you at Hawee’s!” in his
worst baby voice yet.
I think my ears are bleeding.
“ Aaaaand cut,” Eric says.
My dad tosses Charlie in the air. “ Great line,
buddy!” he yells. “ Should we do another take, Eric? I’m
not sure how that came out.”
“Nah, Harry. It was perfect. We’ll cut anything that
doesn’t look quite right and pan in on some scenes I’ll
take inside. I’d like to film some customers eating cones,
sundaes — stuff like that.”
Excerpted from See You at Harry's
by Jo Knowles. Copyright © 2012 by Jo Knowles.
Excerpted by permission of Candlewick Press. All rights
reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted
without permission in writing from the publisher.
