Beautiful Dreamer
	by Allen Morgan
	novel
	no illustrations
	nine chapters - 107 pages

Chapter Two (part 3)

Max and Jim and Susie left soon after to continue the celebration at a Gastown pub. Katie couldn't go, of course, because she wasn't old enough. Ellie took Gale upstairs and promised to check back a little later to make sure that Katie was in bed.

After everyone left, Katie sat by herself and sulked. The more she sulked, the madder she got about the whole thing. She remembered the toasts one by one and decided that hers was definitely the rottenest. It didn't even seem like a toast at all. It was more like an insult. Finally, she got so mad that she couldn't decide whether to kick all the chairs or just the fridge door. She decided to go to the milk store instead. It was better than hurting her foot. She took a five dollar bill out of the cookie jar and left. She didn't kick the back door on the way out but she did slam it a little.

By the time she reached the milk store she was in an even worse mood. "They have no right to treat me like that. I'm as much a member of the family as anyone else," she thought as she grabbed some milk from the cooler. "As soon as the Beautiful Dreamers get going I'll have so much money for the cookie jar, dad will have to notice me." But as she brought the milk up to the front counter she realized that a hundred dollars might not impress him enough.

"I'll have to get more than that," she decided. "Maybe a thousand. Sure, a thousand ought to show him I'm not a kid anymore."

The only trouble was, even if the Beautiful Dreamers worked out better than she thought and she was able to work all day, every day, for the whole summer, Katie knew she'd never be able to earn a whole thousand.

"There must be a way to do it," she told herself.

And there was. It was right under her nose staring up at her from the glass on the front counter. Lottery tickets - a whole row of them. Katie caught her breath and wondered why she hadn't thought of it before. She might even win a hundred thousand dollars. Her dad would notice that all right. A hundred thousand dollars was sure to impress him a whole lot.

"Oh, I just remembered something," she told the store owner. "My dad wants me to pick up a lottery ticket - the one dollar kind, you know, the Western Express."

She asked for it as casually as she could. She wasn't sure that she was old enough to buy one, but the store owner didn't seem to care how old she was. He sold her a ticket and didn't ask any questions. Katie stuffed it into her pocket and ran out before he could change his mind. When she got home she took the last of the newspaper money from the cigar box to pay back the dollar she had borrowed for the lottery ticket. She smiled to herself as she dropped the money into the cookie jar.

"There. Now this ticket is 100 percent officially mine."

It was hers and Gale's, actually. The newspaper money was supposed to be shared fifty-fifty. Katie worried for a moment about how she was going to tell Gale. After all, she had just spent their last dollar on a lottery ticket. Gale didn't like to gamble on anything; she said it made her too nervous. Katie turned the problem over in her mind.

"I just won't mention it until after the draw," she decided finally. "We'll have a hundred thousand dollars and she won't mind that I bought the ticket then."

That night, just before going to bed, Katie sneaked into her father's bedroom. She went straight to his dresser and took a jewelry case from the drawer. A small golden locket was inside. Katie put it around her neck and looked at herself in the mirror. The locket sparkled in the light. Katie smiled. She was sure that the locket was the most beautiful thing in the whole world. It had once belonged to her mother and Katie had been promised that it would be hers someday. But when Katie's mother died, Max just shut the locket up in his dresser drawer and told Katie that she wasn't old enough to have it. Katie didn't think it was fair but there wasn't anything she could do. Max wouldn't even talk about it.

So whenever Katie was alone in the house, she went into her father's room and tried on the locket. Her mother had always said it was especially lucky. Katie liked to pretend that the locket was a little bit magic, too. She sometimes made wishes on it and that was just what she did that night. She held the lottery ticket in one hand and squeezed the locket in the other. She closed her eyes and wished as hard as she could that her ticket would win. The locket felt warm. Katie hoped it was a good sign.

Later, as she lay in bed, Katie thought a lot about winning the lottery. She thought about the number as hard as she could. Even though the ticket was safely tucked away in the cigar box, she had the number memorized. She kept saying it over and over to herself as she drifted off to sleep.

"One-one-three-nine-seven-nine ... One-one-three-nine-seven-nine."

" One-one-three-nine-seven-nine, " said the announcer and everyone in the audience checked their tickets. So did Katie. She nearly fainted when she realized she had the winning ticket.

"I must be dreaming, " she said to herself' "It's too good to be true."

The lady sitting next to her was looking over her shoulder. "She's got it," the lady shouted "This girl's the winner."

Katie jumped to her feet and pushed her way towards the stage. A spotlight shone on her as she made her way up the steps. The crowd held its breath as the announcer checked Katie's ticket.

"It's a winner folks, " he shouted and everyone started to cheer. The band played Beautiful Dreamer and two men in overalls pushed a gigantic wheelbarrow full of money onto the stage. They left it in front of Katie. Katie looked down at all the money. It was a wonderful sight. She knew there were many thousands of dollars there. Katie reached down and grabbed a handful. Then she threw the money up into the air. Fives and tens and twenties floated down around her like leaves on a windy day. Soon they were drifting into the audience and there was money, money, money, everywhere. The crowd went wild.