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

Chapter Eight (part 3)

Katie was packed and ready to go by the time the draw started on TV. She got all her tickets and waited tensely as the numbers were chosen. The whole thing was over very quickly. Katie didn't win the hundred thousand dollar jackpot. She didn't win a thousand dollar prize either, or a hundred dollars. She didn't even win ten dollars. None of her tickets won anything. They were all losers - every single one of them. She was still staring at her tickets in disbelief when the phone rang. Susie was just coming in the back door. She picked up the receiver.

"It's for you," she called to Katie.

Katie came back to the kitchen and took the call. "Hello?" she said but there was no answer. "Hello?" she repeated.

"Creep," said a voice and then there was a dial tone. Katie hung up too.

Susie looked at her curiously. "Who was that?" she asked.

"Gale" said Katie as she went back to her room to sulk.

She unpacked all her things the next day. There wasn't any sense even pretending she was going to run away. With only fifty cents in the cigar box, she was stuck right where she was. It rained all morning. Katie just sat by the window and watched it. She kept thinking about Ellie and Max, and the more she thought, the more depressed she got. It was just like after her mother had died. The sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach just wouldn't go away.

When it stopped raining, Katie went for a walk along the beach. She was feeling a little better when she got back to the house. Max was sitting in the kitchen drinking a cup of tea. He was wearing new slacks and a clean shirt. Even his shoes were shined and that was very odd - he never shined his shoes.

"How do I look?" he asked with a wink. "Not such a bad looking old bear am I? Still a little spark left in the old plug, isn't there?"

"You look okay," Katie admitted. "Where are you going dad?"

"Out to a restaurant to meet an old friend," Max told her. Katie didn't ask him who the old friend was. She had a feeling she already knew.

"Susie's in the bathroom taking a shower right now," Max told her as he got up from the table. "She'll put on your dinner when she gets out." He winked again and went out the back door.

Katie followed him. She knew she shouldn't but she did anyway. She kept out of sight and when Max stopped at the corner of 4th and MacDonald, Katie found a place to hide behind some old boxes and garbage bags at the side of the store. She waited to see what would happen. She didn't have long to wait. Ellie came down the sidewalk about five minutes later. Max walked back to meet her. They stopped and talked right in front of Katie's hiding place. Katie heard everything.

"Right on time," Max said. "You look wonderful, Ellie."

"I feel silly," she said with a giggle. "I've never sneaked out on Gale like this before. Have you told Katie anything yet?"

"Not a word," said Max. "It'll be a big surprise for the two of them when they find out tomorrow. I can't wait to see their faces."

"Tomorrow morning," said Ellie, and she shivered.

"Nervous?" asked Max, and Ellie nodded. Max laughed. "Well why shouldn't you be? It's not the kind of thing that happens every day. Look, I've brought you something for luck. Something borrowed, something blue, something old, something new, you know the old wedding saying."

There was a short silence. Then Katie heard Ellie cry out with delight. "Oh Max, it's simply beautiful. Where did you get it?"

"Oh it's something I've had put away in my dresser for awhile," he told her. "I want you to wear it tomorrow. It's got a lot of luck in it."

Katie didn't move. She had a terrible feeling she already knew what Max was giving Ellie and she couldn't bear to see it. By the time Katie did decide to look, Max had hailed a cab and he and Ellie were driving away to dinner.

Katie ran all the way home and went straight to her father's bedroom. She looked in his drawer. Sure enough the locket was gone. She closed the drawer and sat down on the bed. The locket was the only thing Katie had left from her mother and she just couldn't believe that her father had given it away. But there was no doubt about it now. She put her head in her hands. "It isn't fair," she told herself. "Everything happens to me, except something good. Why can't anything work out the way it's supposed to?"

When she was lying in bed that night Katie thought back over the last few weeks and everything that had happened. All the different parts of her life seemed so tangled up in themselves that she didn't see how she could ever get them straight. The Beautiful Dreamers hadn't made her rich at all. Gale wasn't speaking to her and she didn't have a friend in the world. Susie thought she was a crook and wouldn't sleep in the same room with her. Her father still thought she was a little kid and had given her locket away to Ellie.

"And now they're getting married," Katie added, out loud.

Over and over again she kept picturing the wedding. She didn't want to, but she couldn't help herself. It was all she could think about as she drifted off into an uneasy sleep.

Katie looked in through the great front doors of the church. Max and Ellie were standing together at the altar. The minister was just speaking the last words of the service.

"Do you, Maxwell Moore, take this woman...."

Katie wanted to run down the aisle and stop him, but she knew she was too late. She looked on helplessly as the service came to an end.

"And I now pronounce you husband and wife," said the minister. He smiled at the happy couple. " You may kiss the bride now," he said. Max did.

The organ began to play the wedding march and suddenly Max and Ellie were walking up the aisle arm in arm. Jim was right behind them as best man. Susie and Gale were bridesmaids. They all came out of the church laughing and joking and walked down the stairs toward a waiting limousine. They didn't stop to talk to Katie. They didn't even seem to notice her. Before Katie knew what was happening they were getting into the limousine. Katie shouted to them and started running down the steps. But when she reached the bottom, the chauffeur had already driven away.

Katie ran into the street and started chasing after them. She ran and ran, faster and faster but the limousine just kept getting farther and farther away. Katie kept running. She knew she had to catch them. She ran for what seemed like hours until finally she lost sight of the limousine. Her legs hurt and her chest felt like it was splitting apart, but still she ran. Cars beeped at her in the growing darkness and bicycles brushed past. A fire engine careened by, siren screaming and red lights flashing, but still Katie kept running. She knew she had to find the limousine again before it was too late.

And then she saw it. It was parked by the dock under the Burrard Street bridge. She ran up and pulled open the door. The limousine was empty. The chauffeur was leaning against the front fender. The red tip of his cigarette glowed in the twilight. He seemed to be smiling at Katie as he watched her.

"Looking for the wedding party?" he asked.

Katie was so out of breath that she could only nod her head. The chauffeur turned and pointed out into the harbour with the glowing tip of his cigarette.

"There they go," he told her. "Too late to catch them now."

Katie saw a motorboat dashing away across the bay. Max and Ellie, Gale, Jim, and Susie were sitting together in the stern. They were heading straight for a large ship anchored in the middle of the harbour. The ship's lights twinkled against the night sky like a hundred stars. The wake from the motorboat frothed out behind, like the tail of a comet. Soon the motorboat reached the ship. Max and the others climbed aboard.

Katie stood waiting on the shore for hours. All alone she watched the ship until finally at midnight it weighed anchor and sailed off to sea.