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

Chapter Nine (part 3)

When they had gone, Max poured the last of the champagne. As he passed Katie her glass he looked at her for a long time without saying, anything. Then he pointed to her hand.

"Now about that locket, Katie," he said.

Katie looked up quickly at his face to see if he meant what she thought he meant. He did! He was holding his hand out for it. The locket was going to go straight back into her father's dresser and she wouldn't get a chance to see it unless she sneaked a look when he wasn't watching.

Now that she had it, Katie couldn't bear the thought of losing it. She thought of running out the door with the locket still in her hand. She thought of hiding in the woods with it and never coming home. She thought a dozen crazy things but she didn't do any of them in the end. In the end, she handed the locket back to Max. What else could she do? After all, she was just a kid and Max was her father and that was the way it was. But Max didn't put it away in his dresser. He didn't even put it into his pocket. He held the locket in his hand and looked at it thoughtfully.

"You know Katydid," he said. "Ellie and I were talking about you over dinner last night. We were talking about all of you kids and telling each other what a fine bunch you are. And while we were talking, Ellie said a funny thing to me. She said you're older than I think. She told me I am treating you like a little kid and you aren't a little kid anymore. Well, at first I laughed, but Ellie didn't laugh at all. She was very serious and it got me thinking. I've been thinking about it all day and you know, I think she was right. I haven't been paying very much attention to you lately. And now that I've thought it over I've begun to realize that maybe you've grown up a lot when I wasn't looking. You have, haven't you? You've probably been sitting around wondering why I haven't noticed it.'

Katie didn't know what to say. A thousand things jumped through her mind and there was suddenly so much to say that she couldn't say any of it. She finally just answered yes, very softly.

"I thought so," said Max, and he smiled at her. "Well things are going to be different around here starting right now. Starting right now you're not the little kid in the family. I'm not saying you're an adult yet - you haven't grown up that much. But you're growing into one and that's the point. In most of the ways that count you're an equal member of this family and we have to start treating you like one. What do you say, is it a deal?"

"Are you kidding?" said Katie. "It's a deal all right."

"Of course it's going to mean more responsibilities for you. If we start treating you like an equal then you'll have to live up to it."

"Like earning money and that kind of stuff? I want to do that."

"That's only part of it," Max told her. "There'll be tougher things than that, much tougher."

"I don't care how tough it is," Katie said, and she stuck out her hand. Max put out his hand too and they shook on it.

Katie could hardly believe that it was all happening. But the best was yet to come.

"It's too bad your mother can't see you growing up," said Max. "She would be very proud! But I guess I have to take her part for her and be twice as proud to make up." He held out the locket by its chain and dangled it for a moment. "Maybe this is the perfect time to hand this on to you. Your mother said that you should have it. I've been keeping it for you until you were old enough. I guess maybe you're old enough now."

Max undid the clasp and slipped it around Katie's neck. Then he snapped it closed. The locket finally belonged to Katie.

Max raised his glass. "To a beautiful, sweet and wonderful young lady. She's grown up while none of us were looking and now she's taking her rightful place as a full and equal member of the family. To my own special daughter. To Katie."

Max and Susie drained their glasses. Katie felt wonderful. The best of everything was coming true when she least expected it. She couldn't keep from laughing, it felt so good. She beamed as Max got down the cookie jar.

Then, all of a sudden, she felt horrible again. She just remembered that she didn't have any money to put in the cookie jar - not a cent. She was dead broke. She had spent everything on the lottery tickets and Gale still had her last quarter. Katie closed her eyes and sunk back in her chair. It was going to be terribly embarrassing, especially after all those things Max had just said about being grown-up. Being grown-up meant putting in her share of the money. Katie reached up for her mother's locket and squeezed it desperately. If ever she needed luck it was right now. She knew she didn't have a chance but she wished for something to save her all the same.

But instead of calling in everyone's money, Max reached into the cookie jar and took out a letter. He held it up for everyone to see. It was still unopened.

"Before we start with the money, I thought we might read this letter. I found it with the morning mail and since it's addressed to the cookie jar, I saved it to read now."

"It's probably from Jim," said Susie. "He probably sent some money."

Katie didn't care who it was from right then so long as it delayed the terrible moment when she would have to tell everyone she was broke.

Max opened the letter and read it: "Dear Cookie Jar, Thanks very much for sending the money, but I don't need it after all. One of the guys I worked with in the kitchen has a plain brown suit jacket that he wants to trade for my crazy striped one. He's exactly my size so it will work just fine. I guess I should have tried to figure it out on my own without bringing the problem to you. Anyway, things are fine now. I start at the front desk tomorrow. Will send more news later. Just writing this quickly so I can get the money back to you by Friday. Love, Jim."

When Max finished reading the letter he turned it around for Katie and Susie to see. There was a fifty dollar bill clipped to the bottom. Max looked very puzzled as he pulled it loose. "What's all this about?" he asked Susie.

Susie shrugged her shoulders. Then she and Max turned to Katie. Katie took a deep breath and told them all about the note in Jim's last letter and how she didn't think Max would be able to send Jim the money. Then she explained how she had won the lottery. She told them about wiring the money by telegraph and signing it the cookie jar. She took another deep breath and sat back in her chair. Katie waited for Max and Susie to get mad. She knew she had it coming.

"Great Grandmother Moffat!" said Max. "Who'd have believed it?"

"That was a wonderful thing to do," said Susie, and she came over and gave Katie a great big hug.

"I guess you really have grown up," said Max, and he winked at Katie. He handed the fifty dollar bill across the table to her. "This doesn't belong to the cookie jar. It belongs to you, Katydid. You sent it."

"Katydid, Katydid, why did you do it?" asked Susie.

"I just did it," said Katie. "And I wish you two would stop calling me Katydid. Katydids are insects you know, not people."

Susie and Max looked at each other and started to laugh. "Fair enough Katie,
said Max. "We won't call you Katydid anymore. But you'll have to do something for me, too. I want you to start calling me Max, sometimes. You call me dad all the time and I like that well enough, but now that you're an equal member of the family, it might be a good thing to call me by my name sometimes instead of my title."

Katie agreed but she didn't call him Max right away. It still sounded too funny. She had to wait for the right moment.

Now that everything was settled, Max shook the cookie jar and called in all the money. He started with himself. "I'm afraid I've spent most of my tip money," he said as he pulled a crumpled two dollar bill out of his wallet. He shook his head as he dropped it into the cookie jar. Then he looked to Susie.

Katie had the funniest feeling that she had seen him do it before just like that. And she felt like she knew what was going to happen when it was Susie's turn.

"I spent most of my tips on the champagne," said Susie. "I got short-fared today and lost the rest." She reached into her purse and brought out two quarters. She dropped them into the cookie jar. They echoed as they hit bottom. Susie winced at the sound.

"Two dollars and fifty cents," said Max sadly. "You can't buy much with that."

Katie smiled and picked up her money. She held the fifty dollar bill up to the light. It seemed to shine. The parade of mounted policemen on the back looked alive and ready to ride off. Katie winked at her father as she dropped the money into the cookie jar.

"Don't worry Max," she told him, "Everything's going to be all right."