Beverly Quarter Chapter 14
On Tuesdays, I’m using this newsletter to publish a book called Beverly Quarter: Invisible Frenemy. It’s got nothing to do with the rest of the content of this newsletter. I mean, for real: It doesn’t even contain the word burpee. But I think you’ll like it.
I wrote it to make my kids laugh, their friends laugh, and their parents laugh. I’m guessing most of you have kids, or know kids, or were kids, so you’re my target audience. I explain the book’s backstory here.
Give this chapter a read. If you like it, read it to your kids, their friends, their friends’ parents, random strangers on the street, etc.
I’ll keep publishing the newsletter as usual on Thursdays. This will just be bonus content.
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 14
Sally’s heart pounded in her chest. She cried and didn’t understand why. A mom Sally had never met before stood right in front of her and put her arm around her. The mom pulled out a tissue and wiped Sally’s face.
“I’m Mackenzie’s mom,” she said.
Beverly Quarter giggled. “So is every other mom here,” she whispered to Sally, who stifled a grin. She kept a straight face because Mackenzie’s mom was still talking.
“You were playing with her earlier.”
Sally started to ask which Mackenzie but stopped.
“What you just did was very brave,” she said. “What’s your name?”
Sally told her. “Is your mom or dad here?”
Sally nodded. “My dad.”
“Where is he?”
Sally looked up and pointed to where her dad was. “He’s the one balancing one foot on the kitchen sink and juggling with the hula hoop.” While he did that, he was still talking to the other dads. Sally was close enough to read his lips. “Bliddity bliddity blah blah,” he said, and everybody laughed.
The woman put her arm around Sally and walked her toward her dad. They got to about 20 feet away from him when he noticed they were approaching. He saw the tears on Sally’s face, stopped talking, and ran over to her.
“Sweetie, what’s the matter? What happened? Is everything all right? Did you fall?”
The woman said, “I think she’s OK. She’s not hurt, just scared. She stood up to a bully.”
The woman recounted as best as she could what had happened. She never mentioned Beverly Quarter because she did not know Beverly Quarter existed. Sally’s dad just listened. “Great job, honey. I’m proud of you.”
Turning to the woman, he said. “Thank you very much. I really appreciate you taking care of her like that.”
“No problem,” she said. She pulled out a business card and handed it to Sally’s dad. It had a silhouette of a dancer on it.
“My name is Laurie Knight, and I teach dance classes. If Sally ever wants to learn to dance, she has free lessons for life.”
Suddenly Sally stopped crying.
“Seriously? Can I do it, Dad?”
“We’ll have to see, but I can’t think of a reason why not. Well, I can think of one.”
He looked down at her, hoping she would ask what that was.
“What is it?”
“Well,” her dad said, “remember when you were supposed to sing in the pageant at church and you got so scared you couldn’t move?”
“Yeah,” Sally said. “What’s that got to do with it?”
“Well, in a dance recital, you’d have to be on stage. Do you think you can do that?”
Sally hadn’t thought about that. It would be scary, she had to admit.
“You can do it,” Beverly Quarter said with 100 percent confidence.
“I can do it,” Sally said though with no confidence at all.
The car ride home was approximately five minutes, and Sally asked approximately 798 times if she could take dance lessons. She pointed out approximately 791 times that they would be free. She was pretending that she would be able to actually dance in front of people even though she really had no idea if she could. “I earned them, Daddy! Can I take them? Please? Please?”