A Katie Kazoo Christmas (6 page)

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Authors: Nancy Krulik

BOOK: A Katie Kazoo Christmas
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As she placed her foot back on the trellis, Katie breathed a sigh of relief. “Everything’s okay,” she told herself quietly.
Or not.
At that very moment, everything went dark. Everything!
The lights weren’t flickering.
The Santa wasn’t moving up and down. And Rudolph no longer had a nose so bright.
“Hey, what happened?” Katie heard some of the people shout from below.
Katie figured out the answer to that one pretty quickly. That metal box must have been where all the decorations were plugged in. Katie must have disconnected the wires when she grabbed it.
Now Mr. Brigandi’s house didn’t look Christmassy at all. It just looked like a dark, empty house. And the judges were going to come by any minute.
Mr. Brigandi didn’t have a chance of winning the contest now.
And it was all Katie’s fault.
Climbing down the trellis was doubly hard in the dark. But Katie kept going. She had to.
Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot,
she said over and over to herself as she moved slowly down the ladder
Finally, Katie managed to reach the open window. She scrambled into the house.
Yikes. It was really dark inside. The only light came from the moon. The trees outside were leaving weird shadows on the wall.
Katie shuddered. “This is the worst Christmas Eve ever!” she shouted into the darkness.
Suddenly, Katie felt a cold blast of wind hit her. It was like icy fingers crawling up her neck.
Katie pulled up the collar on Mr. Brigandi’s coat to warm herself. But a coat was no match for this wind. This was the
magic
wind. And the magic wind was stronger than any jacket.
Within seconds, the breeze had turned into a full-force icy tornado that swirled and whirled around only Katie. She grabbed the bed and held on tight. She didn’t want to wind up being blown back onto Mr. Brigandi’s roof.
The wind grew colder and colder. It blew harder and harder.
And then it stopped. Just like that.
The magic wind was gone.
But Katie Carew was back.
Chapter 12
Quickly, Katie darted down the stairs and out the front door. The crowd outside Mr. Brigandi’s house was much smaller than it had been before. Most of the people had moved on to the Derkmans’ house.
“Well, this house doesn’t have a chance,” Katie heard one boy say.
“I know,” another boy replied. “Why would Mr. Brigandi turn out his lights just when the judges are coming by? How dumb is that?”
“I guess he didn’t really want the trophy this year,” the first boy answered.
Katie frowned. That wasn’t true at all. Mr. Brigandi
had
wanted that prize
. Badly.
And she had ruined everything for him.
But Mr. Brigandi didn’t know that. In fact, he was certain
someone else
had pulled the plug on his decorations.
“YOU!” Mr. Brigandi shouted as he ran across Katie’s front lawn toward the Derkmans’ house. “You did this to me!”
Mr. Derkman looked at him, surprised. “Did what?” he asked.
“You turned out my lights,” Mr. Brigandi said accusingly.
“We did no such thing,” Mrs. Derkman said.
“Yes you did. You were so desperate to win that you ruined my Christmas display,” Mr. Brigandi shouted.
“How could we have done that?” Mr. Derkman demanded. “We’ve been standing here the whole time.”
“I’m not sure how you did it,” Mr. Brigandi admitted. He scratched his head. “I’m not really sure of anything right now. In fact, the last thing I really remember is being on my roof, putting the finishing touches on my decorations. The next thing I knew, I was on my front lawn, and the lights were out in my house. I don’t even know how I got there.”
“Well, maybe you turned off your own lights, then,” Mrs. Derkman insisted, “because you knew we were going to win anyway. You just decided to surrender.”
“Surrender? Me?” Mr. Brigandi shouted. “Never!”
The argument was getting really loud now. Everyone was screaming at once. Even the judges, Mr. Hanson and Mrs. Diaz, couldn’t get a word in.
Katie couldn’t believe it. Her neighbors had totally forgotten what Christmas was supposed to be about! It made her really angry.
“CUT IT OUT!” Katie shouted suddenly. “STOP IT!”
Mr. and Mrs. Derkman turned and stared at her.
So did Mr. Brigandi.
In fact, everyone stopped what they were doing to look at the redheaded fourth-grader who had yelled at her adult neighbors.
“What did you say?” Mrs. Derkman demanded. She sounded a lot like she had when she’d been Katie’s third-grade teacher.
But Mrs. Derkman wasn’t Katie’s teacher anymore. She couldn’t get her into any trouble here. “I said, ‘Stop it!’ ” Katie repeated. “You guys are acting ridiculous.”
“Katie!” Mrs. Carew scolded.
“No, Mom, it’s true,” Katie replied. “Christmas shouldn’t be about contests. We shouldn’t be thinking about who has the nicest lights, or who spent the most money on plastic elves and candy canes. We should be thinking about being nice to one another.”
“You tell ’em, Katie Kazoo!” George shouted.
“While you grown-ups were busy decorating your houses, my friends and I were baking cookies for the families at the shelter,” Katie told them. “We were celebrating Christmas the right way.”
“Woohoo!” The kids in the cooking club let out a huge cheer. “We rule!”
Mr. Derkman frowned and looked at the ground. Mrs. Derkman kicked at the fake snow below her feet.
“Katie’s right,” Mr. Brigandi said. “We were so focused on this contest, we forgot about Christmas.” He turned to Katie. “Would you kids like some grown-up help at the shelter tonight?”
“Definitely!” Katie told him. “I bet the kids in the shelter would love to have some Christmas lights in their windows.”
Mr. Brigandi laughed. “I have a few of those they could borrow,” he said. “And some big plastic candy canes, too.”
“Elves would look nice at the shelter,” Mr. Derkman suggested.
“And I think some of the little girls would like the dolls from our Ferris wheel,” Mrs. Derkman added. “Dolls should be played with, not looked at.”
Katie grinned. The grown-ups were acting like grown-ups again.
Finally.
Chapter 13
“Wow! This place looks amazing!” Jeremy exclaimed as he looked around the shelter.
“It really does,” Emma W. agreed. “The tree has so many lights on it!”
“And look at those kids going through the candy-cane-and-elf maze. They’re having a blast,” Miriam agreed. “Mr. Brigandi and Mr. Derkman sure put that together fast.”
“Our cookies are a big hit,” Kevin announced to everyone. “In fact, they’re almost gone.”
“The music is great,” Katie said. “I love Christmas songs.”
“I think Mrs. Derkman likes them, too,” Jeremy said.
“Yeah, look at her go,” George added.
Katie giggled. Her third-grade teacher was right in the middle of the dance floor. She and her husband were doing some weird, old-fashioned kind of dance. Mr. Derkman was pretending to swim. Mrs. Derkman was moving her hands up and down like a monkey, while her body jerked back and forth.
Mrs. Derkman could do a lot of things really well. But dancing sure wasn’t one of them.
“What kind of dance is that?” Mandy asked, giggling.
“It’s the
Jerk
man jerk,” George joked.
The kids all started to laugh.
“Too bad Suzanne had to miss that,” Mandy said as she watched Mrs. Derkman and her husband dance. “She would have loved to see Mrs. Derkman make a fool of herself.”
“Hey, check it out,” Jeremy shouted. He pointed to the door. “There are news reporters here!”
Everybody’s attention turned toward the reporters and their cameras. They were busy interviewing the kids who lived at the shelter.
“This is the best night of my whole life,” one little boy said.
“Mine too,” his sister told the reporter. She held up a doll dressed in a lacy French dress. “I got a dolly for Christmas. I never had such a fancy dolly before.”
That made Katie smile. Mrs. Derkman was right. Dolls were meant to be played with.
“Let’s talk to some of the kids who are volunteering at the party,” the reporter said. She started over toward Katie and her friends.
But the reporter wasn’t the only one trying to get near the kids. Suzanne Lock was hurrying over toward them, too. And Suzanne was a lot faster.
“Suzanne! You made it!” Katie shouted excitedly. She gave her a big hug.
“Dad and I saw the first half of the show,” Suzanne told her. “But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I wanted to be here with you.”
“That’s true,” Mr. Lock said. “Suzanne and I were standing in the lobby at intermission. We heard some news reporters talking about coming down here to take pictures of the kids who were baking cookies for the shelter. She insisted we come here right away. She didn’t want to miss out on all the fun.”

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