Ann Martin - Good Bye Stacey, Good Bye

"All right," said Kristy. "Where'd you put the folding tables?"

The night before, my friends had brought over a ton of stuff from their own houses: four long folding tables for us to set the sale items on; some folding chairs; a stack of signs that read Jewelry, Toys, Books, Clothes, etc.; several boxes of Claudia's Heavenly Brownies; several flats of Dawn's baby spider plants;

some of Mary Anne's handmade goodies (felt eyeglass cases, knitted scarves and belts, and potholders); and lemonade and limeade mix. Then Buddy and Suzi Barrett had brought their toys over. They were going to try to sell them again.

"The folding tables are in the garage," I replied.

"All right," said Kristy, "let's set them up."

She was taking charge as usual, and I let her because I figured she knew a lot more about yard sales than I did.

My friends and I arranged the four tables, plus two of our own in the garage, spilling out onto the driveway. We set the chairs behind the tables.

"Now for the sale stuff," said Kristy. "Let's haul the things out of the basement first, and then worry about the plants and the food."

Armload by armload we carried my junk out of the basement. We arranged it until the tables looked more like displays in Bellair's Department Store than just old tables in our dusty garage. When everything was neat and the signs were in place, my dad helped us fold up the Ping-Pong table and carry that out of the basement. We set it on the driveway.

"I guess the other big items should go on the driveway, too," I said. (The other big items

were a vacuum cleaner, a desk-top Xerox machine my father had never used, all of our gardening tools, a huge fan, some window boxes, a weeping fig tree in a wooden tub, and a statue my mother had brought for our garden.)

When that was done, I looked at my watch. "Nine-thirty-five!" I screeched. "People will be here in twenty-five minutes! The lemonade's not mixed. Or the limeade. Claudia, you have to cut the brownies into squares! Where are the napkins? And who's going to be in charge of selling what?"

With some help from my mother, we got everything mixed, cut up, found, and figured out by 9:50. The Barretts even arrived and set up their table. Not a moment too soon. Mrs. Prezzioso and her bratty daughter Jenny showed up then.

"Hi!" Mrs. P. called gaily. "I hope you don't mind that we're early. We always like to get to sales first so we can have the pick of the litter, if you know what I mean."

I did, sort of.

Kristy, who was manning the table with the toys and books, turned to me excitedly. "I just love selling things," she exclaimed. "And making money. This is going to be a great day!"

(Kristy doesn't need much money, thanks to wealthy Watson; she simply has a talent for making money, and she likes being a businesswoman. I guess she takes after her mom. Kristy's mother is really smart.)

Jenny trailed her mother around from table to table and finally paused in front of Kristy's to look at the toys. Mrs. P. paused in front of the statue. "Lovely," she murmured. "A real find."

Next to arrive were the entire Newton family and Mr. Spier, Mary Anne's father. Before I knew it, Mr. Marshall was walking up our driveway with Nina and Eleanor, followed by the Perkinses. Mrs. Perkins looked so pregnant, I began to wonder what would happen if she started having labor pains right in our garage.

Then the questions began flying.

"How old is the Xerox machine?" Mr. Marshall wanted to know.

(I had to find my father in order to answer him.)

"Is this statue made of marble?" asked Mrs. P.

"No, just fancy cement," I replied.

"Would you say the Ping-Pong table is in good condition?" asked Mr. Perkins.

"Definitely," I answered. "It's only six months old and we didn't use it that much."

"Mommy, can I have this dolly?" Jenny asked. (At last — a question that wasn't for me.)

Mrs. Prezzioso glanced up in distaste. "That ratty old thing?" she said, and I bristled. "That ratty old thing" was Amelia Jane and she was ten years old and I used to love her. I considered telling Mrs. P. she wasn't for sale after all, that she'd gotten in by mistake.

But before I could say a word, a woman I didn't know waddled over to Dawn and said, "Are the shutters for sale?"

Dawn glanced at me with raised eyebrows. "What shutters?" she asked.

"The ones on the front of the house."

I choked back a laugh. I wanted to say, "Are you out of your mind?" Instead I just shook my head slightly at Dawn.

Dawn answered the woman in a professional, adult voice. "No, I'm sorry. They're not." ;

"I'll give you seventy-five dollars for them."

"Seventy-five dollars!" Dawn couldn't help exclaiming.

I cleared my throat. "I'll check with my father," I said.

"No, they're not," Dad spoke up. He was

standing in the doorway to the garage and had heard everything.

Dawn and I shrugged. "Sorry," we told the woman.

She bought a three-dollar sweater for her daughter and left.

I heard screams coming from near Kristy.

"Mommy, I want that dolly!" It was Jenny.

"All right . . . my little angel." Mrs P. gave in. "But then we're going home."

Good, I thought.

Mrs. P. paid for the statue and Amelia Jane, and led Jenny away.

I looked around. The sale had been on for about a half hour and it was really jumping. People were milling around, looking at the tables and the things in the driveway. Claudia was serving up drinks and brownies. Two spider plants had sold, as well as a couple of Mary Anne's handicraft projects. Mary Anne was beaming. And the Barretts had sold several of their toys. They looked very excited.

All five of us club members were running back and forth, answering questions and borrowing change from each other's cash boxes.

Five of the Pikes arrived. The Perkinses left with the Ping-Pong table. "Thank you, Daddy!" Myriah and Gabbie were singing.

Mr. Marshall was looking at the walls of the

garage. They were totally bare except for this length of dirty old rope, which was hanging from a peg.

Suddenly, Mr. Marshall grabbed the rope from the wall. "How much is this?" he asked Dawn.

"Well, it isn't really for s —"

"I'll give you fifty cents for it."

The rope was just something we hadn't bothered to throw out. It was worth exactly zero cents.

"It's a sale!" I called to Dawn.

The day flew by. Logan Bruno (one of our associate club members) and Trevor Sand-bourne (an old boyfriend of Claudia's) arrived. Then Howie Johnson and Dori Wallingford (the King and Queen Rat) showed up. I refused to look at them. Instead, I looked in our cash boxes. They were stuffed! And our tables were growing empty. The brownies and spider plants were long gone.

Howie wanted to buy a turquoise ring (that used to be mine) to give to Dori. I made him pay Mary Anne.

At 4:00, it occurred to me that Charlotte hadn't come over. But I got distracted by a man smoking a cigar who wanted to know how much we were selling our car for.

"We can't sell it," I told him. "We need it."

He gave me a disgusted look and left.

Some people have absolutely no idea about how yard sales work.

"Stacey?" said a small voice.

I turned around. "Charlotte! I'm glad you came!" I hugged her.

"Stacey/' she said again. "You know I love yard sales."

I nodded.

"But I just didn't want to come after all. I didn't want to see you selling your things. That's why I'm late. And I don't want to buy anything. I want to give you this." Charlotte shoved a package into my hands and ran down the driveway.

Even though a bunch of people were still milling around, I opened the package. It was wrapped in Snoopy paper. Inside was a little book that Charlotte had made herself. The story was called "The Girl Who Moved Away." And the first page said, "Dedication: This book is for my favorite baby-sitter from her favorite kid. To remember me by."