Lost and Found (6 page)

Old photo album?

She couldn’t wait to see what Mom was talking about.

M
ADISON’S CLOTHES WERE SOPPING
wet from the game of snow Frisbee. She hadn’t realized it until she went to remove them and had to
peel
her pants off.

The answering machine in the front hall was blinking twice, which meant two calls. She hit the
PLAY
key. A tinny-sounding voice echoed in the hall.

Message one.

“Maddie? Maddie, are you there? It’s Daddy, still in Denver, sweetheart. We’re holed up here in the hotel at the airport, waiting for the next available flight. Only problem is that the airport is closed and looks like it might stay closed for another day or so. I miss you, Maddie. Stephanie says hello. Tell your mother I said hi. I’ll call again later when I think you might be—”

Beeeeeeeeep. Message two.

“This is Ronnie Dustin at Budge, calling for Fran Finn. Fran, we have a distributor for that Brazil documentary. Give me a call, please, at your earliest convenience. I’m in the LA office.”

Madison clicked
STOP
and then saved the last message. But she deleted the first one, figuring that Mom probably wouldn’t need to hear Dad’s voice. Her parents were getting along better these days, but Mom still bristled a little bit at the mention of Dad. She tried to be fair, but no matter what Dad ever did to redeem himself, Mom would find something wrong.

None of that mattered to Madison. She loved everything about her dad, even the parts that weren’t so perfect, even the horrible jokes. Plus Dad always noticed and complimented Madison on her outfits.

After playing the messages, Madison hopped upstairs to put on sweatpants, her woolly monkey slippers, and an old plaid shirt she’d inherited from Dad. It was so warm.

She turned on her laptop computer and let it warm up, too, before opening another new file.

Snow Day


Today was the BEST snow day I have ever had in my entire life, and I am not exaggerating one bit.


Secret admission #1: I maybe have a baby crush on Aimee’s brothers again (but only a teeny, tiny one, I swear). They looked soooo cute today outside her house. We played Frisbee for an hour or more, and Aimee was acting kind of dorky, but she always acts weird around her brothers. I don’t know why.


Secret admission #2: I think I will go skating at the lake Thursday. I’m getting up my courage. I’m feeling so HAPPY.


I’ve never seen so much snow in my whole life, like I could get lost in all this snow. Aimee and I made the BEST snow angels, and it was all powdery for perfect wings.


Rude Awakening:
Getting left out in the cold can be a good thing. Blizzards are awesome!


While Madison was online, Phinnie came into her room and curled up near her feet. She could feel his warm little pug body. In the next moment, however, he jumped up and scampered up the attic stairs.

“Phinnie?” Madison turned and called after him. “Phinnie, are you there?”

“Rowrroooooo!” Phin called back. Madison could hear the click-clack-click of his black nails running back and forth in the attic.

She got up quickly to head upstairs, too. Phin would make a huge mess if he started chewing on any of the materials Madison and her mother had left out of boxes.

Madison remembered what Mom had said about the extra items left in one of the open boxes. She took the attic steps by twos and hurried to see what was inside the books and albums.

Once upstairs, Phinnie seemed to calm down. Madison guessed that he’d heard steam in the pipes or a creaking floorboard and gotten jumpy.

The box Mom had mentioned was sitting right by the attic entrance. Madison looked through some of the art projects and pictures. But there was another box that caught Madison’s eye.

Madison walked over to the box in the corner of the attic. The box had large red letters that read
FRANCINE HOOPER
. On top was a rubber-banded pile of old, torn report cards with her Mom’s name on them.

The rubber band snapped off in Madison’s hand as soon as she reached for it. The cards were chilly from being in storage for so long. Each report card was filled in with so many comments.

Very good writer. Needs improvement on math skills. Suggest extra-credit program for Frannie this summer.

Madison chuckled to herself. Mom had been unsuccessful in math class, too. Just like Madison. Fortunately, summer school hadn’t been necessary in Madison’s case.

Excellent English papers this term! However, we cannot overlook the fact that Fran needs to get to school on time. Her tardiness has become a problem.

Mom was always late? It seemed funny that Mom would be so angry with Dad for being late when she herself had a problem with lateness on many of the report cards Madison was reading.

Inside the report card box, she discovered newspaper clippings from Mom’s school paper, showing Mom taking a jump shot at a basketball game and cramming for finals in a school library.

Next to the report card box, Madison noticed another box marked
KEEP OUT! THIS MEANS YOU, MOM AND DAD
. Madison recognized the handwriting. She had written it a long time ago. Mom hadn’t cracked the seal yet, but Madison did. She found something inside she hadn’t seen in years.

Nesting at the top of the box was an old, wooden cigar case covered with decoupage. A long time ago Madison had saved letters, comics, and other special notes in it. Most of the letters and papers had rough edges, torn sides, and broken seals. She’d called this her “secret box.”

Opening the box slowly, Madison gasped. She’d forgotten all this existed! She read and then reread every letter. Her favorite was a note from Gramma Helen, who had written while traveling with Grampa Joe in Europe. Madison had saved the envelope because the stamp was so pretty.

She looked deeper inside the mystery carton to see what else lay buried or wrapped in newspapers beneath the cigar box.

First Madison found a yellow diary with a lock from five years before. It had never been written in. The pages were crackly to the touch.

Then she saw a stack of pictures she’d finger painted in kindergarten. They were mostly painted orange. It had been Madison’s favorite color back then, too.

On the bottom of the box, she found a photo album, the one with the word
SNAPSHOTS
spelled out in big, gold letters across the fake leather album cover. She had gotten the book from Aunt Angie for her eighth birthday.

Madison opened the book very slowly in case there was anything stuffed inside. She didn’t want things to fall out. Turning the plastic pages made a lot of noise.

On the first spread of photos, Madison saw herself wrapped in a fuzzy yellow blanket, looking more like a chick than a little baby. There were three poses in that outfit, next to a picture of Madison lying with a bare bottom on the living room floor. She had a big grin on her face and a teddy bear in her hand.

Madison turned the page quickly. Baby pictures could be so embarrassing.

The next spread showed Madison sitting high up on her dad’s shoulders. He was standing in the yard, watering flowers. In another photo he was barbecuing hot dogs. That was back when Madison’s mom still ate meat. She’d been a strict vegetarian for a few years now.

There was a big photo of Mom and Dad seated together on a hammock. They were kissing, in the picture. Madison stopped to look at that photograph a little longer than the others.

She couldn’t take her eyes off her parents. They had looked so happy then. In the photo, Madison could barely make out the shadow of a little child on the left side. She realized she was the one standing just outside the photo’s frame. She’d been standing there, watching Mom and Dad kiss.

She glanced through the next few pages to find even more shots of Mom, Dad, herself, and other family members:

Gramma Helen putting Madison’s hair into braids.

Grampa Joe carrying Madison into the ocean.

Dad pouring soapy water over Madison’s head in the tub.

Mom feeding Madison green mushy food.

Madison jumping on her bed.

Page after page, Madison found the baby and then grade school pictures she’d always loved. She looked through them all twice. And then she got to the pictures of second grade.

There was Ivy Daly.
In almost every single one.

Their best friendship dated back to the beginning of school. Ivy and Madison had been inseparable. They had dressed alike and liked the same things. They had both liked to blow bubbles, climb trees, and plan tea parties for their dolls.

Madison saw photos that showed all of these things.

She saw an Ivy she’d forgotten existed.

She saw
the nice
Ivy she used to know, once upon a time.

Madison plucked one of her favorite photos off the page, a shot of her and Ivy standing with arms wrapped around each other’s shoulders, smiling. She would scan the photo to attach it to her Ivy online file.

At the very end, Madison found the last page stuck to the inside back cover of the photo album. She tried carefully to pry it apart, afraid it would rip.

And no sooner had she peeled it apart than something dropped out.

Something Madison
definitely
was not expecting.

Stuck inside the back cover of the album was a yellowing envelope that Madison barely remembered sealing. The envelope was stained with age-old, dried fingerprints, and someone had marked it very carefully on the outside.

MADISON FINN & IVY DALY

Do Not Open Until Seventh Grade

That Means NO ONE Except US!!!

It was an envelope from second grade. Madison could remember the day when she and Poison Ivy had torn the paper off a legal pad and signed their names in ink. She remembered Ivy hugging her when they licked the envelope shut and added a “backup” seal of black electrical tape, because that was the only tape they could find.

Madison peered closely at the envelope to see what it said. On the back was a different message:

MADISON FINN & IVY DALY

Friends Forever and Ever and Ever

For OUR eyes ONLY!!!

Ivy had drawn teeny little flowers and borders all over the envelope—and every flower Madison saw sent her mind back to the day when the letter had been written.

Madison
always
thought about the fact that Ivy was her mortal enemy. But she rarely thought about why.

Until now.

She picked up the envelope and read it three times more.

Madison could almost hear the sounds from back then, the time when she and Ivy had their seats next to each other in school, when they always teamed up for dodgeball, and when they vowed to
both
win the Far Hills Little Miss pageant together.

Inside the album were taped together pictures that showed the sides of Ivy most people in junior high had either forgotten or never known: the funny girl, the sometimes-too-shy girl, and even the scared-of-boys girl.

Once upon a time, Ivy hadn’t been poisonous.

“Madison!” a voice yelled from downstairs. “What’s going on up there? I called for you twice.”

Mom had probably reheated pizza and set the table.

“Come on down! Dinner is ready!” she yelled.

“Okay, Mom,” Madison mumbled.

Madison placed her secret cigar box back into the dusty carton, putting the report cards, papers, and other life memorabilia on top of that.

“So what time
is
it?” Madison asked as she bounded down the stairs.

Mom said it was six-thirty, and Madison nearly fell over. “Six-thirty? How did it get to be so late?”

“You were obviously having a good time going through boxes, Maddie. You went up there an hour ago,” Mom said. “So what did you find?”

Madison could feel the unopened seventh-grade letter from her and Ivy burning a hole inside her pocket…but she said nothing.

She would keep
this
discovery to herself—at least for now.

From: MadFinn


To: Bigwheels


Subject: Need Your Advice


Date: Wed 17 Jan 7:59
PM


Thanks for cheering me up. I won’t worry about Hart if I can help it, but that’s like asking me not to eat chocolate. I can’t!!!


Right now I am worrying about something else instead. I am staring at this letter on my bed. It’s from Ivy, only it was written like a million years ago. Well, it was written by both of us in second grade. I’m telling you about it because I just feel so weird having it. I found it in the attic.


In second grade, Ivy used to be my best friend on the planet. And we spent all our time together, mostly wanting to be as cool as her older sister, Janet. She was five years older and she was the coolest. So when we were in second grade and Janet was in seventh grade, we thought that she got to do the best things. We wrote this list of things WE wanted to do in seventh grade—together! And then we signed it and sealed it and put it away never to be opened until we were in the REAL seventh grade.


That’s NOW.


What am I supposed to do with this? I don’t like Poison Ivy anymore, and I don’t want to share this letter with her, because she doesn’t deserve it. But it seems wrong not to share. Know what I mean? After all, we did both make a promise, and we sealed it together. You know I’m superstitious about things. Won’t I get seven years bad luck or something if I open it on my own?


What do you think? Should I show it to Ivy? HELP!


As always, I appreciate your advice from far away.


Write soon.


Yours till the mail boxes,


MadFinn