Peggy Gifford_Moxy Maxwell 02 (8 page)

chapter 72

In Which Mrs. Maxwell Ruins Moxy's Life

“I'm so sorry,”
said Mrs. Maxwell gently, “but you won't be able to mail your thank-you notes from Hollywood. I'm afraid you're not going to be able to go.”

“I am too,” said Moxy.

“No, you see—”

“I told you I was sorry!” interrupted Moxy. She thought for a moment. “Didn't I?” She wasn't sure. “Well, I am.” Now her throat was sore with backed-up tears. “I can't disappoint Dad. I promised I would be his escort at the Big New Year's Eve Star-Studded Hollywood Bash.”

“It's more complicated than that,” said Mrs. Maxwell. “You see, your dad…” Mrs. Maxwell stopped talking. She knew how much Moxy adored her father.

“My dad
what
?”

“Will probably miss you, but—”

“But what?”

“But there's always next year.”

“
This is so unfair
—I haven't seen him in almost three whole years! Plus Mark will be afraid to fly on a jumbo jet without me. Right, Mark?”

Quite unexpectedly, Mark said, “Yes.”

“See? It's not fair to Mark either.” Moxy wiped some tears into her elbow. “I said I was sorry for everything. I'm even sorry I was born.”

Moxy ran into the hallway. She paused for a moment at the foot of the stairs, hoping her mother would change her mind.

But her mother stayed silent, and finally, Moxy started to sob.

Then she ran upstairs and collapsed on her bed.

chapter 73

In Which Moxy Realizes Her Life Is Over

Moxy's life was
over. It was as simple as that. Gone were the 17 starving children from all over the world. Gone was her chance to be a rich and famous but very nice movie star. Her private tour of Universal Studios—gone. The screen test her father was going to set up for her—not going to happen. Now she would never stand in Johnny Depp's footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre; never stand on the stage of the Hollywood Bowl and belt out “Tomorrow.” Tomorrow her father would not be waiting to pick her up at the airport in his powder blue convertible stretch limo. Moxy didn't care if tomorrow never came.

chapter 74

In Which Moxy Doesn't Stop Crying

Moxy fell asleep
before she had a chance to stop crying.

When she woke, it was dark. But the lights that lit up the backyard were on, and she could see snow starting to fall. The smell of what must have been turkey soup was nestled in her room. It made her hungry.

The clock said it was 11:15 p.m., which meant she had been asleep for 6 hours and 10 minutes and her mother still hadn't knocked on her door to say she had changed her mind about letting Moxy go to Hollywood.

Moxy hated, hated, hated her mother. She hated her more than she had ever hated her—not that she had really and truly ever hated her before.

chapter 75

In Which Mark Knocks on Moxy's Door

Moxy heard a
knock. She knew it was Mark by the muffled sound of it. Mark had always been a quiet knocker.

“Don't come in,” said Moxy.

Mark came in and sat on the edge of Moxy's other bed. He looked down at his feet. “What's up?” he said.

“Except for the fact that my life is over?”

Moxy tried to cry again, but apparently she was out of tears.

“I hate Mom,” said Moxy.

Mark started looking through the viewfinder of his camera at the pictures he'd taken.

“It's not her fault,” he muttered.

“I
know
. But you'd think she'd forgive me
this one time
so we could go to Hollywood. She knows how much this trip means to us.”

“Speak for yourself,” said Mark. He was looking at the picture he'd taken of Moxy modeling her long black evening gown for the Big New Year's Eve Star-Studded Hollywood Bash.

Moxy went over and sat beside him.

“Black becomes me—don't you agree?” said Moxy, looking at her glamorous self over Mark's shoulder.

“I guess so.”

“You
really
don't want to see Dad?”

Mark clicked to the picture he'd taken of Granny George's legs.

“Dad doesn't want to see me,” said Mark.

“Of course he does! He invited us both.”

“Well, now he's uninvited us,” said Mark without looking up.

“But Dad wouldn't do that. He
promised
that
this
year we could come for Christmas.”

“He promised we could come for Christmas
last
year too.”

“But last year a Very Big Deal came up at the last minute,” said Moxy.

Mark looked up. “And
this
year a Very Big Deal came up at the last minute too.”

“What?” Moxy was astonished. “
This
year a Very Big Deal came up? How do you know?”

“I heard Mom talking to Dad on her cell phone.”

chapter 76

A Marvelous Thing

Mark went to
the window.

“But Mom would have told us if Dad was the one who canceled the trip. She always tells the truth,” said Moxy.

“I guess she didn't want to hurt our feelings,” said Mark.

Moxy thought about it.

She couldn't believe her mother would take the blame for the fact that they couldn't go to Hollywood when it was really her dad's fault.

Then Mark took this picture through Moxy's bedroom window of the little white twinkling lights he and Ajax had wrapped around the trees and bushes on the first day of Christmas vacation.

The little white twinkling lights.

When he put his camera down, Mark's eyes were sparkling with tears.

Moxy went over and stood at the window beside him. The snow was starting to get thick now. Together they watched as the snow began to blur the little white lights.

“I'm sorry,” she said.

Mark looked at Moxy.

“It's no
Big Deal,
” he replied. Then he started to grin.

“What's so funny?”

“It's no
Big Deal,
” repeated Mark, “but it
would
be to Dad.”

It took a second, and then Moxy started to laugh.

She wasn't sure why she was laughing. When she thought about it, things couldn't have been worse—except they didn't feel
that
bad.

For one thing, even if her dad didn't have time to take her to the Big New Year's Eve Star-Studded Hollywood Bash this year, it didn't mean she couldn't keep the new pink gobs-of-glitter dress her mother had brought back from the mall—in fact, she could wear it to her Debut Piano Recital on April 23!

And another thing: There was the distinct possibility her mother would feel sorry enough for her to grant a thank-you-note extension till, say, Martin Luther King's Birthday or even Groundhog Day.

And wasn't her mother kind of marvelous for taking the blame for the fact that Moxy and Mark couldn't go to Hollywood? “Marvelous” was a word Moxy had recently learned. But she'd been saving it to use until something really and truly marvelous came along.

“Good night,” said Mark.

“Good night back,” said Moxy, even though she wasn't going to sleep.

Then Moxy crawled into bed and turned on her little red reading light and pulled her favorite comforter that smelled a little like Pine-Sol and a little like Chanel No. 5 over her head and began to write the first real thank-you note of her life.

Just before he closed the door, Mark took this picture of her:

Moxy starts to write the first real thank-you note of her life.

chapter 77

Mrs. Maxwell Has Christmas Again

When Mrs. Maxwell
got up the next morning, she found this note under her door.

Here is what Moxy wrote:

Dear Mother,

Thank you for loving me so much.

Have a breath-taking New Year!

Love,

Moxy Anne Maxwell

(Your daughter) P.S. In case you want to thank me for this thank you note, I'll be around all week.

And here is the picture Moxy made Mark take of it so she would have her own copy of what she called her “first literary masterpiece.”

About the Author

Peggy Gifford is the author of
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love
Stuart Little, which reviewers have lauded as “irresistibly authentic,” “wildly original,” and “unforgettable.” She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and has worked as an editor for the Feminist Press and as an acquisitions editor for SUNY Press. Peggy divides her time between New York City and South Carolina with her husband, Jack. You can visit Peggy and Moxy at
www.peggygifford.com
.

About the Illustrator

Valorie Fisher is the author and illustrator of several books, including
When Ruby Tried to Grow Candy, How High Can a Dinosaur Count?, My Big Brother,
and
Ellsworth's Extraordinary Electric Ears.
Her photographs for
Moxy Maxwell Does Not Love
Stuart Little have been called “fresh,” “spot-on,” “funny,” and “snort-inducing.” Valorie's photographs can be seen in the collections of major museums around the world, including the Brooklyn Museum, London's Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. She lives in Cornwall, Connecticut, with her husband and their two children.

FOOTNOTES

^1*
Granny George's legs are featured here wearing socks from the new Moxy Maxwell Socks and Scents collection.
Return to text.

Published in the United States by Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2008 by Peggy Gifford
Photographs copyright © 2008 by Valorie Fisher

All rights reserved.

Schwartz & Wade Books and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gifford, Peggy Elizabeth.

Moxy Maxwell does not love writing thank-you notes / by Peggy Gifford; photographs by Valorie Fisher.

p.                                    cm.
Summary: Ten-year-old Moxy Maxwell has promised to write twelve thank-you notes by the day after Christmas so that she and her twin brother Mark can go to Hollywood to visit their father, but all her brilliant ideas to help finish the task more efficiently end up creating chaos in the house.

[1. Thank-you notes—Fiction. 2. Behavior—Fiction. 3. Twins—Fiction. 4. Brothers and sisters—Fiction. 5. Family life—Fiction. 6. Christmas—Fiction. 7. Humorous stories.] I. Fisher, Valorie, ill. II. Title.

PZ7.G3635Mw 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2007015686

Random House Children's Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

eISBN: 978-0-375-89230-1

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