Ruby Lu Star of the Show Read online

  “Thank you,” said Tiger. “I like fire trucks.”

  “Me too,” said Wally, who was Tiger’s best friend. “But I like dinosaurs even more.” So then Wally went next.

  He stood next to the teacher’s desk and read in his best dinosaur voice:

  “T. rex, T. rex, T.

  Roaring, slurping, drinking tea

  Pinky up! T. rex!”

  Ruby’s heart pounded in her ears. She could tell that Mr. Yu was very impressed with all the haiku so far. He was saying something to Wally, who was smiling so widely his face looked like a balloon. Ruby wished that Wally would just float away like a balloon, then Mr. Yu would have to call 9-1-1 and forget all about making his class write haiku.

  But Wally didn’t float away. He sat down.

  Then Mr. Yu looked for someone else to read.

  Ruby held her breath.

  “Ruby?” said Mr. Yu.

  Ruby dragged her feet across the floor. Usually she loved reading in front of the class. It was one of her talents. That is, when she had something to read.

  This time, her paper was blank.

  Her mind was blank.

  And she stared blankly straight ahead.

  She stood on one foot.

  Then she stood on the other.

  Finally she blurted:

  “MY DOG’S IN TROUBLE!

  SEVEN HOURS OF TORTURE!

  I’M HERE, HE IS THERE!”

  Silence.

  “That was amazing!” said Mr. Yu, clapping loudly. “You did that on the spot!”

  Then everyone else started clapping.

  “Yeah,” shouted Wally, “you didn’t even write anything!”

  “And you didn’t even blink!” said Emma.

  “You might be the next Haiku Heroine!” cried Thomas.

  The next Haiku Heroine? Ruby could hardly believe her ears. It would be a dream come true. And it would be all because of her dog.

  Ruby closed her eyes.

  She took a deep breath.

  Then Ruby felt herself fill with more love for him than ever before.

  Now the best thing about third grade was everything. Ruby loved her new class, her new teacher, and most of all, her new dog, who was waiting for her to come home.

  CHAPTER THREE

  How to Survive Hard Times

  When Ruby and Flying Duck finally got home, it looked like everyone was waiting to go to dog obedience school. This was no surprise to Ruby, as her family did everything together; they even went to the doctor’s together whenever one of them was sick. It was one of the things Ruby loved most about her family—no one ever had to go anywhere scary alone. But she was surprised that her dad was there.

  “Are you coming to dog obedience school too, Dad?” Ruby asked excitedly. It was very unusual for her dad to be home so early from work.

  “No, Ruby,” said her dad.

  “Are you sick?” Ruby asked, worried. Her dad had come home early once with the flu. He was a good worker and generally didn’t miss work or leave early unless it was an emergency.

  “No, Honey Bee,” he said. “I’m not sick, but thanks for your concern.”

  Ruby liked it when he called her Honey Bee. It made her feel special, and it was also Oscar’s nickname for her—Bee, because he couldn’t yet say Ruby. But she was puzzled. She knew that missing work was like skipping school—her dad could get seriously busted.

  “Do you remember that I had an important meeting with my boss this morning?” Ruby’s dad asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  Ruby nodded. Her dad had said that she was a smart third grader when she remembered this at breakfast.

  “Well, the meeting was to tell me that I lost my job today,” said Ruby’s dad.

  “Oh,” said Ruby quietly. She knew it wasn’t good news. Her friend Ally’s mom had lost her job, and it meant that they had to move far away. Wally’s dad lost his job too, but Wally, who was generally very talkative, never talked about it, so Ruby didn’t know anything about that.

  “Will we have to move?” asked Ruby.

  “I hope not,” said her dad. “But I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see. But there will certainly be some changes.”

  “What kind of changes?” asked Ruby.

  “Well, Sweet Bee,” Ruby’s dad began, kneeling beside her. He looked Ruby smack in the eye. He took a deep breath.

  “I know how much you’ve been looking forward to going to dog obedience school,” said Ruby’s dad, pulling her close. “But I’m afraid we won’t be able to afford that now.”

  “Oh,” said Ruby, very softly.

  “I’ve got two weeks’ pay, but after that, I won’t have another paycheck . . . for who knows how long,” said her dad.

  “None?” asked Ruby.

  Ruby’s father shook his head.

  “What’s going to happen to us?” Ruby asked, feeling scared. There were four grown-ups, three children, and one dog, and none of them had a job. Who was going to pay the bills? How were they going to heat their home? How were they going to buy food? As a third grader, Ruby could easily see that they were in trouble.

  “Don’t worry—,” her dad began.

  But Ruby interrupted, “Will we starve? What are we going to eat? How are you going to buy diapers for Oscar?

  “And what about doctors’ bills?” she continued. “And heating bills and car payments and house payments?”

  Ruby’s parents’ eyes grew big and wide.

  Ruby knew that her parents sometimes stayed up late talking about making payments and worrying about how much things cost. They lived on a budget, which Ruby understood was like her allowance. It meant that you couldn’t buy all the candy you wanted, but you could have a special treat. Her parents were careful about what they bought. Her mom clipped coupons. They waited for things to go on sale. They shopped around for the lowest prices. And for very expensive things, like their car, they bought secondhand. But it never occurred to Ruby that her parents could run out of money altogether.

  “Losing a job is hard on everyone,” said Ruby’s mom, putting an arm around Ruby and her dad. “Stretching our money further so that we’ll have enough for what we really need isn’t going to be easy,” she said, “but the important thing is that we’re going to do it together.”

  Ruby’s dad hugged them both.

  “I know this is very disappointing,” Ruby’s dad said to her. “But I don’t want you to worry. That’s my job.”

  Ruby looked at her parents. They looked like they were trying to be very brave. Her dad’s eyes were wide open like when he was driving in the dark. And her mom looked a bit like she was about to get on a scary ride at the Fun Forest. Then Ruby watched her aunt and uncle give Flying Duck the news in sign language. The grown-ups all looked very worried.

  “Will you find another job soon, Daddy?” Ruby asked.

  “I hope so,” said her dad.

  “What if you don’t?” asked Ruby. She wondered if losing a job was like losing a shoe, which sometimes could take a long time to find, or worse, a sock, which often never reappeared.

  “If that happens,” said her dad, “I’ll have to come up with a Plan B.”

  Ruby knew all about Plan Bs. Plan A was the regular way of doing things, and Plan B was when you used your imagination. She had come up with lots of Plan Bs herself, especially when it came to Oscar. Plan A might involve playing with Oscar. But if Ruby didn’t want to play with him, she could set him in front of the TV (Plan B). B stood for better, just like it did on her report cards.

  But Ruby didn’t feel any better.

  The little hand on the kitchen clock was now pointing to the four.

  Ruby had waited a long time for this hour.

  She closed her eyes. She could almost hear a roomful of dogs barking. . . .

  And smell their doggie breaths . . .

  And feel their wagging tails hitting her legs . . .

  Ruby blinked.

  The only tail hitting her was Elvis’s.
He had a tennis ball balanced on the top of his head. He was so silly. He winked at her. Then he smiled. His tongue came out. It flapped like a little piece of laundry in the wind.

  Ruby blinked back tears. It was four o’clock, and dog obedience school was starting without them.

  “Elvis says it’s okay, Dad,” Ruby said bravely. “He didn’t want to go anyway.”

  But Ruby did. She wanted to go to dog obedience school real bad. Her friend Emma had gone with her dog, Elwyn. And Elwyn was the best-behaved dog on 20th Avenue South. And Ruby wanted Elvis to behave like that too.

  It wasn’t fair.

  Ruby’s lips quivered.

  A tear rolled down one cheek.

  Another tear rolled down the other.

  Then Ruby fell on Elvis and hugged him and cried full blast.

  Her dad was right. She was very disappointed.

  And whenever Ruby cried, so did Oscar.

  And whenever Oscar cried, so did Flying Duck.

  And when all the children were crying at Ruby’s house, you could hear it all the way down the street.

  The best thing about crying your eyes out on 20th Avenue South was that everyone would come running.

  Emma, who lived next door to Ruby, was the first one to climb into the branches of the plum tree in Ruby’s backyard. Then Tiger and Wally rushed over. And Christina came running from across the street. Then Panchito, the new Mexican kid, who was always too shy to come over until now.

  It was an emergency meeting of the 20th Avenue Plum Club. The Plum Club met whenever there was anything to do or for no reason at all. Ruby was the president because the plum tree was in her backyard, and everyone else was a member. Mostly the club met in the summertime when there was nothing to do. But it also met whenever there was a ruckus in the neighborhood.

  And after Ruby told them the bad news, it got very quiet in the plum tree.

  At first no one knew what to say. But everyone knew Ruby’s family was in for some hard times.

  “You’re going to be poor,” said Tiger.

  “You’ll get food stamps,” said Wally.

  “The bank will take away your house,” said Christina. “You could end up living in a cardboard box under the freeway.”

  Ruby sucked in her breath. It was worse than she had imagined.

  “You won’t have any friends,” added Panchito, who didn’t have any friends. He had always kept to himself. In fact, everyone was surprised that he had suddenly joined the Plum Club.

  “What are you going to do?” Wally asked.

  “Dunno,” said Ruby. “I’m just a kid.”

  “My dad says you need to be in the right place at the right time to get any kind of job these days,” said Emma.

  “How do you do that?” asked Ruby.

  “Dunno,” said Emma.

  No one knew. It was a complete mystery.

  But the best thing about emergency meetings was that you got lots of good advice for free. And Ruby’s friends knew a lot of things. Everyone had something to say, and Ruby wrote it all down just as her friends told it to her:

  How to Survive Hard Times

  1. Go to the library.

  2. Check out books on dog training.

  3. Do it yourself.

  4. Start a business.

  5. Sell something!

  6. Make some money.

  7. Scan some twenty-dollar bills.

  8. Cut carefully.

  9. Think positively.

  10. Look alive.

  11. Keep your head up.

  12. Eat chocolate cake.

  13. Listen to happy music.

  Ruby looked at her list. There was a lot to do. In fact, her mom would probably call it daunting, which meant you better get off your butt or else!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Job Search Central

  Surviving hard times was not at all what Ruby had expected.

  First, everyone at school was very sympathetic. All Ruby had to do was mention that her father had lost his job, and she got all sorts of special attention.

  “Ruby,” said Mr. Yu, “would you like the job of being our class attendance person? You’d have to take our attendance sheet and lunch order to the main office every day.” Ruby could hardly believe it. It was a special job for a special student, and she got it, just like that.

  Then in music class, Miss Esteban asked if Ruby would like the job of passing out the recorders. Ruby was speechless. She had waited all her life to play the recorder in third grade, but she never imagined that she’d also be passing them out!

  Then, in haiku practice, Ruby got the job of reaching into the jar and pulling out the topic of the day:

  My favorite pet

  It was perfect! Ruby didn’t write just one haiku about Elvis, she wrote several. Then she picked her best one and read it aloud to the class. It went like this:

  But that was not all.

  During library hour, the librarian read a story to the class about a brave little girl named Ruby who went to school where no one wanted her because she was black. Every day she walked through howling crowds to learn her lessons from a teacher in an empty classroom in an empty building because all the parents had pulled their children out.

  “If you get afraid,” the other Ruby’s mom told her daughter, “say your prayers. You can pray to God anytime, anywhere. He will always hear you.”

  The other Ruby’s bravery helped make it possible for kids of all races to go to school together.

  It was a true story.

  Ruby loved it. She imagined that she was brave like that too.

  And she was.

  Every day she began marching to school with her head held high, just like the other Ruby. There were no angry mobs shouting at her, but she often enjoyed pretending to be the people she read about in books.

  But the best part about surviving hard times was after school.

  When Ruby and Flying Duck got home in the afternoons, it was Job Search Central around the kitchen table. Ruby’s mom and dad took turns reading want ads, checking for jobs online, sending e-mails, and calling people on the phone. There were coffee cups, seaweed crackers, and cookies everywhere. It was like a regular party!

  Ruby jumped right in to help. Her mom showed her how to read the want ads and circle any that she thought were interesting.

  Soon Ruby was doing more than reading and circling the ads. She searched the internet. She checked websites. One day, she even sent an e-mail and attached her dad’s résumé. “Hello,” Ruby typed in her e-mail. “I’m looking 4 a job 4 my dad. Here’s his resumay. He’s a good werker. He was born that way. He goes to werk every day except Saturdays and Sundays. He’s a grate dad 2. Please give him a job. And please write back. Sincerely, Ruby Lu.”

  But no one wrote back.

  Fortunately, Ruby’s mom had better luck.

  “I got a job!” cried Ruby’s mom, after getting off the phone one afternoon.

  “That’s fantastic!” said Ruby’s dad. “Congratulations!”

  “They’re hiring me to sell shoes in the mall,” Ruby’s mom explained. “I’ll only be making minimum wage, but I’ll get a commission for every pair I sell, and it’ll all add up.”

  Ruby’s dad gave her mom a hug and a kiss.

  Flying Duck’s parents congratulated Ruby’s mom on her good luck.

  And Flying Duck thumped her chest and gave her aunt a salute.

  But Ruby did not. She stopped completely in her tracks.

  “The job is for you?” she peeped. The words fell off her tongue like sour tofu.

  “Of course,” said Ruby’s mom.

  “I thought it was for Dad,” said Ruby. “I thought we were helping Dad find a job.”

  It had never occurred to Ruby that her mom was looking for a job for herself. Her mom already had a job as a volunteer in the school library.

  “Who’s going to be home after school?” Ruby squawked.

  “Your dad will be here,” said her mom.

  “Wh
at if Oscar runs into a tree?”

  “What if Flying Duck needs a translation?”

  “What if the house burns down?”

  “Rubee . . . ,” said Ruby’s mom.

  Ruby didn’t like the idea of her mom going to work at all. Everything at home depended on her mom being there. Didn’t her mom realize that she was the sun and everyone else was cosmic dust? If the sun got up and walked off to another job, wouldn’t the entire universe freeze to death?

  “What if I have a bad day at school?” Ruby continued.

  “What if I get food poisoning?”

  “What if I die?”

  Ruby breathed in. Then she breathed out. She didn’t feel so good.

  “What if I don’t love you anymore?” Ruby asked spitefully. A tear rolled down her cheek.

  “I will still love you, Ruby Lu,” said Ruby’s mom, putting her arms around Ruby and pulling her close.

  Ruby’s mother held her for a long time. She smoothed her hair. She wiped her tears.

  “I will always love you,” Ruby’s mother whispered, squeezing her tight. “Change is hard on everyone. But my love for you will never change.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The Good News, the Bad News

  Ruby’s mom went to work, just like that.

  And Ruby’s dad stayed home.

  At school, Ruby overheard a conversation on the playground. It went like this:

  Boy hanging upside down: “Did you hear? Ruby’s dad lost his job.”

  Boy lying underneath on the wood chips: “Yup.”

  Upside-down boy: “Dads who don’t have jobs are losers.”

  Right-side-up boy: “Yup. I’d sure hate to have a loser dad.”

  Upside-down boy: “Chump. Me too.”

  Ruby blinked. Was her dad a loser? She didn’t know. So every day after school, Ruby kept a careful eye on her dad. And this is what she saw:

  He drank a lot of coffee.

  He ate a lot of cookies.

  He changed a lot of diapers.

  He waited around the phone a lot.