Owen was bored. He had asked his father whether he could ride his bike to the playground, whether they could hike to the woods, whether he could play with Felix outside, and whether they could dig for dinosaur bones in the backyard. And the only answer that his father would give him was "Owen, we're working on school right now. Focus on your spelling book."
Owen was homeschooled, and he was almost all the way through Kindergarten. James was finishing up third grade and working on all sorts of hard things like division and Latin and history that Owen didn't have to worry about yet. Grownups often told James how smart he was, and Owen had to remind them to tell him that he was special and important too. After all, Kindergarten wasn't easy.
"Owen. Spelling. You are supposed to be circling words with the short "o" sound."
Owen sighed. He asked his father,"Do grown-ups ever make messes?"
"Sure. Grownups make messes all the time. We have to do the dishes every day, for example."
"So why don't you just not get the dishes dirty?"
"We need to get dishes dirty to prepare the food. And then we get more dishes dirty to eat it."
"But you don't need to eat off of dishes. What if we didn't use dishes for dinner?"
"That wouldn't be sanitary. Or particularly polite."
"Sometimes I catch Mommy eating ice cream right out of the container."
"That's because sometimes it's her turn to do spelling with you. Which words on the page have the short o sound? You need to circle those words."
Owen looked glumly at his spelling worksheet. Then he grinned.
"This is what these words would sound like if Darth Vader was saying them!"
Father didn't think it was as funny as Owen did.
Owen stared off into space.
"Dad?" he asked. "Did you ever think about how every second you get older?"
Owen was, in his opinion, quite a bit older by the time he finished school and was allowed outside. But while he was playing outside something exciting and wonderful happened. Their next-door neighbor Nicoles came over and asked if this would be a good day for James and Owen to help her do some weeding.
Nicoles had spoken to Father a few days before about hiring the Smith boys to weed some of her flower beds, but it had either been too rainy or too cold each day since then. Now it was time for Owen and James to do a real job that they'd get paid for! With real money! Nicoles even had a pool in her yard, and she had told the boys that they could swim in it once she had finished opening it up. Owen and James had been asking every day, but it still wasn't ready.
Father told Nicoles that today was a great day for Owen and James to do some work, and they all went (including Felix, since Mother wasn't home) into side door of the fence that separated their yards. Normally the boys weren't allowed into Nicoles' yard except to retrieve balls that they accidentally threw over the fence, and it was a little bit liking entering a secret treasure chamber.
Owen had taken a good look at the yard (and especially the pool) last week when some workers had come to Nicoles' house to work on fixing her fence. At first he was scared of the workers, so he had climbed a tree and just watched them. But then he decided that they were probably nice and climbed down to talk to them. He told them all about his stuffed animals and how old each of them were and what their names were. Then he told them about each of James' and Felix's stuffed animals and learned the worker's names and told them about his favorite books and then learned the worker's names again since he had forgotten them. Owen talked to them for so long that his Mother brought out cookies as an apology.
The workers had said that they appreciated the company and were amazed at how much Owen knew. Owen grinned from ear to ear.
Apparently these workers had left a pretty big mess of dirt and rocks in the flower beds, and that meant that Owen was going to get to do one of his favorite ever things--to dig with a real shovel. Father didn't allow him to dig for dinosaur bones in their own backyard, so Owen was forced to dig in secret places, like behind the front bush or the air-conditioning unit while his Father wasn't looking. Ms. Nicoles was actually going to pay him money to dig with a shovel! He started digging as soon as he had a shovel in hand. Ms. Nicoles stopped him and brought him over to the dirt mound in the garden bed. That spot would also work well for digging, he decided. He thanked her again.
"Owen," whispered his father "it's Ms. Nicole, not Ms. Nicoles."
"No Dad, it's Ms. Nicoles. You and Mommy are always saying 'don't go in Ms. Nicoles' yard, or don't draw sidewalk chalk in Ms. Nicoles' driveway.'"
"That's true...I'm telling you now that her name is Ms. Nicole."
Owen didn't believe him. She'd been Ms. Nicoles for far too long to change her name now. He continued his hunt for dinosaur bones.
He didn't end up finding any bones, although James did find an interesting rock and piece of red glass. Ms. Nicoles brought them out a bucket filled with bottled waters on crushed ice after they'd been working for about an hour. Father and James drank bottled waters, and Felix and Owen both just picked up pieces of ice and sucked on them. The ice turned brown wherever their hands touched it.
With Father supervising (and helping) and even Felix pitching in (when he wasn't playing with the dog toys in the yard) they managed to fill two big trash cans full of weeds, dirt, and rocks in three hours of work. Owen was sore and dirty, but he'd had a great time. Ms. Nicoles came out to look over what they'd done.
James asked her if she was still really going to pay them, and she said that she would. She and father stepped away and spoke in low voices about "an appropriate rate." From what Owen could overhear his father seemed to be trying to convince Ms. Nicoles to give them LESS money, which was crazy. After all, Father was always telling them that they couldn't order a pizza or go get ice cream or get a horse or a boat because it would be too much money. What was he doing now?
Ms. Nicoles nodded at Father after they were done talking and asked the boys, "What do you think a fair rate would be? Should I pay you three cents an hour? Ten cents an hour? Is that fair?"
Father smiled. "You boys can help decide what a fair amount should be. You worked hard, and you can make a suggestion about what your work is worth."
James and Owen exchanged glances. Father was using his teaching voice and they both had picked up on it right away.
"How about a dollar for each hour we worked?" asked James.
"How about TWENTY dollars for each hour we worked!" shouted Owen.
Ms. Nicoles ended up paying them (despite Father's protests) three dollars per half hour. He made James convert that into hours and then multiply it out before they ended up getting the money. He must have been in a very teachery mood, because he tried to do an experiment where Felix got to bargain for his part of the money when they got home, but Mother stopped him.
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