Amber Brown Is Tickled Pink by Paula Danziger & Bruce Coville

Author:Paula Danziger & Bruce Coville
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2012-08-13T04:00:00+00:00

Rose hands me the tambourine. While I start to bang and shake it, she grabs Max by the hand. She pulls him up and they dance. A minute later Mom and Aunt Pam are dancing. Me too. Now everyone except Herman is whirling around the room. He’s busy cranking the hurdy-gurdy.

The song ends. Everyone is laughing and out of breath.

Maybe I can get Herman to help us with the music for “Pickle Me Silly.”

Mom has a big grin on her face. “Herman and Rose, thank you for this. It will be a joy to have you play at our wedding.”

Rose gives her a hug. “Sarahila, you’re going to make the most beautiful bride.”

Then she hugs me. The soft velvet of her dress feels good. She stands back. “Amberila,” she says, pinching me on the cheek.

Normally I try to avoid cheek pinchers. Somehow from Rose I don’t mind. I look at Max. He winks at me.

As we head for the car, Herman hands Mom a CD. “Listen to this and pick some of your favorite songs. We’ll make sure to play them at the wedding.”

We get in the car. “Maxila? Sarahila? Amberila?” I ask Max.

“It just means she loves us.”

He sounds so happy.

As we drive home, we listen to the CD. We laugh and sing along. When we get home, Max opens the car door for me. “Amberila,” he says, making a little bow.

“Let’s not make that name a habit,” I tell him. But I’m laughing.

We go into the house. The phone is ringing.

“I’ll get it.” Mom picks up the phone.

The smile leaves her face.

She hands the phone to me. “It’s your dad.” She nods to Max. The two of them and Aunt Pam go into the kitchen.

“Hi, Daddy!”

“How’s my little girl? I’ve been trying to call. What have you been up to?”

“Oh, nothing much, just some errands.” I feel like it would be mean to say what we were really doing.

I wonder if he can tell that I’m kind of fibbing. But he’s too excited to notice.

“Listen, honey, I’m planning a big surprise for three weekends from now. That’s supposed to be our weekend anyway, but I want to make sure that your mom isn’t going to ask us to change our plans.”

I can tell he’s trying to be nice about it. He almost succeeds.

“What are we going to do?”

“Now that, my little pookanilly, is going to be the surprise.”

“Dad!” I say.

“Amber!” he says.

We talk for a while longer. When it’s time to say good-bye, we have a kissing contest. To do this, we both make kissy sounds into the phone as fast as we can for as long as we can. The one who gets in the most kisses before we say good-bye wins.

“I give up,” he says after about a minute. “My lips hurt!”

I don’t tell him that my lips hurt too. I was not going to stop until I won.

I hang up and turn around. Mom and Max are standing in the doorway, watching me.

Suddenly I feel weird.

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