I Got You Babe by Paul Coccia

Author:Paul Coccia [Coccia, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orca Book Publishers
Published: 2022-12-22T20:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

“I’ll clear the table,” I offer after we finish dinner.

It was my mom’s night to cook, but she had called to say she was running late. Dad had defrosted some stew from the freezer. Dinner had been quiet. Both Dad and I were lost in thought. He was probably trying to figure out how to tell me the carnival had been called off. I was trying to figure out how to talk him out of that.

“Try not to drop anything this time,” Dad teases as I take his bowl.

“So, Dad,” I say as I put our bowls and spoons into the dishwasher, “I wanted to go over a few things about the carnival.”

Dad stands up and stretches. “That’s good. Because we need to have a talk.”

Uh-oh. Anytime anyone says they need to have a talk, it does not end well. It’s a rule of life. Having a talk is never a good thing. I take a deep breath as I add a soap cube to the dishwasher.

“There isn’t a problem with the carnival, is there?” I ask as if I hadn’t overheard him talking earlier. “There haven’t been any problems, have there? Like, with Mrs. Khatri?”

Dad leans over the counter and rests on his elbows. “That’s a strange way to ask about the carnival. Why would you bring up Mrs. Khatri?”

I shrug. “No reason. Except she’s the treasurer. So if money is an issue and the carnival is being canceled, it would make sense that she called earlier.”

Dad squints at me over his glasses. “I never told you she called,” he says slowly.

I shrug again. A big, slow shrug. I’m trying to buy myself some time, but I know the shrug is too much. Dad must know too. He’s still squinting at me as I open my mouth and close it a few times, trying to figure out what to say next.

Dad stands up tall. “Were you listening in on our call, Mac?”

I avoid looking at him. “I might have overheard some things.”

“Come clean, Mac. Be honest,” Dad says.

I continue not looking at him and don’t answer.

“I’m not happy you were listening in on a private conversation. But I guess you heard enough. I’m sorry. I know this isn’t how you wanted things to be,” Dad says.

“But you can’t!” I burst out. “You can’t let this happen! You’re the president. You can stop this. There can’t be that little in the budget. The carnival has to go on. You can’t cancel it!”

“Wait. What? What exactly did you hear?” he asks.

“Everything. Cancel it. We just don’t have the money. Mrs. Khatri and you being sorry. I don’t know how this could happen. How did we go from planning a carnival to not even having one? Mrs. Khatri must have blown all the money somehow. Or stolen it! It can’t all be gone,” I say. “Maybe that’s it! Maybe there’s a crime. We need to investigate. We can get it back.”

Dad puts a hand on my shoulder. “Calm down.”

“I will not calm down!” I insist.

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