Free Maniac Monkeys on Magnolia Street & When Mules Flew on Magnolia Street by Angela Johnson Page A

wheelbarrows and flowers from different people. Sometimes I'd push Ashe in the wheelbarrow, and sometimes she'd push me. We were having a good time. I found out I really love dirt.
    This is what Ashe said about plants that she got from people: “Pass-along plants are the best you can have. You can get plants that are a hundred years old. My dad has a rose bush that came from a garden that was started about ninety years ago. Just think of all the things these roses have heard and seen, Charlie.”
    I laughed thinking about a rose bush with ears and eyes, but I understood what shemeant. All of a sudden the planting seemed more exciting to me, and I helped Ashe anytime she needed me. She said she was planting a pass-along garden for Miss Marcia's sculpture that might last a thousand years.
    Wow!
    When Ashe and I weren't planting, we were swinging from trees or eating peanut butter (my favorite). I told Ashe about Lump and Billy, and she told me about her friend Lily, who can play the piano with her toes.
    Even though Ashe doesn't live on Magnolia Street, I feel like she belongs here.
    We worked all week getting ready for the garden unveiling.
    Me and Ashe made invitations for the party and painted them for what seemed like days. Mom helped by feeding us and not complainingthat we were getting paint everywhere. We delivered the invitations on a hot, mosquito-filled evening to everybody I knew in the neighborhood.
    We got some of the neighbors to donate snacks for the party. Of course Miss Marcia would bake muffins, and Billy's mom said she would make strawberry iced tea. Mr. Pinkton made peach pies that smelled so good I wondered if I could wait until the garden unveiling to eat it.
    The only way this whole past week could have been better was if Billy and Lump had here.…
    They would have loved the whole party idea.
    The morning of the garden unveiling was cool and rainy, and Ashe said she hoped it wouldn't keep too many people away. We couldn't waitfor the whole neighborhood to see the garden. Even Miss Marcia hadn't looked in her backyard. She'd promised she wouldn't look.
    About ten people with umbrellas showed up to see the garden. They squished down to Miss Marcia's backyard. I really couldn't see anybody's face for the rain hoods and scarves. Ashe and I stood beside each other.
    And the garden…
    Beautiful!
    Vines climbed up sculptures of animals wearing hats. Flowers sat in birdbaths and were planted in marble pigs' ears. And best of all were the moon flowers winding around a statue of a spaceman.
    Everybody clapped and walked around the beautiful, wet garden.
    Ashe kept on smiling.
    Sid didn't go to the garden party. Really, it was probably a good thing he didn't. I had gotten a great idea during the week while I was pushing dirt from here to there.
    I wasn't at home when Sid started to yell.
    I wasn't even going to be at home that night because I was having a sleep-over at Ashe's grandmother's house.
    I was even thinking about moving out of our house and camping out in the woods for a few weeks.
    When I did go home, though, Mom and Dad gave me what they call a good talking-to.
    How would I feel, they asked, if I came home and found all my dresser drawers filled with dirt and planted with vines?
    I didn't even mind having to sit on the porch for a week with Sid growling at me.
    Funny how just a week ago I never thought I'd like gardening.

ear Charlie, Well, I'm here, and I can't even believe I got here in one piece.
    You know how in the beginning I didn't think camp was such a good idea? I did about everything I could to get the idea out of my mom's head.
    I mean
everything
.…
    I hid the brochure that had come in the mail about Camp FunWa.
    I cut out the newspaper article that talked about Camp FunWa so Mom wouldn't see it.
    I disconnected the phone when my momwas talking to my grandma about sending me to camp. (That time I got in real trouble, and that was the day Mom decided to send me.)
    Thanks for hiding me in