Free Miss Understood by James Roy Page B

We closed at three today, and I’m only just getting home now. Sometimes I think that I should give it away, so I can take the time to get this garden right. There’s still so much to do around here.’
    I glanced at Mum. Really? So much to do? Her garden looked amazing!
    ‘You should do it, then,’ Mum said. ‘Leave, I mean.’
    Miss Huntley gave this big sigh. ‘If I left, they’d be so short-staffed down there, and who’d do it all?’
    ‘Well, you take it easy,’ Mum said. ‘Don’t overdo it, Ivy.’
    The second we were inside, I asked Mum where Miss Huntley worked.
    ‘She works at the charity shop,’ Mum said. ‘You know, the one next to the office supply place.’
    ‘Helping Hands?’
    ‘That’s the one.’
    ‘Do they pay her?’
    ‘Oh, no, they’re all volunteers down there, I think. That’s how it works – people donate clothes or books or shoes or whatever, and the Helping Hands shop sells the clothes and things, and then gives the money to a charity. But the people who work there don’t get paid at all.’
    ‘Interesting,’ I said, as I began to have an idea.
    I bet you already know what it was.
    *
    You know how sometimes when you’re waking up and you’re still half-asleep, maybe even a bit more than half, and you have a really good idea for a story you want to write or a picture you want to draw or a party you want to organise? And it’s such an awesome idea, and in your half-asleepness you get really excited about it, because it’s the best idea for a story or a picture or a party that anyone’s ever had? But then, after you’ve completely woken up, you think about it some more and you realise that it might be the stupidest idea for a story or a picture or a party that anyone in the history of those three things has ever had?
    Well, that’s kind of how it was for me, except instead of being half-asleep, I’d been outside listening to Mum talk to Miss Huntley about the Helping Hands shop and having the idea that you’ve already guessed, and instead of being completely awake it was the next morning, and I’d decided that it was a dumb idea and I couldn’t do it. It would be too scary, and not at all exciting, or if it was a bit exciting, it wouldn’t be exciting enough to make up for it being scary. Plus it would take up too much of my spare time.
    Besides, Dad hadn’t even called Mr Hilder yet, so all that worrying about whether the idea was a good one or a stupid one was probably going to end up being for nothing anyway. So it was easier to just call it a dumb idea and get on with thinking of something else.
    I didn’t get much chance to think about it that Sunday anyway, because our whole family went on an adventure.
    I knew it was going to be an adventure when I heard the voice Dad was using to call out to Mum. I was lying in bed reading a book. (I like to sleep in on Sundays and read a book in bed until Mum comes and says she’ll make me breakfast if I’ll just get up and stop being a slob. It works almost every time.)
    ‘Denise!’ I heard Dad shout from his study. He sounded pretty excited. ‘Denise! What are we doing today?’
    ‘What?’ Mum called up the stairs.
    ‘Do we have plans?’
    ‘For when?’
    ‘Today.’
    ‘What about today?’
    ‘Do we have plans? Do. We. Have. Plans ?’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Like anything!’
    I heard Mum’s footsteps coming up the stairs. ‘What are you bellowing about, Marty?’ she asked.
    ‘Did we have plans for today? Because look at this email. Read it.’
    This was annoying. It’s really hard to listen in on someone’s exciting conversation when part of it involves someone reading an email in the next room.
    ‘Totally,’ Mum said. ‘Yeah, for sure.’
    ‘I know! I’ve wanted to eat there for so long! Gary says he’s too sick to go, so he’s asked if I’ll take his booking. Are the kids awake?’
    ‘Richie is – he’s been up since six, as usual. But I think Lizzie’s still in bed.’
    ‘Do you think