8

Unfortunately, a guy walking DOWN the hill overheard us, and he said he'd be HAPPY to endorse our product. Not to be mean or anything, but this guy definitely did not have the look we were after. So to make him go away, I paid him three bucks to tell people he DIDNT drink our stuff. I realized we were still competing for beverage dollars with the kid across the street and that if we were gonna make any REAL money, we needed to move our operation to a whole new market. And I knew just the place: the town park.

With the big cleanup going on down there, I figured there would be a TON of thirsty volunteers. So me and Rowley loaded up a wagon with as much of our product as we could carry and headed down the hill. Halfway to the park, Rowley said he was dehydrated and needed a drink. I didn't wanna stop, but he looked like he was gonna pass out. So I let him take a bottle and made a note to dock his pay later on.

When we got down to the park, it seemed like the whole TOWN was there. Everyone was working really hard, and it was pretty hot out. As a BONUS, the water fountain was broken, which meant people didn't have any real options for quenching their thirst. So me and Rowley knew we were gonna make a KILLING selling our stuff. Unfortunately, Mom spotted us right away and asked what we were up to. I told her we were gonna sell our fitness water to anyone who was willing to shell out a few bucks.

But Mom said it was "tacky" to profit off a bunch of volunteers who were sacrificing their Saturday to clean up the park. I told her everybody who drank our water would be able to volunteer TWICE as hard, and the whole cleanup would go a lot quicker. While me and Mom were arguing about this, the ladies who were working on the flower bed totally raided our supplies.

And before we could do anything about it, they had poured our whole inventory of fitness water into the ground like it was just some cheap junk. I did a quick calculation and figured that was at least two hundred dollars in lost profits seeping into the ground. But those ladies just went right back to their planting like it was no big deal. Still, it wasn't too late for me and Rowley to turn this thing around. We gathered up the empty bottles and headed down to the creek for a refill.

Mom stepped in our way. She told me and Rowley she wanted us to help the volunteers with the cleanup, and handed us some lawn tools to get started. I explained that we were BUSINESSMEN and REAL businessmen don't work for free. But before I was even done talking, Rowley was on his hands and knees planting perennials. I knew I had to get out of there as quickly as possible or I'D get roped in, too. But Mom was one step ahead of me. She said when I was little she used to take me to the park every day, and that those were her most special memories of the two of us.