10 Counting the Cash

CHAPTER TEN COUNTING THE CASH SIMON GOT THE teenager's attention. He pointed to the pile of eight pink plastic flamingos and said, "Three dollars each." The teenager thought that was fine and said, "I'll take two. And how about the comic books?" "How about twenty-five cents each?" "Sure." The mom stood by the flamingos and said, "I'LL take one of these too."

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She picked out a pink flamingo and handed it to her son. He started chewing on its yellow plastic beak for some reason. Some high school girls bought a bunch of Simon's dad's old shirts. They said they looked retro. We also sold a hose, one scooter, one table with folding legs, four more pink flamingos, one rake, almost all the comic books, one broom, some flowerpots, and one stepladder. It took over an hour. And by that time, Simon's dad was in Crown Point, Indiana. When we were sure nobody else was coming, we wiped everything down with wet towels and put it all back in the garage. It was a lot cleaner and there was a lot less stuff. Simon pushed the final thing—his broken bike— into the garage's farthest back corner. It was kind of sad and funny how the bike wobbled and clunked on its flat tires and dented wheel rims. After Simon leaned the bike against the wall, he joined Rosie and me. Simon pulled two big wads of money and a bunch of change out of his pockets. He dumped it all on the garage floor.

"How much do you think we made from the garage sale?" he asked, looking down and watching one of the quarters roll to a stop. "It looks like a lot." "It does," I said. "It's eighty-one dollars and seventy-five cents," Rosie said. "I kept track."

Simon and I knew we didn't need to count the money. If Rosie said it was eighty-one dollars and seventy-five cents, then it was eighty-one dollars and seventy-five cents. "How much is that for each of us?" asked Simon. And, of course, Rosie knew. She said, "It's twenty- seven dollars and twenty-five cents apiece. And we each made thirty-five dollars at the car wash. So that means we have sixty-two dollars and twenty-five cents each. That's a total of one hundred and eighty-six

dollars and seventy-five cents." We all smiled at each other. It was a ton of money. "Will you two sort it all out and divide it and stuff?" Simon said and pointed down at the pile of money. "I'm going to get Mom so she can see the finished job." After Simon left, Rosie crouched down and started to separate the bills into stacks of singles, fives, and tens. But I stopped her. I grabbed her right hand. She looked up at me. I pointed toward the back of the garage and said, "I have an idea."