Sophie went around to the back of the house and into the basement. A pile of boxes they still hadn’t unpacked sat against a wall. She rummaged through the boxes until she came to one filled with curtain fabric. The fabric was rumpled and smelled like mothballs. A few months ago she had used a piece for a Star Girl cape and had tried to fly off the chickencoop roof. It really hadn’t worked, so she and Jake had made it into a gigantic kite.
She pulled a piece of fabric out of the box. It was quite small, about the size of a large bath towel. Too small, really, to be used for any of the windows in their new house. It felt light and silky. She tied it around her shoulders. It was cool and settled around her comfortably. The fabric was white, like Star Girl’s cape, but didn’t have any stars attached to it. Would it work, anyway? She went back outside and around to the front porch to take a closer look at Star Girl’s cape in her comics.
Arthur came outside and flopped onto the steps beside her. Sophie pulled off her cape and sat on it. She didn’t want Arthur to see it and laugh at her.
He didn’t notice it, though. He sighed as he stretched his long, tanned legs and wiggled his bare toes. He was wearing his Jughead hat. He always wore that hat, except when he was sleeping or having a bath. It was covered with so many medals and badges now that it was hard to see the original brown colour.
“Boy,” he said. “Sure wish we were swimming at Deer Lake right now. It was so much fun yesterday, even though I had to leave early to do my paper route. But we can’t go back today because Joe has a special exercise with his army cadet troop and Henri is playing baseball down at Macan Park.”
“You don’t have to rub it in,” Sophie said. “Hey, look at this!” She pointed at the back page of one of her comics. “’You’ll never be bored again when you have your very own Star Girl Super Bounce Ball with Special Super Bounce Powers.’ Look, it costs just one dollar! I’d sure love one of those.”
“Ha!” Arthur scoffed, pushing back his hat. “You could buy one of those at Eaton’s downtown for fifty cents.”
“Not one like this one, you couldn’t. It has Special Super Bounce Powers. It says so right here. I’ve got to have one. I’m going to send away for it right now.”
“Thought you were saving all your money for a bike.”
“I am. But this ball is only a dollar. Say, Arthur, how about letting me help you with your paper route today so I can make some more money?”
“I don’t know, Sophie. Those newspapers are awfully heavy, especially on Fridays and Saturdays.”
“But I’m really strong. Just look at this muscle.” She flexed her arm and held it in front of his face. “I could help you carry them around.”
He looked at her, considering. “I’m getting kind of tired of doing all those papers, anyway, so tell you what. I’ll stack them into my bike carrier and wheel them around and you can deliver them to the houses.”
“How much would you give me?”
“Half of what I make.”
“How much is that?”
“Two cents a paper, so I’ll give you one cent.”
“That doesn’t sound like much to me. How many papers do you have?”
“Fifty-two.”
“So you’ll give me fifty-two cents a day?”
“Right.”
“Okay. It’s a deal.”
Sophie pushed her cape under her comics and ran inside to get an envelope and a stamp from Maman. Arthur helped her write the address. She felt a small tremor of excitement as she dropped the envelope into the mailbox on the corner. Soon it would be here. Soon she’d have her very own Star Girl Super Bounce Ball with Special Super Bounce Powers. And soon she’d be able to fly like Star Girl. She just had to figure out how.
On their way to the newspaper shack that afternoon, Sophie had to run her hardest to keep up with Arthur. “Can I ride your bike, Artie?” she puffed behind him. “Can I? Can I?”
“No. It’s way too big for you. Besides, this is a boy’s bike.”
“So? Bet I could ride it!” she shouted to his back. “Please let me try. Please, please, plee-ease!”
“Look!” he yelled, stopping in the middle of the path. “You can’t ride my bike. Okay?”
“Oh, all right,” she muttered. She kicked a rock out of the way and kept trotting after him.
The paper shack was a small dark green building at the edge of the road. A bunch of guys were lounging around in a puddle of shade in front of the building.
“You better wait here,” Arthur told her. “Don’t let those guys see you.”
“Why not?”
“Just don’t!” he hissed.
Sophie ducked behind a bush and peeked through the spiky branches. Most of the boys waiting around the shack were rough-looking and bigger than Arthur. They wore tattered jeans and dirty T-shirts. They didn’t even glance up at him when he wheeled his bike closer. Before he got there a panel truck arrived and stopped in front of the shack. One of the biggest boys opened the back doors of the truck and started tossing out stacks of newspapers, calling out numbers in a loud voice.
“Thirty-six!” he shouted.
“That’s mine,” Arthur said. He lifted the pile of newspapers from the ground and wedged it into his front carrier. Then he wheeled his bike back along the path. Sophie left the bushes and trotted out to meet him.
“Hey! Looks like the French kid’s got himself a cute little helper,” yelled one of the bigger guys who was wearing a torn yellow T-shirt. “What’s the matter, Frenchie? This newspaper job too tough for you?”
Arthur’s ears turned bright red, but he didn’t stop or even turn around. He mounted his bike and started pedalling hard up the hill, his front wheel wobbling. Sophie had to run her fastest to keep up with him. When he got to the end of the block, he turned down a narrow lane beside a deep ditch. Out of sight of the teasing boys, he stopped and waited for her. At last she caught up to him, panting like mad.
“I told you to keep out of sight,” he growled at her. His whole face was as red as his ears, and he was panting, too.
“I didn’t think...they’d...notice me,” she puffed hard. “They weren’t even looking.”
“Next time, if there is a next time, you’ll have to wait up here. Agreed?” He sounded so mad at her that she could barely look at him.
She nodded meekly. “Agreed.”
Delivering Arthur’s papers wasn’t all that much fun, especially since Arthur was so grouchy and it was one of the hottest days of the summer. Sophie had to remind herself that every delivery was one cent closer to getting her very own bike. They weren’t even half finished the route and her feet were sore and she was so thirsty that her tongue felt permanently glued to the roof of her mouth. She pulled at her blouse. It was stuck to her sweaty back. This was a tough way to earn money.
One of their last deliveries was down on Brunette Street at LeBlanc’s Barbershop where everyone in the family got haircuts. Monsieur LeBlanc told Arthur he would be going on a holiday for the next few weeks and wouldn’t need the paper.
Just past the barbershop, the road narrowed as it went over a Bailey bridge. There were no cars coming, so Sophie and