I like costumes, too, and I'll really miss being able to show one off this year. But, as Mimi said, I could make one just to wear when I pass out goodies. Maybe I'll dress up as a Smurf. Blue makeup would be fun.

I stood up. "Thanks for helping me, Mimi. I wish you could help me every night."

"I know, my Claudia, but I think it is better to take turns. Some evenings I am busy, and your mother and father like to see your work, too."

"Right." So why does Janine have to help

me? It's because my homework is so boring, no one can stand it for more than one night in a row — even Mimi — and the less often they have to help me, the better (for them).

I was halfway upstairs when I remembered something. 1 turned around and ran back down to the first floor. "Mimi?" I called.

"Yes, my Claudia?" She was settling down in the den with a fat book.

"I just thought of something. Let's work on your portrait." In my art class, we'd been assigned two projects that semester: One was the still life, and one was a portrait. Both were to be done in oils. Mimi was the subject of my portrait. "Would you mind?" I asked. "We'll just work for half an hour or so."

"That would be fine." Mimi carefully placed a marker in her book. She followed me to my room.

I know artists are supposed to paint in daylight, but between school and baby-sitting, I didn't have many daylight hours left over. I had to settle for painting in my room with every light blazing.

I posed Mimi in the easy chair, adjusted my easel, and got to work. It was the third time Mimi had sat for me, and the painting was really coming along.

"Mimi?" I said after a few minutes. "Tell me

about when you were a little girl in Japan."

Mimi smiled and began the story I'd heard so many times before. She was good at talking without moving around. "We were a family very much like this one," she said. "I lived with my parents, my older sister, and my grandfather — my father's father."