"I wonder if Kristy knows about this?" Mary Anne wondered.

"She's probably already assigned us to teams," I said.

"Wouldn't it be fun to get some of the little kids involved?" Mary Anne asked.

"Well, I was thinking that the four of us should enter something," Richard suggested.

Mom raised her eyebrows in surprise. (Richard is not exactly athletic.)

Neither is Mary Anne. "I don't know, Dad," she said.

Richard stood up and pulled the newspaper out of his briefcase, \yhich was lying by the

wall. "Look, most of the events are not true sports competitions. For instance, potato sack races — "

" 'Midway games/ " Mom began reading, " 'tug-of-war, pie-eating contests, underwear

race —' "

"Underwear race?" Mary Anne said, blushing. (Yes, blushing.)

"That's the one we should enter!" I piped up.

Now it was Richard's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Yes, well, I'll take that under advisement."

(That's Richard's idea of humor.)

"I think it would be fun to enter as a family!" Mom said.

"Yeah, it would," Mary Anne replied.

I nodded. I know I should have been more excited, but when Mom said "as a family" I thought of Jeff and Dad. They would love to be in Run for Your Money. They're both athletic, and they have a great sense of humor.

And I realized again I was dying to see them.

"Dawn?" Mary Anne said. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh-uh," I answered. "I was just. . . thinking. You know, about Jeff and Dad." Then I made myself smile and chopsticked some dinner into my mouth.