Seven Kisses in a Row Read Online Free PDF Page A

neat and clean.”
    â€œIt is neat and clean underneath all of this stuff,” said Zachary. “I am cleaning out my collections.”
    â€œWhat am I stepping on?” asked Aunt Evelyn.
    â€œHis bottle caps,” said Emma. “He has one thousand and two.”
    â€œYou’re standing on two,” said Zachary.
    â€œI always wanted to save bottle caps,” said Uncle Elliot wistfully.
    â€œAnd what’s that?” asked Aunt Evelyn.
    â€œThat is my dirt collection,” said Zachary. “It is all labeled. This jar is from Miranda’s garden. This is from the baseball field. This is from the swamp.”
    â€œUgh,” said Aunt Evelyn. “That one smells terrible.”
    â€œI had a collection of door knockers once,” said Uncle Elliot. “My mother made me give it away. It took up too much room. Bottle caps don’t take up much room.”
    â€œI never heard of a door knocker collection before,” said Zachary. “That’s interesting.”
    Uncle Elliot looked at Aunt Evelyn. “Different strokes,” he said.
    When Aunt Evelyn left, Uncle Elliot and Zachary went into Emma’s room. Emma’s clothes had slithered out of her drawers and were hanging down onto the floor.
    â€œWhat can I do?” asked Emma.
    â€œFolding would be a good thing,” said Zachary. “My clothes are folded. That is why I have empty drawers.”
    Zachary showed Emma how to fold very neatly. He folded her shirts in three parts and her pants in two parts, and he rolled her socks together like snowballs.
    â€œEverything fits!” said Emma happily. “But what about my stuffed animals?”
    â€œHmm,” said Uncle Elliot. He thought. “How about hibernation?”
    â€œHibernation where?” asked Emma.
    â€œHibernation in Zachary’s empty drawers,” said Uncle Elliot.
    Emma smiled. “That’s a good idea.”
    Zachary thought it was a good idea, too, and they sorted the stuffed animals. There were seventy-three counting J.R., who was missing an ear. They carried twenty into Zachary’s room and carefully put them into his two empty drawers.
    â€œUncle Elliot was a big help,” said Emma.
    â€œWe should do something nice for him,” said Zachary.
    Emma thought. She thought about her stuffed animals. She could give him one, but they all had names.
    â€œI could give him my Morris Fibley sweat shirt,” said Zachary. “But it’s too small.” Zachary smiled. “There is one thing I know Uncle Elliot likes.”
    â€œWhat?” asked Emma.
    Zachary held up his bag of bottle caps.
    â€œUncle Elliot always wanted a bottle cap collection,” he said. “But I did promise to give it to you when I didn’t need it anymore.”
    â€œThat’s all right, Zach,” said Emma. “There is still your dirt collection. I have always loved your bottle caps. But I think Uncle Elliot loves them even more.”
    Uncle Elliot did love the bottle cap collection. He put it in one of the drawers under his sausage roll clothes.
    â€œThis will be our secret,” he told Emma and Zach. “I’ll surprise Evelyn when we get home.”
    Later, Aunt Evelyn came into Emma’s room to check.
    â€œWonderful!” she exclaimed. “You even got rid of some of your old stuffed animals.”
    â€œThere are twenty stuffed animals not in this room,” said Emma truthfully.
    â€œAnd I gave my bottle cap collection away,” said Zachary.
    â€œThat’s nice, Zachary,” said Aunt Evelyn. “It will make someone very happy.”
    â€œYes, it will,” said Zachary.
    â€œNow that you’ve cleaned up, I will do something about your ears, Emma,” said Aunt Evelyn.
    â€œYou mean pierce them!” said Emma, delighted.
    â€œNot quite,” said Aunt Evelyn. She took out a pen and drew small flowers right in the middle of Emma’s earlobes.