The Year Money Grew on Trees by Aaron Hawkins Read Free Book Online

the huge fortune too?"
    "I guess they would have to, but there should be plenty to go around."
    "Like how much?"
    "Thousands probably."
    "Thousands? Hmm. Well, if you can convince them to actually work, it might be all right."
    "I'll go talk to everyone. Maybe I'll tell them that the amount they would get depends on how much work I think they could do."
    "Yeah, I guess."
    "Okay, so we'll start tomorrow?" I asked enthusiastically. "I need you to come with me to Mrs. Nelson's to get some stuff."
    "Tomorrow? I can't believe I said I'd do it." She sighed as she dropped back onto her bed.
    I was mostly happy that Amy had agreed to help, but I felt a little guilty about our conversation. First, no boy had really asked me about her, although this seemed like just a small stretch of the truth. I was sure that there were
plenty
of boys at school who liked her and would like
to know more about her. I felt worse telling her about getting money after we sold all the apples. It was kind of true, though, because we would get everything over $8,000, plus the orchard itself had to be worth money. I'd be happy to split that with her if she wanted. Somehow the money details would just have to be worked out later. That was so far into the future, it seemed unreal. For now, we just needed to get things started.
    After talking with Amy, I spoke with each of the younger kids that night, starting with my cousin Sam. He was eleven and was like a very energetic puppy constantly moving and searching for something. The instant I mentioned that Amy and I were going to be working together, he wanted to be a part of it. At first he suggested having his own set of trees to take care of and even volunteered to take half of the orchard. It took ten minutes to convince him that probably wasn't a good idea. He wanted to start that night, even though it was almost completely dark outside. I started talking about what part of the earnings he could make before I realized that he was more than willing to work for nothing. In the end we agreed that he should have 11 percent since he was eleven. That reasoning really appealed to Sam.
    My cousin Michael was a more difficult case. He was nine and the only true loner in our family. Sometimes
I wouldn't see him for days at a time. He also wasn't very good at following instructions, but I was a desperate employer and willing to sign up anyone. During our conversation, I eventually had to resort to stroking his ego by telling him that Amy and I didn't think we could do it without him. He was very interested in the money and how much of it he could make and kept repeating, "Well, I don't think you can do it without me." He started by demanding half of any money but had to accept the logic that if Sam was older and getting 11 percent, he should be happy with less. We settled on 9 percent since, of course, he was nine. I also told him that his percentage would go down if he didn't work hard. He repeated, "You won't be able to do it without me."
    My sisters were hard to convince too. Lisa was ten and didn't seem all that interested in the money, but was concerned she might be left out of something everyone else was doing. She also didn't like the idea of working after school because she might get bad grades if she couldn't do her homework.
    "I want to go to college, you know, and you have to get good grades all the way down to kindergarten," she said matter-of-factly.
    "How is a college supposed to know what your grades were in elementary school?"
    "They check. They call the school and find out. Our teacher told us so."
    I couldn't argue with her. Our years together had taught me that much. In the end we agreed that she would work only on Saturdays, but she had to do it without complaining or she couldn't be part of the team. Dividing the money by age seemed to make a lot of sense now, so we agreed on 10 percent for her.
    My youngest sister, Jennifer, was eight. She wanted to do just what Lisa did, so she was only available