Daddy works at home and takes care of Addy. It will soon be her fourth birthday: in two weeks and three days. Daddy is often on his laptop, looking up one thing, finding another. Mummy works as a librarian. Addy is a precocious reader.
“What is Marmalade?” Adelaide asked her daddy.
“Not sure,” said Daddy, “I’ll look it up.”
“Oh no, Daddy, don’t…” said Adelaide, but it was too late.
“Found it,” he said. “I’ll order some for you.”
“But I don’t…”
Too late. It had been ordered.
“It will arrive in two weeks and two days just before your birthday.”
Two weeks and two days later a huge crate arrived on the back of a large Post Office truck. Addy looked out the window after hearing the truck arrive. On the side of the crate the word MARMALADE was stenciled. Next to this was hung a very large key.
“That must be my birthday present,” said Addy.
The driver of the truck attached a chain to the crate and attached the chain to a winch and lifted the crate off the rear of the truck and placed it on the front lawn. Daddy came out of the house, signed a piece of paper and the truck drove away. He stared at the crate and scratched his head.
“I’ll open it later, after I finish my guitar practice, ” he said, then went back into the house.
It had been two weeks and two days since Daddy ordered it. Addy was eager to open the crate but Daddy wanted to finish his guitar practice. He was learning a new chord and had to concentrate on putting the fingers of his left hand in a difficult configuration.
Addy offered to help him speed up his practice. She sat next to him and strum, strum, strummed her tiny guitar quickly to encourage him to practice more swiftly. He is too slow, she thought. He has to use two hands. One to strum, strum, strum and the other to carefully press down the strings at the end of the neck of the guitar. Addy decided to open the crate by herself.
“I’ll open the crate by myself,” she said to Daddy.
“Hmmm,” said Daddy, “okay”. Then he continued to strum, strum, strum very slowly.
Addy went into her room and picked up her Junior Tool Kit, then went outside and climbed on top of the crate.
“This must be a lot of Marmalade. I hope it tastes good.”
She opened her tool kit, took out her Junior Crow Bar and stuck the end of it into the slim space between the end of one plank and the top of the crate. Boy, it was hard work!
She pulled the end of the Junior Crow Bar as hard as she could. It made a scrunchy sound but the plank hardly moved. She stuck the end of the Junior Crow Bar into a second plank. It moved a little bit more than the first one.
