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We walked through the doors, and I was surprised to see Jimmy behind the counter.

"I thought you only worked during the summer," I said, walking up to him.

"After school too, remember?" he replied. "You ever get those boxes?"

"Yep, and we just finished selling them all," I told him proudly. "Thought I should come and pay the bill."

Jimmy went and got the card he usually wrote our charges on and started adding things up.

"You owe $534," he said when he was done.

"Wow, how much for each thing?" I asked.

"It was $300 for the boxes, almost a couple hundred for the poison, rolls of plastic, cans of pop—it adds up."

I reached into the envelope and handed him the money and then watched as he crossed off all the items on the card.

"Do you think you could start a fresh card for my dad, with none of those things written on it?" I asked him.

He looked at me, smiled, and tore up the card. "Sure," he said.

"And can I get a receipt for all that stuff? Actually can I get two copies for my records?"

He shook his head, teasing me, but wrote out the receipts I wanted.

"Thanks, Jimmy," I said as we walked off. "You working next summer?"

"We'll see," he called out.

When Sam and I got home, I said to him, "Can you ask Amy to come over and talk to me in a couple of hours?"

I went into my room and started writing a letter to Mrs. Nelson. I had a feeling that she wouldn't answer her door and talk to me, but I hoped she would read a letter. I tried to explain in it that I had lived up to my part of our deal and that I was putting the $8,000 into an envelope with the letter, along with a copy of the agreement and a receipt for the supplies we used. I also wrote about how much I learned and how much I appreciated her believing that I could do it. I promised to take care of the orchard too.

When Amy came over, I took her into my room and let her read the letter.

"What do you think?" I asked when she had finished.

"Sounds pretty good. Do you think it will convince her?"

"I don't know. Would it convince you?"

"I'm not crazy in the first place. Let's see the money."

I pulled out the envelope full of hundreds and handed it to her.

"Whoa!" she said as her eyes widened. "I don't think I've ever seen a hundred before." She spread the money on my bed, running her hands over the top of it. A strange look came over her face. "Let's just keep it!" she said. "With our share, we could both buy cars! Cool ones!"

I bit my lip. "I'm afraid to." I could feel heat rising on the top of my head. "I've got to keep my part of deal," I said.

"Okay, I know," she said, looking a little embarrassed.

"So can you come with me tomorrow to give this to her? I want you there as a witness so no one can say we didn't give her the money."

"Let's do it right after school, then," she said.

I didn't sleep well that night. I kept going over the first conversations I had with Mrs. Nelson and our trip to the lawyer's office. It all seemed so long ago.

***

After school on Wednesday, I stuffed the money and papers into the manila envelope Kelly had given me. I sealed it, wrote Mrs. Nelson's name on it, and headed over to get Amy.

I met Lisa in the kitchen. "What are you doing? What's that?" she asked, pointing to the envelope.

"Business," I said, and hurried away before she could ask any more questions.

Amy and I stood on Mrs. Nelson's porch and looked at each other. I was thinking hard about what to say in case she answered the door.

"Go ahead," said Amy pointing at the doorbell.

I let out a sigh, reached over, and pressed it. We could hear the chimes inside but nothing else. After half a minute, I looked over at Amy.

"She's got to be in there," Amy said loudly. "Her car's right out front." She pounded on the door. When that didn't work, she pounded again while yelling, "Open up, we know you're there!"

I pulled her hand away from the door. "That's just going to make her mad," I whispered.

"So what?" she spit out. After calming down a little, she asked, "Now what should