There’s a new Fudge in town.
“No fair!” Fudge said. “You have to ask if you want to borrow something. Right, Dad?”
“That’s how it’s usually done,” Dad agreed.
“Then, let’s just say we’re . . .” Flora began, looking at her sister.
“Copying your name,” Fauna said.
“Copying?” Fudge asked.
“Yes,” Flora said. “And copying is the highest form of flattery.”
“If you want to copy you have to pay two million dollars,” Fudge told them.
The Natural Beauties laughed. “Your brother’s hilarious,” Fauna told me.
“Don’t you know the best things in life are free?” Flora asked Fudge.
As if that were some kind of cue, the Natural Beauties put their heads together, hummed a note, and the next thing I knew they started singing, right there in the middle of the gift shop.
The moon belongs to everyone
The best things in life are free.
The stars belong to everyone
They gleam there for you and me. . . .
I backed away, hoping to disappear into the crowd that had gathered around them. This was worse than Fudge’s tantrum at the shoe store. I never should have come to Washington. I should have stayed in New York with Grandma. Or gone to Jimmy Fargo’s. Anything but this. Absolutely anything!
