Tuesday
A Busy Day

On Tuesday morning, Becky Lynn woke with a smile that lit up her face. She found her mom in the kitchen. "This is going to be a terrific day! First, it's the season-ending episode of Rosco the Wonder Dog, then some of the kids are getting together a baseball game, and you promised we'd go to the carnival with dad this evening!"

"Just remember, we've got a lot of errands to run first. You're coming with me into town this morning. There are six places we need to visit before lunch, and then we'll come back home so you can watch Rosco. Let's see: the gas station, post office, grandma's doctor, the drug store, bank, and grocery store."

"But that'll take forever! We'll never get back in time to do anything fun!"

"You'll be surprised how quickly the morning passes by if we keep our minds on business." Becky Lynn knew from her dad that "business" means "no fun."

After she had been buckled into her car seat, the little girl began staring mournfully out the window, watching the world pass by. It seemed as if she had never ridden in a car that was moving this slowly. "Mom, we're never going to be home in time for Rosco."

"Of course we will. We have all morning."

"All morning! That's forever!"

"No--it's just a tiny piece of forever. But when someone thinks about time, it gets tangled up in his or her mind so things slow down. You'll find that time passes more swiftly if you stop thinking about it--if you concentrate on what's happening, here and now."

This got Becky Lynn thinking. Hmm. Maybe if she concentrated completely on things that are here and now, the morning would pass by in a split second. Why not? She had nothing to lose but a boring ride.

Becky Lynn began feeling between the seat cushions, searching for anything that could hold her attention. "What's this?" She pulled out a dirty, wrinkled wad of blue paper that was nearly a year old--a program from the Rosco Live! show that her parents had taken Becky Lynn to. How she had loved hearing Rosco sing in that auditorium! And he had even let the children pet him as he marched off the stage, up and down the aisles! "Now this is something I can concentrate on here and now!"

Becky Lynn's eyebrows pressed together as she made a serious expression and glared at the program. As she concentrated harder and harder, all she could see was the picture of Rosco on the cover. Her eyes closed tighter and tighter, until finally no light at all could be seen. At last, a dim white spot came into view in the distance, moved closer and closer until Becky Lynn could see it was a television screen playing the theme song to Rosco the Wonder Dog!

Then and there, Becky Lynn watched the whole half-hour long season-ending episode. "I knew it! I've always known that Black Billy is a bad guy! Wait until the twins find out I was right after all!" Then, after the show was over, Becky Lynn looked down at the picture of Rosco in her hands, glanced up, and she was back in her mom's car!

"It really works! Time actually sped by so I could watch Rosco! I've got to find something to concentrate on here and now!" Becky Lynn reached back into the seat cushions, felt around, then pulled out a ticket from the big league baseball game that her dad had taken her to a few weeks earlier. "This is it! I have to think of nothing except this!"

She stared at the ticket, moving it back and forth, then slowly edged it toward her face until it looked larger than the buildings the car was passing by. Finally it was so close that Becky Lynn shut her eyes and pressed the ticket to her eyelids. Once again, she saw something dim and white appear in the distance, moving closer and closer until ... whack! A home run! Becky Lynn had socked that baseball over the Henderson's fence. None of the kids had ever hit a ball that far! And all the rest of her hits in the game were just as good! She caught fly balls, tagged runners out, and her team was leading by six runs when, while making a diving catch for the final out ... ouch! The back of Becky Lynn's hand hit the car door!

"Wow! That was my best game ever!" Hands back into the cushions, Becky Lynn continued the search. "What's this?" She grabbed something, pulled and pulled until out came a sticky old strawberry sucker. "Yuck!" But wait, didn't she get that sucker at last year's carnival?

As old and dirty as the sucker was, Becky Lynn forced her eyes to focus on it. But it was so sticky and yucky that she squinted her eyelids together until the sucker became nothing more than a fuzzy patch of red. The patch grew larger and larger as it began to turn round and round, then gradually changed into a tremendous ferris wheel!

The music from the carnival rides blared as Becky Lynn looked up at her dad with a smile. "Young lady, are you sure you want to go on this ride? You've always thought it was a little too scary." Becky Lynn nodded her head. She had a wonderful time on the ferris wheel, gazing down at the crowd from so high in the air. They went on ride after ride without getting sick, ate loads of cotton candy and caramel corn, and won every single carnival game they played!

Hours later--while she was riding the roller coaster with her dad--Becky Lynn blinked as the ride gave them a bump, then looked around to find herself bouncing in the car seat as her mom pulled into the driveway.

"Are we home already?" asked Becky Lynn sadly.

"Why, yes we are. I told you the time would pass swiftly if we kept to business."

"But, but ..."

"What's the matter?" asked Becky Lynn's mom.

"I've already done everything that I was going to do for the rest of the day!"

"Oh?"

"Mom, there's nothing to do."

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