The Turn of the Page Chapter 5

Chapter 5 “So what are we going to do today?” It was getting cooler in the mornings now, and there was only a week of the summer holidays left.
“I’m going to practise baking some more,” Fern said. “I’m getting better at it.” Which she was.
“Then I’ll help Madda with the house and garden stuff. And fish.”
“And I want to go to the library,” Daisy finished. “There’s a book there called Accounting For Dummies. And it’s just about my level." “That book’s written for adults, Daisy. If you can understand that, then you’re doing well.” Daisy flushed with pleasure at the compliment.
“Yes. I can’t take it out on my ticket. And there’s bits in it that I don’t understand.”
“I’ll take it out on my ticket then. And we’ll have a look at it together. Hazel, I’d love some help with things – thank you.” Maybe these weren’t her best cakes. The oven did work, but it could be a little erratic and she hadn’t been checking as closely as she might have done. It was outside in the bike shelter because there was simply no room inside for it. “I wish we were older,” Fern thought disconsolately. “And could earn proper money.” Hazel looked at the rather burnt cakes as she dealt with the dishes. “Never mind,” she’d said to a rather sorry Fern. “Keep trying. Yours are better than mine – mine didn’t rise at all.”
We’ll get there, she thought. The three of us and Madda together. “Mr Miller will be here in a minute or two – we’d better get the rest of these vegetables outside ready to be loaded.”
“Two seconds,” Hazel said cheerfully. “And then we’ll go and see what we can sell today.” As usual, they were there really early. “Well, the cakes look good,” Hazel thought. “And I like our pictures. Now we just need some customers…” “Well, how did it go today?” I didn’t need to ask them if they’d remembered to say thank you to Mr Miller: I was really proud of their nice manners.
“We sold some, but not all,” Fern said a bit sadly.
“We covered our costs,” said Daisy, “but nothing more.”
“So there’s some back in the fridge that we’ll have to eat, and we gave some to Mr Miller as a thank you.”
Mrs Miller was an excellent cook! But I knew she’d still really appreciate the children’s cakes. “Fawn Annan was there,” Daisy said thoughtfully. “So she and I played chess while her mum went round the stalls. And I was telling her about this – roasting apples round the firepit – and she said that she envied me.”
“Why?” Hazel asked. “They’ve got pots of money, and her parents are really nice too.”
“But she’s the youngest. And often there’s no-one to play with. We’ve always got each other as well as Madda.” “So maybe having pots of money isn’t everything,” Fern said. “Though I’d still like to be able to earn more than we can at the moment.”
“That time will come,” I said consolingly. “And at the moment, you’re learning how to handle money without money handling you.”
That got Hazel’s attention. “What do you mean..?” And life wasn’t all worrying about money, or trying to earn it. The beach at the back of the house was one of our favourite places to go – to play, to fish, to paddle on chilly days and swim on warmer ones. Not many people came there, which was nice in one way, but a bit sad in others. Meeting up with their friends on the offchance tended to happen at the market place, not here. I was glad that the girls had each other to play with otherwise life would have been a bit solitary. “I’ve got some great news. We can afford to extend! And we should be able to get it done before the winter comes too. What I was thinking about doing was making this into a bigger space and we’ll have the kitchen here and – maybe – a proper bathroom. We’ll keep the outhouse as well though, but move it to the other side of the wall – that won’t require too much re-plumbing. What do you three think?” “Board meeting!” Hazel said gleefully, and Daisy added, “We want to see your costings for this project, please.” “It’s all coming out of savings, Daisy. Out of the building fund. I’ve budgeted for winter clothes, food and bills, and there’s also a little in the contingency fund. We can get all the building work done, re-use the current kitchen furniture and definitely put in an indoor toilet and washbasin. We might have to save up for a bath, but we’ll put the plumbing in ready while the other work is being done.”
“Okay,” Daisy said, “but I still want to see the actual numbers tomorrow.”
Hazel and Fern were already planning the best way to rearrange the furniture in the main room! “I’m getting better at this,” Fern said to me, quite rightly as she set out her table. She did have a good sense of taste, and her recipe variations generally worked very well. We got the building done well before winter! Mr Miller pulled a few strings on our behalf, and the job got done in record time. I don’t think I would have been able to cope if it hadn’t been for him and his wife taking us all under their wing.
“Weren’t nothing,” he said when I tried to thank him, but he did like the card the girls carefully drew and coloured for him.
Now that school had started again, there were only weekends for their bakery business. School and homework ate up most of their days. And I’d noticed that the accounts were suffering: Daisy was short of time to do them. Could be time for a surprise audit. “Okay, this is your investor calling.” The girls’ faces lit up. They liked it when I joined in with their games. And I was working hard at keeping this as a game for them. Yes, they were learning lessons they’d need later, but I didn’t want to steal their childhoods. They already knew way more than a lot (though not all) of their friends about the reality of making money go round.
“I’d like a quick update on your accounts, your cash flow and your projections.” Daisy got ready to step forward, but I stopped her.
“Fern, you tell me about it.” “Me? But it’s Daisy who does the accounts. You know that.”
“Tell me what you know,” I said, calmly but firmly. "This is your investor asking one of the board about her investment.”
Of the three of them, Fern was the least mathematically inclined, and she’d quite happily handed the accounts over to Daisy. Hazel was looking quite sober too – I think she’d realised that she couldn’t answer the question. And even Daisy didn’t look too happy. “I don’t know about the accounts either,” Hazel said straight away as I turned to her. “We’ve just been letting Daisy do it because she’s so good at it.”
“What I actually wanted to ask you about was the current product development.”
Hazel looked puzzled, so I elaborated.
“What type of cakes and biscuits…”
“Oh, I know that! Fern’s making biscuits in two flavours and muffins in two flavours…”
Of course she knew that. We ate the leftovers. And very nice they were too.
“No. What kind of cakes and biscuits are you planning to make. Where are you taking the product next?” “Daisy, I would ask to see the accounts, but we both know they’re not up to date. And I know that’s because life has got a lot busier now that school has started.”
Hazel looked sympathetically at a rather stricken Daisy. Of all of them, Daisy understood the most about how careful we had to be with money. I made my voice very gentle.
“I know you and Hazel do Fern’s chores so that she can have time to bake. Well, Fern and Hazel need to help you have time to do the accounts. And you need to keep Fern and Hazel up to date with where the money is going. Every fortnight. And Fern needs to keep you two up to date with her baking. Everyone on the board has to know about everything.” “But why?” Fern asked, a bit mutinously. “You know Daisy’s much better with numbers that I am!”
“Suppose she started stealing from the business…”
“Daisy wouldn’t do that!”
“No. She wouldn’t. But people do. That happens. I’ll find you some stories…”
“So are you going to pull your investment?” “No,” I said, hugging her warmly. “I think you’re doing really well, all three of you.” That cheered Daisy up a bit too.
“I want this to work for all of you, and work well.”
“For all of us,” Hazel said thoughtfully. “Because it is real money, as well as being a good game.” I ended up spending more time with Hazel, while the other two were cooking or working on the accounts. Every cloud…
“I don’t know what I’m good at,” Hazel said. “Yet,” she added after a moment’s thought.
“Daisy and Fern are both better than me…”
“I think you’re right about the Yet,” I said sympathetically. “This baking, and the lemonade stand, they’re the only things you’ve been able to try so far. You’ve got time and enough to find out what your other strengths are. And you will go on learning new skills…”
“Other strengths?” Hazel perked up a bit.
“I spoke to your teacher – remember? And she said that your writing skills are really impressive, that you have a real flair with language…”
Hazel brightened up a bit more, remembering that.
“And don’t forget that she said that all three of you are way ahead of the class in basic number skills.”
I’d liked that story. The teacher had said to the class, “Does anyone know anything about interest?” and Fern had put her hand up and said, “Simple or compound? I can do simple interest, but I find compound a bit harder. Daisy and Hazel can do compound no problem though.”
“Not the answer I was expecting,” the teacher had said, grinning wryly at me. “But I know money’s always tight…”
“And you know that we always have enough. We may not have lots, but we have enough. And we have each other. And kind neighbours. And we live in a lovely place.”
“That’s true. We don’t need to go away to the seaside because it’s here already.”
“You are fed, clothed, warm, loved, happy, healthy and safe.”
Especially safe. “Everything else is just extra to that really.”
Hazel let out a long breath, as if a worry had dropped from her shoulders.
“Yes. You’re right.”