The Page with Two Endings

Chapter 1A Hat for a Hen

Gitty drew a hen wearing an enormous hat. Henna wrote underneath it, "Mrs. Hen was ready for her important visit."

The girls were making a funny picture story for their class reading corner.

Their hen had lost her way, mistaken a cabbage patch for a waiting room, and asked a scarecrow for directions. Now they needed the final page.

"She arrives at the wrong house," Gitty said. "The rabbit answers the door."

"She should find the right house," Henna said. "She has been lost long enough."

Gitty tapped the paper. "The rabbit is funnier."

Henna put down her pencil.

Chapter 2The Blank Square

The final picture square stayed blank.

Gitty drew a tiny rabbit on a scrap. Henna wrote a line about Mrs. Hen finding the house.

Neither girl showed her scrap to the other.

"Mine ends the story," Henna said.

"Mine ends it too."

"It ends it with her still lost."

"That is why it is funny."

Gitty reached for the good page. Henna slid it between their desks so neither could draw on it without the other noticing.

The hen had escaped a cabbage patch. The girls had not escaped the last square.

Chapter 3Two Readings

Their teacher, Mrs. Klein, stopped beside them. Her hair was covered with a dark scarf.

"You have written a lot. What happens on this page?"

Both girls answered at once.

Mrs. Klein asked to hear one ending at a time, after the pages they had already made.

Gitty read first. Mrs. Hen knocked. A rabbit opened the door and offered her a carrot.

Henna laughed at the carrot before she remembered that she did not like this ending.

Then Henna read hers. Mrs. Hen found the right house, took off her hat, and sat down to tea with her aunt.

Gitty liked the hat coming off. It had been too big for the hen from the beginning.

Chapter 4What Must Stay

"The carrot surprised me," Henna said.

Gitty grinned. "You laughed."

"But I want her visit to happen. We promised it on the first page."

Gitty looked back at the beginning. Henna had written "important visit" in careful letters.

"I want the last page to have a funny surprise," Gitty said. "Not just tea."

Mrs. Klein went to another desk. The girls sat looking at the hen's enormous hat.

"What if she finds the right house," Henna said, "but something there is wrong?"

Chapter 5The Hat Surprise

Gitty drew the aunt opening the door.

"Her aunt is a hen too."

"Obviously," Henna said.

"Wearing the same enormous hat."

Henna laughed. "They cannot both fit through the doorway."

They sketched two wide hats bumping together. Mrs. Hen took off hers, and her aunt took off hers. Under each hat was a tiny hat.

"Too many hats?" Gitty asked.

"Exactly enough hats."

Henna wrote the aunt saying, "I wondered when you would get here. My hat has been waiting all afternoon."

The important visit happened. So did the surprise.

Chapter 6Reading Corner

The next day two girls read the finished pages in the corner.

They laughed at the cabbage waiting room. At the last page, one pointed to the tiny hats.

"They should hang those on the scarecrow," she said.

Gitty and Henna exchanged a look.

"Another story," Henna whispered.

They kept the two unused endings in their folder. Neither one had been the ending they chose, but each had helped them see what the last page needed.

Gitty picked up a fresh scrap.

"A scarecrow with four hats?"

"First tell me where he is going," Henna said.

Gitty began drawing. This time she left room for Henna's words.