Risley

CHAPTER 1

My name is Risley. I am 4. And I am rich.

CHAPTER 2

Today is my birthday and today I got five cards with my name written inside all of them. I know what my name looks like so I know they were for me. R-I-S-L-E-Y. I got one from Grandad, one from Nan and Pop, one from Aunty V, one from Weird Uncle Bruise, and one from Mrs Grundypants from next door. I don’t think that’s her real name but that’s what my dad calls her. And in each card was paper money, except for the one from Weird Uncle Bruise. His card said, “Seasons Greetings” and was stuck to a jar of pickles. I don’t know what “season” or “greetings” mean, but I do know that I don’t like pickles.

And I also know now that when you turn four you get moneys. No one told me that.

CHAPTER 3

So now I have five moneys because there were two moneys from Nan and Pop. I know there are 5 because I have five fingers on my hand (although one of my fingers is a strange fat one) and when I put my fingers on each piece of money, they match. And five is a big number because when you are five you get a uniform and leave home with a bag and go and live in another building and learn how to work.

CHAPTER 4

My dad asked me what I wanted to buy with my “newly acquired wealth”. My mum asked me what I wanted to buy with my money. I think that means the same thing.

“How much is 5 paper moneys?” I needed to know.

My dad scratched his chin. “Given the current exchange rate for 4 year-olds, one paper money is equal to… four thousand dollars.” He winked.

I had no idea what that meant so I asked my mum. She smiled and said, “You are very rich.”

I knew it!

I ran to my room and pulled out my little black notebook with the white pages and stripy lines. There I drew all the things I wanted to buy.

CHAPTER 5

I think everyone knows what they would buy if they got a lot of moneys and I knew four things. I just needed to think about the last money.

CHAPTER 6

The thing I wanted to buy with the first money was a fast blue car. Dad has a grey car but it is a slow car. It goes the same speed as all the other grey cars. Coloured cars go faster. I watch them go past us all the time and I have wondered where they are going. And wherever it is, I know they get there first. 

CHAPTER 7

With the second money, I am going to buy a rocket. I would like a blue rocket but I think they only come in white. I will take my mum to the moon in it and be home again in time for lunch. She always tells me she loves me that far so now I will know how much.

CHAPTER 8

I have seen pig ears in a bag next to the dog food at the shops. The pig ear bags say they are good for my dog’s teeth and breath. I once asked mum if we could get some for Maccas because she has yellow teeth and smelly breath, but Mum said they cost too much. It made me sad but then I was only 3 and I wasn’t rich. Once I saw a lady with purple hair and a big pink bag buy two packets of pig ears and I knew she was rich. Now that I am rich, I will buy all the pig ears in the shops with my third money.

CHAPTER 9

My dad has a lot of wood in his shed and he said he’d make me a house. My best friend has a house in a tree but we don’t have a tree. So with my next money I want to buy a big tree so my house can be up high like his. We might even be able to see each other across the air.

CHAPTER 10

At dinner I told my mum what I wanted to buy with my moneys and my dad what I wanted to do with my “newly acquired wealth”.

“Tomorrow,” Dad said.

I agreed. After all, I needed time to decide what to get with my last money. I would know by the morning. 

CHAPTER 11

That night in my room I took out my little black notebook with the white pages and stripy lines and looked at the things I wanted to buy with my moneys now that I am rich. On the first page was a picture of my blue car so I put my first money on the picture and turned the page to the white rocket. There I put my second money. I put another money with the next picture of pig ears and then another with the big tree with my house in it. Then I turned to the next blank page and put my last money there and closed the little black notebook. Then I slid it under my pillow.

CHAPTER 12

After breakfast, I got my small black notebook and went and sat in my dad’s slow car. I watched fast cars drive past us but today, none of them were blue. My dad took me to a big grey shed surrounded in broken buses and I pointed to the new blue car beside a red one. I opened my little black notebook and gave the man at the door my first money then drove my new blue car home really fast. By the time Dad got home in his slow car, Mum and I had already left to buy a rocket.

CHAPTER 13

I drove her really fast to a different big shed, this one was tall and pointy with a row of tall skinny trees beside it. There were no blue rockets but there was one with a blue stripe so I bought that one with the second money in my little black notebook. We went to the moon and back and were home by lunchtime. And I now know how much my mum loves me. I think I need to take her to Jupiter next, but we might have to take a packed lunch.

CHAPTER 14

After a cheese sandwich and a cup of milk, I took my black notebook and drove my fast blue car to the shops and bought all the pig ears with my third money. Maccas teeth went from yellow to white after one ear and her breath changed from smelly to salty.

CHAPTER 15

By 3 o’clock we heard the helicopter above and looked up to see the big tree I had ordered while I was on the rocket with Mum. Dad and I and Maccas had already dug a big hole to set it in and it fit, with a slight wobble. I gave the helicopter man my fourth money and now I had one left in my little black notebook which now had a picture. By dinnertime, dad had built my house where I had my dinner of spaghetti and peas, and Maccas had another pig ear. Her teeth are sparkling and her breath is now minty.

CHAPTER 16

I need a brother. I need to show him how to drive my fast blue car and my white rocket when my dad needs to get somewhere fast and my mother needs to go the moon, and I am too busy to take them. I also need someone who will fit in my house in the tree and maybe feed Maccas a pig ear when I’m away at Nan and Pop’s. I have seen brothers and sisters behind a big window in the big shop beside the lake. You can go and look and then point and pick one. I don’t think I can get one my age but I think they grow quickly.

After my spaghetti, I drove my mum and my dad in my fast blue car to the big shop by the lake. Through the window I pointed to a boy in a green shirt with a bit of orange hair. When he pointed back, I knew he was my brother. I pulled my last money out of my little black notebook and gave it to the lady who brought him out on a trolley. Tucked under his arm was his own small black notebook. That’s where I must have got mine from.

I decided to call him Rich because I got him when I became rich.

One day he will ask me how I became rich and I will tell him that moneys fall out of cards when you are four.

Or maybe I won’t. Maybe I’ll let it be a surprise like it was for me.

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