Young Adult Books
DANI SERIES BOOK TWO
THE THREE-SIDED COINS -Or- THE GOOD ZONE PLAN
Excerpt
Chapter One
April brings rain to Languishire, and May brings daffodils and tulips. It’s now the first Saturday of June, 2018, and the green leaves bring shade from the daytime heat, but this morning it’s still cool enough to wear light jackets as fifteen-year-old Dani Sentini and her seventeen-year-old brother Louie ride their bikes the five blocks south to Seven-Eleven Morgan Street. They ride up the long driveway of the yellow-brick, three-story apartment house.
But Tommy’s truck is not there, and the door to his office/shop is locked. In that moment, Marian’s voice is heard:
“Good morning, Dani and Louis!”
Dani turns to see Marian Natoli-Cantonia, wearing her red cape, coming from behind the carriage house.
“Good morning!” calls Dani, while Louie waves.
“You two look chipper this morning,” says Marian. “Hey, come around here and check out my tulips.”
When Dani rounds the corner of the barn, she sees a wonderland of white, yellow, orange, and red tulips. She goes for her camera and catches a shot of Marian standing proudly before her gardens, seemingly dressed as a big, red, human tulip.
“Would you like to come in for a cup of coffee?” says Marian. “Tommy just called and said he’s held up. He said when his truck woke up this morning, it had a flat tire, and his spare is flat, too.” She turns, and they follow her to the house.
“Hey, you’re working here today,” says Marian. “Why don’t you get your cooler off your bike and bring it, and I’ll put your lunch in the fridge.”
Louie runs over to get the cooler off the rack of Dani’s bike, and the two teenagers go into Marian’s house, taking off their sneakers and hanging their jackets on hooks by the back door. From the mudroom, they go into the kitchen, and Marian has them sit in two of the four stools at the big marble-top island. Dani breathes the rich air of the brewing coffee and admires the swirling white, gray, and green marble of Marian’s countertops that match the green of her luscious ferns that billow before all of her windows.
“My goodness!” says Marian, taking a closer look at Dani. “Is that really you?”
Dani laughs.
“And you too, Louis! If I didn’t know better, I’d say you’re not the same teenagers I met back in February.” She comes over to Dani there. “Stand up here so I can see you.”
Dani stands and turns for her. She’s wearing a clean and fairly new pair of white Dickies paint pants. The pants fit her a bit tightly around the hips, and her hips are still wide, and her thighs fill the legs of them tightly, but are, as Dani well knows, already getting to be nice-looking thighs of a remarkably nice-looking girl. She has a ways to go with her diet, but she’s come a long ways, and Marian stands there with her brows raised, looking at her.
“We’re not the same in a lot of ways,” says Dani. “The diet you recommend is working like magic.”
Marian takes a long gaze at both of them. “You aren’t kidding! I’m so proud of you. And you, especially, Louis!” She pats him on the shoulder. You’ve jumped right in with Dani’s diet, and I’m very impressed. It takes a lotta courage to try new things and change habits. You’re a fine young man!”
Louie smiles proudly, although Dani doesn’t exactly agree about his jumping right in. In fact, there was a substantial push-back, which occasioned Louie going once to the store to buy more of his corn chips and salsa (which cost him so much he never went again), and lots of grumpiness, moaning, and whining to his mother, then the one great culminating scene of his lying on his back on the kitchen floor with his tongue hanging out, making like he was dying of famine. He takes Marian’s compliments but is careful to avoid Dani’s crisp glare.
Of course, Marian knows all this because Dani’s kept her informed by a few phone calls and emails. But Tommy’s kept them both very busy with work, and Dani’s been busy studying for exams and working on her term papers—too busy over the last few weeks to see much of Marian.
Marian sets out two more coffee mugs beside her own. “I never noticed how much weight you’ve lost because you were always wearing heavy clothes. How much weight have you lost?”
“Since starting the diet six weeks ago, I’ve lost forty pounds,” says Dani.
“And you, Louie?”
“About twenty. But I started later. Oh…and we’re both working out, and the trainer at the fitness center says boys can lose fat but not as much weight if they’re working out. If you work out, it’s more like you’re converting fat to muscle, so it’s not always about your actual weight.”
“That makes a lot of sense. You look awfully improved, both of you. And you joined the fitness center, no less! I’m very proud of you! And Dani, you really have changed! If you lose all those seventy pounds you want to lose, I might not even recognize you on the street.” Shaking her head now. “Amazing!”
“I’m going to lose it. I want to be one-ten to one-fifteen. That’s my goal. And Mom’s lost a lot of weight, too. And she said to thank you for that diet.”
“Well, you tell her I’m proud of her, too.”
“But she’s a bit flummoxed over our having to buy new clothes all of a sudden. But they’re not actually new. We’re buying things at the thrift store. I got these Dickies at the thrift store, and they’re like almost new. But pretty soon, they’ll be too big for me. You know, they’ve got a lot of nice stuff over there that people throw away.”
“I bought a pair of leather work boots for five dollars,” says Louie. “And a pair of good jeans for six dollars.”
“I think the savings from the thrift store have about paid for the fitness center. We got a family plan so Mom can go, too. It was like a family Christmas present.”
“They even have a pool,” says Louie.
“And saunas and steam baths,” adds Dani. “Why don’t you join?”
“Oh, I’d look awfully foolish, just awfully…trying to be young again.”
“No, actually you wouldn’t,” says Louie. “There are lots of retired folks there all the time. There’s even this really old guy. He’s like eighty or something. He always uses the treadmill, the sauna, and the pool, in that order.”
“It’s very good for you,” says Dani. “And Louie’s right. You’ve got most of the women who go there beat by a long shot.”
“You’re so kind to say it.”
“It’s true,” she says.
Marian has a few strands of gray, but the rest is long and black, running in thick waves over her shoulders. By her face and body, you’d never know she’s sixty-seven years old. Dani remembers the day they met in February when she was all covered up by her red cape; and how when they were in the store, Marian got plenty of gazes from the men. It was one of the things Dani first admired about her—wondering what it might be like to have men young and old gazing at you discretely like that, their eyes shifting away politely. Her best friend, Cindy Rand, also causes men and all sorts of boys to stare at her.
But who’d give Dani more than a passing glance?
Never mind. The question is purely rhetorical.
“I don’t get tired walking up stairs anymore,” says Louie. “But that’s not from the treadmill. I get that from walking behind Tommy’s lawnmower.”
“It sounds wonderful,” says Marian. “But I’m afraid I’ve got to give you more advice that you may not like.”
“So far, your advice has been right on,” says Dani.
“Well, this is advice of a different kind. You might say it’s the other side of the beauty and good health coin.”
“I can’t wait to hear it,” says Dani.
“I’ll tell you what. Since you’re working here today, I’ll tell you over lunch. Tommy’s left your painting tools for you. They’re in the shop, along with the stepladders and dropcloths. He wants you to start prepping the porch. He wants to paint both porches and all the first-floor window trims. It’s all the same brown paint. You’ll do as you did at the house on Robinson Street.”
“I wanted to ask you a question about that,” says Dani. “How come the other places we’ve been working at seem not to need painting? I mean, our house needs painting. All the paint’s peeling and chipping, and it’s ugly. But your houses are always the best looking on the street. There’s Robinson Street, which had hardly any peeling paint.”
“You’re very observant. I like to paint before the old paint gets so bad. When you let things go, you end up having to do much more work. This way, we spend a minimal amount of time prepping and most of the time painting. And you know what? My way helps the old paint last longer. The houses look nice most of the time instead of neglected most of the time. At least the first floor parts.”
“And how come we only paint the first floor?”
“It’s the lower trims people see mostly, and the upper parts require professionals on ladders. The upper parts’ll get painted too, but not for a few more years. This way, the houses stay nice looking. After all, paint is only cosmetic. We’re just trying to keep things looking good.”
“I think that’s smart,” says Louie. “It makes prepping easier, and you get most of the house painted for a fraction of the cost.”
“That’s right. And prepping is the hardest part. So this way makes painting fast and affordable.”
“Prepping is quite the b-word of a job,” says Louie.
Marian laughs. “And dusty. That’s the D word. So be sure to wear the face masks. At noon, come in, and we’ll have lunch. I assume you’re still eating your salads? What’s your meat for today?”
“I’ve only been adding meat for dinner,” says Dani.
“Well, you’re going to be working hard, so I’ll fix something. You like hot sausage?”
“Yeah,” says Louie.
“Alright, I’ll have everything ready, so come in at noon sharp. And I’ll tell you about the other side of the good health and beauty coin.”
Copyright @2025 by H.R. Novelton
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