Judy Moody Predicts the Future

Judy went to find the librarian.

"What did you get?" Frank asked when she came back.

"Predict Your Head Off!" said Judy. "It’s all about people who predicted stuff about the future. Lynn helped me find it. She’s the cool librarian with the fork-and-pie earrings. Not the mad-face librarian."

"Hey! It’s a Big Head book. I love those. How come they draw the people with such big heads, anyway?" Frank asked.

"Maybe it’s to hold all those big ideas about the future. Look, see?" said Judy, pointing to her book. "These people predicted earthquakes and fires and babies being born."

"Nobody can predict the future," said Frank. "Can they?"

"Ya-huh!" said Judy. "It says right here. Books don’t lie."

"Let me see," said Frank.

"See? Jeane Dixon, Famous American Fortuneteller. She was some lady in Washington, D.C., who stared into her eggs one morning and predicted that President Kennedy would be shot. And she predicted an earthquake in Alaska."

"It also says she predicted that Martians would come to Earth and take away teenagers. I wish that would happen to my big sister."

"If only Stink were a teenager," said Judy.

"Look! It says here that that Jeane Dixon lady saw stuff in whipped cream!" said Frank.

"I’ve seen stuff in whipped cream, too," said Judy. "Lots of times."

"Like what?"

"Like chocolate sprinkles," Judy said, and they both cracked up.

"Hey, look at this," said Judy. "This book can help us with our spelling test. For real."

"No way."

"Way! See this guy?"

"The bald guy with the bow tie?"

"Yep. It says that he lived right here in Virginia. They called him the Sleeping Prophet. When he was our age, like a hundred years ago, he got into trouble in school for being a bad speller. One night he fell asleep with his spelling book under his head. When he woke up, he knew every word in the book. RARE!"

"I’m still going to study," said Frank.

"Not me!" said Judy, wiggling into her coat.

"What are you going to do?" asked Frank.

"I’m going to go home and sleep," said Judy.



When Judy got home, Stink was at the door.

"I don’t have to study for my spelling test," she said, and gave him a big fat hug.

"What’s that for?" asked Stink.

"That’s for just because."

"Just because why?"

"Just because tomorrow I am going to know tons and tons of words, like woodbine."

"Wood what?"

"It’s a creepy vine. It wraps around trees."

"So go find a tree to hug," said Stink.

Instead, Judy went to find the dictionary. The fattest dictionary in the Moody house. She took it from her mom’s office and lugged it up to her room. She did not open it up. She did not look inside. She put the big red dictionary under her pillow. Then she got into her cozy bowling-ball pajamas. She pretended the bowling balls were crystal balls. When she brushed her teeth, she thought she saw a letter in her toothpaste spit. D for Dictionary.

Judy climbed under the covers and leaned back on her pillow. Youch! Too hard. She got two more pillows. At last, she was ready to dream.

Even before she fell asleep, she dreamed of being Queen of the Spelling Bee, just like Jessica Finch was one time for the whole state of Virginia. She dreamed of Mr. Todd’s smiling face when he passed back the tests. Most of all, she dreamed of getting 110% — zero-wrong-plus-extra-credit — on her spelling test.

She could hardly wait for school tomorrow. For once, she, Judy Moody, not Jessica (Flunk) Finch, would get a Thomas Jefferson tricorn-hat sticker for Great Job, Good Thinking.

JUDY MOODY PREDICTS THE FUTURE by Megan McDonald. Copyright (c) 2003 by Megan McDonald. Published by Candlewick Press, Inc., Cambridge, MA.