Eugenia Lincoln and the Unexpected Package

This early-reader novel follows Eugenia Lincoln, a rigidly practical woman who lives with her younger sister, Baby Lincoln, at 52 Deckawoo Drive. Eugenia prides herself on being sensible and efficient, with no patience for poetry, frivolity, or what she calls "geegaws" and "whoop-de-whoops." Baby is her opposite in every way: dreamy, gentle, and fond of all things whimsical. Eugenia frequently reminds Baby that they are "diametrically opposed" (2), insisting that while Baby's head is in the clouds, her own feet are planted firmly on solid ground.

One day a deliveryman named Frederick brings a large package addressed to Eugenia, though she has not ordered anything. Baby claps with excitement, but Eugenia declares the package annoying and inconsiderate. Her cat, General Washington, rubs against the box possessively. Eugenia tries to refuse the delivery, but Frederick confirms her name and address and leaves cheerfully. Frank, a boy who lives next door, comes over to help, and Mrs. Watson, a neighbor from 54 Deckawoo Drive, arrives with her pet pig, Mercy, despite Eugenia's protests. Frank reads the return address aloud: the Blizzintrap Schmocker Company. Baby urges Eugenia to open the box, and she reluctantly does.

Inside is an accordion. Everyone stares at it in silence. Mrs. Watson expresses disappointment that it is not a fruit basket, while Eugenia considers the accordion the most frivolous object imaginable. She marches to the phone and calls the Blizzintrap Schmocker Company in New York City, demanding to return the instrument. A woman named Gladys Schmocker tells her all accordions are non-returnable, explaining that "accordions belong with their people" and are "doorways to the soul" (20). Eugenia slams down the phone, infuriated. Frank suggests she might want to know who sent it, calling the situation mysterious, but Eugenia dismisses the idea. She sits down and writes a list of possible courses of action: sell the accordion, destroy it, or give it away. When Frank suggests she could simply keep it, she declares that is not an option. Baby wistfully suggests Eugenia learn to play, but Eugenia refuses and instead calls the local newspaper, the Gizzford Gazette, to place a classified ad offering the accordion for sale.

The next day, a small, round man named Gaston LaTreaux appears at the door. He wears a green velvet suit and a green velvet hat that resembles a moldy mushroom. He produces a series of business cards advertising his many services, including magic tricks, songs for every occasion, butterfly migration tours, and, at last, accordion lessons. Eugenia repeatedly insists she wants to sell the accordion, not take lessons, but Gaston cheerfully ignores her. Despite her objections, he somehow makes his way inside the house.

In the kitchen, Gaston puts on the accordion and plays a sweet melody. Baby, Frank, the Watsons, and Mercy all gather and clap along. Eugenia refuses to participate and keeps asking whether Gaston wants to purchase the instrument. He says he is there only to teach her. He places the accordion strap around Eugenia's neck and guides her fingers onto the keys. A small, heartbroken sound emerges, and Eugenia feels it reverberating deep inside her. Her heart quivers. A storm begins to build outside, and when Gaston presses her fingers down a second time, Eugenia feels as if something hot and sharp has poked her in the heart. Overwhelmed and alarmed that her voice is shaking, she removes the accordion, declares the experience nonsense, and retreats to her bedroom, closing the door firmly behind her.

Under the covers, Eugenia can still hear accordion music and clapping from the kitchen. General Washington crawls under the blankets with her. She can still feel the note reverberating in her body and wonders whether it was necessarily a bad feeling. She recalls Frank's question about who sent the accordion and admits to herself that the situation is mysterious and unsettling. She places her hand on her heart and wonders whether there truly is music inside it, then dismisses the idea as frivolity. Her heart hurts just the tiniest bit, though she is not sure why.

The next morning, Eugenia finds the kitchen in disarray: overturned chairs, crumbs, unwashed dishes, a fruitcake on the table, and Gaston's business cards scattered on the floor. Gaston is asleep on the living room couch, still wearing his velvet suit, murmuring in his sleep about truffles and pigs. Eugenia glares at the accordion and feels it glaring back, which alarms her. She decides all the chaos must stop. She picks up the heavy instrument, tiptoes out the front door before Gaston can wake, and heads east into the gray morning mist with General Washington at her heels. She has no plan, only the conviction that the accordion must go. She considers putting it in the trash, throwing it in the river, or burying it. When it grows awkward to carry, she slips the strap around her neck, and it immediately feels lighter.

As the sun burns away the mist, Eugenia shouts her intentions aloud: "Burn it! Bury it! Throw it out to sea!" (68). A voice interrupts her. It belongs to Stella, Frank's barefoot little sister, who is sitting in the branches of an elm tree. Stella asks to try the "squeeze-box" before Eugenia destroys it. Eugenia corrects her that it is an accordion, scolds her for eavesdropping and going barefoot, but eventually agrees to let Stella try it.

As Eugenia moves to lift the accordion from around her neck, her fingers brush the keys, and a sweet, unexpected sound comes forth. Stella urges her to play more. Eugenia closes her eyes, squeezes the box, and pushes down the keys. A song comes out of her, and somehow her arms, hands, and fingers know what to do. Her heart lifts inside her. It is the most marvelous and unexpected thing that has ever happened to her. When she stops, Stella tells her she cannot burn, bury, or throw the accordion out to sea. She must keep playing it.

Eugenia and Stella walk back to the house, where the kitchen has been cleaned and Baby is frying an egg for Gaston. Eugenia tries to announce her discovery, but Gaston interrupts, declaring he always knew she was meant to play and that it was "written in the stars" (84). Eugenia feels annoyed, insisting nothing was known all along. Gaston offers to teach her all the songs he knows, then departs with Mercy, Stella, and Frank to search for truffles in the woods. Left alone with General Washington and the accordion, Eugenia worries her ability to play might have been a fluke. She squeezes the box and depresses the keys, and the song lifts her up once more. Standing in a patch of sunlight in the kitchen, she plays as dust motes dance in the air. She feels happy, and the experience astonishes her.

In a closing section titled "Coda," the story jumps forward. Gaston teaches Eugenia all the songs he knows, and she plays the accordion in the evenings for the people of Deckawoo Drive, who clap, sing, and sometimes dance, though Eugenia disapproves of the chaos dancing brings. Months later, on a winter morning, Frank is reading a volume of the encyclopedia on the Lincoln Sisters' couch when a piece of paper flutters out from the pages. It is an advertisement from the Blizzintrap Schmocker Company that reads, "Great joy can be found in the accordion" (95). Someone has underlined the word "joy" and written beneath it in a shaky, hopeful hand: "Perhaps for Sister?" (95). The note strongly implies that Baby secretly arranged for the accordion to be sent. Frank starts to tell Eugenia he has solved the mystery but then decides it does not matter. Eugenia sits in the chair across from Frank, asks what he is learning from the encyclopedia, and resumes playing the accordion as snow begins to fall outside.