Jessica, Tessie, and Amy live in a place where everybody wears a color-coded tasseled identification braid from their right sleeve, signaling what they do for a living. The system works well, except for the people wearing yellow identification braids. These people sell illegal braids to those with bad reputations, so they could appear as someone better and make a living. The people wearing yellow braids are the one problem in this otherwise perfectly organized system. The three friends learn that those with yellow braids are disrupting the economy, too, but Amy has other thoughts about these people. 

Read part one of this story here!

Read part two of this story here!

Loud banging crashed against the door of Tessie’s house. She popped out of bed, peeped through the front curtain, then ran back to where her parents were sleeping. “It’s Jessica. I’ll be back.”


“Have fun,” murmured her mother.

“Can’t afford to grow a watermelon plant in my stomach…times are hard,” muttered her father as he squished himself deeper into his pillow.

Tessie giggled as she opened the door and let Jessica in. Jessica was fully dressed but Tessie still had her pajamas on. She changed quickly.

“Hurry!” whispered Jessica. “I saw the sign. Buy one tomato, get one free. While supplies last. The grocery store.”

Tessie whirled around, clutching her shirt. “You got me out of bed for tomatoes? You’re crazy.”

“I thought you like tomatoes.”

“I do like tomatoes, but not enough to get out of bed before the sun raises its golden rays above the treetops and the graceful doves have yet to lift their voice!”

“Stop being poetic. Come on!” Jessica grabbed her friend’s arm and whisked her out the door. “We have to get Amy.” They walked quickly in the early morning light, turned the corner, and knocked on Amy’s front door. Her mother opened it. She had her hair in curlers and wore a fuzzy pink bathrobe with orange stripes. Amy’s mother was nice, but she never seemed to dress right. The curlers she wore were well done and neat, but the bathrobe was ugly.

“Do you know where Amy is?” asked Tessie.

“I should. She’s my daughter.” Amy’s mother scratched her head, working between the curlers. “But I don’t. Bet she went shopping or something. Find her if you want. I’m going back to bed.”

“We’ll find her,” assured Tessie, and they set off down the road towards the store. On the way they passed the same woman who had sold the yellow braid to the tall lady from two days ago. They passed her every day when they walked in this direction, but today Jessica glanced over and saw her friend.

“Hey, there’s Amy.”

Tessie turned. “Talking to someone with a yellow braid?” They slowly approached Amy. Amy turned around and saw them.

“Oh! Hi—what a surprise to see you!” She glanced back at the woman with the yellow braid, then started walking quickly away from her and towards the grocery store. Tessie and Jessica followed. “You’re here about the tomatoes, aren’t you? Lovely sale. I’m out to get some myself,” explained Amy.

“So why were you talking with somebody wearing a yellow braid?” asked Jessica.

“And why didn’t you tell us you were getting tomatoes? We could have gone together,” added Tessie.

“Well, I didn’t want to be a cucumber-ance,” answered Amy.

“You mean an encumbrance,” corrected Jessica, miffed that Amy didn’t answer her question, since she had asked first. “But answer my question. Why were you with somebody with a yellow—”

“You asked a question? Now, that’s nice. Here’s the store. Let’s get the tomatoes!”

Jessica frowned and mulled over Amy dodging all her questions. She didn’t say anything else to Amy for the rest of the day.