ACHOO! Barbecue!

Leira is ready for a sunny lawn barbecue, with lemonade chilled, cake waiting, and the checkered blanket spread nearby. Then the barbecue blasts out a giant soot cloud and hot dogs plop straight into the lemonade pitcher. When the splashing pitcher wobbles toward the cake, Leira grabs the blanket and makes one very fast catch.

Leira set the pale yellow cake on the lawn. She tucked the cold lemonade pitcher beside it and spread the checkered blanket near the barbecue. "Dessert first. That's the plan," she said. The grill's crooked cap gave a tiny rattle, and Leira reached for the cake plate.

By the ivy wall, Leira remembered scattering warm seeds last week. A gust had made them skitter in a rustle-and-scatter swirl. Now the chimney cap went rattle-rattle. "Same pattern," she said, watching the tiny cap twitch.

The cap clattered. The barbecue puffed its lid and blasted one giant soot cloud! Make one enormous "ACHOO!" with Leira. "Achoo! Catch the scatter, Leira!"

Out popped the hot dogs. Boing! Boing! They sprang over the grass and plopped straight into the lemonade pitcher. Lemon slices bobbed. Soot freckles danced. The pitcher began a slow, wet wobble toward the cake.

The pitcher tipped, spout first, toward the strawberry-red swirl. Leira saw the soot scatter in the same spin as her garden seeds. Point to the triangular patch on the blanket before Leira catches. "Achoo! Catch the scatter, Leira!" she said, grabbing its edge.

Leira snapped the blanket up like a gardener's catching net. The pitcher landed in its red-and-cream scoop. Soot, lemonade, and hot-dog splashes swirled into smoky gold barbecue punch. "Achoo! Catch the scatter, Leira!"

Leira swung the blanket catch away from the cake. The pitcher landed upright with a plonk. The cake stayed dry, every butter-yellow bit. "Dessert saved," Leira said, while smoky gold punch sloshed inside the pitcher.

Leira passed cups around the blanket, pouring smoky barbecue punch with a steady hand. The grill gave one tiny, polite achoo into an empty cup. Leira set that cup beside the cake. "Good aim," she told the barbecue.