Chapter 79

Bozo was waiting to go out when we got home. I went into the kitchen to check on the mouse traps and noticed something seemed wrong about the kitchen table. I turned on the light and bent down. My spaghetti pot was underneath the chair on the far side of the table. He must have pushed it across the floor while licking it, only to get it too far under the chair to reach.

The two "jaw" traps were still armed so I guess he learned his lesson. I opened both cupboards but those traps were void of visitors, too. That's OK. I could wait.

This time I paid attention to what I was doing as I scooped his food out of the wastebasket.

I heard a knock at the front door, then voices a few seconds later. Bozo appeared in the kitchen, spied his bowl of dog food and dove in. I went out to the living room to find Charlie and Mary talking to Jack.

"Hey, Charlie. I thought you'd be at your dad's tonight."

"He cut me a break. I'm going to stay here the rest of this week so I can drive you back and forth from school."

"Does he realize it's a short week?"

"He hasn't said and I'm not going to tell him."

"There you go."

"He's in a pretty good mood tonight, anyway. I came over to thank you."

"Oh, it was nothing. I didn't even think about him working there until Jack mentioned it."

"Even if you hadn't gotten him an interview, I'd still be thanking you. He was a wreck when he came over here this afternoon. He called me when he got home after talking to you and said I could stay the rest of the week. I couldn't believe he was the same man that was over here earlier."

"It wasn't anything special. I just didn't like seeing him that way."

"Whatever you say, Jill. But thanks anyway."

I looked at Mary. "So, what does Mom have to say about all this?"

"She says she'll go along with whatever Claude says. Charlie's 18 and he could technically tell his father he's moving out. The only problem is that Mom wouldn't let him stay here if he did."

"I'm sure you can all work something out."

"Maybe you could talk to him."

"No way. It's up to you guys to work it out. I'm not getting in the middle."

Charlie said, "I just wanted to say thanks. Regular time tomorrow?"

"I'll be there."

"OK. Night."

Mary waved as they went out the door.

Jack took his cell phone case off his belt and got the phone out. He pressed and held down a button and I heard it starting up.

"You turned it off?"

"Yup. I was working."

He leaned down and turned on his computer.

He scrolled through the missed calls, said "Hmm, Julie and Myra," then pressed the button to retrieve his voice mail messages.

He listened to them and then sat down at the computer. He called up his calendar, then mine. "There's nothing down for either of us. Do we have tomorrow off?"

"I don't have anything."

"Good."

He went through some menus on the phone, found a number and called it.

"Hi, Julie. It's Jack. I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Tomorrow will be fine. You want to come over for dinner or after?"

"Hang on. Jill? Do you mind if Julie comes over for dinner tomorrow?"

"No, Jack, I don't mind if she comes over for dinner tomorrow," I said loudly, in the direction of his phone.

"She says she doesn't mind."

"Julie, she told me when I started this that there were going to be women taking their clothes off for the camera. She just said I should make sure I have a chaperon so nothing comes back to bite me later."

"Because I know you. I know you wouldn't pull anything shady. Just like Jill knows you. So I expect you here for dinner tomorrow at..." he looked over at me. I held up six fingers. "Six."

"All right. Sleep well. See you tomorrow."

He hung up, then pressed one of his keypad buttons.

"Hi. We just got back."

"Good. Real good. He's going to have to declare bankruptcy by the time we get through with him but she loves us."