Chapter 59

Bianca, Sofia and Maria put their heads together and came up with an acceptable lie. Mr. Austin seemed to like it ... and it had the approval of our personal Child Protection Agent ... Elizabeth Anne Boleyn.

The two girls were orphans and rather than become costly wards of the state they were ‘given’ to me ... you know ... let ‘ol moneybags pay. I was paying for everything anyway.

“Let her do it.” was the revenge of the town on the Rebel. With two teenagers in my care, Cynthiamae wasn’t going to be able to foist her triplets off on me ... and Cyn absolutely refused to PAY me to watch ‘em. Relatives are SUPPOSED to look after stray babies.

Besides ... Cyn had Tyche ... and Tyche was all for having surplus babies on which to experiment. After all a surplus is an amount of something left over when requirements have been met; an excess of production or supply over demand.

The demands of the moment ... the pregnancy ... had produced three when the facilities for proper growth could only support two.

Tyche was never a ‘lets see how it goes’ type of girl. Mom, Zoe, was in the production of a brother, Cyn, on the other hand, had produced three ... a cousin gone too far.

So ... what with school already in session and the truant officer already aware that there were a ... as he put it ... passel of wetbacks ... that needed schooling living in suspicious and probably substandard housing. It behooved me to get my girls in school.

“Before ‘I show that damn sutherner what’s what,” said the truant officer.

I need some place that had reasonable clothes. Clothes that fit ... had no holes ... and were not a visual affront to the student body.

Pentwater suffers from a lack of clothing establishments for activities other than tanning and beach wear. You want warm? Something other than Carhartt’s? Get out of town. I dithered.

The phone rang.

“Hello?”

“This is she.”

“Zoe ... very good ... I had no idea ... you sound like a real person.”

“Going shopping?”

“Yes please.”

And disconnect.

“Bianca! Sofia! Saddle up ... we’re going shopping in Milwaukee.”

And I gave it a think.

A return call,

“Zoe? How are we getting there?”

“The FLINT is going on the hard in Manitowoc?”

“Cheaper?”

“JW, Billy and the hired crew are sailing and we’re going on the Badger.”

“With the Tour Bus?”

“Two days and the ferry is getting laid up for the winter?”

“Will we have time for Leon’s.”