Chapter 54

“Tyche ... don’t sneak up on me like that. Who is th ... Nicholas? Tyche ... what are you thinking?”

“He knows ... he’s not sure about what he knows...” Nick nodded. “ ... but he knows I should be 19 or 20 ... but I’m not. You explain it to him. I’m going to the Antler. I have a yen for home made rootbeer.”

I was out the door before she could stop me. As the door to her shop closed I heard her yell, “SEVEN!”

The Antler isn’t far ... unless you happen to be doing it in a Lake Effect snowstorm ... I walked in the front door.

“‘Lo, Ernie.”

I picked the barstool closest to the kitchen and slid onto it.

“Hi, Tyche.”

“Hi, Frank!” I yelled.

From the kitchen came, “Tyche!”

“A mug of root beer, please, Ernie ... and maybe an order of fries,” I said.

Murray came in under the door and yowled.

“Make that two orders of fries, Ernie.” I gave the cat a closer look, “And a half pound of meat, raw.”

Murray jumped up on the stool next door and put out a paw.

We shook.

Ernie said, “Hi Murray ... where’s the wife?”

The Bengal hybrid jumped to the bar, rolled on his back, puffed out his stomach and whined.

“Pregnant again?”

Silver was notorious ... but ... since she had shed herself of the 6 kitten Ludington litter ... a story in its own right ... she had only two kits per litter. But ... she had five pair a year.

Tyche was four when she became Murray’s kid ... in ten years ... Silver had had 50 litters ... two per... 100 kittens. Every one of them a Bengal clone. Bengals are between SEVENTEEN HUNDRED and TWO THOUSAND bucks per unit. And that’s the low price ... well mannered litter trained with excellent blood lines might bring FIVE GRAND!!

But ... the first batch ... the Ludington kits ... were given away ... free. Silver was way beyond glad to part with them. She picked tourists ... every one of which had out of state plates ... the farther away the better.

So ... Murray on the bar ... belly puffed out, panting and moaning ... had Ernie in stitches, when Frank, burger in a bowl, stepped out of the kitchen and put the bowl on the bar.

He looked at the drama on the wood of the bar and said, “Silver’s pregnant again? Hi, Murray.”

It was so off hand that the rest of the audience ... can’t call that rapt bunch patrons ... laughed.

That woke Frank, senior. He had been mourning the passing of Ernie, senior, by dealing euchre hands face up on the ‘reserved’ window table and fell asleep.

Anyone with great grand parents living at home will tell anyone listening that Great Grandparents waking is a true production ... accompanied with belches, farts, belly scratches and groans. Frank senior didn’t disappoint.

Finally awake ... Frank spotted Tyche at the bar.

“Tyche?” He graveled. “Do you know how to play Euchre?”

As innocently as I could, I said, “No.”

“Let me teach you.”