Chapter 38

This chapter is dedicated to Daniel T. Webster

Friday. Today was the start of my new job. I was going to have some money in my pocket this weekend. I was going to be a MAN.

School went fine. Sara and I walked together and there was nothing weird about her actions. I got an A on a story I wrote for Creative Writing and my teacher had some nice comments, saying I had raw talent. I guess that was the class to learn how to cook it.

I ended off in the pool around 5:00. There were a couple of guys finishing up in the shower so I started picking up towels. There was one that had obviously been used by someone who'd gotten overly excited. I guess it takes all kinds. I realized if I could figure out what they'd done in it, my mother could, too.

I found a Medic Alert bracelet and some change on one of the benches. I asked Coach about it and he showed me the Lost and Found box. There must have been four or five hundred bucks of stuff in there. You'd think people would miss it. He had me put the new find in a baggy after determining that it all came from the same place.

While I was in there he was shuffling around, nervously looking at the floor. He obviously had something on his mind.

"Coach? Is there something you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Well, now that you mention it, yes. I know I hired you on Wednesday, and it's my fault, I wasn't thinking straight. With you doing your thing that afternoon and the meet yesterday, you're only cleaning up one day this week. I can't justify giving you $50 for one day. I hope $25 will be OK with you."

"Hey, I was wondering about that a bit myself. It just didn't seem right. $25 will be fine."

"Good. I have to get going. Here's the money. Is there anything else you need?"

"Yeah, you mentioned mopping the floor. Where's the stuff for that?"

He showed me the closet with the bucket and mop. There were a bunch of clean mop heads, rags, soaps and sprays. There was even a drain in the floor and a short piece of hose hooked up with hot and cold taps. Once he saw I was OK with it he took off.

The two guys had finished and they'd even thrown their towels in the bag. I filled up the bucket, put some soap in it and had at it. The floor was slanted toward the middle in each section with a drain. I did one section between two sets of lockers, then emptied out the water and put in fresh. We had three rows of lockers which gave me two areas. Then there was the shower area and some toilet stalls. Coach hadn't said anything but I used a bucket and cleaned out all the toilets with the mop, then used another one for that floor. I ended up using five buckets of soapy water. When I put everything away, I took off the mop head and replaced it with a clean one. I had an idea the one I used wouldn't smell too good come Monday.

It was 5:45 when I finished. I headed home. When I went out the gate I heard a car honking. I looked across the street and John's new car was there. His window was down.

"Come on. We'll take you home."

I got in the back. Jill was there with my letterman's jacket on and Wanda was up front with John. Wanda had red hair tonight. It was more of a maroon than a natural red. I didn't like it. She looked like she should have a rhinestone through the side of her nose and be chewing and snapping gum with her mouth open. And maybe leaning against a lamppost at the side of the street.

I leaned over and kissed Jill as John took off. Damn, it seemed longer than two days ago when we went to see Charlie. She obviously enjoyed kissing me, too.

"I talked Daddy into picking you up so you could go home and change and we wouldn't be late."

"Thanks, John. How's the new car doing?"

"Great. That 12 cylinder engine has so much power. And it just hangs onto the road. I'd love to see how it holds up on an icy road."

"No thanks." The love of my life sounded tired of hearing about the car. And the look she gave me warned me not to keep him talking about his car.

We got home and I went in the house. Mary was lying on the couch and Dino was on the carpet below her when I went through the front door. He was sitting up, his ears cocked as if he was at attention. As soon as he saw me the tail started thumping. I bent over and held my hand near the floor. "Hey, Dino."

His ears perked back up and he bounced over to me, hitting my hand with his head before he sat, nuzzling my hand, waiting for me to scratch behind his ears. I have a theory that any dog who doesn't like his ears scratched is worthless. Barney was like that. His Basset Hound ears were huge. But he yelped the first time I tried to move one of them to get behind it to scratch. He never could handle anyone doing anything with them. When he'd get out and end up with stickers in his ears, the vet would have to knock him out to get them. Sparky would just sit on the table and pant while the vet did his thing with a pair of tweezers.

Dino made the boxer / collie combination work. His fur was smooth like a boxer. He had a pointed snout but it wasn't quite as prominent as a collie's. The ears came up a bit and flopped over. And stood up higher when he had his attention on something. His back legs and tail looked like they belonged on another dog. He was between 6 and 7 weeks so his fur wasn't as long as it would be but you could tell his back legs would have the collie's feathers, as would the tail. I'd only heard him bark once. But it was easy to tell when he was happy because of the thumping of his tail. Which was going a mile a minute now. I looked over at the couch.

"Is he keeping you up?"

"Nope. He doesn't do anything unless he has to go outside. He pretty much sleeps through the night."