Chapter 66

While the girls were cleaning up in the kitchen, I sat down with Mom in the living room.

"Mom, something's been bothering me."

"What's that, Jackie?"

"You've been talking about the garage having its own kitchen and stove so I won't have to come in the house. And now I'm being sent to Jill's. I feel like you're trying to get rid of me."

She laughed, looked over at me guiltily, then hugged me. "I'm sorry, Jackie. I don't mean to laugh at you. No, I'm not trying to get rid of you. And when you move into that room, you'd better not disappear. I still want you eating with us at night and I'll still be glad to make you your breakfast.

"I'm looking a few years down the road. I figure you and Mary are going to be out of here, going to college in four years. You'll be gone in a couple. The room's not going to be cheap. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind spending the money and I'll get it all back if I ever decide to sell the house. But I figure I might as well be able to make something back on my investment after you move out. It will be perfect for a college kid or maybe a widow or widower. But I don't want to be tied down to feeding a boarder. Having a little apartment with all the amenities will make it more valuable and a lot less of a hassle."

"Thanks, Mom. I feel a lot better."

"Jackie, I'll never try to get rid of you. Even if you're a 37 year old loser, still living above the garage, you'll still be welcome. But I might make you cook your own meals."

"OK, Mom. I'll keep that in mind."

Chris came in slowly, afraid to interrupt what we were doing. I looked over at him.

"Jack? Sara says she's ready for the pictures."

"OK, Chris. How are you doing?"

He grinned. "Good."

"Cool. Let me get my camera and I'll meet you in the back yard."

I went down the hall and saw that the door was open to my old room. I went inside and dug out my digital camera.

I went out back and Chris and Sara were playing with the puppies. He helped her stand, then got one of the puppies and put it in her arms.

I moved them over so the sun was providing good light without blinding them. I snapped a couple of pictures, then got the two of them with the same puppy. Chris put that one back and got out the other. I went through the same routine, then had Chris give her both of them. I ended up with thirty shots before I had Sara kneel down so she could keep each one still while I took pictures of just the dogs. I finally had her try to keep both of them still enough to get both in the same shot. That lasted just long enough for me to take two pictures.

We put them back in their box and I took Sara and Chris into the room, plugging the USB cable into the camera. The program came up and they could see each shot as it uploaded to the hard drive. I'd named the folder S-puppies and put a clean CD into the drive, copying the file when it was completely loaded. I then clicked on the CD and brought up some thumbnails, and showed Sara how to run a slide show. The full screen pictures brought out more oohs and aahs. When they were done viewing the pictures, I gave Sara the CD. Chris asked if he could have one and I burned him a second copy.

I let them do their thing with the wagon and the puppies. Queenie got to go with them so the backyard was all Dino's.

"Is your father taking care of Bozo this weekend?"

"I didn't even think about it."

"Maybe we'll drive over and bring him back with us later."

"Can we do it now? I miss him."

Women. She hadn't thought about him until I mentioned him and now she misses him.

"All right." She squealed and jumped up to me, hugging my arm. "Ask Mary if she wants to go for a ride with us."

We got in the car but things were a bit different. Jill was still next to me but she wasn't hanging on my arm as she usually did.

"How are you doing, Mary?"

"I don't know. All right, I guess?"

"What happened at the game last night?"

"I just got thinking. You have Jack and Sara had Chris and it was the same stadium where we went that night I got attacked and all anyone could talk about was my teeth."

"I'll talk to you if you want."

My sister leaned forward and looked over at me. "I don't know. There are some things I don't want to talk about."

Jill glanced over at me. "Maybe we could find some time alone tomorrow over at my house."

"Yeah, that would be nice."

"Mary?"

"Yeah?"

"I'll always be here for you if you want to talk. I mean that."

"Thanks."

Jill got back into position, holding onto my arm. I glanced over her head. Mary was staring out into space, a slight smile on her face. At least she wasn't looking at her demons right now.

Jill's house was empty when we arrived. She went inside and came out a couple of minutes later with a notebook computer which she put in the back.

Bozo acted like he hadn't seen her in months. He was getting to be pretty big. Maybe two inches shy of my knee and a foot and a half long. He had a way to go, but he wasn't the puppy I could hold in a couple of hands when I'd picked him up for Jill.

We got his dog food and bowls. When I told Jill I was sure we had bowls at our house she informed me that these were his bowls and she didn't want him eating out of just any old bowl. Excuuuuuse me. I bought the fucking bowls for him, I knew there wasn't anything special about them. We put his bowls in the trunk with his dog food.

He stood on Mary's right leg with his head out the window the whole way home. It was a good thing we were going to wash the car later. The rear window was covered with saliva by the time we got home.

He ran over to the back yard and was looking through the gate at Dino, his tail going a mile a minute. I let him through the gate and they romped and tackled each other like a couple of kids.

We figured the best way to attack the ebay listing was to get everything off the platform first, then inventory it and take any pictures we wanted. I had a spot up there that we'd be able to use for lighting. I hadn't used it for about three years. That would definitely be something to hang on to.