Chapter 86

The girls came back a few minutes later, dressed in their usual shorts. Mary and Sara were obviously embarrassed but pleased with themselves. I complimented them on their Gis and decided not to say anything about what I'd seen under them.

They went off to do some girl thing in Mary's room, so I went out to the back yard and let the dogs come out front. Dino and Bozo were into exploring and were all set to take off when I got down on the ground. They all came over to me, Queenie to get some attention, the other two to lick my face. I found that neither of the puppies liked being held if they felt trapped. Queenie loved me lying on her.

It was definitely turning into autumn. At least as "autumn" as it gets in So Cal. The sun was up there but it wasn't beating down as hard as it normally did. The grass wasn't quite as green, wasn't growing wild as quickly. Soon it would be sweater weather. I don't mind wearing a sweater, in fact I kind of like it. I don't think I would enjoy having to shovel snow or scrape the ice off my windshield though.

It started to get a little colder and I noticed that some dark clouds were coming in. I was just getting the dogs back to their yard when the first drops of rain started coming down.

This was the first time in the rain for any of them at my house. I don't know what Queenie's arrangement had been at Sara's, but there wasn't anywhere for her to get out of the rain in the back yard. And it hadn't rained since I brought Dino home.

I took the three of them into the garage and checked it out. Since the roof was missing, I knew that water would get in. The platform would offer some relief, but I knew that any water that landed on the floor would spread.

Shutting them inside, I went into the back yard and grabbed the blanket that Queenie slept on. I'd seen all three of them lying on it at times, so I figured it would give them something to lie on instead of the cold cement.

Mom had worked her 10 to 7 overnight shift, so she'd been gone when we got home and asleep when we got up. She was in the kitchen when I went in.

"It's starting to rain out there."

"Well, I hope it's out there."

"Ha Ha. It's also raining in the garage. I put the blanket under the platform. Hopefully they'll have enough sense to stay out of the rain."

"You've seen those two. Do you really believe they will?"

"Not really."

"Bring them in. The two little ones are used to being in the house and I'm sure Queenie will be fine. Bring her blanket in and put it by the door for her. Before it gets soaked."

Back in the garage, I tried to get a blanket out from underneath three dogs. I was able to get Queenie to sit down on the floor but I ended up having to yank it out from under the two pups. Bozo's name made sense.

Once I had the blanket and called the dogs, I had no problem getting them out of the garage and into the house. Queenie looked a bit unsure but came in when I used her name. She went over to Mom and got a pat, then lay down and sighed when I put her blanket down. The other two were long gone, looking for whatever trouble they could get into. Actually, they found the girls in Mary's room and were in there, lapping up the attention from the three of them. I knocked on the door frame.

"Jill. It's starting to rain... Do you think your father will cancel tomorrow?"

She looked like I'd stolen Bozo from her.

"I hope not. I'll give him a call."

She was on the phone for almost a half hour. What that girl found to talk to him about after telling her what she did every minute for the past week less than 18 hours ago, I'll never know. She had her Daddy back and was getting everything she could out of it. I could picture her father grinning as she went on and on. I could also picture a frustrated Wanda in bed next to him. Not that I knew that was happening, but I get pretty neat pictures sometimes.

I went back into the kitchen.

"Mom, I need your keys."

"Jackie, we've been over this. You've got your own car. You're not driving my Lexus."

"Mom, it's raining. Your window's open. No handles, remember?"

"I'm sorry." She went into the bedroom and came back with the keys. "You're a good boy, Jackie."

"You'd think with the money those things cost, the windows would roll up themselves when it starts to rain."

"I think that's next year's model."

I was all set to run out to the street when I saw how hard it was coming down. I grabbed my coat from the hall closet and draped it over my head. I got out to Mom's car and finally figured out how to shut the windows. I hoped the leather would hold up since it got wet. Well, cows seem to survive when it rains.

Just as I was taking the key out of the ignition, there was a flash of lightning, followed almost immediately by a clap of thunder. The sky lit up as it hit and I could smell the sizzle as I made my way back inside.

Mom was thawing some meat in the microwave when I got back.

"Tell the girls I need some help cutting vegetables. Today's going to be a good day for stew."

I went down to Mary's room. She was comforting Dino and Jill was talking to Bozo. Sara had a rag in her hand and was working on a couple of wet spots on the carpet.

"Don't like thunder, huh?"

Jill looked up at me.

"Don't be mean. They're just babies."

"All right, all right. I wasn't trying to be mean, just making an observation. Mom needs some help in the kitchen. Bring them in and they can lie next to Queenie. Sara, I need to get some clothes out of the room."

God, I was going to be glad when the room over the garage was built and I had access to all my stuff without having to ask permission. Not that Sara ever refused me, but who wants to have to get an OK to go to his dresser?

My shorts and shoes had gotten soaked in the run back and forth to the car. I grabbed some sweats and took them into the bathroom.

When I came out, the girls were all busy. Sara was peeling potatoes over the sink, Mary was busy at the cutting board and Mom had Jill filling a pot with water in the other sink for boiling the potatoes.

Mom has several meals that can be made fast or slow. Her beef stew is one of them. If it had been raining when she got off work, she would have thrown everything in the crock pot when she got home and it would cook all day. That's the best because everything gets that stew flavor cooked inside. Today was the rush job. She'd cook it till dinner time, so it would have a couple of hours to blend. And the house would shortly smell like beef stew, unlike when she put it in the crock pot. Until someone took the lid off to smell it, of course. We all said we were just making sure it was cooking all right, but nobody was fooled. How can a crock pot not cook the stuff inside all right?

Sara would peel and rinse off a potato, Mary would cut it into chunks and Jill would scoop up the chunks and toss them in the boiling water.

"Boy, I hope you washed your hands after playing with that mutt."

Jill stuck her tongue out. "He's not a mutt."