Chapter 57

Laurie and Posie were chasing butterflies on the front lawn when we drove up. It looked like the butterflies were winning but neither of them seemed to care. Posie was still working on that running thing, tripping over herself whenever she tried to go too fast. Mary was sitting with her back against the wall, reading a textbook.

As soon as we pulled up to the curb, Laurie started running toward me, Posie right behind her. Mary put her book down and made her way to Charlie, though not quite as quickly.

I lifted Laurie up just under her armpits and spun her around. I let her down and she stumbled around, trying to get her footing. "Do Posie."

I picked Posie up and held her up to my face, turning around as she licked me, her tail going a mile a minute. I put her down and she ran over to Laurie. Laurie picked the right one, that's for sure.

I went up to the apartment. Jack was entering his notes from last night.

"Jill, I love the way you set this up. I just wish I could get my emails sent to my computer so I didn't have to log in to see if I got anything."

"Oh, shit. I forgot to do that. It just takes a few minutes. I'll do it while you're interviewing tonight."

"Cool. Speaking of interviewing, what did you say to Julie today?"

"Wait a minute. What did she tell you I said?"

"She asked you to be friends and you turned her down. She wanted to know if I'd still take her picture or not."

"Did she tell you she apologized to me?"

"No."

"Let's start with that. She came up to me when I got to school and told me she owed me an apology. To make a long story short, she came over here to try to steal you away from me. When you told her to behave or leave, then told her what you thought of me, she decided she didn't have a chance. Note, she didn't say she had a change of heart or felt guilty or anything. Then she said she'd like to be my friend. I told her I'd be neutral toward her but her decision not to steal you wasn't a qualification for friendship as far as I was concerned. She said she was glad she didn't have to tangle with me because I would have whooped her ass."

He put his arm around my waist. "How do you feel about her?"

"I don't think she's a real threat. I think I should keep my eye on her for a while. I'll tell you one thing. I sure wouldn't want to have to carry around those tits of hers. I'd be dying the first time I played volleyball with those things."

"I know. She hates them. She has problems when she rides her horses. She has to wear a special order bra when she rides in jump competitions. Even the best sports bra isn't good enough. She told me she wished she had tits more like yours."

"I didn't know she rode horses."

"I was under the impression you don't know anything about her."

"You're right. I guess that was a pretty dumb thing to say. She's in Creative Writing but we don't sit near each other. She said she wanted you to take yearbook pictures. I know that."

"That's part of it. I sold her a $600 package. She has a championship horse she wants a good portrait of and she wants a good shot of her in her English riding gear on him. She also wants something suitable for the yearbook. She's got that sit-down portrait mindset for that but thats not what I have in mind."

"Really. What do you have in mind?"

"I think I can get a really good picture of her whipping her hair around right after she takes off her riding cap. She has beautiful hair and with those cheekbones, she would look gorgeous if she was slightly out of breath, flushed, her mouth open a bit with her hair flying around her head. I'm not going to tell her about it. I want to try and catch it Sunday when we're working with the horses. When she was talking about riding, she just lit up. I saw that picture in my mind and I'm going to do everything I can to get it."

"And that's what you're going to give her for the yearbook?"

"Sure. Why not?"

"The seniors get those big pictures. Most of the girls get their hair done up and wear dresses. It looks like they're going to the prom. That picture would sure stand out."

"If I get the one I have in my mind, it will stand out in a good way. I'm looking at revolutionizing the high school yearbook here."

"I hope you do. It will sure shake up some traditionalists."

"That's what artists do, Dear."

"You're not kidding, are you? This really is art to you."

"Hell yes. It wouldn't be any fun if it wasn't."

He lowered his hand and squeezed my butt. "Now leave me alone, I have to finish this. Go figure out what you're going to make for my dinner, Woman."

I was all set to tell him what he could do with his "Woman" when there was a faint scratching sound at the door and a soft voice calling out "Jill."

I opened the door and there stood Laurie on the landing, Posie in her arms.

"Wow, did Posie carry you all the way up the stairs?"

"I carried her."

"My goodness. I bet you're both tired and thirsty. Why don't you both come into the kitchen and I'll get you something to drink."

"OK."

We just got to the hall when Jack called out "Hey!"

Poor Laurie looked like she thought she was in trouble.

"Don't I get a kiss and a hug?"

She grinned and ran over to him, still holding onto the dog. She leaned into him and he wrapped his arms around her, grunting as he did. Then he pecked her on the lips, put two hands around Posie's head and kissed her.

"OK, Laurie. You can go in the kitchen now. Are you going to eat dinner with us?"

"I don't know."

"All right. You and Jill and Mama Wanda can sort that all out. But you're welcome to eat with us if you want to."

"OK."

We walked down the hall. "Has Posie met Bozo yet?"

"Uh uh."

"Well, that will be interesting."

She said "Yes," but I was thinking about Bozo downing Posie with one bite. Nah, he'd never do that.

He was definitely interested. He sat up on his rug and his tail started going. He was smart enough to wait instead of rushing at the two of them.

"Laurie, why don't you take her over and let them say Hi to each other."

"OK."

She walked over and moved her arms forward, Posie's side in his face. Bozo sniffed as Posie turned to see him. He swiped his tongue over her, from chin to top of the head and she reacted by licking his face as if there was milk all over it.

"OK, they're friends now. Why don't you put her down on his rug and let them play with each other."

"OK." She leaned over and put Posie at his feet, causing him to shuffle around a bit so he could communicate with her.

I got a Tupperware bowl and filled it halfway with water. "Here, Laurie. Give this to her to drink."

Laurie took it with both hands and very carefully walked it over to the rug, putting it down without spilling a drop.

"Atta girl. How about some grape juice?"

"OK."

I got three glasses out of the cupboard and put them on the kitchen table. Taking the pitcher from the refrigerator, I poured three quarters of a glassful in each. Laurie took hers and downed almost half of it as I was putting the pitcher back. I noticed she had a purple mustache when I walked back to the table. Posie was now lying across Bozo's legs. He had lowered his head so it was on top of her. The only part of her you could really see was her butt and her tail, sticking out to the side, towards the room.

"How would you like to take some juice out for Jack?"

"OK." She picked up one of the untouched glasses and started out, holding it in two hands, slightly in front of her as she walked.

"Atta girl. Thank you."

I went over to the rug and squatted down. As I scratched behind his ear, I said, "Good boy, Bozo." He opened up his eyes and looked at me and his tail thumped a couple of times but he was careful not to disturb the puppy.

Laurie came over and I said, "Look. They're real good friends."

She said, "I hafta tell you something."

"Oh. What is that?"

"Mary said you have stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Uh huh. She says a big truck came and livered it. She says it's in the garage."

"Thanks, Laurie. Let's go tell Jack."

"OK."

We went out into the living room and Jack looked over at us.

"You got stuff."

He glanced up at me.

"Have you checked your emails?"

"No. I have some. I figured out I'd get this out of the way first."

"Check and see if there's one from the mural company."

He clicked on his email program. "Yep. There it is." He opened it. "They say they appreciate our business and they had a truck scheduled for our area today so they put our delivery on it. I'm to expect it sometime this afternoon."

"How did the stuff get here, Laurie?"

"On a big truck."

Jack stood up and picked her up, swinging her around as best he could in the living room. "I guess we should go downstairs and look at this stuff ... OK?"

She said "OK," between giggles.

I said, "I'll get the dogs. They can both come down with us."

Bozo opened his eyes when I went back int the kitchen but he didn't offer to move.

"Come on, Baby. Let's go outside for a bit."

I bent down to extract Posie from underneath him. He got up and I got licked.

Jack was halfway down the stairs, a giggling Laurie on his shoulders when I went out the door. Bozo started his usual rush down the stairs but allowed Jack to get all the way down before shooting around his legs to the backyard when there was room. I put Posie down on the little patch of grass that was under the stairs and she squatted and peed. When she got up, I said "Good girl."

I clapped my hands and clucked a few times and she followed me around the stairs and into the garage. She ran over to Laurie as soon as she saw her.

Jack was looking at what looked like a couple of oversize rolls of wrapping paper. These happened to be about six feet long and considerably larger in diameter than your typical roll from Hallmark.

"Damn. This isn't what I had in mind."

"What's the matter?"

"Well, I figured we could find some way to secure the roll up near the ceiling, then we could pull the murals down as we needed them. When we finished, we could roll them back up."

"So, what's the problem?"

"Look at this. They're supposed to be eight feet wide and six feet high. This is only six feet tall when it's wrapped. If we hung it up, it would be sideways."

"Let's unroll it on the lawn. Maybe we can figure something out."

Jack picked up a toilet plunger and a short broom with a handle about two and a half feet long and gave them to me. He left one of the murals in the garage, picked up a box cutter from the workbench and then took the other mural outside. He looked at it once more, then took it over to the wall at the far side of the lawn.