Chapter 61

I detoured to the office on the way in. Ms. Evans hadn't arrived yet so I left the list of books she was going to get for me in her box.

I saw Julie on the way to Creative Writing. I caught up with her and called her name, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Oh, Hi Jill. What can I do for you?" Not quite defensive, but definitely cautious, hesitant.

"I just wanted to tell you how much I liked your talk yesterday."

"Well, I think he willdo a good job."

"Oh, I know Jack will do even better than you hope. No, what impressed me was the way you made dressage come alive. It's something I never would have thought about but after your talk, I'd be interested in watching it if I had a chance to."

"Thanks. You're more than welcome to come over Sunday with Jack. I mean, if you want to."

"I'd like to. Let me talk it over with Jack and see how he feels about it. I don't want to do anything to distract him or cramp his style. And I don't want to do anything to throw you off, either."

"Maybe it would be better sometime we aren't taking pictures."

"OK. We'll find some time we can come over later."

We went in the classroom and sat down. I was the second person called.

My composition was about Bozo. It was a tossup between him and Jack when I was planning it out and I decided to go with him. People expect your dog to live with you; they don't feel the same about a boyfriend, especially in high school. Besides, one of the things that excites me the most about my relationship with Jack is waking up and being able to look over at him. That wouldn't go over too well in a high school writing assignment.

So, I talked about Bozo. How I fell in love with him the couple of times we went to the mall. How Jack's mother rang the doorbell at the house that Sunday, telling me that Jack was in the car and needed help with something and how that something was my baby. I talked about him taking a dump in the hallway, about him swimming until he almost drowned because he was so tired, about how he could down a bowl of dog food covered with stew in half a minute, leaving all the vegetables in the bowl.

I talked of our walks and how every bush, every tree, every fire hydrant, fence and boulder was fair game. About the time he tried to drag me across the street after a cat and how sad he looked when I yelled at him about it.

I talked of unconditional love, of having a friend twenty four hours a day, no matter what.

The comments were generally good. They almost degenerated into a love fest for others' animals as a couple of girls started to talk about their pets before Mr. Perkins cut them off. He said that the passion was definitely there and that it could be demonstrated by the way others had been inspired to relay some of their own stories. He noticed a couple of things when I was talking but was going to check the actual paper to see if they were composition errors or just my unique way of verbally using the English language.

Julie stopped me after class.

"Jill!"

"Yes?"

"Got a minute?"

"Sure, I guess."

"I liked your talk."

'Thanks."

"I noticed your dog the other night. I've wanted a dog for a long time. Are there any more around like him?"

"I don't know. I wouldn't go shopping for dogs at a pet shop. We were real lucky with Bozo but I was already in love with him when Jack bought him. I know he paid too damn much for a dog, too. One of Jack's clients has a female lab who's going to be ready to breed in a month or two and she may use Bozo. I have no idea what she's planning on selling the pups for and haven't even seen the dog. Plus, it could be four to six months before they're ready to adopt. Does it have to be a lab?"

"No, I just want a good dog. One that will love me like yours does and who's big enough to keep up with the horses."

"Do you know Eric Watson?"

"He's in a couple of my classes."

"He has a female Golden who recently had a litter. We picked one up for my sister a couple of nights ago. She's going to be a great dog."

"Are they purebreds?"

"No, they're pretty sure the father is the German shepherd next door. It looks like it. Posie looks like a Golden only her hair's a little darker and her nose is a bit longer and sharper. And she just adores Laurie."

"Laurie. That's your sister?"

"Yeah. She's three years old and she really needed a puppy."

"Why?"

"Our mother left us when I was very young. The first time we heard from her was last weekend. We found out I had a sister and that my mother had terminal cancer. I think my father was the only person she thought would take care of Laurie. My mother died Sunday overnight. Laurie's being taken care of by my father and his girlfriend, is over at the house with Jack's sister during the day and probably thought we were getting rid of her when we took her over the Erik's to find her a puppy. Her whole life has been thrown upside down, and from what I can tell, it wasn't that stable to begin with. She needs someone she can count on until she realizes that we're all going to stick around."

"The poor kid."

"Yeah. I would have scrapped the composition about Bozo and written about her if I had time."

"Thanks, Jill. Does he have a lot left?"

"What?"

"Eric. Does he have a lot of puppies left?"

"He had two males and two females when we were there. It didn't sound like he had a lot of people looking."

"Was it expensive?"

"He was all set to give us the puppy. My father said Eric had put a lot of time and money into them. They already have shots and he's taken care of them for eight weeks. I think Daddy gave him a hundred. But that's just the way Daddy is. I don't think Eric's expecting anything but it would be nice to help him out a bit."

"Thanks a lot, Jill. You know, you better watch yourself or we're going to end up being friends."

I shook my head. "I'll worry about that when it happens."

"OK. See ya."

The day passed quickly until last period. Coach had us suit up and met with us out on the court.

"First, I need to apologize for not being on top of our competition as much as I should have been. It seems I've let a pretty good team sneak up on us.

"We're playing Basset High on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, they have almost four times as many students as we do, which gives them a much bigger pool to get their players from. They also take their sports seriously. All their sports. Their volleyball team has been in the playoffs for the last six years and took first place last year and three years ago. They won all their games this season and won last week's playoff game by 12 points.

"It looks like we lucked out and got matched against them early on their climb to the top."

"We gonna concede?"

"No, we're not going to concede, Roberta. We'll give them the best game we can give them and if they come out on top, at least we can say we played our best. What I'd like to do today and tomorrow is put in an extra hour of drills. I know I said we weren't going to do any extra practices so this is all voluntary. How many of you can stay today?"

I looked around. There were only three people who had their hands up.

"OK. How about tomorrow?"

The same three raised their hands plus four or five more of us. Coach looked around and said, "Come on, guys. For the team?"

Another two hands slowly rose.

"OK. I know it's my own damn fault. We'll just put in our normal time today and then stay late tomorrow. Let's split up and do our placement drill for the rest of the period. Unless you want to do some laps."

We split up and were on the court in seconds.

We played for blood and I think all of us got a good workout. When we had about ten minutes left I went over to Beth.

"Coach, I was wondering if I can take off and get a shower. I've got that hearing this afternoon and..."

"Go. Good luck, Jill."

"Thanks." I took off running for the locker room. I took a quick shower and was out the door before the rest of the team came in.

Daddy was waiting for me in the parking lot. I got in the front seat.

"Hi, Daddy. Been waiting long?"

"Nope. I just got here. Have you got everything?"

"Sure. Let's go."

He drove out of the lot and headed downtown. "Nervous?"

"A little bit. I don't know what to expect."

"I'm sorry, Sweetheart. The judge will sit down with you, me, our lawyer and maybe a stenographer. He's already looked over the application we turned in. He'll probably have some questions for you, primarily why you want to become emancipated. If he goes along with it, he'll declare you emancipated and that will be it."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"No, it should be fairly straightforward. What have you got going later?"

"I'd like to get to the college by 6:30 if I can. I want to talk with my Tuesday teacher about something and I want to try and catch a lady who was in both classes with me. Jack's getting busy taking pictures and I want to get someone in there doing the other work. She can keep up with the emails and do the accounting. I should be done by 7 or so, then I'll need to get back home."

"OK. We should have time. I told our lawyer to prepare to stay a while after we see the judge. I also told my accountant we might want to meet with her. We can go over to Eastside. I have a private meeting room set aside. We can get a quick dinner and go over whatever you have, then I'll take you to school. I can wait for you, take you home and pick up Laurie."

"Sounds great, Daddy."

He pressed a button on his steering wheel and said, "Call Wanda." I heard phone ringback tones over the 27 speakers or whatever the heck he has in that thing.

"Hello?" It sounded like she was sitting between us on the front seat.

"Hi, Honey. Look, Jill and I are going to meet with some people after the hearing, then she has to do a couple of things at the college, then I'm taking her home. I'll pick up Laurie. Could you call over there and let them know? I should be there around 7:30."

"OK. What about dinner?"

"We're going to grab something to eat at the country club while we're having our meeting. You're welcome to join us if you want."

"What is the meeting about?"

"She and Jack are setting up businesses. She just wants to make sure she does everything right."

"Sounds kind of boring. I think I'll just find something to eat at home."

"OK. Love you."

"You too, John."

He pressed the button and said, "Call accountant."

"Elizabeth Dexter and Associates. How may I help you?"

"Hi, Martha. John O'Hara. Is she in?"

"I think she's still here. Which one of you is the client?"

"I am."

"OK. Please hold."

There was about ten seconds of talk radio and then a woman said, "Hi, John."

"Hi Lizzy. How are you holding up?"

"I have my days. I'll be glad when it's over."

"I got news for you honey. It's never over."

"Maybe. At least I won't feel like a whale."

"That's true. First you'll be a 24 hour a day slave, then you'll graduate into the answer lady, then you become a personal ATM."

"Why Mr. O'Hara. You certainly sound cynical."

"Yeah, I guess I'm feeling a bit melancholy. Mine's leaving the nest today."

"I didn't think she was that old."

"She's not. It's a long story and that's not what I called about. Can you still make it later today?"

"Barring anything unforeseen, yes."

"All right. I'll give you a call when we're leaving the courthouse. If you beat us to Eastside, tell them you're meeting me and they'll steer you to the right place."

"OK. Talk to you soon."

He pressed the button to hang up and glanced over at me.

"How are you and Laurie getting along?"

"Great."

"You seemed to be over at that place we got the puppy. I've heard some good things about you."

"What do you mean?"

"Just how you take care of her. How she seems to behave when you're around, how you never seem to have any trouble with her."

"Is someone else having trouble?"

"She seems to get on Wanda's nerves sometimes. Wanda gets irritated and then it snowballs. Last night all hell broke loose when that dog pissed in Laurie's bedroom."

"Come on, Daddy. She's an eight week old puppy. Her owner is three and has had her less than two days. What the hell does Wanda expect?"

"I know. I know. I just don't know if things are going to work out."

"So which one are you thinking of getting rid of? Laurie, Posie or Wanda?"

"Jill, it's not that simple. It's like I'm caught in the middle here."

"Daddy, forgive me, but it sounds like you're staying as far away from it as you can. It's the way you are with everything. You get others to do the work and then you take the glory."

"What do you mean?"

"Look at our Sunday barbecues in the summer. You don't even light the charcoal anymore. I admit you stand over the meat while it's cooking but we prepare all the food and bring it out along with any dishes and utensils we need. Same thing in the operating room. You do the surgery but you have a lot of help. Yet you take the credit."