Chapter 66

Jack was sitting down at his computer when I got home.

"Jack, I've got to get going."

"Going? For what?"

"Oh, shit. God damn it, this is getting ridiculous. Today is the day we're burying Vivian. My mother."

"Oh. I know I've been busy, but I'm certain that's something I would have remembered."

"I know. There's just been so much going on with school and the emancipation and all of your appointments."

"Well, no use crying about it. How much time do we have?"

"Jack, I have to leave in a few minutes. You don't have to come if you don't want to."

"Of course I'm going, Jill. Don't be a fool."

I went over, took him into my arms and just held on. If there was any doubt about how much he loved me, this was more than enough to get rid of it.

"Jack, you don't know what this means to me. I feel weird enough going to a funeral for someone I don't really remember who I only talked to for a couple of hours and then she was gone. For you to come with me, to put someone in the ground you've never even met..."

"Of course I have. Every time I look at you or at Laurie, I'm meeting part of her. Jill, it's called respect. You told me about the list of men who gave Laurie DVDs. I'm sure none of them have any idea Vivian's no longer with us. A lot of them probably wouldn't care. She deserves some people there to note her passing. And you, your sister and your father need the chance to say goodbye. You're my girl, my soulmate, my future wife. Of course I'm going with you."

We were ready to go in fifteen minutes. I wore a dress and Jack put on his suit. My mother would have probably laughed at us if she could but I felt good.

Mom, Mary and Charlie came out of the house the same time we left our apartment.

"I guess we should take two cars," Mom said. "You guys need to bring Laurie back here after the service."

"Yeah, and I need to get a coffeepot and an accounting program before Myra gets here for dinner. I should probably get something to eat, too."

The cemetery was about five miles away. I pointed Daddy's car out to Jack when we turned into the driveway. Mom followed us in.

Wanda, Daddy and Laurie were at the gravesite, holding hands. Laurie held hers out when we came up and I took it. Jack stood on my other side; Mom, Mary and Charlie were further past Jack.

I was surprised that the funeral was officiated by a rabbi. I hadn't known my mother was Jewish, I hadn't known she was anything. Later, when I talked to Daddy about it, he told me she had been brought up in a Jewish household and that her family hadn't been very active in the religion. She'd been less active but had always said she was Jewish when it came up.

"Is Mommy in that box?" Laurie asked me before the service started.

"Her body is," I told her.

"Because she's in heaven."

Not a question, a statement of faith. We should all have half as much.

"That's right," I answered her.

The service was refreshing. I haven't been to a lot of funerals but I've heard about several. Unless the person was active in his or her church, a lot of what is said is just wonderful sounding BS, made up by the minister or priest. Even if the person was active, there's usually a lot of embellishment of their accomplishments. Next comes the lecture about how we're all sinners and it was God's will to end this person's life and all the other crap we're familiar with. And then he would go into how we should all praise God for putting my mother through so much pain, followed by a prayer, begging for forgiveness. When you get down to it, a funeral is treated as a recruitment event for that religion's particular brand of suffering.

This man told us that he didn't know this woman and wasn't going to make up things about her, joking that his boss didn't like liars, though he did appreciate tellers of tall tales, as evidenced by his holy book that nobody could agree upon.

He could see that the woman had two lovely daughters and he was sure that had brought peace to her heart while she was still alive. He was aware that she had gone through a lot of pain and it was a mercy that her suffering was ended. He didn't attribute either the suffering or its relief to his god, he just mentioned them as fact.

"I've seen services for the dead attended by many more people than this and others where celebrities and world leaders paid their respects, but I don't think I've ever witnessed one at which I could see and feel as much love as you all have for each other and for this woman. For that, she is truly blessed more than most and I'm sure she will find the peace that has eluded her in this life."

"She's in heaven," Laurie told him.

"Yes, I believe she is, Little One."

She looked up at my father. "Can we go now, Daddy?"

"Don't you want to see them lower your mommy into the ground?"

"That's not my mommy. My mommy's in heaven."

Daddy let go of her and looked at me.

"Laurie, you're staying over at our place tonight, remember?"

"Uh huh. But we need to bring Posie."

"She's home, at our place," Daddy told me. I'll take her with me and drop the two of them off when we go out to dinner."

"I need her over there at six. And Jack and I need to do some shopping before Myra gets there so we don't have time to get Posie."

"We can follow your dad and bring them back with us," June told me. "If we get there before you do, we'll keep an eye on her."

"Thanks, Mom," I said. "If a woman with two little kids happens to beat us, let her know we'll be home soon."

"No problem. Is your shopping so important it has to be done today?"

"If we hire her, she'll need some accounting software we're going to pick up. I need to get us something to eat, too."

"OK. Don't worry, we'll hold the fort it you're too late."

We went to Costco and hit the software section. I got a new Quick Books 2006. The only Photoshop program I saw was Elements 7. Jack looked it over, finally throwing it in the cart.

I found some inch and a half thick, boneless pork chops in the meat case. They would be good for the adults.

The coffee makers were expensive but I figured the way we went through coffee, it wouldn't hurt to get a good one. There was one that ground the beans before brewing that was $10 more than the one that just brewed ground coffee.

I went over to the coffee section. They had quite a choice of whole bean coffees, many of which were not available ground. I got a bag of Colombian, then went back and picked up the one with the built in grinder.

The clerk was really nice.

"New computer?"

Jack told him he was looking at taking pictures for some friends and wanted a way to take care of minor blemishes.

The clerk held up the Elements 7 package. "You can get programs that will do a lot of the same things for a lot less. There's some shareware stuff for 20 to $25 and several free ones. Google has a freebie that does a lot. Just Google Photoshop and you'll see stuff at the bottom of the page.

We decided to hold off on getting the Photoshop until Jack had a chance to check out the cheaper programs.

I ran my debit card through the machine, put in my pin and pressed zero cash back. The machine didn't care whether I was provisionally emancipated or not.

The next store was Albertsons. I got a package of hot dogs and a can of SpaghettiOs for the kids and a frozen vegetable medley for the adults. The last stop was at the ice cream cooler for a half gallon of chocolate chip.

We put my groceries on the counter. The checker was nice enough. I guess she was 35 or 40 but she looked tired.

Jack must have noticed, too. "Busy day?"

"I'll say. With the flu that's going around, those of us who aren't sick are really piling on the overtime. My feet are killing me."

I told her, "Could be worse. You could be pregnant."

"Oh, Gawd," she said, rolling her eyes. But she had a smile on her face when we left.

We did good, getting home with over a half hour to spare. Mom stuck her head out the door and told me to do what I had to do and she'd watch Laurie until I got her.

I put the food away while Jack changed out of his suit. I followed him, putting on some comfortable clothes. When I came out, he was at his computer, doing the search on Google. The site for the free software had a five minute demo. I stood behind him as he played it. There were some things that might or might not be valuable, such as off site storage of his pictures. There was a feature where changing a picture on your computer would change the copy stored off site. Of course, no changes were permanent until you decided. He could crop, straighten, fix redeye, change brightness and contrast and, the one I liked, draw a circle around an imperfection and clean it up. The example was of a guy with a scratch on his nose. They put a circle around it, expanded it so it covered most of the scar, then clicked on it and it blended the nearby skin tones into it, removing the scar. It was also straight forward to use.

"Jack, you're going to have to use that on zits."

"Yeah, you're right. I can always pretend I took it before or after the zit grew out. But I'm not going to straighten teeth or change eye color."

"I don't think anyone will expect that. So, what were you doing when I came in from school?"

"I was checking out some education options."

"Options?"

"Yup. There are several ways I can go. I can go to a four year college. A few of them offer photography majors. The problem is, you have to take a bunch of unrelated classes to get a degree. And at least half the photography classes would be pretty useless except for background information."

"So, what did you find?"

"There are hundreds of online places. There's one out of New York that will let you get a degree in photography without a lot of the garbage. There are others that have particular subjects as cheap as $25 a class. I saw a couple on digital photography that looked interesting and there are a bunch of Photoshop classes. Most of them are done at your own speed so I could download a trial Photoshop for a month and learn how to really use it. I'm sure there are lots of gimmicks available with it but I don't know if I really need all that stuff. I can't see spending five or six hundred dollars on it when this one will do everything I want. I can't envision ever taking one picture and making fifteen overlaying shots of it on a page but Photoshop makes a big deal about being able to that."

I unpacked the coffee maker and rinsed it out while Jack was downloading and installing the Google program. I called downstairs and told Mom she could send Laurie up whenever she was ready.

"Did you ever get a watermark program?"

"No. I guess I should do that."

"It wouldn't hurt. Sooner or later you're going to come across someone who wants to look at them or show them to someone else before deciding on prints. Maybe you should watermark all of them, then give each customer a CD with all the shots you took. You might get some more print sales from it."

"I don't have time for that, Jill."

"That's why Myra's coming over."

"Oh, yeah. I'm going to have to get used to that."

"It won't take you very long. You should keep the web addresses for the stuff you download so she can get copies on her computer, too."

"That's a good idea. I think I'll make a sites file to put in the Photo folder."

"Don't forget to include your calendar."

There was a scratch at the door and I let Laurie in. Posie was standing next to her when I opened the door. As soon as she saw me, her tail started going a mile a minute.

Laurie held her arms out and I lifted her up and gave her a hug. Bozo was sniffing Posie all over as she continued wagging her tail.

"OK. Are you ready to meet some new friends?"

"Who?"

"There's a lady I go to school with named Myra. She's coming over here for dinner to see if she wants to help Jack and me out with our jobs. She has two children who are coming. Billy is about a year younger than you and Annette is a little bit older."

"OK. Where are they?"

"They're still at home. They'll be here in a few minutes. In the meantime, you can help me make dinner."

"OK."

"Good. The first thing you need to do is say Hello to Bozo and pet Posie. Then we'll wash your hands and you won't be able to touch either of them till we're done making dinner."

"What if I forget?"

"Then we'll have to wash your hands again. You don't want dog hair in your food, do you?"

"Uh uh."

"Atta girl. I think I'll say Hi to Posie and wash my hands, too."

I put her down and Jack said, "Hey! Don't I get a hug?"

Laurie smiled and ran over to him, arms outstretched. He picked her up and swung her around. She started giggling, then had to sit down abruptly when he put her back on her feet. The giggles turned to hiccups, then stopped. She hugged Bozo and Posie and stood up.

"Ready."

"All right. Let's go."

I'd just reached for her hand when there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Mary and Charlie outside. Charlie was carrying a small suitcase and a sleeping bag; Mary had a canvas shopping bag with Trader Joe's written on it.

"Here's her goodies," Mary said.

"All right. Charlie, you can put the sleeping bag in that corner. Let's take the rest into our room and put them on the bed."

The bag had a couple of stuffed animals, the Chutes and Ladders game and three DVDs as well as her worn copy of The Little Train Who Could. The suitcase had enough clothes for half a week plus a cosmetics bag. I opened it up and pulled out a note from Wanda that said we should keep it for future sleepovers. Inside was a new toothbrush, some Colgate Dora the Explorer Bubble Fruit toothpaste and a hairbrush, baby shampoo and an assortment of clips and scrunchies.

I said to Mary, "Has she taken a bath over here yet?"

"Yeah, after she played outside the other day."

"How about a shower?"

"Nope."

"Well, we'll have to see how that goes over. I'll probably have to go in with her."

"You will. She needs someone to wash her and shampoo her hair."

Laurie was sitting on the floor, leaning back against Bozo with Posie in her lap. I pointed my thumb at them.

"How about Posie? Any accidents?"

"Yes and no. You have to be quick. She'll go to the door and whine, then give a little yip if you don't let her out. The problem is, she waits till the last minute. If you don't take care of her out right away, she starts squirting."

"I wonder how she'll do up here. One of us is going to have to carry her downstairs."

"Yeah. Just make sure you hold her away from you with her back to you."

"The good thing is she knows enough to go to the door. It won't take long for her to give us more time."

"She's a good dog. Not as good as Dino, but good."

"Thanks for bringing this stuff up. I've got to get started on dinner."

I took Laurie into the kitchen and put a chair back first against the sink. I picked her up and turned on the water, making sure it was the right temperature. I soaped up my hands, then had her get hers wet. I took one hand at a time and washed them thoroughly, then we both rinsed off. I got a towel and dried us both off.

"Stay there and you can help me make a salad."

"OK."

I got a colander and went over to the refrigerator. I put a head of lettuce and a few tomatoes in it. I took them over to the sink and turned on the cold water.

"Pick each of them up and make sure they get washed all over."

While she was doing that I got out my cutting board.

"Done?"

"Uh huh."

I turned off the water, then got the head of lettuce and cut it in half. I left half on the cutting board with the tomatoes and the other half in the colander. I pulled the outer leaf from her lettuce and set it on the counter.

I pulled another leaf off, this time putting it back in the colander. "Think you can do that?"

"Uh huh."

"OK. Go ahead and do that till you've done the whole thing."

She got started while I wrapped the spare half of lettuce and cut the tomatoes into chunks.

She had a half dozen or so leaves pulled off.

"Want some help?"

"Uh huh."

We did a few more, then I told her to hold on for a second. I got my salad bowl, put it on the counter and moved her chair over a bit so she could reach both the lettuce and the bowl.

I picked up a leaf and showed her how to tear it into manageable pieces. She worked on them while I broke the heart of the lettuce apart.

Jack said, "We've got company."

I turned around to see Myra and Jack at the entrance from the hall. Myra had her hands on the shoulders of two children.

"You must be Annette and Billy," I said. "This is Laurie. Just give us a minute to finish this up and then you guys can play."

I got my piece done, then picked up a leaf and started in on that. A minute or so later, we were done.

"Good job, Laurie. Let's wash your hands again."

I moved her chair back and went through the whole routine again. Once she was dried off, I lifted her off the chair and set her on the ground.

"Your suitcase is opened on our bed. There are a couple of toys, a game and some DVDs. Take Billy and Annette with you and figure out what you want to do. You've also got Bozo and Posie to play with if you want."

Myra said, "Billy brought his toy cars with him, too."

"Good. You guys should have no problem finding something to do before we eat."

The dogs had come into the kitchen shortly after we did so Laurie called both of them. The three kids ran down the hall, followed by Bozo with Posie taking up the rear. At least she didn't seem to be tripping over herself any more. It wouldn't be long before Laurie would be the one doing the chasing.

I said, "Have you met?"

They both answered in the affirmative.

"Let's all sit down in here. I'm going to do some work while we talk, if that's OK."

Myra said, "Oh, let me help."

"There's nothing to help with. Maybe later there will be something you can do. Open the hot dogs or something."

She said, "We're having hot dogs?"

"Nope. We're having pork chops. The hot dogs are for the kids."

"What a good idea. I'm getting sick of having to eat kid food all the time."

I scraped the tomatoes into my salad bowl, then rinsed off the cutting board and put it in the dishwasher. I had a glass board I could use without having to worry about bacteria building up.

"I'll be right back."

Billy was on his knees, playing with a car, making car noises. The girls had Posie between them and were both petting her.

"You guys OK?"

"Uh huh."

"Want me to put a DVD in?"

"Jill, we want to play, not watch a DVD. Maybe later."

"Well, excuuuuuse me. I'll leave you guys alone."

Jack was telling Myra about his work and some of the things he knew she'd be doing. I started going through the book that came with the coffee maker.

"You drink fresh ground?"

"We do now. Our regular coffee pot died this morning. I figure this way we can try some interesting stuff."

I spooned some beans into the machine after putting in a filter. I filled the coffee pot with water from the refrigerator door, then poured it in the reservoir. I looked up how to set the clock and did so.

"The book says the coffee will stay fresh longer if we keep it in the freezer. Do you think I should put the bag in there?"

"Use one of your Tupperware containers."

"Thanks. I knew there was a reason I kept you around."

Jack stood up. "Most of the stuff I need to show you is on my computer in the front room. Let's go out there." He and Myra went down the hallway.

I pressed the Start button and heard the grinding sound for half a minute or so. The water started heating and I could see the brewed coffee dripping into the pot. It smelled much better than what we usually had. I opened up my Tupperware cupboard and saw a large container potato salad had come in. It looked just about the size I needed so I pulled it out and emptied the bag of beans into it. They just fit. I would have had too much if I hadn't made that pot of coffee.

I went into the living room. Jack had Myra in the chair, working on one of his portraits. He had her taking the drops of sweat off the picture of Nancy. He also had Billy perched on his hip. Billy was fascinated with the computer monitor and had his right thumb in his mouth. The girls had the Chutes and Ladders board on the floor. Annette was telling Laurie how the pieces were supposed to be set up.

I went over to Jack and Myra. "Excuse me. I've got frozen lemonade and grape juice for the kids. I can make one or both of them."

Myra looked up at me. "They can have lemonade. And you can call your accountant and tell her I'll meet with her tomorrow. I've decided to take the job."

"Great."

I went into my room and got one of her cards. "Do you know where this is?"

"I know Chester St. I'm sure I can find it."

"Tell you what. I'll let you talk to her before I hang up. There may be something special you have to do to get into the building on Saturday."

I called and her husband answered.

"This is Jill..."

"Hold on a minute, Jill. Here she is."

"Hello."

"Hi, Liz. That was easy."

"Howard's really not that bad. He just looks out for me. What can I do for you?"

"You can train our new employee on Quick Books tomorrow."

"Is this the one you were talking about?"

"Yes. She just told us she'll take the job."

"Good. Did you get a copy of Quick Books?"

"Yes."

"What version is it?"

"The 2006 were out already so I got that."

"Have you got it handy?"