Chapter 68

I held up the covers and Laurie squeezed in bed next to me.

"Were you scared?"

"A little."

"I see. Do you sleep with Daddy John and Mama Wanda?"

She was quiet, then answered quietly, "No."

Jack said, "So this will be something different for you, won't it?"

"Uh huh."

I heard a quiet whimper come from the living room and started to get up.

"Jill, stay where you are."

"But..."

"Shhhhh! Laurie, you need to get Posie and take her out to the kitchen with Bozo." The bed moved as he leaned over. I heard the drawer of his night table open and then the room lit up as he turned on a flashlight. She had gotten out of bed on my side and was making her way around.

"Here, Laurie. Use this so you can see. Keep it pointed at the ceiling. Whatever you do, don't shine it in anybody's face, including the dogs. You got that?"

"Uh huh."

I could see her take it from Jack. She held it in both hands, pointing it up at the ceiling, a study in concentration.

"Don't shine it in your own face, either."

"OK."

She left, then we heard a quiet "Come on, Posie," then silence for a bit and finally some muffled talking from the kitchen.

I heard her run down the hall and then she was back, handing Jack the flashlight. He kept it turned on, pointed up at the ceiling while she got back in bed. I pulled her arm and she climbed over me so that she was between us. Jack leaned over, opened the drawer and put the light away.

"Is she in with Bozo now?" I said.

"Uh huh."

Jack rolled onto his side, his front up against Laurie and his arm across both of us. I heard her gentle, even breathing soon after and his light snoring a moment later. I fell asleep, tired, relaxed and contented. It had been a busy evening but a good one.

The alarm went off in the morning, a little earlier than normal. Laurie glanced around, realized where she was and curled back into me, ready to go back to sleep.

"Uh, uh, Little Girl. Time to get up."

She didn't fuss, she got right out of bed as soon as I was out of the way. I guess she figured she'd given it a shot and lost.

"Do you have to use the bathroom?"

She nodded.

"Well, you better get in there before Jack does."

I was greeted by the smell of the fresh coffee as I walked her down the hall. I poured us both a cup as Laurie went into the bathroom. "Wash your hands and face when you're done. Call me if you need help with anything."

"OK."

I took Jack's coffee back to him. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, trying to wake up.

"Laurie and I took our showers last night. She'll be done in the bathroom in a minute and then you can use it. I want to make sure she has a good breakfast."

"Sounds good."

"The coffee came out good, didn't it?"

"Yeah. Did you do something different?"

"I used the timer. The beans and the water were sitting in the coffeemaker overnight."

"It doesn't seem to have hurt anything. It's still a lot better than the regular stuff."

"I think I'll keep doing it. It's much nicer waking up to a fresh pot."

Bozo was over by the door so I went to let him out. I looked down to see that Posie was sitting next to him, waiting to go out, too.

I carried her down the stairs, telling her she was a good girl. Bozo followed us patiently, not even trying to push through me. He headed around back and I put her down on the patch of grass under the stairs. She took a big shit, at least for a dog her size, took a couple of steps, then squatted and pissed a gallon or two. I was amazed she'd been able to hold all of it and not make a mess in the kitchen. As soon as she was done I lifted her up to my face and made a big fuss over her, telling her what a good girl she was. Her whole back end shook along with her tail.

Bozo came over and I patted him on the head. "You're a good boy, too. Aren't you, Bozo?" He swept the sidewalk with his tail.

When we got back upstairs, Laurie was in the bedroom getting dressed. Jack had laid out an outfit for her on the bed. Jeans, Snoopy T-shirt and pink tennis shoes. She was dressed in a pair of underwear as I came in the bedroom.

"It's cold outside, Laurie. Want to feel?"

She half screamed, half giggled, "Noooo!" and tried to cover up and cower away from me. I was too fast for her and laid my freezing hands on her back and her tummy.

"That's what you get for making me take her out to go potty," I said.

"I didn't make you."

"You were in the bathroom. If I didn't take her, she'd have peed all over the floor. You know, you've got a good dog there, Laurie. She really had to go and she held it till I took her outside."

"I know. At home she waits by the door until we let her out, then she runs around to the side of the garage."

"Where does she go when you're here during the day?"

"Wherever we take her."

"Well, you should just let her out the door when you're staying in the house during the day. Here, you're going to have to carry her because of the stairs, but she won't have any problems in the house. Leave her alone and she'll figure out where she wants to go and then you'll only have to go to one place to clean up after her."

"OK."

"So. Are you hungry?"

"Uh huh."

"Good. I figured I'd make us a good breakfast. Do you like scrambled eggs?"

"Uh huh."

"OK. We'll have scrambled eggs with cheese and some toast with grape jelly on it. How about bacon? Do you like bacon?"

"Uh huh."

"All right. Are you going to be able to eat all that if I make it?"

"One piece of toast."

"All right. One piece of toast, some scrambled eggs and some bacon. Milk or juice to drink?"

"Milk."

"Super. Less work for me. We'll just have to pour it out of the carton. None of that opening the can and mixing it with water and stirring it."

She giggled.

"Can you finish getting dressed by yourself?"

"I need help with my shoelaces."

"That's fine. Let me go to the bathroom, you put your clothes on and I'll tie your shoes for you when I'm done."

I went in and sat on the toilet. Jack was in the shower.

"We decided on scrambled eggs, toast and bacon. That OK with you?"

"Yup. We should have Laurie over more often."

"You're welcome to cook breakfast any time, Jack."

"Thank you, Dear. You're so good to me."

I flushed the toilet. That's one of the great things about our apartment. It has really good water pressure. You could flush the toilet, do the dishes and run the washer and dishwasher all at the same time and still not affect the shower.

She was sitting at the kitchen table when I came out, dressed with her shoes undone. I squatted in front of her and had her put her right foot on my thigh so I could tie it. We did the same with her left.

"Does Posie eat in the morning?"

"Uh huh."

I got the bag of food off the counter and put it on the table. "Here you go. Her bowl's over there."

There were a few pieces of sliced ham left over in the refrigerator so I chopped them into small pieces and put them in the bowl where I mixed in eight eggs, a splash of milk and some salt and pepper. A mountain of grated cheddar cheese finished them off ... I started melting some butter in my big frying pan, then opened a pack of bacon and filled the bottom of a smaller one. Once the bacon was going I poured the egg mixture over the melted butter. We had some seven grain bread left over from sandwiches and I filled our four slice toaster.

Jack came out of the shower dressed in the shorts he'd worn to bed. He headed back to the bedroom and shut the door. I thought about it and couldn't remember another time one of us had shut it. Having little children in the house does change things.

It probably shouldn't. Neither of us had thought anything when we took a shower together. But let some authority figure find out that Laurie had seen Jack change his shorts and she'd be in with a shrink looking for repressed memories and he'd be on trial for pedophilia.

I got three plates and dished up eggs and bacon, then put one piece of toast on a couple of them and two pieces on Jack's. I put them on the table while Jack finished setting the table and got the jelly from the refrigerator. We had a big jar of Welch's grape jelly. Daddy usually gets three or four baskets with jams and jellies in them for Christmas and I've tried dozens of them. Give me good old Welch's any time.

I was just putting a forkful of eggs in my mouth when the phone rang. "God damn it," I said, putting it back on the plate.

Laurie giggled; Jack said, "Stay there. I'll get it."

He was back a minute later. "Your father."

I started to get up.

"He already gone. He's not going to be there for karate and was wondering if we could take Laurie to the game with us. He said he'll pick her up there. I told him it was fine."

"I wonder what they're up to. Maybe it was late when they got home."

"Maybe. It sounded like he made an effort to use the word 'I' instead of 'we' while he was on the phone. He almost slipped once and caught himself."

"He was going to talk to Wanda last night. That's why they went out to eat."

"It may be nothing. It just sounded strange."

"I'm not going to worry about it. I've got enough on my mind today."

"Yeah. I'm going to take a hundred out of that money Gina gave me and go to WalMart while you're in Karate. I figure I'll get a couple of those thirty dollar phones. I want the phone, chargers for the car and the house and a clip or a case or something so I can wear it on my belt. I also want a headset for the car."

"Boy. I never thought I'd hear you say you wanted to talk on the phone in the car."

"Things change, I guess. Do you need anything extra for yours?"

"No. Just the phone. A second charger for the house might be nice. You've only got one lighter so it would be a waste to get two car chargers. I don't need a headset and I'll just keep it in my purse."

I looked at Laurie. She seemed to be in a world of her own, contemplating something. She'd been eating normally before but was barely picking at her food now.

"You OK, Girly?"

"Mmm."

"Something's wrong. What is it?"

"He talked to Mama Wanda about me, didn't he?"

"Yes, he did."

"About why she doesn't like me."

It was a statement, not a question. "No. About how she feels about you. About how your mother brought you to us and nobody asked her if it was OK or not but all of a sudden you were there. It isn't that she doesn't like you. Don't ever think that. She may not like having to take care of you though."

"What's going to happen to me?"

"Hopefully you'll grow up and go to school and be beautiful and meet a wonderful guy and get married and have lots of babies with beautiful blond hair."

"But where will I live if they don't want me?"

"You don't understand what Daddy was going to talk to Wanda about. First of all, he told your mother he would take care of you, no matter what. When my Daddy makes a promise like that, he keeps it. It was never a question of whether or not you were going to stay, it was whether or not Wanda was going to. She never said she was going to watch you. He's the one who made that promise. We've all realized it was unfair to make her do that if she doesn't want to. Your mommy didn't want to be married. That's the reason she left us and it's also the reason she never married your daddy. Well, Wanda may not want to be a mommy. That's OK. Daddy took her out to dinner so they could talk about it and he could tell her what he wants. Then she could decide whether she wanted the same thing or not. But there's never been a question about you staying with Daddy John."

"Oh."

"Trust me. We'll see him later today and I'm sure he'll tell you all about it. OK?"

"Uh huh."

Jack said, "Laurie, you're not going anywhere. We just found you and there's no way we're going to let you go."

She still didn't look completely convinced. Jack said, "Would you like a hug?"

She nodded her head and he held his arms out. She jumped down from the chair and ran over to him. He lifted her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her.

"Laurie, you're our special girl. You'll see. Everything will be fine."

She eventually went back to her chair and ate some more but there was still a lot of food left on her plate. I didn't hassle her about it. When I went to change, I gave her plate to Jack.