Chapter 5: Breakfast Time

Saturday Morning

"Cutie! QTD -- wake up! Quenelle Theresa Dahl -- get your lazy body out of bed. Your coach called a special meeting for noon today." Cutie's mom, Katie (Katherine Thelma) Dahl woke her from her dream.

"All right, Mom. You don't need to yell. I'm up."

A head was peering around the partly closed door of Cutie's room as she opened her eyes.

"This is the third time I've called you. Breakfast is waiting. Take a shower and get dressed. I guess the news of Janelle's accident means they need to rearrange the individual racers, and pick new groups for the four-by events."

(Author's Note: 4X, or four-by events have four racers, each swimming different strokes for a medley, or each doing the same stroke for a relay.)

Katie Dahl swung the door to Cutie's room further open and saw her daughter wrapped in a spread. When Cutie started to get out of bed, Katie saw the towel under her and surmised that Cutie had already taken a shower. "Just pull on a suit and some cover-ups. You might need to swim after the coaches discuss this with the team." She smiled at her daughter's slim, naked form, thinking that she had looked that good, before she had Cutie. "I'm sorry about your friend, Cutie."

"Thanks, Mom. I'm sorry, too." Cutie mostly ignored the opened door and her Mom, grabbed a clean speedo from her dresser drawer, and pulled it on. From another drawer, she lifted a tee shirt and shorts and quickly donned them, as well. Flip-flops from the closet floor completed her ensemble. "Is Dad here? I wanted to talk with him."

"I think he is about ready to go to bed. He was eating breakfast when I came up to get you, so he may still be awake, but not by much. That accident kept him out all night. If you hurry, maybe you can talk with him before he falls asleep in his pancakes."

"Pancakes! I am so there!" Cutie hugged her mom as she headed to the kitchen. "Thanks, Mom. You know I love pancakes. And I love you, too."

Katie just smiled as her daughter ran to the kitchen.

Mike smiled, too, but it was a very tired smile, when Cutie ran in and hugged him as he sat at the kitchen table. "Hi, Cutie. Thanks for the hug; I really needed one. That was a horrible accident with Janelle last night. And I had to spend the whole night sorting things out. It's tough when a stranger is killed, especially that way, but it's even tougher when it's someone you know. This must be hard on you, too."

"Hey, Dad. Sorry about the long night. I can tell you are tired, because you are starting to ramble; and you never ramble." Cutie grabbed a plate, a stack of pancakes, some butter, boysenberry syrup, a fork, and a napkin, and sat next to her father. "But I've been thinking about it, and I don't think it was an accident."

If he were a dog, Mike's ears would have pricked up. His eyes focused on Cutie. "What do you mean?"

The pancakes were forgotten, by both father and daughter. "Well, ... that was a new car, right?"

"Brand new. Less than two days off the lot."

"And the dealers check every car before it leaves the lot, right?"

"Sure. They don't want unhappy customers. And Mercedes Benz cars are checked especially thoroughly."

"So, if something that important, something which would make the car stop completely in the middle of the tracks was present when the car left the lot, it probably would have been found then, right?"