Chapter 13

"Ralph was right on one thing," Bonnie said as the attorney headed for his sport-ute. "It's colder than the north end of a southbound husky out here."

"Michigan in winter, what do you expect?" Catalina snorted. "Hell, it wasn't this bad in Korea. Let's at least get in Roger's car and get out of the wind."

It was warmer in the Taurus, and the car hadn't been sitting long enough to thoroughly cool off; Roger got the engine running and the heater going, and that helped a little, too. "What next?" he asked.

"We might as well head over to my house," Bonnie suggested. "I'm curious just how many notes we're going to find stuck to the door. Anybody want to take a bet?"

It was only a few blocks to Bonnie's house on the edge of downtown. Roger parked the car out in front, and the three of them trooped up onto the porch. As Bonnie had expected there were a bunch of notes stuck to the inside door and the frame around it. They gathered them up, suspecting they were missing a few, and went inside to count them, even before they ran the heat up.

"Seventy-one," Bonnie announced the final tally. "He sure doesn't know how to take no for an answer, does he?"

"It doesn't appear that he does," Roger shook his head. "So, what's the plan? Catalina, are you coming back to Wychbold with me?"

"I think so," she said instantly. "If I don't, Delmer is probably going to be here bugging me again. Are you planning on heading back down south?"

"Might as well," he shrugged. "We pretty well can't leave until we find out the court date, but if it's four or five weeks there's no reason we can't stay that long."

"So, you're saying Friday?"

"Most likely. You heard Ralph just as well as I did, and there are a few odds and ends I need to do while we're here. But once we have that court date, we might as well head south again."

"That's about what I figured," Catalina agreed. "Friday afternoon, maybe Saturday morning at the latest."

"Might go into the first of the week," he pointed out. "It depends on when we get the call from Ralph."

"I know I've been a bit of a drag on the two of you the last few days," Bonnie said. "But Roger, would you mind if I went back to Wychbold with the two of you until you head south again? I don't get to see enough of Catalina as it is, and there's no telling how much Delmer is going to be trying to bother the two of us. I doubt like hell Delmer will know we're in Wychbold, and I don't think he knows Roger's last name, anyway. We're still going to be hard for him to find over there."

"You're saying you're going to go south with us again, Mom?"

"I'm tempted," she sighed. "But I think I'll stay here when you go, since you've put up with a lot from me the last few days. There's another ComicCon coming up in Cleveland the weekend after this, and I might just head over to that. They're usually pretty good, although not quite as wild as the ones in Chicago. Besides, that way I'll get to use Roger's hot tub for another couple evenings. I mean, if it's all right with you, Roger."

As much as Roger liked Bonnie -- and he liked her energy and wildness a lot -- she was starting to get a bit wearing on him. But at the worst, this would only be for another couple days. "Sure, if you want to, so long as it's all right with Catalina," he replied. "We can drop you off here on our way back south."

"That'll be fine," she replied. "I might as well grab a few things before I go. Catalina, is there anything you're going to want from here?"

"Not that I can think of. Most of the stuff I need is already in Roger's motor home."

"Well, I'll only be a few minutes," she replied, heading for the stairs. "Stay loose, you two."

"Well, I guess," Catalina said. "She's right, she has been getting in our way, but it's worked out pretty well. Still, I'll be glad when it's just you and me again."

"That was what I was thinking," he replied. "It's only a couple more days."

"Don't get me wrong, Roger. I like my mother, but sometimes I like her at a distance. She gets a little wearing to be around all the time."

"I understand," Roger grinned. "I wonder what outrageous outfit she's going to wear at that ComicCon in Cleveland."

"Who knows? It strikes me as a little cold for Lum, but I wouldn't put it past her. I'll bet she digs the Japanese schoolgirl outfit out again, though. Roger, if I decide to do something that stupid, just shoot me, OK?"

"I don't know. I think green hair with a tiger-stripe bikini and go-go boots would look pretty cute on you. Once, that is, and preferably just between the two of us."

"Well, yeah, I might be willing to go that far. Once."

A few minutes later they were back in the Taurus, heading for Wychbold. While the women chattered about this and that, Roger mentally tried to catalogue the things he needed to get done while he was at home. He really couldn't come up with a long list, but what he had included settling up on his winter taxes -- he hadn't managed that on the last trip home -- and settling up with Larry for the snowplowing and other maintenance things. The biggest thing he could come up with was to get with Jason about the house, and, as he'd told the insurance agent, it was not a big deal. But, it wasn't something he really wanted to talk to Catalina about today after the experience with Delmer, and not with Bonnie around, either, since Catalina and what happened to them in the future was going to affect his decision about selling or not.

There were a few other things, too. He needed to run out and say hello to Arlene and Max, just on general principles and ask them to keep an eye on the house once in a while. He also needed to be finding a few warmer clothes than he had in the camper, to cut down on laundry runs until the weather warmed up a bit, and things of that nature. All of them didn't amount to a hill of beans; if he put his mind to it he could wrap them up this afternoon, but maybe tomorrow would be better for Jason. It wasn't much to keep him busy until Ralph Gerjevic called, hopefully Friday, and then at least they could be headed back south to where things were remotely warm.

About all he managed to get done that afternoon was stopping by the city hall to pay the tax bill. It really wasn't all that bad but seemed unreasonable when he considered how much more house he had over what he needed, especially since it seemed unlikely that he was going to be using it much in the future. Again, it was a question of what he and Catalina were likely to be doing in the future, which was a question he hoped to settle before they had to head back for the hearing, whenever that was. But, if it waited till spring, it was no big deal. Although no decision had been made, he and Catalina had often talked about how they didn't want to have to put up with the summer heat, humidity, and bugs on the Gulf Coast. What they were going to do when that time rolled around was still up in the air, and that was something else they needed to talk about.

That night, in bed with Catalina, he explained that he was going to have Jason come over and give him an off-the-cuff estimate on what the house might be worth, only explaining that more and more it seemed too big for him. A smaller house and a bigger motor home might be a reasonable exchange, but he needed some numbers to think about, but at this time it was only an idea.

Thursday went slowly. As always, they went down to Becky's for breakfast, and once again they ran into Jason, who agreed to head over and check out the house as soon as he and Sally got the office opened up. When Jason got there, he didn't do a major inspection, just a quick walkthrough. "Assuming the market stays about where it is I can probably get around one-thirty or one-forty out of it, if you're willing to wait out a buyer," was his verdict.

"The city doesn't have it assessed for anything like that but I guess Headlee gets involved," Roger replied. "Something to think about, anyway."

"Well, if you decide to do something, let me know," Jason told him. They shot the bull for a couple minutes, and then Jason announced that he'd better get back to work since Sally had piled his desk pretty high.

That was one of the big two items for the day taken care of, and a call out to the farm revealed that Max and Arlene weren't doing anything in particular, and invited the three of them out for lunch. It turned into a long lunch with a fair amount of family gossip, although Roger and Catalina getting together seemed to be about the biggest item on that list. However, the hassle over the Homer Smith estate also got involved in the discussion. "I'm not looking for land that far away, at least at that price," Max told them. "But I know people who are if it should happen to come on the market."

Roger and Catalina promised that they'd keep that thought in mind, but it somehow seemed a little unreal. The three of them headed back into town in the middle of the afternoon, and Roger could only think of a few other piddly things to finish out the day. The waiting around for Gerjevic's phone call seemed endless; he knew he'd rather be back in the south, where it was warm and where there were things to do and worth doing. He couldn't imagine how he could have gone months in the summer with that little to interest him, but was glad those days were behind him.

Friday morning they were in Becky's again, mostly for the lack of anything better to do, but they got back to his house in case the attorney called. About ten-thirty in the morning, the phone rang; Roger grabbed it in an instant, while Catalina grabbed the phone in the kitchen. "You guys sound anxious," Ralph said.

"Hell, you think we sound anxious, you should see us," Catalina told him. "I hope you called to tell us we have a court date."

"Thursday, February ninth, at ten AM. That time isn't quite solid. We're about the fourth item on the docket, and I don't know how long it's going to take to work through the other three. It might take hours, or they might be things that could be rubberstamped in five minutes. I'd say we'd better be there at nine, just in case."

"We can do that," Catalina said. "We'll be there."

"You're planning on heading back south, then?"

"Probably within the hour. Roger is going stir crazy and I'm not far behind him."

"Don't just totally disappear on me," the attorney warned. "There's still a chance your cousin could come up with a halfway reasonable offer, or that the judge could slip on the ice and break a leg, or something like that."

"Well, we don't know where we're going to be, except probably back on the Gulf Coast in Mississippi," Roger told him. "But maybe not, there are a lot of places down there needing work. You've got Catalina's and my e-mail addresses. We don't get a chance to check e-mail except every few days, and most of what we get is spam anyway, but that's probably the best way to get hold of us."

"I can do that. But maybe if you could check in with me or Linda once a week or so it might be a good back-up."

"We can do that," Catalina agreed. "The only thing is that we sometimes lose track of the days. We'll try to not let it go too long."