to my niece and she’s not here right now. I’ll get him quieted down.”
“You’d better or I’ll report it to the police.”
“I understand. I’ll take care of it.”
Lilly hung up. Yes, that dog is an aggravation, but how many Saturdays has your husband woken me from a sound sleep with his lawn mowing at six in the morning? How many times have I had to listen to your drunken friends raising Billy heck at your outdoor summer parties to which I have never been invited? Not that I would go.
The patio door shuddered.
Lilly hurried over and pulled open the vertical blinds. The movement brought the dog’s activity to a halt. He settled back on his haunches, tongue lolling. What was its name? Cork? Clark? For this one she didn’t have a cheat sheet.
“Why can’t you be that way all the time?” she asked. The dog was no doubt some mix of every large breed known to man. He had a sort of Lassie face, with white markings around the eyes that made him look constantly surprised. Sitting down like that he seemed less threatening and far friendlier.
A snuffling whimper, barely heard through the glass, was the dog’s response to her query.
“Hungry?” Lilly asked. The dog regarded her quizzically. What in the world was she supposed to do? She walked back to the service island and retrieved the plate holding her sandwich, keeping her eye on the dog. As soon as she picked up the plate he stood and licked his chops.
And then she raised her eyes to look beyond the animal. The yard was a wreck. In a stupor she walked toward the door unwilling to believe what she saw. All Harve’s hard work! The container garden grouped around the patio overturned, dirt scattered everywhere. The flowerbeds gouged with holes. The remains of a lounge cushion spitting foam from a yawning tear.
Dumbfounded, she managed to unlock the door and release the security latch with one hand while she held onto the plate with the other. When she stepped out she tipped the plate and let the sandwich slide off. The dog all but swallowed it whole and sat back expectantly.
Lilly removed her glasses from the top of her head and put them on. It was worse than she thought. She wasn’t angry, just wrung out. How many hours had Harve put into this yard? She’d worked to keep it up; it was an act of love on her part. She’d never been much of gardener, but he’d enjoyed it so. Now it was a mess. Recently planted bulbs lay amid the freshly dog-dug rich soil. A sob escaped past the knot in her throat and tears streamed down her cheeks.
A warm tongue licked her hand. She looked down at Krank. Yes, that was the creature’s name, Krank. He looked back at her sorrowfully, or at least that’s how it seemed to her.
“Dadburned dog,” she said without heat. “Dadburned stupid dog.”
Chapter Eight — Settling In
Harve always said you should never get angry at an animal because they don’t think like humans. I can’t be angry with Krank. He was doing what comes natural. And I must say he’s not so intimidating as he looks.
Lilly glanced down at her feet. Krank was snoozing with his muzzle resting on her right foot. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that but it was oddly comforting. If she’d known being in human company would have shut him up, she’d have let him in sooner. A niggling thought banged at her conscience. No, she wasn’t like the dog; she didn’t need human company. She got tired of people pretty quick.
I haven’t the energy right now to tackle cleaning up the dog’s mess. Maybe I can enlist the help of Annie and the children. They sure did a good job on the garage.
Lilly bounced the pen on the page. Nonsense. She would do it herself. Harve would have wanted it just like he left it. No matter that with him gone the work of keeping it up was becoming more than she could handle.
I don’t know where they went, but it’s coming up on time to think about what to have for supper. I’ll be switched for a choir member before I’ll fix dinner for that bunch again! The meatloaf is gone. Krank and I finished it off. I could fry hamburger and layer that with the leftover mashed potatoes. It would make up into a credible knock-off shepherd’s pie. Yuck.
Or I could do soup. Soup doesn’t go bad and if they don’t eat it today, then it would still be edible tomorrow.
What am I thinking?! I am NOT preparing another meal for them.
Lilly closed her journal and patted it in a gesture of assertiveness. No matter what, she wasn’t going to cook for them and she wasn’t hungry. She moved her foot carefully so Krank’s muzzle slid off without waking him. Poor thing must be exhausted. He’d been up all night and busy all day. She wasn’t forgiving him all that easy, make no mistake, just recognizing reality.
She’d just put the journal away when she heard a car pull into the drive. Krank must have heard it too. His woof, woof was one of mild curiosity.
The bell rang and Krank went past her in a blur.
“I’m coming!” she said, thinking Krank was going to scare the pants off whoever was calling on her. Maybe having the dog around wasn’t so bad.
She opened the door to find Annie standing there with a bulging plastic garbage bag in one hand and a clutch of Dairy Queen bags in the other. Marie hugged the stuffed pink pig and Caleb stood back holding Alex awkwardly with his arms bracing the child against him. The younger boy’s head lolled on Caleb’s shoulder and he appeared to be asleep.
Lilly opened the door wider and pushed open the screen.
The bedraggled family trooped in and Caleb headed toward the bedroom. “I’m putting Alex down.”
“Wake him up or he won’t sleep tonight,” Annie said wearily. “And you need to change his clothes.”
“Mo-om! I gotta change too.”
Annie closed her eyes and took in a shallow breath. Marie hurried after her brothers. After a hopeful nudge of his nose at the DQ bags, Krank followed them, tail whipping back and forth joyfully.
Lilly reached out to take the garbage bag. Annie blinked rapidly at the dog’s retreating backside.
“We, we put him out, I know we did!”
“I let him in. The neighbor complained about his barking. He’s been fine. I guess he wanted company.”
Annie seemed unable to respond to this and merely nodded.
“Where have you been?” Lilly asked gently, taking the surprisingly heavy plastic garbage bag and leading Annie toward the kitchen so she could get rid of the fast food bags. The woman looked on the verge of shattering.
“I, ummm, wanted to register Caleb and Marie for school, and, and do laundry.” She gestured with a limp wave of her hand at the garbage bag.
“Why on earth did you go to a laundry? You should have used the machines in the garage.” Lilly stopped when she saw tears brim in Annie’s eyes.
“I, that’s what Caleb said, but I don’t, you know, want to be any trouble.”
“Child,” Lilly said, putting down the bag of wet clothes and relieving Annie of the Dairy Queen bags, “If I thought having you here was going to be trouble for me I would have never said yes when you called.” Lilly cringed inside at the lie. Maybe God would overlook it, considering.
Annie’s chin quivered for a tick in time. She sucked in a breath and let it out again. “It’s just everything that should be easy turns out to be so hard.”
Lilly didn’t know what she was referring to but figured it pretty much covered life in general. “Ain’t it the truth,” she said, which elicited a tentative smile from the younger woman.
“We were going to have…” she gestured at the food bags, “for lunch but one thing and another