weighed down every word out of Annie’s mouth.
“Well it ain’t right! He’s just scared.”
“Isn’tright, and I know he’s scared,” Annie said dropping to her knees. She pushed the hood back and exposed the round face of a girl whose determined chin spoke volumes about her ability to stand her ground. A tangle of brown curls framed her face. Blue, blue eyes sparked with anger at an injustice much in need of correcting. There could be no doubt who her grandmother had been.
“Get on in here,” Lilly said with an exasperated sigh. ““That creature can go in the garage.”
Marie grinned and cocked an eyebrow as if to say, “See, ya gotta hang in there to get what you want.”
Lilly closed the door leaving everyone milling about in the entry. She somehow envisioned this moment as a time to introduce herself and welcome her guests. She was frantically searching for just the right words when she noticed the dog sniffing delicately at the spot she’d spent much elbow grease on cleaning. He lifted his leg and let fly.
“Eeeep!” Lilly said.
“Kra-ank,” Annie groaned.
“Cool!” a voice said from under the bill of a cap that hid most of the speaker’s face.
Marie giggled.
It was the slouching figure hanging back behind Annie who stepped forward, firmly grasped the dog by the collar and asked, “Garage?”
Lilly could do little more than point her finger down the hall and say, “Through the kitchen, door’s on your left.”
“Oh, Mrs. Irish, I’m, I’m, oh, God, I’m so, so sorry!” Annie wailed.
Lilly drew in a deep breath, got a whiff of hot dog urine, and coughed it back out.
“Into the living room, the lot of you. Go on, now, I’ll get something to clean up this mess.”
“Got it,” said the youth who’d handled the dog. He came down the hall with a roll of paper towels in one hand and a bottle of Windex in the other.
“No, no, not that, boy! I have carpet cleaner!”
Lilly blinked when he leaned toward her aggressively and said in a soft but somehow menacing voice, “Name’s Caleb and if you don’t think I can do the job it’s all yours.” He placed the towels and cleaner on the floor between them and shuffled away.
“Caleb, you should get right back here this minute,” Annie said, the order weakened considerably by the “should” and the reedy way she said it.
Lilly was getting a headache. “Please, go on into the living room. I’ll take care of this.”
Annie looked from the wet spot to the door, and in the direction she’d last seen the back of her son, clearly unsure whether to cut and run, go after the boy or clean up the dog’s contribution to the chaos.
Lilly pushed her gently, which seemed to be all the encouragement she needed. The other two children followed her.
Lilly hastened into the kitchen, retrieved gloves from the utility drawer and got the carpet spot cleaner from under the sink. Through the door to the garage she could hear the dog whining and scratching.
As she passed by the living room on her way back down the hall she saw the two smaller children huddled close to Annie while the older boy sprawled insolently on the sofa.
Lilly wasn’t quite sure what she’d done wrong but having raised two children she knew figuring it out was beyond her. If the boy was in a snit because she didn’t mousey mite up to him, well la di da! Her nose twitched and she sniffed self-righteously.
Chapter Two — Life’s Little Surprises
They’re all in bed. I cannot believe I got myself into this dadblamed, cottonpickin’ situation! What in Heaven’s name was I thinking? And if that blighted hound doesn’t quit his barking I’m going to go out there and shoot him!
Lilly fingered her pen, tapping the end on her journal. It had been a most uncomfortable time before she got them settled. She could not for the life of her figure out what to do next. The boys were in Michael’s old room, Annie and Marie in Elizabeth’s.
She’d never done much to either bedroom except dust and vacuum. Not because she expected Harve’s children to come back some day, but because she had no other use for the space. She should probably get rid of the house and use the money to have a rip roaring good old time. Something, to be honest about it, she wasn’t too good at.
After the disaster with the dog she’d forced herself, and yes, she’d had to force herself, to go into the living room and make nice, something else she’d never been too good at, not exactly a desirable trait in a preacher’s wife.
She recalled the stilted exchange with exasperation.
“So, can I get anything for you? Something to eat or drink?”
“Oh, no, no, we’ve been too much trouble already,” Annie said. That’s when the dog had started barking and he hadn’t stopped since. “We stopped at a McDonald’s before we got here.”
Annie had looked like somebody waking from a mid-afternoon nap, confused and shaky. Not at all like the determined child Lilly remembered.
What happened to that defiant little girl? Is the woman always so hesitant? It’s a wonder she’s been able to raise her children. Maybe I was too harsh with Elizabeth and Michael. Harve thought so, but if you don’t stand your ground with little ones, they flat out take over. Just look at that wisenheimer Caleb! Smart mouth, rude kid if ever there was one. That little girl’s cute enough and bright as a brass button, maybe a little too smart for her own good. The other one, Allen? No, not that, Archer? No. Something military.
She wasn’t going into the kitchen at this time of night to look at her cheat sheet. For one thing it sounded like the dog was losing energy. She didn’t want to do anything to get him riled up again.
Allison? No, that’s more a girl’s name. Alexander. That’s it; Alexander, but they call him Alex. Although so far nobody had called him anything, and other than saying “Cool,” when the dog peed on the rug, he hadn’t said much at all. I can live with that. Two wisenheimers are quite enough.
Caleb was a good-looking boy, or would be if he trimmed his hair and got that glower off his face. He, like the other two, was dressed rather shabbily but that could be fashion. Lilly hadn’t a clue why young people dressed like they’d been shopping in a garbage dump but that’s the way of it nowadays.
That Marie, now her you’d have to watch out for; she was quick as a minute and smart with it. She looked exactly like Milly as a child.
At four (and three months she was informed by Marie) Alex was a quiet boy much given to hiding his face in his mother’s body: behind her leg, in her coat, curled at her feet.
Lilly didn’t know much but she knew this family came with a lot of baggage. Annie seemed beaten down by life, or maybe she was just tired and who wouldn’t be after driving three youngsters from… well, wherever they were from.
It was obvious she genuinely loved her children, and was loved in return. The little ones stayed right with her, and Caleb seemed always to have his eyes on her, ready to step in at any second to hold her up.
It was Caleb who had taken control of bringing the evening to a halt. “Mrs. Irish, if it’s okay, we’d like to go to bed.” She was glad enough to see the back of them.
What am I to do tomorrow? They’ll be up and probably hungry. I’ve plenty of food but have no desire to whip up breakfast and find out no one wants to eat it!
Lilly huffed and twitched her nose thinking of her spoiled dinner. “McDonald’s!” she muttered.