Читать книгу The Cradle Robber - E. Joan Sims - Страница 9

Chapter Six

It didn’t occur to Cassie that Aggie was in absentia until that night before we went to bed.

“When can we pick puppy up from the kennel?”

“Uh, we need to talk about that, pumpkin, but let’s wait until tomorrow morning after breakfast,” I added hopefully.

“Okay, Mom. Come clean. What’s going on? What did Aggie tear up? I’m sure she was terrified during the storm. Did she ruin one of Gran’s holier than holy, more precious than gold, oriental carpets?”

I was helping Cassie unpack. I sat down on the edge of her bed with an armful of tee shirts.

“You still have my old tee from Elton’s concert?” I asked, admiring Versace’s beautifully intricate silk-screened design of the shirt on top of the stack.

“Don’t change the subject, Mom. How much crow am I going to have to eat to get Aggie back in Gran’s good graces? I really missed that silly puppy. And I know she’ll go crazy when she sees me. It’s been over six months.”

“Cassie, she disappeared during the storm,” I said quietly.

“Oh, yeah, just like Toto! And Gran thought I would buy that?” she laughed. “You all will have to do better than that.”

“It’s true, honey. We were outside taking a walk. I didn’t even know a storm was coming until it was practically on top of us. I was running back to the house when I slipped and fell on the patio. I guess it knocked the stuffing out of me because things got kind of fuzzy after that. Your grandmother grabbed me and took me to the closet under the stairs. We both thought Aggie was with us. We didn’t notice she was missing until the tornado had passed,” I finished miserably.

Cassie stared at me for a long moment until the truth of what I was saying sank in.

“Oh,” she whispered. Huge tears slid down her cheeks and made big wet splotches on the front of her nightgown. “Oh.”

“I’m so sorry, Cassie. Your grandmother…”

“Don’t tell me Gran is soooo sorry, too,” she crooned sarcastically through her tears. “You and I both know she hated Aggie from the minute we brought her home!”

“That’s not fair, Cass. Your grandmother was more than patient with Aggie, and you, too. You never trained her properly, you know.”

“That’s right! Turn it around on me! You lose my wonderful little dog, and it’s all my fault!”

She slammed her closet door shut and grabbed the shirts from me.

“I’m suddenly very tired, and I want to go to bed. I can finish unpacking by myself. I know how to take care of my things and it’s obvious that you don’t.”

“Cassie, please, you’re being unreasonable,” I pleaded.

“Unreasonable? Is it so unreasonable to expect your own mother to take care of the most important thing in your life? I trusted you!” she cried. “She was just a tiny little puppy. So helpless and innocent!”

“Innocent as a viper!”

“That’s right! Vilify her, now that she’s gone!” snarled Cassie.

“Hell! I vilified her when she was here and peeing on the carpet, but I never mistreated her. Even when she was using me for a chew stick.”

“She only snapped at you a couple of times.”

“Cassandra, your precious little canine sent me to the doctor twice. Do you know just how foolish I felt when I had to admit my own dog bit me?”

“Well, you’ll never have to do that again, will you? You should be ecstatic!”

She was sobbing for real now, her face crumpled in misery. I stood up and made a move to approach her, but she ran into her bathroom and locked the door. I knew from long experience that we were done for the night, maybe even for the next few days. Cassie had grown up a lot, but she could really hold a grudge when she was mad enough.

I trudged off to my bedroom, shaking my head and wondering how things went so wrong so quickly. Tonight should have been a relieved and happy one for us. Instead, I felt a leaden sadness that weighed down my limbs and pulled at my lower lip.

What I missed the most when Cassie was gone were the late night chats full of giggles and grins that lasted sometimes until dawn. I had thought tonight would be one of those happy times when we would laugh and share the joys and misfortunes of what had taken place when we were apart. I certainly hadn’t anticipated this turn of events.

I looked forlornly in the mirror while I brushed my teeth. The reflection of the silly woman who had so mismanaged a delicate situation with her hurt and disappointed child stared back at me.

“You old fool!” I snapped angrily.

By the time I put on my pajamas and crawled into bed, I was mad at Cassie again. After all, she was a grown woman. She shouldn’t have placed the blame for Aggie’s demise solely on my shoulders. But then, I thought, that’s exactly where it did belong. I was responsible. I had taken the dog outside. I should have exercised more caution with the poor creature.

I cried myself to sleep.

I slept late the next morning. By the time I got up, Cassie was already gone, leaving us stranded once again. It was Mother’s turn to be angry.

“It certainly appears as though your daughter hasn’t learned anything about consideration in the last four years. I rented that car for myself. Didn’t you tell her that it wasn’t hers to take?”

“So it’s my fault, now?” I asked, echoing Cassie’s question of the night before. She had to have learned to fight somewhere. Why not at her mother’s knee? The absurdity of it all made me laugh. I laughed until tears filled my eyes and the image of my absolutely enraged mother blurred as she slammed down her linen napkin and left the kitchen in a huff.

Feeling better, I dressed quickly and hurried outside. Billy was supposed to bring a small front-loader and two men with chain saws out to help us. I wanted to help them.

I turned out to be as useful as a pyramid roofer. Billy showed up right on time, but the front-loader didn’t come lumbering down the road for another hour. When it finally pulled up out front, the driver gave us the bad news. Things were so awful all over town that he could only spare the time to move the trees out of the driveway. All the rest would have to wait until other more pressing emergencies were taken care of. In five minutes flat, the big oak was hoisted up and away. The driver gave a cheery wave and departed.

Since there was little else he could do at the moment, Billy made a survey of the damage to the house. He noticed more than a few shingles missing from the roof and a precarious loose brick or two on the older chimneys.

“I can take care of that myself, Paisley—this week if the weather holds. But all the rest…” He looked sadly at the panorama of limbs and debris piled about. “You’re going to have to wait until I can find some men who have the time to come and cut these trees and carry all this mess away. Every man jack around town is busier than a bucket of red ants right now. There’s hardly a house in the county without some kind’a damage.”

“Mother isn’t going to like that. She’s already crazy to get things cleaned up.”

“Take her away somewhere for a month or two. Maybe I’ll have things shipshape by then. Why don’t you all go see Cassie in Atlanta—there’s a good idea,” he added hopefully.

“Sorry to burst your bubble, Billy, but Cassie came home yesterday afternoon. Anyhow, there’s no way Mother will ever leave things looking like this. She doesn’t care how bad things are anywhere else. This storm was a personal affront to her sense of order and neatness.”

I sent Billy away after extracting his promise to return later in the week with mortar and shingles to repair the roof and chimneys before it rained again. He admitted that he was too chicken to talk to Mother, so I broke the bad news myself.

“Two months! I simply won’t stand for it! Surely there is another way. Why can’t we hire some men from…”

“Look, Mother, Billy has already thought of more possibilities than you or I ever could. You’ll just have to exercise some patience for once and wait your turn. Just think of it this way, we’re lucky we can wait.”

“Well,” she agreed reluctantly, “I am grateful we have a roof over our heads— and, oh, I forgot to tell you! Our electricity came back on a few minutes ago. Now we can finish the food baskets. The driveway was cleared just in the nick of time!” she declared with a smile. “My, isn’t it nice that everything worked out so well?”

She turned on her heels and headed for the kitchen. She had apparently dismissed the storm-ravaged yard from her mind. I stared at her retreating back and wondered how much time would pass before she placed the first phone call to Billy, nagging him to hurry things up.

That’s when I remembered that Watson was still trapped in the garage.

“Damn!”

I had to lean against the corner of the house to keep from falling when the bottom fell out of my chest. My heart fluttered like the wings of a butterfly as I tried to get my breath. I sat down hard in the grass and bent over from the waist until my vision cleared. It was a moment or two before I could inhale freely once again. I had to get the Jeep out! Like it or not, a visit to the medicine man was in order.