Untrusting (Troubled) (8 page)

Monday morning the phone’s ringing
off the hook—cancelations.  Everyone needs time to clean up from the
storm.  Even if their house is okay, they’re out helping neighbors, and
family get past the clean-up.  We find out there wasn’t much damage
done.  Mostly roofs, windows, trees and flowers.  Mom and Dad’s ranch
wasn’t bothered at all, except for a little wind and rain.  We were
lucky.  They’re predicting the electricity will be back on sometime
today.  There’s a line down outta town and we have to wait for the electric
company to repair it.

The tornado skipped town, but it
was low enough to leave a mess for twenty miles, two miles wide.  It touch
down in an unpopulated area five miles east of town.  Miss Lili calls
saying she’s not coming in today, there’s too much work that needs to be done
around town.  Steve calls asking if Maria can sit at the station while
they go out to help clear things up.  Maria agrees and I stay at the
office to answer the phone.  The day goes slowly, but I get the next newsletter
started.  Maria comes by after five, to invite me to supper.  The
guys are still out working in town and will be ‘til dark.  Janice had come
over after work to relieve Maria ‘til the guys quit for the day.  Janice’s
ranch wasn’t hit hard, either, just a few broken limbs.  All of this is
good news.

We close the office and go to
Maria’s, fix supper and play with Shay ‘til his bedtime.  Shay asks about
Bob and Maria tells him about the mess the winds made and how Bob’s busy
helping clean it up.  Shay’s satisfied and goes to bed without a
problem.  Just before I leave, Bob arrives.

Maria’s not sure what to do, even
tho’ we’d discussed it earlier.  Bob waits for me to leave to talk to
Maria.  He tells me Steve will be over to help with the dogs.  I hug
Maria ‘bye and tell her I’ll talk to her later.  She smiles as I leave.

Steve’s at the office when I get
there.  He looks very tired, so I ask him how his day went.  He tells
me about clearing the downed trees with a chain saw and stacking the wood for
use later by whomever uses wood heat.  He says Bob was busy boarding up
broken windows ‘til they can be replaced.  He says Bob got the hardest
job.  There aren’t many houses that don’t have a window broken. 
Yolie, an EMT, was called out to help with cuts from broken windows and
glass.  He says he called her out because the people had treated
themselves and the cuts didn’t look good to him.  He’s still in his
uniform as was Bob.  They haven’t been home yet, they wanted to see their
girls before they went home, Steve says.  They figured they wouldn’t
leave, if they had gone home first, too tired.

While we’re getting the dogs
inside, Steve stops me for a hug.  I can feel how tired he is because some
of his weight shifts to me.  I lead him back inside and tell him to go
home, he’s wore out and needs to get some rest.  I tell him I haven’t
heard from Lili since this morning.  I hadn’t thought about it before, but
I should have checked on her before supper to make sure she hadn’t over done
it.  He looks at me, “What’d ya mean?”  I tell him she was helping
around town, too.  He looks startled, “She’s not supposed to be doing
heavy work.  She’s not frail or sick, but her heart’s weak.”  He
kisses me quickly and leaves.

I hurry to get the dogs settled and
go to Miss Lili’s.  When I knock, she answers the door and she looks fine,
but a bit sunburned.  “Hi.  I came by to check on you.  Are you
okay?”

She steps out onto the porch,
“Sher…what’s that short for?”

“Sheralynn,” I answer.

“Sheralynn, nice name. 
Sheralynn, when I tell you something, you really shouldn’t worry my boys with
it.  Steve came home upset with me for my activities today.  I’m
upset with you for upsetting him and then he got Bob upset.  At my age I’m
not used to being told what I can and cannot do and I don’t take kindly to
tattling.”

“Miss Lili, I wasn’t
tattling.  I was simply talking with Steve about his activities and
mentioned it.  I had no idea there was a problem.  And, Miss Lili, I
like you very much and had I known you might over do, I would have been upset
with you and tried to find a way to stop you.  Now, you can be upset with
me and the boys, but we care about you and don’t want you to kill yourself with
over exertion.”  With that I give her a long hug.  “I’ve been
concerned about you since I heard you might have harmed yourself.  That’s
why I stopped by.  I had to be sure you’re okay.”  I say this into
her shoulder.  She hugs me back then.

When I step back from the hug she
says, “I’m not going to die before the Good Lord’s ready for me.  If he’s
smart, and I think he is, he doesn’t want me yet.  I’m still too
cantankerous to share heaven with.  I’m glad to know ya care about me and
are concerned for my health.  I feel the same way about you.  Now
it’s getting late and you’ll be getting home even later.  So you go on and
I’ll see ya tomorrow.”  She hugs me and shoos me off.

I get in my truck, drive home,
shower and go to bed, finding it interesting how Miss Lili has come to be
important to me.

Tuesday’s quiet, too.  The
streets are cleared but other work’s going on.  Miss Lili stops by with
lunch just as we’re about to go out to take a look around and eat.  She
gives us a report while we have our lunch.  Then we work on the newsletter
and posters for the next two weeks.  Maria asks her if it would be a good
idea to have an event to raise money to help with the repairs around
town.  Miss Lili thinks it’s a “wonderful idea.”

Miss Lili will coordinate
everything and get others to donate time and…soon she was off on an errand of
mercy and betterment of the town.  She sure has a way about her that makes
one…tired, that’s the word, tired.  She’s like a dog with a bone that
can’t find a suitably safe place to bury it, so there are holes all over the
yard.  On her tricycle, Miss Lili’s off to see every merchant in town and
the mayor.  She’s back before five o’clock with all the arrangements
made.  A carnival in the city park, in two weeks, after church, is
arranged and all the merchants are contributing.  Now, we just have to get
the word out, make booths, decorations and find out who needs the help after
the insurance is paid to those with a claim, and immediate help to those who
don’t have insurance.

Miss Lili has the senior citizens
handling the list of those in need, to help build booths, and organize the
food.  She hopes it’ll get the town moving again instead of
lifeless.  She’s very excited about the event.  We’re to include the
event on the calendar and posters are to go out immediately, asking for
volunteers and participants.  We’ll need something for the kids to do, too. 
Miss Lili’s in her element when she leaves for home.

After she leaves, Maria and I are
wondering how Bob and Steve are gonna take this new development.  Maria,
Shay and I have supper at the Burger Barn, hoping to avoid the guys.  No
such luck.  They find us and are livid, but we discuss the situation
calmly.  Maria and I suggest the four of us try to keep a lid on Miss
Lili’s physical activities concerning the carnival.  Otherwise, the idea
is a good one.  Steve asks, “Do you know how much work it’s gonna take to
corral Grams?”  Maria and I agree we don’t, but surely a seventy year old
woman can’t out do the four of us.  “You’ll soon see how hyperactive Grams
can be when she’s on a mission.”  Steve hopes we can just keep up with
her.

Bob laughs, “They don’t know Aunt
Lili like we do.  But they will.”  We’re not so sure the carnival is
a good idea now, or that we’ll be able to keep up with her.

Shay has crawled into Bob’s lap
while we talk.  Nobody seems to notice ‘til Bob notices he’s asleep. 
Bob takes him out to Maria’s car and follows her home to help her get him in
the house and to bed.  Steve follows me to the office to wait for time to
put the dogs out.

“Did ya know Grams is trying to
organize work groups to get things fixed?” Steve asks.  I admit I didn’t
know anything about it.  “She’s talking about an annual charity carnival
to help those in need and she’s going to contact the governor to find out about
food stamps  and any other help she can arrange for the less fortunate
people here.  This is getting out of hand for a seventy-ish woman.”

“But if all she does is the
paperwork and makes phone calls, what harm can it do her?”  I’m beginning
to wonder if the guys aren’t overly concerned about her.  “If she’s happy
doing these things for the town and it’s not hurting her health, isn’t it
better for her to do them than sit around getting old and senile?  She’s a
pretty active person anyway, how do ya figure we can stop her?”

He shrugs and holds me, “I don’t
believe she’s stoppable when she sees a need.”  He says into my hair, “She
wants to fix as many problems as she can.”  He tightens his hold on me, “I
don’t know what I’d do without her, that’s a day I don’t want to come anytime
soon.”  He puts his head down on my shoulder.  I tighten my hold on
him, realizing I hadn’t thought about how Miss Lili’s death would affect
him.  Now I know how hard it will be on him.  I promise to help put
that day off as long as possible.

He lifts my head and kisses me,
gently at first, becoming more serious.  I can’t breathe and everything
around me disappears.  There’s nothing, but me, Steve and the kiss. 
We’re on the edge, about to fall off the side, when Chief barks and nudges
us.  We break the kiss, but Chief keeps barking.  Steve finally looks
down when Chief tugs on his pant leg.  “I guess we’d better see what he
wants.”

Chief leads us to the kennel room
where there’s nothing wrong that we can see, but Chief keeps barking and goes
to the door to the outside.  Steve opens it slightly and there’s a puppy
on the other side.  I pick it up, but it’s not one of mine.  It’s a
new one.  Steve steps outside to see if someone’s out there, or maybe, a
mother dog that might be looking for her baby.  No mama, but five other
puppies.  I’m beginning to realize the need for an animal shelter.

We take them in and I check them
out.  They’re skinny, about three months old, dirty and abandoned.  I
guess they’re my problem now.  Chief isn’t happy yet, he leads Steve out
to the body of the mother dog.  Steve comes back to tell me about
it.  I go out and the mama dog is skin and bones and dead, from
malnutrition, is my guess.  I don’t know how she got here, but she could
have come by herself.  She hasn’t been dead long.  I need to bury
her, but for now I need to contain the body and take care of the puppies.

Steve puts “mama” in the back of
his truck.  He’ll take care of her tomorrow.  I make up some formula
for the puppies and some soft dog food.  I put it down and the puppies
devour it.  I didn’t put much down, they can’t be used to eating
well.  I don’t want them to get sick from overeating so I watch
them.  They’ll get more each time they’re fed, but not this time. 
They’re full of fleas and filthy so they’ll get a bath tonight.  I don’t
want an infestation among the dogs, or in the clinic.

Chief’s calmed down now that the
puppies and their mama are taken care of.  He wants to get close to them
but I keep him away because of the fleas and the fact that I don’t know
anything about them, yet.  I want to know they’re not diseased before I
let them be around the other dogs.  I don’t have an outdoor kennel, and I
don’t know, for sure, why they’re mother died.  I don’t know what to do
with them, but I can’t just leave them.

Steve and I bathe them and try to
figure out what to do with them tonight.  Steve suggests a box and goes to
the grocery store garbage to get a fruit box with holes in it and another two
boxes to set it on, outside, for the night.  I shredded some newspaper and
put it in the bottom and find some thin blankets to put over the box for some
warmth and some plastic, incase it rains or there’s a heavy dew.  We put
it on the driveway next to the building, but away from the door.  They’ll
need another bath tomorrow to kill more of the fleas and they may need to be
wormed.  I’ll figure it out tomorrow.

We let the dogs in the kennels out
and I need to get home for some rest.  Steve kisses me goodnight, saying
he’ll come by on his way to work to check the puppies that are outside. 
He’s being so helpful, a wonderful friend.  It’s a start.

I come in early today to check on
the newest addition of puppies.  They made it through the night. 
They seem a little peppier today, guess the food helped.  I decide to feed
them the same thing today.  They gobbled it up in short order and curled
up for a nap.  I checked them for fleas and they seem to be rid of them
for now.  I’ll bathe them again to be sure their clean then they can stay
inside.

Maria arrives and helps me bathe
the orphans.  It’s so hot out the puppies will dry in no time so we don’t
put them under the dryer.  I can’t place the main breed of them, so
they’re just mixed.  I’ll keep them ‘til the carnival and either sell them
or give them away there.  I’ll have them up to par, size wise, and healthy
by then.  I’ll talk to Lili about an adoption booth for the clinic. 
Maria thinks it’s a good idea.

Steve calls and I ask if he could
tell what breed the mother dog was, he said he couldn’t, but she was mid
size.  That means the puppies could be any size when they’re grown. 
After work he’s going to find a quiet place to bury the mother.  I tear
up, it’s a shame there’s no place to bury animals and that there are stray
animals dying.  If the mother hadn’t died here the puppies would have
died, too.  Maybe I should talk to Miss Lili about an animal shelter and
maybe, my booth should include other animals people want to find new homes
for.  Steve says he’ll be over after he buries the dog and hangs up.

Miss Lili brought lunch again
today.  She’s arranged everything for the carnival, I wonder why she wants
Maria and I involved.  I talk to her about the orphaned puppies and the
booth, she likes the idea and she wants it put it on the carnival posters so
we’ll get the unwanted animals.  She says most of the merchants will have
a booth with games or food.  She plans to have a band in the gazebo and
she wants several awnings for card tournaments and shaded sitting areas. 
She has some big ideas, but it should draw a crowd.  It could draw people
from neighboring towns.  Miss Lili has a thoughtful look on her
face.  I’ve gotta stop talking.  I could be putting my life in
jeopardy.