Chapter 14: Mid-February 1994. Wednesday afternoon.
After school I took the 34th Ave city bus directly to the vet hospital to work `til closing at 8pm. I didn't work weekdays much but I was ahead enough in studying for finals next week that I could miss one evening. The person they hired to clean the kennel during the week was sick so they asked if I could sub and offered to pay time and a half, but I'd only be there for 4-5 hours so we're not talking much money anyway. And they moved out a lot of dogs to a dog ranch in Colorado (the dogs who had been there for over 4 months) so the workload was way down.
Since I knew the day before they needed me to fill-in on kennel duty I was able to bring a Ziploc bag of dog bones with me to treat all the prisoners in the kennel. Before I left I made sure each one got a snack, and lots of petting and attention.
Mom pretty much trusted me to do the right thing. Mom was close friends with the Vet and his wife; they also owned the downtown Mexican restaurant (Lucero's Steak and Fajita). The Vet's wife drove me home after work.
I got home around 8:25pm but Mom wasn't there. A hand written note hung on the fridge under a magnet, it said she drove to University Hospital, she'd call me at 9pm. I was surprised she didn't go the urgent care instead but maybe she felt worse after coughing for days. She'd actually looked a little sickly off and on for a couple weeks but I never said anything. She just looked pale and thin in the face for at least a week now, but she took it like an insult if I told her she looked bad.
At 9:10pm the phone rang in my room. Mom was in the ER at University Hospital and said she was being admitted. Mom said she felt I was old enough to be home alone, just lacking experience. Problem was, we don't have any family in town to call, and it really was just us.
I thought about asking Tom if I could stay with him but didn't feel that comfortable around Maria yet. She was nice but I think she was more than a little bothered by the gay eighteen year old son and his boyfriend thing. I guessed it was cultural and might be a big deal to her. I knew nothing of her upbringing. Mom raised me with live and let live, mind my own business. I think Tom and his Mom were raised Catholic, especially his mother. And Maria was an Army veteran so she tended to be a little hard core about things, and she wasn't totally gay friendly despite raising a gay son. Love the sinner, hate the sin.
We talked on the phone, Mom said I should go to bed but call her if I needed anything, I promised I'd be fine. I went to bed with Crow after making sure the doors were locked, curtains closed, and the TV was on all night. I wasn't scared or anything but it felt weird being in that big house all alone. I knew I had nothing to fear with Crow nearby (as long as the burglar didn't break-in with a medium-rare rib-eye steak in hand) but it felt weird knowing Mom's room was empty. She's been there every night since the day I was born.
Crow and I spooned, but he always moved to his spot near my feet because he's never liked being held like a body pillow all night (except when he was a little puppy). I think he got too warm while spooning.
Thursday Morning.
Around 3am Mom called back. She said she had pneumonia in both lungs and was being admitted but didn't know how long. After I hung up I fought back a wave of emotions. Next thing I knew it was 6am and my alarm went off. I did my same routine getting ready for school but the house seemed unusually quiet. Crow seemed very disturbed by her absence. He patrolled the entire house like he was looking for her, again and again.
Did he think she would suddenly appear if he repeated his search? But he actually kept searching, walking slowly from room to room. Then he went to the sofa for a while, then checked those same rooms again. Since it was a big deal to him I left the door to the third bedroom open so he could check in there too.
I would think that he'd have enough confidence in his own superior sense of smell he would immediately smell Mom if she walked in the house, so why did he need to physically look in each room? It crossed my mind that maybe he wasn't searching, maybe this was him stressed out, or grieving. He was the last person at home to see her alive, who knows what she told him. I'm sure she talked to him before she left for the hospital. I bet she kissed him too. Mom likes to bend over and kiss Crow on the top of his head, between his ears.
I suppose he smelled pneumonia on her breath so he knew what was wrong with her before she knew.
At school I kept to myself all day. I talked to Daniel and told him Mom was in the hospital. He listened to every word but seemed pre-occupied so I never asked for help. I think Dan was suffering from a severe case of `boyfriend-boner-brain.'
Using a computer in the library I connected to Compuserve and sent an email to Tom. I thought I might get a reply this afternoon. Our school is on some kind of cross-country university computer network, so to connect to Compuserve at the A: prompt you type in: E://CIS and the Compuserve login box appears somehow. I got the message sent to Tom during lunch, but since Mom was gone I had no lunch and no lunch money.
That afternoon I got teased in LIT and HIST classes because my stomach was making so much noise.
I had a hard time concentrating in all my classes and had to force myself to pay attention. In gym I tripped over my shoe laces. I even looked up 'pneumonia' in the school library so I knew exactly what that meant:
Bacterial, viral, or fungal infection with inflammation in the lungs of mammals, spread by airborne routes.
I guess that meant there was stuff where it wasn't supposed to be. The encyclopedia article said that Pneumonia advancing into Sepsis was the biggest risk. Sepsis was an infection in the blood stream (which is supposed to be totally sterile). Your blood also had lots of nutrients which could feed bacteria too. It said the difference between pneumonia and bronchitis was pneumonia showed up on a chest x-ray but bronchitis did not. In Amarillo everyone was also at risk for a rare fungal infection in our lungs carried by dust in the air, a left over thing from the Dust Bowl years, but fungal lung infections happened around the world, especially in dusty areas. They are most uncommon in green areas like Michigan or Maine.
At 3:05pm I walked home and was glad to see Crow. I let him out and heard my phone ringing. I ran to the bedroom, it was Mom calling. She was in the ICU and gasping for air and could only speak a few words at a time. She said she was trying to get someone to check on me and help with anything I needed; she'd tell me more later. I told her I wanted to come see her, she said `no-way!' I was not to come, she didn't want me catching what she had. Then she started coughing and ended the call. I brought Crow back inside and connected to Compuserve but went out and sat on the sofa staring at the blank TV screen, and then I heard the email client chime. I ran to my bedroom, it was from Tom.
He said Management offered to let him drive over, make some meals for me and maybe spend the night but he had to leave early because he had school in the morning, the last day of the week before finals. My reply said: I'd appreciate your help. I deleted his email and sat in the kitchen trying to think what we could cook which would last for days for two meals a day and not spoil quickly. I thought maybe we could make a pot roast or a meatloaf or something and I could microwave frozen veggies each day.
Mom usually bought half a Texas Longhorn steer each spring so we usually had lots of meat in the freezer, but the steaks were already gone.
Tom arrived half an hour later still in school clothes which made his butt look bigger. He usually wears button down shirts to school because they don't show lumps from his big puffy nips. We sat at the kitchen bar with a notepad making a list of what I could eat for a few days until Mom got home. We decided on scrambled eggs, pancakes, and a pot roast with carrots, onions and potatoes. We checked the deep freezer, found the meat and brought it to the kitchen. I found the manual for the microwave to figure out how to program it to defrost the beast. It had a weight-based defrost cycle with a temperature probe so we tried that and started peeling carrots and potatoes.
I put the roast in the sink full of hot water to thaw quicker. It won't stay hot very long with a two pound ice cube in the bottom. Then I opened all the kitchen cabinets and wrote an inventory of everything we had.
While I was writing the inventory I heard a vehicle in the driveway and a car door slam shut, we saw a rather tall female cop walk past the kitchen window to the front door and ring the bell, then she knocked loudly anyway. Crow barked from the TV room sofa but never slid his lazy ass off the sofa.
The uniform cop introduced herself as Stephanie Zeller, Amarillo PD Chief Detective, I gulped. Tom looked wide eyed. She smiled, laughed, and said her husband worked at the same place my Mom worked, she was asked to stop by and check on me. We all smiled and shook hands. I introduced her to Tom, which made her pause and step back and stare at him briefly (`I know you from somewhere,' she muttered). We escorted her to the kitchen and showed her our meal plans, told her we had enough food for Crow and me to last for about four days (we'd run out of dog food before people food).
She pulled a tiny folder from her shirt pocket and handed me her card with her work phone number. She explained she could buy me groceries or anything else I needed while Mom was in the hospital. I told her Mom said I couldn't visit, she said, "Lisa is very sick and might be in the hospital for a week or longer, she almost got intubated last night because her oxygen levels got low for a couple hours then improved a bit after spending hours on BiPAP." I got a powerful scared feeling, my eyes started to tear-up during our brief conversation. My ever attentive dog came by my side then moved towards the cop lady to sniff her but she mostly ignored him and Crow mostly ignored her after sniffing her hand.
Then she stopped talking and pointed at Tom, "Wait a minute! Now I know who you are, you're Maria's son from Star's right?" Tom chuckled and said 'Thaaaaat's me!'
"I know Maria, she's fantastic. All the detectives eat at Star's we love that place, it's got the best breakfast in Amarillo and cops in uniform get like 50% off too." Tom smiled and nodded yes while she was speaking and said he loved eating there on his days off too.
Stephanie laughed and said, "That says a lot when the employees love eating there on their days off!" We all laughed. And she pointed at her card on the counter and emphasized that I was to call her for anything, even small stuff. I thanked her repeatedly and she asked which way back to the driveway so I showed her the shortcut out the kitchen door. She paused at the door and told me to start locking all the house doors at night, and check that all the windows were locked too.
She explained they would be increasing patrols in my neighborhood day and night until Lisa was home, and all the dispatchers knew about the situation and I was to call 911 with any problem no matter how small, even if it wasn't an emergency. Before she left Stephanie seriously warned me:
She stopped by the kitchen door and pointed at me and said in a very serious tone, "This goes for everyone in this house. Do not open the door, even a crack, for strangers. If you don't personally know everyone standing outside your door don't open up. Do not answer questions from strangers over the phone, at school, or in town about you or your Mom. You must report to me anyone who asks questions about your mother or her work, try to get their name and find out what they want to know. Then call me immediately, or 911. Understand, both of you got it?"
She paused briefly then turned toward the TV room and spoke at Crow on the sofa: "Watchdog! No strangers in the house!" He raised his head and his ears as if paying attention to her instructions, but Stephanie smiled, chuckled, and waved and left via the kitchen door.
My brain got stuck on the idea of what might happen if Mom suddenly died. Tom said not to worry, she was young and never smoked, there was a good chance she recovered fully.
Tom started cooking while I sat stunned on a kitchen stool wiping my eyes for about twenty minutes after Detective Zeller left.
Tom quietly cooked a stack of pancakes higher than I'd ever seen before. He said they warmed up in the microwave really well. They were in bags in the refrigerator. Then he scrambled a dozen eggs and put them in a plastic bowl in the fridge too. I was still in the living room staring at the muted TV like a zombie I guess. He told me he started a grocery list too, it was on the island.
Eggs
Pancake mix
Butter sticks
Frozen orange juice cans
Sausages
eggs
Bread loaf
Then he considered lunch and sack lunches at school and wrote down:
Sliced ham, mayo, lettuce, onion, mustard, bread, and maybe a small jar of horseradish.
Tom had the pot roast in the oven (inside a baking bag with the veggies) for about ten minutes before he sat by my side. I was still in a state of numbness after hearing the warnings about strangers at the door. We decided right then to go around the entire house and check that every window was locked (curtains closed too), it took twenty minutes to check and cover every window. I think most of them were unlocked.
When you have a 150 pound dog in the house people often become lazy about locking doors, Mom and I were guilty as charged. But the good part was now everything was locked.
Tom asked if we had any weapons and I said Mom had a rifle in the closet but I don't know anything about it, but she always told me it's loaded. He went to look and saw it was a single shot, bolt action, Remington .22LR rifle with one round in the chamber. So he leaned it against the closet door. I told him she had a box of bullets somewhere, but I had no idea where. We could check her dresser drawers and her desk too.
In our very quiet house I heard Crow breathing on the other end of the sofa, the kitchen timer ticking, and the furnace came on once too. Even with him seated near me I still felt like I could vomit. I confessed to Tom that Mom and I were friends too (most of the time) but it had been getting difficult lately.
Tom said something that almost hurt, he said his mother was not the friend type, she was all business and he was treated like an employee, even at home. He claimed they were not huggy-kissy close at all. He said his father's death and his gay announcement really zapped her brain. He said it felt like they were stuck with each other. He told me when they had The Talk and he admitted being gay it hit her hard, she nearly fainted and had to use her asthma inhaler twice. He told me that aside from displays of anger she was generally never dramatic about anything, so her reaction to his being gay was a huge stun to her soul.
I told him she handled the news very poorly. He said, "Tell me `bout it!"
We sat there telling very personal secrets for a while, sort of not looking at each other. I think he was trying to make me feel better by trying to convince me his life was more fucked up than mine, and his fam was more dysfunctional than mine. I could argue that point but kept my mouth shut. His mother was not a nuclear weapon designer like my mother, but I cannot prove that's what she does, she won't discuss her work.
Tom even told me he recently remembered before his father died how his parents had been fighting a lot and he felt they might get a divorce, then after the funeral how his mother became super cold toward everyone but her sisters and parents. He told me when Maria looks at him she sees her deceased husband and gets upset sometimes as if he was his father.
At 6:45pm Mom's phone rang. I answered in the TV room, it was my grandmother in Galveston. (Note: the phone in the TV room by the sofa had a small knob you turned so it could answer either line, but only the selected line would ring the phone. It was a red Western Electric desk phone with tone dialing buttons and a white knob to change lines. They had a wall phone in the kitchen on Mom's line and the phone by her bed was also only on her line.)
Gram said she was flying to Amarillo tomorrow morning. I asked her how she was taking a taxi. I told her the cops might bring her here, if she saw them after she got off the plane just go talk to any city cop in the airport, but not airport security. She spoke as if she thought I was nuts for telling her the cops would bring her here.
I got off the phone with Gram and looked at Tom, my eyes filled with tears. He walked over and held me. I lowered my face to his shoulder and held him tightly. With a sobbing voice I told Tom `...it felt like everything was spiraling out of control. There's probably fuckin' vultures circling over the house too.'
We sat there and calmly talked about stuff, but not about us. I spent half the time wiping my eyes of the tears that just wouldn't f-ing stop. It was starting to piss me off. Tom massaged my shoulders. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. I had no idea what to do, it made me feel helpless like I was suddenly nine years old again. Tom asked why Mom was such a hero to the police; this is what I told him:
"Mom's a genius, she graduated from high school at age 14 and went straight to college and earned her doctorate in Chemistry, to her it was like a no-brainer. Her PhD project was a new molecule she said was a polymer similar to nylon but thousands of times stronger, I think she said it was similar to chain maille at a molecular level. She explained that the word `polymer' meant a repeating chain of molecules, the same molecules over and over, kind of like a chain link fence.
Tom asked what Chain maille was so I sort of explained, back in the days of knights on horseback with swords, Chain maille was a suit of armor which protected against weapons like arrows and knives and was very flexible but super heavy. Maille was made of small interlocking iron rings that formed something like a mesh fabric, the idea was sort of like chain link fencing but very small. So under an electron microscope her fabric looked like chain maille but it was made out of her polymer. I told him Chain Maille came before iron plate armor suits (maybe before the year 1400AD) and had less protection than the suit of armor.
Tom said the name was weird. I told him I looked it up in the encyclopedia and it has lots of origins, some go back hundreds of years BC. But I think Maille meant a flexible weave, a metal fabric.
Tom said: `Oh. Makes sense, I guess.'
So I finished up by saying that when gun powder, bullets, and iron barrels arrived in Europe that was pretty much the end of suits made from iron plates.
Tom laughed and said, "You is one dead Mo-fo!"
Going back to Mom's work, I continued: "After the molecule was perfected they designed a machine to spin it into thread as her PhD project which also won her government cash awards and two patents. After she graduated she found someone with money to invest in a new company. Next, they developed a machine to weave threads into long sheets of fabric. Then they built another machine to slice the fabric into pieces and sew them together to make uniforms. After those machines were working they started testing more and found it was also fireproof, lightweight, and impenetrable. So they started another business in a vacant factory and started cranking out miles of this new fabric, but only in navy blue (at first)! And of course every invention and process was patented immediately.
She told me a big problem was sewing on buttons, and making pockets and zippers. At first the needles and knives broke, so they had to use plasma cutters or lasers to cut the fabric into shape. She said it's like making clothing out of steel plates.
So I stopped and explained how a normal sewing machine needle would snap when it tried to sew the fabric so they ended up having to pre-shoot every hole with a laser, which was an entirely new process they also patented. And to keep the edges of the fabric from looking burnt they had to cut them underwater.
Soon after that company started making dozens of uniforms every day she was recruited by the Pentagon to go to work as a chemist at Pantex to miniaturize their bombs. And NASA wanted to test her thread in outerspace as part of a possible space weapon, or a crew rescue system.
So she hired a crew to close down her factory in Galveston and move it to an industrial building in Amarillo, that's when we moved up here, I was about to start first grade. I told Tom the summer we moved to Amarillo she hired a nanny to stay with me because she worked 16 hour days trying to get the factory going up here and hiring people and engineers, electricians, computer people, and it was a huge mess.
I explained how I still remember standing in that building holding her hand with all these strangers working on machines. "That business is still there today, making that thread on big spools and they have every spool sold months before its made." I told him its on the east side of town out by the airport in a factory building.
"Mom told me once they make enough thread every day to fly a kite over Oklahoma City with the spool in Amarillo!" Tom didn't seem impressed.
Tom interrupted and asked what use a thread would be in space.
I told him Mom said if an astronaut floated away into space they could shoot him a rope then pull him back to the space station. Or if Ming the Merciless was in space trying to kill our satellites they could shoot a thread at it with a glob of glue on the end, and snatch it from a safe distance and drag it down into the atmosphere. As thin as her thread is they could put a thousand miles of thread on a three foot spool and attach some kind of steerable rocket on the end to contact Ming's ship and glue itself to the outside, like a giant intelligent vaudeville stage hook!
They soon developed a marketing plan for selling those safety uniforms to police, fire, city workers, and other professions where there was a risk of being injured, like zoo workers, EMS, tow truck drivers, and people hunting/feeding dangerous animals (sharks, rhino, big zoo cats, orca, and near schools of piranha in the Amazon River).
They made a bunch of test shirts and slacks and tested them on dummies and dead animals and it actually stopped bullets and wouldn't catch on fire. They also tested it for preventing heat conduction by adding metal threads to reflect heat and made jackets which could be worn by Hollywood stuntmen in fire scenes, but the material looked and felt like normal cotton fabric. After it was running and production increased from 20 uniforms per day to 200 uniforms a day she started researching making colors other than just navy blue. I think she said black came next, then yellow, red, and white.
Then they started making test jackets as light and cool as a windbreaker which could be worn by the fire department when they entered burning structures and removed almost 30 pounds of equipment weight. For cops on patrol they no longer had to wear heavy hot bullet vests and their gear looked like a regular uniform shirt and pants.
I told Tom I had a windbreaker in my closet made of her fabric. "Can I see it?" he asked. So we went to my room and walked in the closet, I showed him the navy blue jacket and let him put it on.
"You mean if I shot you with this on the bullet wouldn't go through?"
"Yah, that's it. I mean you can still get hurt just by the impact energy from the bullet going supersonic, but a bullet doesn't carry a lot of mechanical energy, it's too light."
He took off the coat, I put it back on the hangar and hung it up in my closet. Tom said that was super weird. Then he asked me what the coat was worth. I told him it was an early design, so it could be shot at the zipper and not protect at all, the new ones all have flaps over zippers. I told him the coat was worth maybe a couple hundred bucks at most. But who would believe me that I owned a bullet-proof wind breaker!
We walked back to the bar and I told Tom the company donated the new uniforms to the entire Amarillo fire and police department and was a huge success so they ramped up production and started making them for sale nationally. Several years after moving it to Amarillo she sold the WebMaille uniform company but never told me how much she made or what became of those patents. By then she was working almost full time at Pantex as a chemist, but she still owns the company which makes the thread and raw fabric. The uniform business was two separate companies, and they are still the only supplier of fabric to the uniform company and a few others now. She said it is exported as if it was a military secret, so it goes to Australia and England only.
And that was why she's treated like royalty by the local police and fire in Amarillo and surrounding towns in Potter County and why there was a new police station named after her somewhere in town too."
I told Tom the fabric might stop a bullet but it won't protect from the impact, so another company started making an under garment to lessen the impact of a bullet because it spread the impact energy over a wide area.
I paused for a moment then got up and went into her room to grab a framed photo off the wall, I handed it to Tom but he didn't recognize the characters. The photo was an image from an old TV cartoon of a small boy wearing a colorful cap with a propeller on top, the boy was riding on what looked like a long sea serpent modeled after a sock puppet.
I told him it came from an old TV cartoon called Beany and Cecil, Beany was the boy. The serpent was his guardian/friend named Cecil (Cecil the Sea Serpent) but the cap he wore came to represent nerdy people who were into technology and cutting edge stuff. Today, those people are known as Propeller Heads, but they were so much into technology that they were known to be socially awkward, outcast, and maybe even weird. Tom kind of mumbled that they sounded like all had Asperger's!
Tom handed me the frame back and asked if I was a propeller head.
"Ahh, probably not. At least not like my Mom."
Then he asked what I was really into.
"Ummm, I'd say photography and maybe also your body."
"Not Great Danes?"
"Oh no! That's just what breed the puppy was when he was born, I just happened to be standing nearby watching the moment he emerged from his mother's tummy. It just happened to be a Dane."
"Coincidence?"
"It's just the way it happened, I was just a bystander because I liked watching the Vet suture skin." I replied. The vet looked at me while he held the new born puppy in the air and asked me if I would baby sit and I said yes, then the owner never claimed the puppy or paid the bill so the vet kept the puppy. That's how he became my dog.
Then I told him I sort of became a promoter because I've learned a lot about the breed, but if I was going go to the pet store to buy a puppy a Dane would never be on my list. I'd pick a Retriever or a Lab of some sort. Danes are too frail and short lived.
I walked back down the hall to hang up the picture and he shouted at me, "So you're not a propeller head then?"
"Me? Probably not, maybe slightly, but Mom definitely is."
Then he said something that really surprised me.
"If you ever want to find out who got your Mom pregnant, the true meaning to her of that photo might be a clue who he was." I never considered that before but I was too surprised to respond, so I hung it up and came back to sit near him at the bar.
He said the character in that photo, the boy with the propeller cap in her mind might not in her mind be her but Beany could represent the dude who got her pregnant. I paused to consider that we never actually discussed that TV show or the photo before, maybe Tom was right. He also suggested it might not have been rape since nobody stood trial.
Then I told him, "Imagine how different our lives would be today if that had been a Miniature Schnauzer instead of a Great Dane in the vet clinic."
Tom said "...if she got raped at a dorm party it was likely she knew everyone there and could eliminate almost everyone as a possible suspect. Plus, you probably have some physical resemblance to him. Maybe she faked it because it was the only way she could get a guy to sleep with her. I've heard it happening just in my own short life!"
Around 8pm Tom called his mother to update her. We went to bed right at 9pm after we walked Crow to the baseball field. The roast was done, sliced and stored in plastic containers in the fridge. The kitchen was cleaned and looked new. We went to bed and talked for almost an hour before one of us fell asleep. Crow slept in Mom's room again that night, I think.
Overnight I got up to use the bathroom and saw Crow asleep on Mom's bed on his back with his legs in the air, snoring, head on her pillow like it was his bed. He could be a real person sometimes.
When we got in bed with the lights off I told Tom that dogs were born with a lot of built-in knowledge, we call it Instinct. But I was certain things today are not covered in Instinct, think of all the stuff they encounter today that is totally alien to them: mattresses, stairs, water bowls, leashes, collars, pet stores, cars, airplanes, sidewalks, vets, and factory made dog food. Imagine all the stuff they have to figure out and learn how to master. I told him if I was ever abducted by aliens and taken to live on a distant planet I hope I could adapt as well as any dog did today. They are not dumb animals.
Pre-dawn Friday Morning.
Sometime overnight I woke up to the sound of Crow barking angrily, I got up to check the house. Someone was pounding on our front door, when I opened the door it was that lady cop again. She kind of pushed her way past me inside and checked the entire house with her flashlight and the other hand on her holstered pistol. Then I saw another cop in our back yard shining his flashlight around the yard, the rock wall, and the back wall of the house, the neighbor's houses, and then he came in the front door with one hand on his holster too. He was a mean looking dude with a scowl on his face. Stephanie pointed at the sofa and ordered me to sit down, then Tom walked in the TV room in his boxers, rubbing his eyes. He asked what was going on, we were both freaked out at two cops in my house, two cop cars with lights-on out front. She ordered Tom to 'sit on the sofa and shut-up.' Right away she repeated herself in fluent Spanish.
We sat side by side shivering since it was getting cold inside, the front door was wide open and we were only in our boxers. "Robbie there's no easy way to say this so I'm going to get right to it. Your mother died about twenty minutes ago. Her infection was so bad it never responded to antibiotics. Her heart just stopped, they called it severe sepsis. They told me to make sure you knew she didn't suffer, she died peacefully in her sleep."
I sat stunned unable to... Tom also got really quiet and started wiping his eyes. Then Crow walked up to me and pushed his head under my arm so I had to hold him. I looked up at Stephanie, she had tears in her eyes too. Then my tears started but I didn't cry. Tom started sniffling but never said a thing. He sat near me wiping his eyes.
The one male cop turned and left shutting the front door. The TV room was really cold from the door standing wide open for so long.
She suddenly grabbed the microphone she had on her coat that went to a portable on her hip, she said into it, "Dispatch 19, the message has been delivered, everything here is 10-4, returning to station." I heard a voice on the speaker say something like, "Nineteen dispatch clear."
Stephanie asked me, "I know you guys are good friends. Tom, we already called Maria to update her. Robert, we called your Grandmother in Galveston and she's flying here today. We're gonna meet her as she walks off the plane and bring her here ourselves. Robbie is there anything you need son?"
I looked up but had a hard time seeing her with the tears in my eyes, I shook my head `no' then Crow moved his huge head in front of my face so I couldn't see the cop. It was like he recognized the cop's words were upsetting me and wanted to protect me.
Stephanie said, "If something comes up, even if it's just you need a roll of toilet paper you call and ask for me and I'll be here right away no matter what, okay son?"
I shook my head yes but couldn't see around Crow. I heard the cop lady kind of chuckle when she noticed the dog was blocking my eyes.
Then she said, "Robert, don't go to school today. You stay home and wait for your grandmother. Tom, you can stay as long as you like but Maria needs the car so we're having an officer drive it to your house, okay son?"
Tom shook his head yes looking up at the lady cop. He went to the bedroom to get the car key from his pocket.
While Tom was getting the key I asked her what was going to happen next. She said "...it's too early, it'll take a few days. So for the next three days it will be chaos and it will seem like nothing is happening but that's not true, just stay calm and you'll see by next week how things will start to come together." Then she added, "And do not open the door for anyone except people you know personally. We're parking an old patrol car out front for your safety.
Stephanie continued, "Robbie just take it easy and don't worry about food or money or anything. I promise everything will be taken care of. It might take a week to really get going but I know it'll fall into place. This town may not be perfect but when these things happen we take good care of our kids. I promise. Okay?" She said wiping her wet cheeks with her gloved hand.
It surprised me when Tom handed her the car key then asked about the big black cars we always see parked on the street anywhere we go. She laughed and kind of mumbled they were Naval Intelligence keeping an eye on their investment.
Tom said, "Navy in Amarillo, where's their ship parked?"
We all chuckled at his joke, but I think Stephanie was serious.
I looked back up at Stephanie, she almost looked menacing in her black police uniform with the pistol in the holster and handcuffs and stuff, and her eyes looked very sad and sincere. All I could think of to say was, "I'll be fine, thanks for stoppin' by. Can I go see her?"
"After your Grandmother gets here you can go, okay son?" She added.
"Thanks." I said never raising my head to make eye contact. Crow kept blocking my view of her anyway. He actually kept his head in front of my eyes, even if I leaned to the side, he moved too. He's never done that to me before in his life!
Stephanie turned and walked toward the front door, but paused briefly, "Remember, anything at all, you just call and I'll be over, okay? And keep all the doors locked."
"Sure, thanks." I said. She left after tossing the key to another cop who stayed by the front door.
I walked to my room and sat on the bed. My room looked small and the walls looked really blue as I remembered the day I came home from school and found Mom had painted my room and put everything back like nothing happened. I loved her so much.
Then my nausea came back and I ran to the guest bathroom and dry heaved in the toilet a few times. The house felt really big and suddenly it no longer felt safe. A strong feeling of emptiness landed upon me and for the first time in my life I felt scared about the future. It felt like I might be living on the streets soon, eating out of trash cans. I had no money to speak of, who was going to pay our electric bill?
I sat on the bathroom floor in my boxers then Tom came in, took my hand and walked me to bed. Tom shut off the lights and stayed beside me. I started to cry, I cried like a child, he held me tightly. After a while I stopped, we talked about stuff and watched as the room gradually lit up with the arrival of morning. Then the sun shone in my window. He stayed close by me and held me for a long time, I felt better in the embrace of his muscular arms and chest.
We got up and nuked some of the pre-made pancakes and eggs. The phone rang. It was Tom's mom, they spoke for a while. She told him to stay here until Gram arrived. Tom said he was fine with that. We talked last night about how this could screw up finals week for me and maybe Tom's too, he said he'd be fine. But he'd have to spend most of the weekend somewhere reading.
Around noon I heard a car in the driveway, then a knock. Grandma was here with a plain clothes Amarillo cop. She walked in stopped, turned around and thanked the officer for the ride.
He replied as he turned to leave in his unmarked city police car, "Nice to meet you Misses Davis."
After the front door was shut and locked we hugged and cried some more then sat in the TV room. We talked about short term plans. She asked me if I wanted to see Mom before the funeral. I told her I did at first but after thinking about it I changed my mind. We went to the kitchen and made coffee. I told her about school, finals, and Tom. She said that Tom could go home or stay here if he wanted. I said I thought I would be okay now but I would be asking Daniel to come over since he only lived a block away. So Tom took a taxi home to nap and study. I never saw him leave because he stood outside to wait for it, but a taxi never arrived, a police car came and they drove him home. So Yellow Cab must have called the police after Tom called for a taxi.
I think that means there is some kind of city-wide alert on our address.
Gram was on the phone soon after she arrived and was stuck there for hours. Daniel came over before dinner, we went to my room. Before Dan arrived I took the time to explain Daniel to Gram, but she was fine with his clothes and eye makeup, she said life was too short to get upset over stuff like that.
I thought her comment was totally cool. So I explained he was not trying to become a girl, he just dressed sort of like one at school, he'll probably come over dressed like a typical Texas teenage boy. She asked why he dressed like a girl.
"He's just trying to be different, original, unique."
"Why a girl?"
"Because that's all that's available in stores, your only other choice is like Halloween costumes but they're all movie characters, not original at all."
Gram said, "That makes perfect sense! I totally agree!"
So I told her he is actually not dressing like a girl, but it sort of looks like he is, he's wearing kilts and loose clothing with lots of bling and jewelry, chains and then there's the make-up. But if you wanted to be absolutely correct, he is not dressing like a girl, but to some people at a glance it looks like he is.
It was a relief to see Dan was totally dressed like a Texas teenage boy when he arrived. I told Dan what happened. He instantly cried too and we hugged each other standing in my room. Gram heard and knocked, I told her everything was fine, we were just talking.
I'm about six inches taller than Daniel but I think he stood on his toes for a time and wiped tears off my face and couldn't manage to keep his hands off me comforting me as best he could. He was really very affectionate. Then he did something he rarely did before, he kissed me on the lips, then French kissed me briefly. I went along and it felt good. His mouth tasted like he just brushed his teeth!
I really needed attention just stop my tears. Daniel was exactly the friend I needed at that moment. He was usually the right blend of intrusive and overly affectionate. In some ways Dan was just like Crow, except Dan never licked my face or tried to steal my food!
About the time we stopped crying he said he couldn't stay much longer, was there anything he could do for me. I told him 'no, not really.' Then he reached down to the front of my shorts and patted my limpness, squeezed it gently and asked, "Anything at all you need, anything?" I replied, "No, I think I'm gonna be fine but I promise if I need something I'll ask. You are my longest lasting friend in my life." I paused briefly and told him that Crow loved him too. We`ll be a three-dog wolfpack forever.
He slowly turned and walked out of my room then got his bike and rode home. Grandma asked to hear more about him so I told her the grandmother-safe version of the Book of Daniel. She seemed to understand that he was deaf-gay-unique-genius and we were best friends since elementary school and he only lived one street over. You could just barely see his house out the window in my room. Daniel was the only neighborhood kid the same age as me.
I told her how genius people were usually odd, like Joseph Lister, Edward Teller, and Michael Faraday. So Dan was eccentric starting at a young age, but really he just wanted to be unique.
I asked her to stand up from her spot on the sofa in the TV room. She turned around and I pointed to the house behind ours. I asked if she could see the roof of the house across the street and she said yes, a little bit of it. "That's Dan's house."
Grandma was back on the phone for hours, I gave her a notepad to write stuff down. When things quieted down I offered to nuke some food for her, she said no, dinner was being delivered soon. And she also said that Grandpa was driving up from Galveston and would be here around 10pm tonight. I told her I was looking forward to seeing him again but he might find our lack of stereo equipment a real let down. She laughed then wiped another tear from her eye.
It was one of those situations when all kinds of little things made people start to cry at our house. It was awkward but all of us felt extremely sad about what happened to Mom. I could sense that my life was about to seriously change but how much and in what ways was still unknown. It was like knowing a huge box was going to be delivered soon but you had no idea what was inside. It could be a bomb, it could a million bucks, or it might be a box of vacuum cleaner bags!
About 6pm a large white Mercedes cargo van backed into our driveway (the side panels said: Gustavo Catering). He brought in a large foil pan of lasagna, a three foot long submarine (cut into short sections inside another foil pan), three cases of two liter bottles of all sorts of pop, and frozen pans of fried chicken, scrambled eggs, breads, four pounds of ground coffee, stacks of cups, stacks of plastic plates and eating ware, about two thousand napkins, and ten rolls of paper towels, two cases of wine, large pans of pre-made sandwiches of roast beef, ham, salami, and other cold cuts. He set-up two long tables in our living room covered them with white paper which looked like they were setting up for an unanticipated gangster's funeral.
I asked Grandma what that was all about, she said Mom's co-workers didn't want us to have to worry about cooking. I said to her, "Well what if we run out of toilet paper?" Just then the guy with the two wheeled cart rolled an entire case of toilet paper and four cases of bottled waters. The driver handed Grandma a thick white bank envelope. He left and the house seemed like we lost thirty degrees having the front door open so long. I asked where we were going to store all that food and she calmly said, "Don't worry, its coming too."
I looked outside the living room window and saw an Amarillo PD patrol car was still parked in the spot Tom parked on the night he got stabbed but nobody was in it. I asked her what that was about, she said Mom was very well connected that I would be very well taken care of from now on. I had nothing to worry about. Her comment made me chuckle, because I still didn't understand why a cop car was outside. I thought to myself, 'Everything is gonna be taken care of but I don't see much happening.'
"What about finals next week?" I asked.
"I already called your principal, he said you could delay them for as long as needed or choose not to take them at all, but you didn't need to decide anything until early March or whenever you were ready. Just call your adviser and let him know."
"Wow." I said kind of speechless but my brain was mostly blank. Did she actually just tell me I could skip finals? How did that work? It didn't even make sense!
About forty five minutes later Grandma and I nuked and ate a little of the lasagna and the sliced potatoes in cheese sauce (with other veggie chunks added). We had the TV on but muted. I went to my room to check my email.
An hour after he left the catering guy came back and unloaded a refrigerator and rolled it into our living room and plugged it in, then started moving some of the food into the refrig, which was set-up inside for those big aluminum pans. Then he left again. Gram said most of that stuff in pans was frozen but it would thaw overnight.
It seemed like word had gotten out, my in-box was filled with emails from other kids at AHS that I never knew were on CompuServe. I got a call from Bethany and had to practically threaten her not to come over that the place was full of people, there was no room to sit, which was a lie. Having people come over and start crying only made everyone feel worse, Crow too. He barely touched his dinner and he still seemed to be searching the house for Mom. About every thirty minutes he went on patrol looking for her. His behavior made no sense. And when he wasn't searching for her he was leaning against me like he was too weak to stand. (Breeds that lean are German Shepherds, Boxers, Retrievers, and Danes. We joke and say he leans because he is too weak to stand on his own, but it is a body language thing which says affection and trust. The part they lean against you is usually their back hip but any part will work because contact is the goal)
Around 11pm Grandpa arrived. I welcomed him outside in the driveway, we hugged like long lost friends and both cried. Then he practically ran inside the house to Grandma and they held each other for a while too, both cried silently. I went to bed after walking Crow. While we were walking I tried to devise a way to explain to Crow that Mom was gone forever.
Months ago I spent time explaining to Crow what `Dead' meant. I also used the criminal guy from Mexico who died by Great Dane as an example.
I could tell he knew something was wrong because Mom was missing and my grandparents were here. I started to tell him when we were alone, I said to him, "Crow, Mom dead. Mom dead. Mom all gone.' He saw my tears and I'm sure he understood I was very sad and something dreadful happened to Mom. Crow dearly loved my mother, as much as any dog could love a human. And I think he understood she was my mother, I'm sure he could see we looked related and understood I was her offspring.
I think in the dog world the role of mother ends and after weaning she becomes just another dog with a familiar scent and face.
Saturday.
In the morning I woke up to Grandma tapping on my door announcing breakfast. We all sat around the bar to eat and discuss today's plans. We avoided the topic but Grandpa forced the conversation. While he got the notes out Gram scooped a bit of scrambled eggs and some breakfast stuff out of one of the pans into a bowl to put in the microwave oven.
"Okay let's get this over. I'll hang my notes on the refrigerator door so everyone can see the timeline then we don't need to discuss it again.
Your mother will have a short viewing period tomorrow at Smith and Sons here in town on Highway 60. Burial is immediately after that at Memory Gardens Cemetery. The limo should arrive here at noon to pick us up out in the street along with the hearse. Viewing starts at 10am but we won't get there until near the end so we don't have to sit and stare at her casket for two hours.
There are likely to be lots of people at the funeral she knew that you never heard of. And because of her work and involvement in the community you're probably going to be surprised by the size of the crowd which is why they bought enough food to feed a small army." He said sliding the notepad across the counter towards Gram. She spoke next.
"Yes and Robbie I know you're an adult now but there are a lot of things you never knew about your Mom's work so we're going to do all we can to help you finish high school and get safely off to college. Robbie honey all we ask is that you let us know if you need anything and we'll make it happen."
"Honey, just after your mother died they took up a collection at Pantex to cover your short term expenses until her life insurance pays. In the mean time I'll pay all your expenses from their cash gift. In the envelope I got from the caterer there's enough money to sustain you until insurance pays. So you just tell me if you want something and I'll pay for it, but I'll hang onto the money for now." She continued still slightly teary eyed.
"Thanks Gram."
"Robbie your Mom's car will be transferred to you next week then you'll own her car. If you absolutely hate it you need to let me know and we'll get what you want, okay?"
"Seriously?" I asked assuming she was kidding.
"Yes honey, like the police detective lady said, your Mom arranged for you to be well taken care of if something like this ever happened."
"Like how much are we talking, if I'm allowed to ask?" I asked honestly having no clue what she was worth or had in the bank or earned at work. My family was the type that never told the kids anything until the last moment.
"Well" Gram paused, "it's a lot. She had life insurance, you were all she had. And she had an extra death benefit policy, and Pantex also has a death gift, and her coworkers also kicked in, but we don't know the entire amount right now but it looks to be at least two. I think Pantex also had an executive death benefit."
"Two thousand dollars?" I asked with an excited tone to my voice.
Gram chuckled and explained, "Oh no dear, two million dollars but it'll go higher. It could go a lot higher."
For a few moments my brain was frozen repeating what Gram just said. She told me the death certificate would be delivered next week then she will submit an insurance claim to the life insurance company for one of her policies. She told me it could take years to settle her estate, almost everyone she ever worked for had an insurance policy on her with a death benefit. They probably did it because she was young and the policies were cheap.
Gram said, "It's weird but when she sold the Webmaille company as part of the deal they were required to maintain a life insurance policy on her too!" I had no idea what that meant to me so I never said anything.
I sat stunned, speechless and started to cry. My grandfather pulled me up to standing and held me in his arms while I wept like a little kid. I buried my head in his shoulder and stood there crying like a child. Crow came to my side and bumped his nose into my leg too. After a few moments I re-gained my composure and sat back down, she slid a box of tissues to me. I blew and blew and wiped my face dry, even Crow looked sad. I told them Crow wants to go for a walk. I told Gram we needed to add tissues to the grocery list, and we all laughed. I didn't intend for that to be a joke but I guess it was kind of funny.
I looked down at Crow and asked him if he needed a tissue too. Then I took one and wiped his face off but he stood there watching me closely. So I used my finger tips to scratch the inside of his ears, which always made him press his head firmly against my fingers, and sometimes he even started to grumble because it felt so nice.
Like I said, I know all his favorite scratching spots.
At a break in our conversation I walked Crow to the baseball diamond. People were playing ball so we just walked around the block instead. Back at home I checked my email. Tom wrote, I answered sending him the funeral schedules he said he'd be there and was coming over soon too. In forty five minutes he arrived, it was a very warm reception he got from my grandparents, like a family reunion. They really hit it off (again). Tom brought a couple changes of clothes on hangars. In my room he told me he took two of his finals early today at school and did really well that he didn't have to be back at school until Wednesday if I needed his help. We walked to my room. I looked at him and cried slightly again and told him I needed help. We got in bed and he curled around my head and upper body for almost half an hour that time and eventually my wave of sadness subsided.
I turned on the TV and told him to wait there I had a question to ask Grandma.
"Gram, I have something to ask, can Tom drive Mom's car?"
"Well yes, the insurance is valid so it's fine really, it's your car now Honey."
"Cool, thanks Gram."
I went back to the bedroom. I think it was the first time I smiled since Thursday.
"Tom, I got something for you."
"Cool, what? I don't want any lasagna!" He said with an honest look of surprise on his face.
I reached into my pocket and fished out the key to Mom's car (which the police drove home from the hospital to the street in front of our house during the day). I handed it to Tom, he looked at me puzzled.
"The key to Mom's Buick land cruiser." I softly said.
"The battle cruiser?" He looked at the key in my outstretched hand then back in my eyes.
"Yep, I want you to drive it and we can take your Mom's car back and have our own wheels. Okay?"
He smiled and ripped it from my palm and hugged me. I hugged him back. "Now can you help me with some chores?"
"Yep, chore is like my middle name!" he replied.
"Let's get the house straightened up a bit, my Grandparents don't know where stuff is so we'll do it and make them happy that we got stuff under good control, okay?"
"Cool, tell me what to do and it's done!" He declared with a cocky sounding voice and a smile. I reminded him how together we got the diner dishes all caught up super fast, let's do that here, he agreed.
I rattled off a list of stuff. He was to strip my mom's bed and bring all her laundry and bathroom laundry to the utility room pronto, dump it all on the floor. I started the washer and dryer, Crow was on the living room floor watching us run around like crazy people. My Grandparents watched us smiling. Gram was still on the phone and writing lots of notes. She was ordering her obituary and finishing the funeral plans and talking to the utility companies and her bank and insurance agent. Gramps called Mom's lawyer in town too. Luckily, Mom had a will and some kind of trust so her stuff would get settled how she wanted, not how the probate judge wanted. Her goal was to avoid as much of the state and federal death taxes as possible.
Within one hour we had the entire house much more organized. I showed my Grandparents where stuff was in Mom's room and bathroom. At first they wanted to use the third bedroom but I told them no-way. We made up Mom's room and got it all ready for them to use and put new towels out too. I even washed her mattress pad and sprayed everything with Lysol.
People from Mom's work arrived at the front door. If someone supervised parking there was room in our driveway for about four cars and about four more in front of the house along the curb. We already had Grandpa's SUV, Mom's Buick, Maria's Impala, and the Amarillo Police Dept cruiser but I had no freaking idea why it was there. We had enough food to feed the neighborhood and Grandma had an envelope sent over from Pantex that I thought was stuffed with cash, like they passed the hat around her office or something. So we had no worries except for the suck factor tomorrow when I would bury my actual best friend. We all tried to keep our minds on things at hand and deal with the occasional visitor.
When we had time Tom and I drove his Mother's Impala home and drove back to our house and parked in the street in front of the dead cop car. Just for fun Tom and I raised the hood of the cop car and saw there was no engine or transmission! It was a decoy from the junk yard, but at a glance looked like a perfectly normal patrol car with lights and antennas!
We started eating the giant sub for dinner. We had to cut it up to fit in the fridge anyway. We walked Crow that afternoon about 3pm between loads of dishes and laundry. About every hour I leaned over to press my mouth into the soft fur beside his ear and whispered to Crow that Mom was dead, she was gone and never coming back. I really wanted him to understand her disappearance, at home Crow was the last family member to see Mom alive. She may have said something to him before she left, she usually said bye to Crow anytime she left the house.
If I got some kind of feedback from him to let me know he understood that Mom was dead then I would stop telling him, but his face stayed blank every time I told him.
During our walk I saw a dead squirrel in the street near the school. Squirrel was one of the words Crow knew well. We ran home and I got the two pillow cases from Mom's bedding out of the laundry and put them inside a Ziploc bag since they smelled like her.
Tom was with me, Crow was on the short leash. Crow did his stuff then we walked over to the dead squirrel in the street near the curb. I told Tom that I used a special language for teaching Crow that nobody ever saw me do before, that it sounded like Sesame Street style baby talk but it worked well and he seemed to grasp things better that way, he could not talk about this to anyone because it was very personal. He agreed.
We walked on the sidewalk by the dead animal. I knew from five years with Crow that he understood special teaching moments. He kept offering me his paw to shake, I kept telling him to `CEASE' he knew something was up because we never did that before.
I let Crow sniff the road-kill, he sniffed the corpse and I said, no sniff, see squirrel,' he looked at it then at me. Crow, see dead squirrel, see dead squirrel.' He looked at the animal and sniffed the air again and I told him several times, SQUIRREL DEAD.
So I walked Crow away and opened the plastic bag and let him sniff the pillow cases inside. He sniffed the top and I said, "Crow, Mom dead. Mom dead Crow. Mom all gone. Then he kind of sighed and sat there and stared blankly down the street.
Crow looked in my eyes for about two seconds, I saw the gears in his head turning. Then he stood up with his tail hanging down and looked at the ground. I leaned over grabbing his lower jaw to aim his eyes at mine. Tom and I were getting emotional. I patted my chest and said "Rob love Crow." While I did that I put my hands together in a clasped hands embrace and held them to my chest then touched the dog's chest. Then I repeated it a few more times while he watched. Then Crow looked down at the grass, then towards the squirrel again. Then he acted like he wanted to go home, so we walked home. Tom and I held hands while we walked down the sidewalk heading towards my house. On the way home we talked.
"Well dog whisperer, did he get it?"
"I don't think so. I'm sure I got his attention big time and he knows something is wrong with Mom but he hasn't made the connection with the squirrel yet. But I'm sure he knows something is very wrong, death is a very abstract thing to try to teach a dog because DEAD is an adjective word. Maybe he does, I'm not really sure. I'll need to keep re-enforcing it for a while. When we get home put that pillow case in the bag on my dresser please."
"Sure." Tom said while we slowly walked home.
"By the way, just in case you didn't guess already I'm going to give you her car."
"What the hell?" He stopped suddenly and turned to face me with a look of shock on his face.
"I want you to have my Mom's car, okay?" I said keeping my voice low, trying to keep him calm.
"You can't just give me someone else's car?"
"Unless they lied and Mom is just hiding 'til my next birthday then I'd say she don't need it no more. I never liked that huge thing so you can have it."
"Holy fuck! Like how much do I owe?" He said with a look of disbelief on his face.
"Tom please stop acting like you don't get it."
"Okay then what's the catch? There's always a catch on freebies."
"The catch is it might take a few weeks to get the title signed over and until then it's my car and you're going to drive it and until then you got a few weeks to convince Maria that it's appropriate for me to give you her car. It drinks gas and it's hard to park, it smells like my Mom and I don't really want to ride around in it, that's the catch. And if we break-up three months from now it's still your car, once the title is signed over to you it's all yours but not until then. Is that okay?"
"Maybe I should trade it with Management and I take her car so we can ride around together and you won't get weirded-out."
"That's a great idea!" I said patting Crow on the side of the neck. Then I added that we had some great memories in the back seat of Maria's car! We both chuckled and agreed on that point!
"Two days ago I was talking to Management about how I could afford a car. I thought the only way that would happen is if one fell from heaven." He said as we continued our walk home. Tom mumbled that affording insurance is another matter entirely.
"Well its weeks away so be nice to me or I might decide to set it on fire instead."
"Oh trust me, about the only thing I might do to make you mad for the rest of the year is make you come too many times."
We both laughed at the thought. We were walking down the sidewalks in my neighborhood and ended up walking past Daniel's house, I showed Tom where he lived again. I talked a bit about Dan and our long standing relationship but total lack of intimacy. Tom said his house was huge and looked like they were rich. I told him they had an in-ground pool in the back yard too.
It was getting dark, we were holding hands, and I was feeling much happier. We came to a bus stop across from the high school main entrance. We sat down on the bench to talk, it was getting dark and cold, and we weren't dressed for night time so we sat closer together but kept talking. That was one of the best conversations Tom and I had that year. We really spoke of what we liked about each other and what our plans were for the rest of the school year.
We decided if it was possible to sell Mom's house and move to Galveston. We agreed that neither of us had a strong desire to live the rest of our lives in Amarillo.
I was about frozen, Crow was trembling and Tom was too, so we walked quickly home. Rounding the corner I saw there were now six cars at our place, all the outside lights were on. Now there were two police cars. Most of the other cars were strangers to me.
I walked in the back door leaving Crow and Tom briefly in the yard. Inside it was mostly the same people from our New Year party. Bethany and Maggie were over, so were Mom's boss and his wife, and my grandparents with Daniel and his Mom. There were also three uniformed Amarillo cops. I asked out loud if anyone was allergic to dog. Nobody said a thing so I went back outside, grabbed the loop leash and walked the large-proud-prancing (attention seeking) Great Dane back in his house. The visitors spoke with delight. I released Crow, he made the rounds visiting and sniffing everyone. I watched from behind his butt closely to be sure he didn't get to nosy. But like always Crow got nearly nose to nose with most of them. I told them to push back on his chest if he got to close, that always worked. Predictably, Crow became the center of attention. If he got too rude I could yank his tail to pull him back, he hated it when I did that but it worked.
Crow really has no awareness of how bad it can be to come nose to nose with a stranger Great Dane.
In our TV room full of strangers a curious Great Dane really was an elephant in the room. Crow loved meeting people, but not all people love meeting a Great Dane nose to nose. I explained I thought it was his eyesight that made him get that close, my explanation seemed to make it less shocking to the eggheads in the room.
I walked up to Bethany, hugged her then her Mom Maggie for about two minutes. We both cried a little, she kissed me on the cheek. Then I went to Daniel's (very petite) mother and held her too, then Daniel. I had enough tears already shed in the last ten minutes. It felt good to be hugged by my closest friends. I re-introduced Tom to everyone. The police introduced themselves. That was the first time that Dan and Tom met face to face and shook hands too, I wasn't there to supervise because I was watching my dog's behavior around strangers.
Detective Garner told us that Mom had donated computer networking hardware to the police department and purchased holiday food trays for the detective branch for the past six years. He also said that because of where she worked and what she did for a living all the stuff Webmaille scientists did for the police was confidential and could never be discussed but they already named the new sub-precinct on the west side of town as the Davis Center in her honor. Everyone clapped and smiled. I wondered what else she must have done for them. I glanced over at Gram, she winked back at me. I wondered why I was just learning all this stuff now.
While the one detective guy spoke to my grandparents there was a knock on the door, I went to answer. It was the same guy from Gustavo Catering. I opened the door and pushed the rubber stopper under it, then grabbed Crow and put him in my room and closed my door.
The guy wheeled in a box loaded with more food to replace what he already devoured. Then he returned again and again with party food for tomorrow. Before he left he went up to Grandpa and handed him another thick white bank envelope. I kicked the door shut and returned to hear the final seconds of the speech from the detective dude about all the stuff my Mom did for them. I forgot to ask where the Davis Center was.
By the time the cops left I was at the door saying thanks for all their help and noticed there was another black and white cop car in the street now. The two left and got in the third car leaving two cop cars in the street.
Bethany and Maggie left around 8:45pm. I whispered in her ear that I would not be able to go to prom with her because we were moving soon, she nodded yes and left holding hands with her mother. I was glad I took the time to end that once and for all. She still had plenty of time to find a prom date. Maybe could find some guy to slip his penis inside her. I had no idea if Beth was a virgin or not, but I suspected not.
During the gathering I managed to get Tom and Dan (and Crow) into my bedroom and shut the door. I introduced them formally, "Tomas Riley Junior, this is Daniel J. Lund. I've known Dan since we were little kids with Tonka trucks playing in the dirt. The two of you are my best friends in the world." Then Dan spoke as clearly (slowly) as he could, "Correction, best friends after the dog!" We laughed and I playfully punched his shoulder, and he pretended to fall backwards on my bed, so I yanked him back to his feet.
What really surprised me was Tom stepped closer and grabbed his hand, shook it vigorously and told Dan as far as he was concerned they were also good friends, then he even hugged Dan and put one kiss on the side of his cheek, which made his hearing aid squeal briefly. Dan gestured how much taller everyone was than him. I stepped beside Dan and put my arm over his shoulder and pulled him tightly into me so both of us faced Tom. Then Tom stepped in and group hugged us. I turned my head and kissed Daniel on the cheek and did the same thing to Tom.
Kissing Daniel on the cheek was like kissing a cute chubby faced boy. His skin was soft and irresistible so he was hard to resist. I think all three of us started to get emotional, it was such a long overdue meeting we'd all been looking forward to.
Tom reached over and gently pushed Dan's hair aside to expose his ears, then Dan pulled out one hearing aid and in his sloppy English told him he was deaf as a post. Then Tom repeated it back the way it sounded, "You deah ah poass." Daniel laughed and said, "Deah ah poass." Tom replied with, "You're cute as fuck." Dan immediately blushed and leaned into him and kissed his cheek again. I wanted to lift Tom's shirt to show him off but decided not to. "Alright, let's stop now, we're supposed to be in mourning." Dan stepped back and acted like he wiped sweat off his forehead and Tom laughed again. Tom looked at me and softly said "He's funny, I see why you two're best friends. I wish I'd had a friend like Dan too."
Then Dan interrupted and told Tom, "You do now brother!" and we all chuckled again. I was so happy seeing them standing just a few inches apart I could hardly stand it.
We chatted briefly but Dan mostly listened and couldn't take his eyes off Tom, then we left the room and joined the crowd at the buffet in the living room. Several times I noticed Dan was stuck staring at Tom's body. Once when Tom looked away Dan made a gesture at me that Tom was too hot to put into words. Dan gestured when Tom's back was turned as if he burned his finger trying to touch his back, but he was hot as a pizza stone! I knew exactly what he meant and sneakily stuck out one finger as if to say I was already hard, we both smiled.
Knowing probably nobody else could read it he signed to me that if I didn't marry Tom immediately he would! I laughed quietly.
Then Dan continued to comment to be by ASL that Tom looked like a clothing model or a TV teen idol, and I agreed and suggested all of us go swimming some time. Tom seemed uncomfortable when he suddenly didn't know what we were talking about, he also did not know that Dan and I used ASL routinely, Dan was my teacher.
So I got us moving along the food line and tried to keep Tom and Dan near each other the rest of the time. For me they needed to be friends. Not too long after Dan finished his food his mother told him it was time to leave.
We walked outside and I was surprised to see Dan and his mother actually drove to our house. The four of us walked to their car, his mom got in and we hugged Dan and we watched them drive off down Sandie Drive toward the school, but they turned left one block away, just past the ever-present Crown Vic.
Tom and I stood in the street watching them disappear around the corner. He commented about the Crown Vic and said they could take the tires off and park it on cement blocks and save money on tires. He wanted to walk down to it and pound on the glass but I said it's too cold, let's go back in.
While we were outside Grandpa started to pack the open foil pans back into the refrigerator in the living room as we got ready to call it a day. We sat in the TV room, I asked Gramps how Mom's bed was to sleep on. Then I added that Crow liked it except it was too high off the floor and he didn't like the dog in the mirror in her room. I don't think they understood what I meant by, 'the dog in the mirror.'
In a rather serious tone Grandpa said Mom's bed was way too high and too firm for them, they slept on a waterbed at home.
So I told them to try my bed instead, and also try the bed in the guest bedroom, which was essentially identical to mine except the headboard was different. I think the guest room bed was slightly higher off the floor than mine, but mine was as low as it would adjust. I seemed to recall the mattress in that room was identical to mine.
They got up and we went from room to room testing beds and I learned that part of the decision for them would also be the height off the floor, mine was the lowest setting, but they were not tall, Gram was maybe two inches taller than Daniel but heavier. And Gramps was about the same height as Tom, maybe 5'9" or 10"
Then the discussion became which room was best for them since we could move any bed to any room with a few hand tools and some muscle. I kept telling them to decide, don't worry about my feelings. So they wanted my bed and my room, which was about the worst possible answer for me, but we decided to do the switching after the funeral and the catering stuff was gone. I think they liked my room because it was equal distant in both directions to a bathroom door. I think at their ages they no longer shared the bathroom.
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