Free Loving Piper by Charlotte Lockheart Page A

seemed to fix themselves up, while others intensified throughout the whole process.
    “Daddy?” Jennie was staring at him, her head on an angle, her eyes wide.
    “Nothing’s wrong, sweetheart, just a couple of things from work. And they’re better now, so don’t worry.”
    “Can we eat outside?” Jennie started to bounce.
    Great, Rob was off the hook. He said, “Sure we can. Why don’t you get some plates out for us…a couple of napk—”
    “I wonder what Piper eats for dinner. Can I ask her?”
    Rob sighed. “Uh, I don’t think she’s home right now.”
    “Can I go check?”
    “Well, sweetheart, actually I know she’s not home right now. I saw her leave.”
    Jennie had been pestering him about Piper and she now slumped theatrically. She loved having a mission, a reason to run or jump up and down. Suddenly she raised her hands above her head and stood on tiptoe in her ballerina position. Then she darted out of the kitchen and ran up the stairs. A minute later she was back with her big rooster, dancing him around the kitchen.
    Good, the mood roller coaster had taken an upturn. “Jennie, can you and Brocky help me carry dinner out. I’ve got our plates and drinks, how about you grab the napkins and cutlery.”
    “Daddy, look, Brocky can carry napkins on his head!”
    “Yes, he’s gifted. I only had to hear him cluck once and I knew he was the finest fowl in the flock.” Rob emitted his version of rooster talk.
    Jennie giggled uncontrollably and had to pick up the napkins more than once on their way to the patio table as Brocky lost control of his additional headpiece.
    There was no more talk of Piper that evening. His daughter was in the throes of becoming accustomed to a switch at the day care and was bubbling with stories about the new Mrs. Stevens, who was very nice but Jennie missed Mrs. Small, who had such a nice voice. She moved on to her friend Marissa.
    “She has white shoes with ladybugs all over them, and a ladybug T-shirt. Daddy, do we need more ladybugs? They’re the bestest bugs. Marissa said they eat other bugs, the bad bugs.”
    “What about bedbugs, honey, we don’t have bedbugs.” Rob tuned back into Jennie’s chatter.
    “No, Daddy, bad bugs—they eat the bad bugs.”
    Rob tried to make her laugh. “What? The kids at school are eating bad bugs?”
    Unsmiling, Jennie stared at her father. She had picked up on his inattention. Rob couldn’t wait for this day to grind to a close. When the conversational standards of a five-year-old were beyond him, that said something about his state of mind.
    Jennie was very tired and was asleep even before Rob finished reading the story. He kept reading aloud to the end just because he couldn’t stop himself. Animal stories were his favorites, Jennie’s too, and it seemed wrong to leave a youngster lost in the forest without his mother when a few more minutes would have them reunited and snuggling. He kissed his daughter’s forehead, walked to the door, then looked back at the tiny mound under the covers. At times like this he was overcome with love for her. Because of Jennie, he knew he still had a heart.
     
    Rob stood very still in the far corner of the garden, flashlight in hand, waiting patiently for the next croak of what he was sure had to be a tree frog. The sounds had been loud but infrequent, and so pegging the amphibian’s location was difficult. He’d been in the dark, treed area probably no more than fifteen minutes, but it seemed like hours and he was almost ready to give up when the door from the apartment opened and Piper walked out. She carried something in one hand and walked cautiously to an empty chair on the patio. She placed what he could now see was a cup on the table in front of her and leaned back into the chair.
    Rob was about to call out to her, softly so as not to scare her, when he heard a brief guttural sound. He was immediately riveted again by the notion of tree frogs, but the nature of this was far different