Free Thicker than Water by Rett MacPherson Page A

girl,” I said. “Tell my mother that. Say, ‘Jalena, she’s a big girl.’”
    â€œShe’s your mother,” he said. “You’re always going to be a child to her. Don’t you know once babies are born, it’s your job to keep them safe? Forever. No matter how old they get.”
    â€œBah,” I said.
    â€œI know, realistically, when they leave home you’re supposed to cut the umbilical cord, but honestly, a parent never stops being a parent,” he said.
    â€œHow would you know?” I said. Colin was childless.
    â€œBecause my mother told me so,” Colin said. “And so has yours. Besides, you don’t have to be a parent to understand that you just can’t turn some things off.”
    There were times I underestimated him. He would never know about those times, but they did happen all the same.

Ten
    The next morning I went downstairs at five o’clock to repeat the process of the morning before—only when I descended the steps I entered the land of Oz. Mrs. O’Shea had just placed a huge stack of pancakes in front of Rudy and poured him a deep and wide cup of black coffee. My kitchen sparkled and smelled of lemons and ammonia. There was not a crumb on the floor, not a speck on the counter, and the food looked scrubbed, too.
    Even Fritz, my wiener dog, looked as though he’d been shampooed. Sitting under the table looking up at me with one of those purely canine expressions, he didn’t seem to be too happy about it.
    â€œGood morning, Torie,” she said. “Hope you don’t mind that I tidied up a bit, but I just couldn’t cook with the kitchen the way it was. I realize your housecleaning day wasn’t until tomorrow. Probably.”
    My housecleaning day was on whatever day I had the smallest amount of other things to do.
    â€œWould you like some pancakes? I know they’re Rudy’s favorite.”
    â€œNo, thank you,” I said.
    â€œCoffee?”
    â€œNo, thanks again.” I would have day-old Krispy Kremes and warm Dr Pepper before I would eat those treacherous pancakes. She’d probably poisoned mine, anyway.
    â€œI told the sheriff not to bother coming over this morning to watch the kids. I’ve got it under control,” she said.
    The truth was, the kids would want to spend the time with her, and that was fine, but it irritated me just a bit that she’d taken it upon herself to make that decision. It was a minor thing and from anybody else wouldn’t have bothered me in the least. Take a deep breath, Torie. It’s fine. She’s done nothing wrong. I’m just overreacting because she’s ticked me off over everything else under the sun .
    I can’t express how proud I was that I’d just talked myself out of making a big deal out of nothing. If I could just do that for the next month—several times a day—I’d survive this, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’d be in line to be the next Powerpuff Girl. I would be able to tame lions. I … I … I could bring about world peace and stop worldwide starvation.
    â€œOh, and really, Torie, that mayor of yours is just the most charming fella. He and I see eye to eye on a lot of issues. Especially over those chickens in your backyard. It’s just a breeding ground for disease. You know, that Hong Kong flu started with chickens,” she said. “The children could get the Hong Kong flu from just standing in your backyard.”
    The people in the world would keep on killing each other, and whoever didn’t die in war would starve, and the lions would eat me, because there was no way in hell I could talk myself down from this one. So instead of putting up an argument, I grabbed the keys for Rudy’s truck and headed out the door.
    â€œTorie!” I heard Rudy call after me. “Where are you going?”
    â€œTo the freaking Strawberry Festival!” I