Untrusting (Troubled) (29 page)

Shay nods and looks at Maria and
Bob, “Can I get Mom and Bob to help me, a little?”

Tears come to my eyes, “I think
they can help when ya don’t know what to do.  What are ya gonna call him?”

“Bullet, like on Roy Rogers.” 
He looks at Maria and Bob and they smile.

“Bullet Gomez.  That’s some
name.” I say.

“No.  Bullet Stuben. 
Mom’s marrying Bob and we’ll have his last name.”  Bob and Maria are
surprised at his statement.  Maria looks at Bob and Bob’s surprise turns
to a smile.

“Yes, you’ll all have my last
name.”He says with the biggest grin on his face and in his eyes.  He
reaches out and hugs Maria.  Shay and Bullet step to him to hug his leg
and receives a big hand on Shay’s shoulder to pull him closer.

Steve hands me a tissue, “You’re
leaking,” he whispers.  I dab my eyes and start getting the paper work
together for the adoption.  I have to send Maria to the hardware store to
get the things for the adoption bags while I check out the dog.  Shay
brings a paper to me that was in the box.

It said the dogs are pure bred, but
it’s an accidental pregnancy.  They gave two of the puppies away, but
can’t find anyone to take the others.  Would I please find them a good
home?  They have no shots as yet.

It’s good to know people are taking
the adoption center seriously.

Maria’s back with the bags and she
gets them prepared to hand out.  For Shay I include a page of instructions
in the adoption bag, so he’ll feel like he’s the owner.  I have him put on
the collar and get him to lead Bullet on the leash.  I teach him how to
hold Bullet, properly, instead of by the chest with his back feet
dangling.  When we walk outside and Bullet squats to pee, I tell Shay to
tell him what a good boy he is.  Shay is beside himself with pride because
he can do these things with HIS puppy.  Now Maria needs a tissue and Bob’s
beaming with pride at Shay’s taking responsibility.

Steve’s beaming, too.  I
figure he’s proud of Shay, too, but he comes over to me, hugs me and whispers
in my ear, “You’ll be a good mother.”

We leave the boys and Bullet to
take care of each other and go to work so we can close the clinic, take care of
the guests, clean the three kennels and feed the animals.  The puppies are
kenneled ‘til I can get back to them.  They’re clean so I put them in the
clinic kennels.

Two hours later we’re finished and
ready to go home.  As we’re about to lock the door Mr. Gustaf comes in
with three dogs and a box with five puppies.  He shows me the ticket
Sheriff Carl gave him so I have to get the dogs taken care of now or he loses
the dogs.  I ask him if he can leave them tonight and pick them up
tomorrow.  He can’t he needs the guard dogs at night.  We take them
out to the shelter and proceed to wash them.  I insist he help this
time.  Maria bathes the puppies in the sink, several times.  He and I
bathe the dogs ‘til they’re clean.  Then I check them and they have the
same ulcers as Brutus.  The female dog is showing signs of being
sick.  I don’t let him take her back with him.  Same instructions as
Brutus are given to him, including the weekly visits.

The puppies stay with the female
dog.  I check them closer at the clinic.  The female has worms and so
do the puppies.  I give them a de-wormer and put them in the
shelter.  I’ll need to check on them later when I come back to check on
the others.  I call Mr. Gustaf to tell him what’s wrong with the dogs and
tell him I want to check the other three for worms.  And I want any
vaccination documents for all the animals, if he has any.  He says he
doesn’t, so I tell him I’ll vaccinate them all and he can pay for the shots as
he can.  The licenses have to be paid for immediately, because that’s city
funds.  I tell him how much he’ll need and tell him I’ll take care of all
the dogs at the appointment time next week.  That settled, he can pick up
the puppies and mama Monday.

Its eight o’clock and Maria and I
are beat.  Shay needs to eat, be bathed and put to bed.  The rest of
us could use the same treatment.  The Burger Barn is busy tonight, but we
wait to eat.  Shay’s falling asleep when our food arrives.  We eat
quickly so Bob and Maria can get Shay home and into bed.  Steve and I go back
to the office so I can let the guests and puppies out and I can check on the
shelter dogs.

I have to move the shelter dogs to
another kennel.  The worming medicine worked very well and quickly, but I
can’t leave them in the mess it’s created.  I bathe them and dry them,
clean the kennel and put them away.

Steve’s been working on the
newsletter in the office and has it almost finished.  He stops when I come
in, “Ready to go home, or is there something else ya need to do?”  I shake
my head.  “I just need a minute to finish this schedule and we’ll go
home.”  I sit down to document the shelter log and the hotel log,
finishing at the same time as Steve.

Steve starts to turn to go out to
my place when I tell him not to turn, his place is closer and I’m too tired and
have too much to do tomorrow at the office to go all the way out to the
ranch.  He drives home, we shower and go to bed to snuggle and sleep.

I can’t sleep in today.  I
have to let the dogs out and clean the kennels.  The shelter puppies are
livelier and mama is feeling better.  I give them vitamins and the puppies
get their shots.  I start a file on each of them and give them a soft
collar with a number.  I also start an account for Mr. Gustaf.

Steve’s fixing breakfast when I get
home.  “Why didn’t ya wake me up?  I’d’ve gone with ya.  I could
have finished the newsletter for the next two weeks.”

“I thought I’d let ya sleep a while
longer.  Breakfast, yum, I’m starving.  You can go with me at noon
and work if ya want.”

“How’s the dogs?”  He’s
flipping eggs and turning bacon and hash browns.

“They’re fine.  Mr. Gustaf’s
dogs are better, but I want to examine them again this afternoon.  I may
need to worm them again and I’d rather clean up the mess before dark than like
last night.”  I sit down at the counter and Steve hands me a cup of
coffee.

“You look tired already. 
Maybe we can relax the rest of the morning and you can get a nap.  Oh,
your Mom called and I told her what happened and why we’re not out there
today.  Grams called and she said things are looking better with Glen’s
kids.  She’s enjoying her visit, but she wants to come home because she
has so much to do for Christmas.  She said she’s called in her orders and
she has to be here to pick them up by the tenth of December.  She asked
how you and Maria are faring with the guests and the shelter without her. 
She said she’s trying to hire some cleaning help.  She was distracted by
Glen and didn’t get it done before she left.  She’s sorry about leaving it
all to you girls.”

“It’s fine.  We’ll get through
the weekend.  I’ll be glad when the boarding house is empty for a
while.  Mr. Gustaf’s dogs have made things difficult, but not
impossible.  I’m going to call Maria and get some help at lunch and
supper.  This morning was a bit much for one person.”  We eat and go
in to watch TV and I fall asleep on the couch, my head on Steve’s chest. 
Steve wakes me when he gets up to answer the phone.

It’s Maria and she wants to go to
Gatesville to do a little shopping.  I tell her I was hoping to get her
help with the dogs, at lunch.  She says she’ll help at supper and at nine,
but Shay and Bullet can stay at her sister’s ‘til three and the wagon Shay
wants is on sale today.  So I tell her to go, but I expect the help she
promised later.  I ask Maria to ask Bob if he can make a poster to put in
the window for the adoption of the Shelties.  He says okay.

I stretch out on the couch and go
back to sleep.  Steve wakes me at eleven and we go to the office.  We
go to look over the kennels then he starts working on the newsletter again. 
The sign for the puppies’ adoption is in the window.  The litter needs to
be cleaned, but the kennels are clean at the boarding house.  The adoption
puppies are let out with the guest dogs.  The kennels in the clinic are
cleaned then I check on the shelter dogs.

I check them out and they aren’t
completely de-wormed yet.  So I give them another light dose of worming
medicine.  The puppies are about five weeks old and are mixed breed. 
I can’t tell what the mix is since mama is mixed, too.  I don’t know what
Mr. Gustaf is going to do with the puppies but I’m going to offer to adopt them
out for him.  I leave the shelter dogs out in the yard that’s separated
from my yard while I clean their kennel and it dries.

I go in to see what Steve has
gotten done and he has the newsletter ready to print for the next month. 
“Look at all the charity events that are coming up.  The three churches
are asking for donations for the poor.  The Senior Citizen’s Center wants
food donations for food baskets.  Craft clubs are asking for help to make
things for gifts for the senior citizens and kids.  And they all have
requests for good used clothes and coats of all sizes.  Maybe this
Christmas Grams will have more help than usual.  She needs to be here to
organize the giftin’.  She can get the information to these organizations
so each family will have what they need and can use.  I’ll have to tell
her next time she calls.”

“Does that mean we’ll all be
running around half crazy again?  The carnival was great but everyone
worked their tails off.  You and Bob won’t be able to do as much with
you’re injuries.  Does that mean Maria and I will be the ones working on
that with all this, too?”  I spread my arms indicating the “all this”
around me.

He pulls me into his lap, “Ya sound
like you’ll be put out to help.”

“Steve, we have three businesses
and the newsletter we’re taking care of now.  When will we have time to
take on more activities?  Miss Lili said the boarding house should be full
for about two weeks over Christmas.  And I have people calling in for
appointments for spaying in December.  That will take most of the
afternoon and checking the puppies every two hours after the surgery.  I
don’t know where the time will come from if I’m to spend any time with you and
sleep.”

“Okay, I can see you’ll be too busy
with everything to be much help with Christmas, but we’ll work things out so ya
don’t have to miss your beauty sleep.  Besides, I don’t want ya looking
haggard for Christmas.”  He kisses me and I relax a bit.

He’s ready to go, so I go out to
put the shelter animals back in their kennel and we grab a burger for lunch and
go home.  I do laundry for me and Steve and then it’s back to the
office.  We take Chaucee this time because I had to clean up after her
when we got home.  Steve prints out the newsletter for next month and
we’ll put them out on the way home.  I let the puppies out and check on
the guests.  Maria arrives and we clean the boarding house and feed the
animals.

Then we go to the shelter. 
Once again the medicine has worked.  Maria bathes the dogs and I clean the
kennel.  I finish first and help Maria dry them.  Then we feed and
water mama and leave them out while the kennel dries.

I grab Chaucee on the way to check
on the guys.  They aren’t here.  Bob’s truck is gone, too.  So
we sit down to wait for them.  We talk about the shelter dogs, Miss Lili
and the newsletter of events.  I tell her about my talk with Steve and
she’s almost mad that we’ll be expected to take on more things because we’re
engaged to them. “I need to shop for Christmas and so do you.  The hotel,
the surgeries, the newsletter and the shelter are going to be about all we can
handle.  I have a son I’d like to see sometime during the month.  Are
they trying to kill us?”

“Steve said they’d work something out
so we have time to rest and sleep.  I guess we’ll have to say something
when it gets to be too much.”  We go out to put the dogs into their kennel
and when we get back the guys are back.

“Where’d y’all go?” Maria asks.

“We put the wagon in the garage at
Miss Lili’s, like we talked about and went after Shay,” Bob says.  “We
want Chinese tonight and y’all are working too hard to cook, even, leftovers
tonight.  Are ya ready for supper?”  We answer “yes” and we’re off to
Kim’s.

After supper we go to Miss Lili’s
and hang out for a while talking about Miss Lili’s call.  At seven, Shay
reminds Bob that he needs to get home to take Bullet out.  I ask how
Bullet’s doing and Shay tells us how Bullet peed on the floor last night and he
cleaned it up before Maria got up.  I asked if he had scolded Bullet for
it and he said “yes.”  “I told him he was bad to go in the house and took
him outside and told him he’s s’posed to go in the grass, and he did.” Shay
shrugged.  “So I told him good boy and petted his head, just like ya said
to.  But now we need to go home, I don’t want to clean up poop,
too.”  We laugh and they go home.

Maria and I check on the dogs at
the office at nine and everything’s fine.  No kennels to clean so we give
them fresh water and put the rain shield down, just in case, and go home. 
Tomorrow’ll be the same ol’ thing.

Sunday at noon Miss Lili calls and
wants us to arrange for all the donated clothes and gifts to be gathered in one
central location, that we arrange.  She wants a flyer and three mailbox
type drop boxes for people to drop names of people who need help for
Christmas.  Then she wants a mailbox for letters to Santa.  The boxes
need to say the last day for drops is to be the eighteenth of Dec ember and a
calendar showing how many days are left should be on the boxes.  They’ll
be home in a few days and she wants these boxes up.  Steve calls Maria’s
to ask Bob and Maria to come over for an organizational meeting. 

The three of them come over to hear
what Miss Lili wants done.  Maria and I are looking at each other like
we’d like to kill someone.  Bob and Steve are partially incapacitated and
Maria and I are over worked as it is, and we tell the guys so.  They
agree, but they need to get this project done for Miss Lili.  Now they
tell us how important it is for them to keep the town trust with Steve, the
heir apparent.  They have to stay involved and partially prove they can
handle it.

They’ve both been trained to watch
for and help those in town that need help, just as Miss Lili was trained. 
The three of them are, pretty much, chained to the town by pride, the trust and
lineage of inheritance.  None of the other relatives have proven reliable
enough to turn the trust over to them, for decades.  That’s why this
branch of the family was chosen as the heirs to administer the trust.  But
they have to live up to the job.  They start to tell us what it means to
the town, but Maria and I stop them.

We know from the few months we’ve
been involved what it means.  And we’ve seen the difference something as
small as the newsletter has made.  So now we need to decide where to find
help with this project.  We suggest we hire some of the unemployed people,
or needy school kids.  Miss Lili must have a list or something that will
help us find someone to get the job done.  But who’s gonna be available to
watch over the project?  Both of the guys have work or sleep with little
time to run this project.  Steve’s gonna have to spend tomorrow morning
finding these people and Bob’ll take over when he gets off work, unless they
can find someone to do it for them.  But not us!

“Call Miss Lili back and ask her
for any names, lists or anything else we can start with.  Or…you two can
hobble around looking for someone to do this.”  The guys aren’t happy with
me, but Maria’s standing beside me with her hands on her hips, backing me
up.  Steve picks up the phone.

Thirty minutes later and a lotta
rummaging around in drawers in the dinning room, Miss Lili’s office and her
bedroom we find her list of hires and volunteers.  She says to be sure the
boxes aren’t exactly the same as the postal drop boxes and we say goodbye.

Maria and I leave to take care of
the dogs and take our time.  Let the guys take care of this as much as
possible is our thoughts on the subject.  It’s time to put a little extra
on the guys, maybe then they’ll understand the strain Miss Lili’s new project
is putting on us.  And tomorrow I hope people interested in adopting the
Shelties will adopt them and take them home.

Maria and I return late, but not
too late.  We don’t want the guys to become suspicious.  They’re
watching TV and having a beer.  “Looks like y’all have everything ready to
go tomorrow.”

“Huh?  Hi honey.  What’d
ya say?”  Steve’s about to be crowned…with the bottle he’s busy
emptying.  I repeat what I’d said.  “Oh, no.  Grams called back
for the numbers and she’s handling it.  We’ll get a call tomorrow to let
us know what we’re expected to do.”  I look at Maria and she’s looking at
me with the “Curses, foiled again” look.

We go out to the kitchen and sit
there whispering our disgust with the turn of events.  Steve comes in to
ask us why we aren’t joining them and Shay and to get two more beers.  We
say we’ll be in in a few minutes.  He notices Chaucee sitting at my feet
and plays with her for a minute then returns to the game on TV.  Chaucee
acts like she needs to go out so Maria and I take her out.  She goes and
then bounds around the yard.  As we’re about to go in Shay lets Chief and
José out and the three dogs play a while.  Shay comes out and complains
that they’ve done nothing but watch the game since we left for the
office.  Okay, it’s time for talking and maybe, some rethinking.

We go in to find the guys hadn’t
noticed anything but the game for the last hour.  Maria and I get our
purses, plop Chaucee in Steve’s lap and we go to dinner with Shay, and without
them.  I drop Maria and Shay off at home, go let the dogs out and go home,
to my home.  I get a call about ten.

Steve’s mad that I’d left without
saying something.  I tell him I didn’t want to interfere with his
game.  He apologizes for ignoring me.  I get mad.  “I’m not mad
about being ignored.  I’m mad because you ignored everybody, but the game
and Bob.  Shay had to let the dogs out and you’re only just noticing we’re
gone.  What happened, did you get hungry and go looking for us to feed
ya?  Did ya even notice Shay didn’t come back with the dogs?  What is
wrong with you guys?  You’ve passed the Christmas box project back to Miss
Lili when she asked you two to handle it for a few days.  Ya knew Maria
and I couldn’t be much help.  Yet, what was done was due to our thinking,
not yours.  Now, you two need to start showing some responsibility for the
town, if you’re gonna inherit the trust.  Maria and I love you two, but we
want to be your wives, not your mothers.  We’ll help as much as we can,
but it’s your job to decide, organize and man the projects.  With babies
and kids and four enterprises of our own, we won’t always be there to
help.  Now if ya want to keep all the good things for yourselves while we
work to give those times to ya, including having babies, I think you’ll have to
find other women.”