Senior Year Box Set

We’d just gotten the picture taken when Duke perked up. My first thought was that his squirrel radar had gone off, so I reached for his collar, but he bolted for the garage. I wasn’t happy when my hound pushed the side door open, and I heard barking. I prayed he hadn’t cornered a skunk.

Everyone, including the newspaper photographer, followed me into the garage to see what all the excitement was. We found Duke dancing around as he looked back at me like he did when his tennis ball got stuck under some piece of furniture.

“What did you find?” I asked our mayor.

Then I heard the mews of kittens.

“Leave them alone,” I told my hound.

“I’ll call animal control, and they’ll come to get them,” Grandma Dawson said.

I glanced over at the reporter, and my grandmother caught my expression. Calling animal control to possibly off a litter of kittens wasn’t how I would play this, even if they were feral cats. Getting them spayed and neutered was the very least we should do because letting six more cats into the wild was probably a bad idea.

“Maybe I should just put them in a gunny sack and head to the river,” I teased to make my point.

“David!” Cassidy complained. “I’ll take them and find them homes.”

That was even a worse idea than calling animal control. First, her dad would kill both of us, and second, whenever Cassidy said she would do something, somehow, I ended up helping. I’d already helped raise one litter of kittens for Precious. There was no way I wanted to go through it a second time.

“Or you could just leave them alone. I’m sure their mother will come back,” Tim suggested.

I sighed. That would be the easy answer.

“The problem is, they grow into cats that have more kittens. We already have too many feral cats running around,” Grandma Dawson said, saving me from having to explain.

“Can I get a picture with Mayor Duke and the kittens?” the photographer asked.

Evidently, my hound had been paying attention. He looked right into the camera for the guy. I guess being a Dawson meant he had the potential to be a model.

Cassidy found a box, and we helped her catch her new charges. They were pretty quick when they figured out we were going to try to put them in the box. By the time we’d gotten to Cassidy’s house, they’d all bailed out of the box and were running around in the backseat of my Demon.

“Go talk to my dad and then come help me,” Cassidy ordered.

I rang their doorbell and Coach Hope answered.

“Cassidy sent me to talk to you,” I said.

“About?”

“She found a litter of kittens and wants to keep them.”

“No.”

“I’m with you on that one. She also wants me to ask if she and I can date,” I said.

“No,” he said without hesitation. “Is there anything else?”

“Yeah, you get to tell her.”

“About which one?” Coach asked.

“Both.”

He didn’t seem happy, but I figured better him than me. I decided to go ahead and walk home. I didn’t need to see my coach in tears when his daughter took him down.

◊◊◊

After I took my shower, I came down to the house to see if there was anything good to snack on before dinner. I entered the kitchen in time to witness a confrontation.

“Greg said David would pay for me to get an apartment of my own,” Angie whined.

“Greg is high on crack if he thinks his brother is going to finance you more than he already has,” Mom shot back.

“I don’t have enough money for anything decent. There’s a unit in the same building that Pam, Scarlet, and Ashley live in that would be perfect. I just need him to write a check for first, last, and the security deposit.”

I was of two minds. On the one hand, I’d started to really dislike my sister-in-law and wasn’t sure if I would even pee on her if she were on fire. Then again, if it would get her out of our house …

“That’s it! Pack your shit and get out!” Mom said, reaching her boiling point.

Even Angie recognized she’d made a mistake. I guess she would have to go home to her own parents’ house.

“But …”

“I don’t care if you sleep on the street tonight. All I know is you’re out of here,” Mom said.

I wanted to cheer when Angie slunk off to go pack. When my mom saw me, she gave me a sheepish grin.

“Do you think I was too rough on her?” she asked.

“Nope. It surprised me that you hadn’t evicted her before now. I mean, she seriously thought we would support her after she cheated on Greg and left him to raise their kids? I never understood why you allowed her to move in in the first place.”

“Because I thought there might be a chance for them to reconcile,” Mom explained.

“But after the STI …”

She nodded.

To think, I used to be jealous of my brother. Now, I was glad it wasn’t me.

◊◊◊

Speaking of my brother, I drove to his house after dinner. I figured I would be a good uncle and watch his kids so he could have some alone time. Greg needed to study for an upcoming test, so he all but kissed me when I showed up.