BLOOD ON THE ASPHALT
by Galen Hardesty
Chapter Five

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"Let's see if he'll do it again," she said. She got up off the sofa and put Opie down gently in the middle of the floor, then retreated toward the kitchen area. Opie looked around to get his bearings, sniffed the air a few times, and then made a little sneezy noise. He took a couple of wobbly steps, still looking all around him, and sneezed again. He definitely looked anxious.

"See?" said Daria.

At the sound of her voice, Opie seemed to get a fix on Daria's location, and he made as near a beeline for her as he could manage, at the best speed he could manage, what with tripping over his own feet every few steps, sneezing as he went. Jake, Helen, and even Quinn watched amazed. They couldn't miss the little animal's eagerness to get to Daria.

Opie reached Daria and climbed onto her sneaker. He got hold of the leg of her jeans and looked like he was going to try to climb it, all the while making the soft sneezing noise. Helen blinked rapidly. Daria stooped and picked him up and returned to the sofa. He immediately stopped sneezing.

"It's all right, Opie, Daria's got you." Daria sat on the floor in front of the sofa and put Opie on her knee. He checked out the possibility of crawling inside the wrist of her sweatshirt, then began working his way up her leg.

"It's like he knows his momma is dead, and he knows he can't make it on his own, so he came to me for help." Daria put out a hand to keep Opie from sliding off her leg.

Daria looked at Jake. He had a sort of mushy nostalgic look, as if he were thinking of what might have been long ago if he'd been allowed to keep his foundling kitten. Helen's face seemed to be a battleground of conflicting emotions. She was obviously touched to see that the little possum had adopted Daria as its substitute mother, but some other emotion was at work there too.

Quinn was also looking at Jake's and Helen's faces, and didn't seem to like what she saw there. She looked at Opie, then at Daria, then back at her parents. Daria guessed that Quinn wanted to be the center of attention, but was temporarily at a loss for a strategy to upstage a baby possum.

So, she thought, Quinn hates my guts, as always, Dad is on my side this time, and Mom…Mom has doubts. Or something.

Daria got to her feet, holding the little possum close to her so he wouldn't be frightened. She held him out toward Helen. "Mom, would you like to hold him?"

Helen still seemed undecided whether to take Opie and cuddle him, or take a broom to him. She said, "I have to go start dinner," quickly got up, and escaped to the kitchen.

Daria turned to Jake. "How about you, Daddy? Daddy?"

"Huh? What?" Jake started and looked up.

"Do you want to hold Opie?"

Jake's apprehensive look switched from Opie to Daria and back. "Uhhh… not now, Kiddo, I, uhh, I've got my suit on."

It never occurred to Daria to ask Quinn, but Quinn piped up anyway. "No way, Olay!" she said scornfully.

Daria stroked Opie reassuringly. She looked toward the kitchen door and frowned slightly. It was almost as if Mom didn't want to get to like Opie.

After dinner, Jake and Helen returned to their easy chairs to watch TV, and Daria took up her usual spot on the right end of the sofa. Opie was clambering around on her, seemingly at random. He seemed to want to wiggle down between the sofa cushions, but Daria was careful to prevent this.

Quinn hesitantly sat on the other end of the sofa, her only other choice being the floor if she wanted to watch TV. She cast an occasional glare in Opie's direction.

After a while, Opie seemed to notice Quinn. Daria was unobtrusively blocking his progress in that direction, but she could tell that he wanted to get closer to Quinn and check her out.

Quinn glanced over while Daria was holding Opie between her left hand and her thigh. "Ewww! How can you stand to hold that thing like that?" she said in that deliberately irritating tone that she used for most of her conversations with Daria.

"You're right, Quinn," Daria replied. "I'm being selfish." She lifted her hand and laid it in her lap. "Go to Quinn, Opie."

The little possum, freed from the restraint of Daria's hand, did what he'd been wanting to do. As if on command, he wobbled off across the sofa cushions toward Quinn. Helen, who'd been half paying attention, looked slightly amazed at this.

Quinn also did just what Daria expected her to do. She shrieked, sprang up from the couch, and ran and hid behind Jake's easy chair, disrupting the general tranquility.

Opie stopped about two feet from Daria, as he often had before, and stood peering and sniffing toward the spot Quinn had just vacated. Feeling fairly sure he was about to turn and head back toward her, she said, "Come back, Opie. She might bite you."

Opie, with a last sniff , turned and tottered back to Daria, drawing looks of disbelief from the other three. "Yeah, she might bite widdle Opie," Daria said, picking him up and laying him on his back between her knees. "Or even worse! She might… tickle you! Tickle, tickle, tickle!" Bending over and holding a lock of her hair like a feather, she tickled his little pink tummy with it. "Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle!" Opie laid his head back and grinned, and thrashed his little feet back and forth in the air so comically that Jake and Helen burst out laughing.

Quinn was furious at being upstaged so badly. "Darn it!" she whined. "How am I supposed to watch TV when Daria's got that…animal in here?"

Jake and Helen frowned at Quinn. Helen said, "Now Quinn, you're being a little childish. Daria isn't bothering you."

It looked to Daria like Quinn was losing points, but she persisted. She screwed up her face into her "I'm just about to cry" look, balled up her little fists at her sides, and stamped her little foot. "No. I'm not! She sicced her rat on me! He was gonna bite me!"

Meanwhile, Daria's fierce attack rat, still lying on his back on Daria's knees, was gleefully batting at Daria's tickling hair with his paws. He had most of Helen's attention and all of Jake's. Quinn was seeing firsthand why Vaudevillians hated to follow an animal act.

Quinn was so frustrated she was jiggle-hopping and shaking the back of Jake's chair. She probably really would cry in a minute. Daria decided to be extra-nice, the better to contrast with Quinn's performance. "Come on, Opie," she said. "Lets get you fed and set up for the night. We all know how much Quinn loves to watch…" She glanced at the TV screen. "The Saturday Pigskin Predictors. We certainly wouldn't want to cause her to miss that."

Helen turned to Daria. "Daria, sweetie, your father and I need to talk with you about the possum," she said in her concerned parent voice.

Daria knew what her mom was going to say next, and she understood now why Mom hadn't wanted to risk becoming attached to Opie. She also knew that Mom hadn't discussed this with Dad. She hadn't had time.

"Daddy told me he could stay," she said simply. One other thing Daria knew was that Helen had a parenting book that said that one parent should never contra... tell the children something different from the other parent. And Daddy had spoken.

Helen gave Jake a look that was very carefully not angry, but that clearly said, "We need to talk." Jake gave Helen a slightly sheepish smile in return.

Pretty sure that Opie would be spending the night, Daria got up and put him down on the floor, then slowly backed into the kitchen, watching Opie following clumsily and comically along behind.

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