CHAPTER 9

Realizing that he had fallen asleep shortly after hanging up with Juliet, Carlton stretched as he looked at his watch. It was almost noon, which meant that he had been sleeping for about 2 hours. Standing, he went into the living room, but found it empty. He was about to check upstairs when he heard some shuffling coming from the door to his left. Pushing it open revealed steps going down and a light that was on down there. Shaking his head, Carlton preceded downstairs.

At the bottom, there was a short hallway with 3 doors leading off it, the middle one opened slightly with light spilling out. Frisco greeted him at the door before leading him towards the back of the 20ft by 6ft room, boxes all along the walls, to where Beth was going through a box, a small smile on her face. Sitting down next to her, he peered into the box and frowned at all the random objects.

Clearing his throat, he asked, "What's all this?"

"My memory box;"

"Memory box?"

"Yeah, it's like a scrapbook except these things are too big to fit between pages. See, here's my award for getting honor roll. It seems silly to me to get a plaque for one semester, but whatever." She sniffled as she moved some things around. "And here's some pieces of wood that I saved from my first mission trip."

"Wood?"

"Yeah, well there weren't a lot of options on a worksite and I was only 14 at the time. I meant to turn them into bookends or something but never got around to it. And here's the collar of my first puppy. We only had her for 6 months when she went running back and forth between traffic and got hit by a car. We had to put her down. I was only 12 at the time and it devastated me because it was the first pet that I experienced death with. I was actually in the room, petting her, when the vet euthanized her, Amy was in the next room crying. I seem to cope better when I'm with my pets when they die."

She sniffled as she looked over at Frisco, who was laying by the door and watching them. "One of the reasons that I got a mutt was because they usually live longer. Frisco was 3 when I got him and I basically saved him from death row. They were a week from putting him down since no one wanted him. I was suppose to get a different dog, more energetic, but someone had already claimed her, so I got Frisco instead. And I've never regretted it."

Frisco got up at this point and came over to Beth, nuzzling her. She laughed as she started rubbing his fur. "He's such a good dog and always knows when I need to be comforted. Occasionally the cats will try to cuddle with me, but I prefer Frisco, cause he's my buddy!"

"Your best friend?" Carlton asked as he gently petted Frisco's back.

Beth smiled as she looked at him, "My best friend of the pet persuasion and you're my best guy friend. So I've got my two favorite guys with me right now, and I couldn't be happier!" A meow made them look over towards the door where Murphy was rubbing against it. Beth laughed as she closed the box and pushed it to the side. "And there's my favorite cuddle cat, telling me that he's hungry since I haven't opened the new bag of cat food yet."

"You're suppose to be resting and taking it easy," Carlton said as they got up and started making their way upstairs.

"I am taking it easy. Did you not see me sitting on the ground while going through boxes? I've even been taking my medicine and checking my temperature like a good girl, so you don't have to worry. "

"You taking medicine? You must be feeling bad." Carlton commented as he walked behind her up the stairs incase she stumbled.

"I know! But I want to get better as soon as possible so I can take you sight seeing. There are so many places that I want to take you and only a week and a half to do them in!" She stopped at the kitchen table and closed her eyes. She took a deep breath and whined, "I hate being sick! It always makes me feel so run down!"

"All the more reason to get better sooner." Carlton said as he rubbed her back. "Did you want something to drink?"

"Yeah, just water." She took another deep breath before pushing off the table and walking over to the pets' food bowls. There was a water bowl and food bowl on the floor and another food bowl on the counter above. "I have to keep the cats' food off the floor or Frisco will eat it. I only put a cup of food in the cat bowl a day, so if they run out, then it's their own fault." She opened the cat food and used a plastic cup to scope out some. She then shook the cup as she called, "Here kitty, kitty, kitty!"

She was immediately met by both Frisco and Murphy. As Beth put the cat food in the bowl, Murphy jumped up on the counter and started eating. As Carlton handed her a glass of water, there was another meow coming from the living room. Beth smiled as she looked over. "There's Salem, right on time. Come here kitty, Carlton's not going to hurt you, is he?"

"He leaves me alone, I'll leave him alone." Carlton said, backing away as an orange and white tabby cautiously made his way into the room.

Salem took one look at Carlton before hopping up on the table and meowing. Beth sat down next to him and started petting him. "I'm going to give Murphy another minute before I give Salem a chance. I don't know why Salem doesn't like Murphy, other than him invading on his turf."

Carlton looked between the two of them before saying, "It's probably the size difference, Murphy is at least 3 times bigger than Salem."

"Yeah, but Murphy is a sweetheart. The only intimidating thing he will do is follow Salem around, like he wants to play or something. He doesn't even seemed scared of Salem except when Salem tries to swipe at him. Even then, Murphy would just stare at him and lay down."

"I'll never understand cats," Carlton muttered as he looked around the kitchen. "Anything in particular that you want for lunch?"

"Something simple, like peanut butter and jelly. But you don't have to limit yourself to that." Beth said as she stood and picked Murphy up.

"No, peanut butter and jelly sounds fine." Carlton got out the bread as Frisco tried to get in the way.

After lunch, Beth grabbed her coat and shoes. "Come on, there's somewhere that I want to take you."

"Okay, am I driving?"

"No, I'm going to drive there but I might have you drive on the way back." Beth smiled slightly as she went to the door and grabbed an umbrella. "You ready?"

"Sure," Carlton replied as he followed her outside.

The ride was quiet, Beth hadn't even turned on the radio, which Carlton knew was a bad sign. When they stopped at a bridge, he asked, "So, where are we going?"

"Visiting." She simply said.

"Okay, who are we visiting?"

She laughed sadly as she turned onto another street. "Someone that I haven't seen in a really long time."

When she didn't continue, Carlton pulled out the map and tried to figure out where they were so he could get them back.

"Don't worry." Beth said as she concentrated on the road. "It's easy to get back. I just felt like taking the side streets because of how quiet and pretty it is."

Carlton wasn't sure about calling it pretty since it was still raining but there was definitely less traffic.

When they stopped at another light, Beth said. "We're turning right but if we turned left, we would hit Fairmount and then you'd just follow that back, got it?"

"Yeah, I think so. Does that mean that we're almost there?" Carlton asked as he looked on the map and found the street they were about to turn on to.

"Yep." She became quiet again as the light changed.

About 10 seconds later, Carlton understood why as they entered a cemetery.

Once she parked the car, Beth finally turned to him. "As you probably figured out, my grandmother's buried here, as well as my grandfather, but he died before I was born. You don't have to come out if you don't want to."

"No, it's fine, I'll come."

She smiled as she reached back to grab the umbrella. "I'm not entirely sure where the graves are since I've only been here twice in the last thirteen years. I think that they're in one of these two sections. If I'm wrong, we can just wander until we either find them or get tired."

"Are you sure that you're in the right cemetery?" Carlton asked as they got out.

"Yes, I am. It's just that the first time I came here, it was in a limo that was following the hearse. It was dark out the second time and my cousin was leading the way. We were drinking that night, so the details are a bit hazy." She took his arm and started leading him through the rows.

"I thought that you never got drunk before last year."

"No, but it was the fifth anniversary of grandma's death and I overdid it a bit but not enough to be completely out of it. Like last night, I don't remember a single thing that happened after leaving Amy's, and even before that is a little hazy."

They walked a few more minutes in silence until Beth smiled and stopped at a pair of headstones. The first one said Allan Thacker and had dates about 58 years apart. The other one said, "Joanne Thacker," Beth recited. "Died April 12th, 1998. Easter Sunday. She was 75 at the time. We didn't celebrated her 75th for some reason, but I remember her 70th. Jo had a camera and I was trying to avoid getting my picture taken. My grandma had gotten a few gag gifts as well a some practical ones. It was in the summer, so we were outside for most of the day. My uncles manned the grills while us kids playing with Grandma's sister's dog. It was a good day."

Beth handed Carlton the umbrella as she kneeled on the ground, not caring that she was going to get all muddy. "Hey Grandma. I'm sorry that I don't visit but it always scared me when I was younger. It didn't help that I blamed myself for several years. But I'm doing much better now. I'm actually moving out to California, so I'll have a legit reason not to visit you." She took a deep breath as she started tracing the headstone. "I'm performing in pubs now, well, singing while playing guitar and piano. I still get nervous every time I go up, but it has gotten easier."

She smiled up at Carlton and took his hand. "This is Carlton and he's a detective from California. He helped me out of a sticky situation and now he's helping me move. This is suppose to be his vacation time, but I've been making things difficult." She sniffled as she looked down again, still holding Carlton's hand. "I wish you were here. Things have gotten more tense between my mom and I, and I don't know what to do. You always seemed to know what to do or at least would talk to her. Carlton and Amy are helping a little but it's just not the same. I need some grandmotherly advice."

When she stopped talking, Carlton looked down and saw that her eyes were closed and tears were silently falling. He squeezed her hand and she smiled at him before wiping her cheeks. "We've got to get back so I can continue packing. I'll try to come back before we leave. Bye Grandma, say hi to Grandpa for me."

She touched the headstone one more time before standing up and giving Carlton a hug. Knowing that she needed it, he returned it just as tightly. When they parted, Beth silently handed over the car keys before starting the walk back to the car.