After locking the store up for the night, I drove the DeSoto to the house. I saw I couldn't park in the driveway. I saw Richie's car and Fonzie's motorcycle were parked in both sides of the driveway so I ended up parking on the side of the street instead. Once parking on the street, I took the keys out of the ignition and walked into the house.
I found Richie and Lori Beth sitting on the couch in front of the TV set. I didn't see my grandchildren with them. I knew how tough Richie had been taking it lately since times have been tough.
Richie had been living on welfare for a few years now even though he has been trying to get a job working as a journalist for a newspaper and so far all of them have turned him down. Lori Beth is a waitress at Arnold's but still it isn't enough to support the four of them and two kids in school.
I didn't get any hellos from Richie and Lori Beth. My guess was that they probably didn't hear me with the volume of the TV. I really couldn't tell what they were watching. I didn't care either and it was none of my business. I walked into the kitchen and found Marion making meatloaf for that night's dinner.
"I'm home!" I said, watching Marion put the meatloaf in.
She turned around. I saw Joanie set the table.
"Hi, Dad," she said.
"Hello, Howard," Marion said as we kissed.
"Hello, Joanie," I returned.
"Mom, I heard something about our contest winners today," Joanie said.
"What did you hear?" Marion asked, cutting up fruits and vegetables for salad.
"I heard that one of the winners has one month to live. The winners are flying from the East Coast. One of them wanted this contest for one of the winners who has one month to live to be a surprise because her mother liked us," Joanie told us.
"Who told you all this?" I asked.
"Jenny did."
"That's what I thought," I said.
"How awful for one of our winners to have a short life," Marion said.
There was a knock at the door. Joanie opened it and Fonzie walked in.
"Hi, Fonzie," I said.
"Hi, Mr. C. Mr. C, I got a call from Ralph just now. He drove by your store. It looks like somebody broke in. He wanted me to tell you he took care of calling the police," Fonzie said.
"What did they take from the store?" I asked.
"Ralph don't know, he tells me. He saw a man in a mask breaking in the store. Does Cunningham Hardware have a burglar system, Mr. C?" Fonzie asked.
I shook my head no as I said, "No, Fonzie, the store doesn't."
I had a secret feeling I should close the store for the day tomorrow after what happened. Just to play safe, I thought to myself.
"If I were you, Mr. C, I'd go get a burglar alarm for the store," Fonzie advised.
"I would listen to Arthur, Howard," Marion said.
"You win, Fonzie. I am keeping the store closed tomorrow to play it safe after what happened. I'm going out for a burglar alarm tomorrow," I announced.
"Great idea, Howard. You're really taking Arthur's advice now," Marion said.
Joanie nodded in agreement. The next day, I went looking around town for a burglar alarm. I paid for it. I was happy it didn't have a high price. If it did, I sure won't pay for it to use at my hardware store. After paying for the burglar alarm, I drove the car to the hardware store and when I unlocked the store, I thought now was a good time to hook up the new burglar alarm while I didn't have any new customers at the moment.
It took a while to hook up the burglar alarm. I looked at the instructions and was happy to see the instructions were in English. The instructions also had a Spanish version as well so I left that alone. I decided to test the alarm to see if it worked, crossing my fingers that the police wouldn't come and see what happened.
After testing the alarm, I decided to keep the thing since it worked. I knew in the past years, I have tried stuff like this. I always had to return it back. I was happy the alarm got to stay for once. Finding a burglar alarm that worked really made my day.