When Daniel and Jill were making their final preparations to head back to Nashville, for the short term, Jill would hold and cuddle Pepe Le Pew several

times a day. The idea came to me on the morning of the day they were to head out to Tennessee.

Daniel was loading things into the back of the truck, and Jill was coming down the front stairs, as I came up to her, carrying Pepe in my arms.

"Awe," Jill said, her face softening at the sight of the skunk. "Did he come to say goodbye to me?" She reached out and took Pepe from me, rubbing her

cheek against his fur. Pepe made his contented noise.

"He actually came to say that he'd like to go with you," I said.

Jill's eyes widened in surprise. "What? Really, Harlie?"

I nodded. "If you want to."

"Oh, I do," she said, calling to Daniel. "Harlie says I can take Pepe!"

Daniel walked over to where we were standing. "No kidding?" he asked, looking less than pleased.

"No kidding," I said.

"I don't know how to thank you, squirt," Daniel said, sarcastically. "Just sooo appreciated."

Jill gave him a pleading look. "Please, Daniel?"

"He's actually more Jill's than mine by now," I added. "She's who he prefers."

Daniel gave an eye roll. "Alright. It's okay with me."

Jill and I exchanged a triumphant glance.

7

The house was so much quieter without Daniel and Jill there. I mean, we're a rowdy bunch, so there's always lots of noise and all, but the house did

settle a good bit.

Fall was really settling in now. The first set of school progress reports had been sent out, and Crane had attended the first parent-teacher

conferences already. There was a lot going on now at school. There was the fall dance coming up. I had been given the chance to write more for the

journalism class I was in. The animal group I belonged to at school was really active, too, having bake sales and rummage sales to raise money

to help to buy feed for all the animals we members took care of. Working with Ivy every day after school. So, basically, things were hopping. My teachers hadn't had any major

complaints about me or about my grades to report, so I felt as though it was alright to ease off. Just a bit.

As I got swept up, it became more than a bit, though. I eased off way more than a bit. It just seemed as though there was

always something fun going on. I wanted to do the articles for the journalism class. And, I wanted to have fun. Kenny and I were

going out every weekend. A couple of weekends we went out both Friday and Saturday nights.

Everybody was busy. There's always a lot to do around the house and around the ranch. Vaccinations for the cattle; repairing fences; Clare went back

to work a couple days a week, which left Hannah with less help in the house.

When I got home one Tuesday afternoon, after school and work, I drove up to see that the goats were helping themselves to Hannah's flowers on the

far side of the house.

I left my stuff in the truck, and went to capture Elwood P. Dowd. I figured if I got him, his wives would follow. Only, they didn't. I spent the next twenty

minutes trying to round them up. That made me irritated. I was already tired, anyway. When I finished, I'd managed to rip one of my fingernails down

to the nub. I toted my stuff inside, and went to the kitchen, sucking on my ragged nail.

Hannah had Isaac on one hip, and was stirring with the other hand, what looked like a stew on the stove.

"Hullo, sweetie," she greeted me.

"Hey," I said, going to the sink to wash my hands.

"How was your day?"

"Fine, until I got home," I grumbled.

"Why? What's wrong?" she asked.

"The goats were out. It took forever to get Mabel back in again."

"Oh, I didn't even see them out," she said. "I guess I've been so busy I haven't even looked out."

"I don't know how they even got out," I said, the tip of my finger still in my mouth.

"Was the gate latched?" she asked. A perfectly innocent inquiry on her part. Still, I was feeling edgy and it irritated me.

"I did latch it. If somebody went in, then they didn't," I said.

Hannah didn't answer that. Instead she asked about my finger. I explained and she told me to put some ointment and a bandage on it.

As I was bandaging my finger, Hannah asked me to go downstairs and change wet laundry from the washer to the dryer. As I was heading down

to do that, she asked me if I would come back up and help make a salad for supper.

That kept me busy until supper, and after that, since I wasn't on dishwashing duty, I went to the living room and set myself up to

start doing homework. I had just begun when the telephone rang. I hollered out that I would answer it and I did. It was Marnie, a girl from

the school animal group, and she wanted to talk about the bake sale coming up on Friday. After that we started talking about other stuff, and

I was surprised when the living room began to fill up with family. I'd been on the phone long enough that all the outside and inside chores

were done, and I realized I should be getting off the telephone. We said our goodbyes, and I hung up the phone.

"You been on the phone all this time?" Guthrie asked me. "Trent's supposed to be callin' me. He probably tried and couldn't get through cause you

had the line tied up."

"I had important stuff to talk about," I said, sitting back down on the couch, and picking up my books.

"You're not the only one who has stuff to talk about," Guthrie said.

"Where to meet up to play basketball before school with Trent isn't as important as feeding animals," I said.

Guthrie glared at me. "Oh, yeah, I forgot," he said. "You're the only one who has anything important goin' on."

"Alright, that's enough," Adam said, coming into the room to hear us fussing.

As if preordained, the telephone rang just then. Guthrie went to answer it, and it did turn out to be Trent.

When Guthrie was finished, he hung up, and said, "Told you," to me. "He's been tryin' for an hour."

"What time's basketball play-time?" I answered sarcastically, scribbling away on the article I was working on for the school paper.

"What's with you two tonight?" Crane said, from where he sat at the desk, wearing his glasses, and writing out checks.

Guthrie and I neither one said anything at first. We just looked at each other.

"Right. You're not being very nice to each other," Hannah said.

"I'm just sayin' that she needs to think about the rest of us using the phone, too," Guthrie said.

"Were you on the phone too long, Harlie?" Hannah asked.

"I don't think that I was," I said.

"Come on, Har," Guthrie said, with a snort.

"I don't happen to want to listen to you anymore, Guthrie," I said.

"Yeah?" Guthrie said.

Adam let his newspaper snap as he laid it on his lap. "Hey," he said, and we both looked at him. "I don't happen to want to listen to either one of you. Knock it

off."

Guthrie shook his head, and headed off to the kitchen.

"Maybe try to be a little more thoughtful of the time you're on the telephone, sweetie," Hannah said, mildly.

"Guthrie's being an jerk," I said, without looking up from my writing. I know, I know. I should have just said, that yes, I would do that. Instead of saying

what I said.

"Harlie," Hannah said, and now she sounded put out.

I looked up to see her, Adam and Crane all three looking at me.

"I was talking to Marnie about the bake sale on Saturday," I said. "We're going to use the money to buy food for the shelter animals. That's important."

"It is very important," Hannah said, in agreement, as if she was pacifying me.

"Guthrie's got a right to use the phone, too," Adam said.

I blew out a sigh, making my bangs fly up. "Okay," I said.

"Okay, what?" Adam prompted.

"Okay, Guthrie has a right to use the phone, too," I said. "And I'll watch how long I'm on there."

Hannah looked satisfied by my answer, but Adam was watching me, with an unreadable look on his face. I got the idea that he was trying to

figure out if I was being sincere, or if I was being a smartass.

Shortly after that, I went upstairs to take a shower, and after that, I worked for awhile longer on my article. In between I finished my anatomy homework.

I did a quick job of that, because the article was my main focus. I wanted to do a really good job on it.

There was a tap on the door later, and when I said, "Yeah?" Adam opened the door.

"Lights out," he told me.

"I'm nearly finished," I said.

"You should have been asleep already," he said. "Lights out, now."

"Okay," I said, reluctantly, and stuck my loose papers into the notebook, laying it on the floor by my bed.

"Done your shot?" he asked me.

With a sense of impending doom, I realized that I had not. I stood up, rubbing my hands on my pajamas.

"Going now," I said, not saying that I'd forgotten, or anything. I paused beside him, mostly because he was still standing there in the

doorway.

"It's an hour past bedtime, and you haven't done your shot yet," Adam said, sounding about a seven on the scale of one to ten.

"I didn't realize time was passing so fast," I said. "I'm going."

He stepped aside and I flew down the back stairs to the kitchen.

7

When I slid into my chair at the breakfast table beside Guthrie the next morning, I asked him to pass me the platter of bacon and when he

did, I gave him a friendly nudge with my shoulder to his shoulder. He nudged me back, and I knew that our irritation with each other was over.

7

Two days later, I got my first inkling that things might be beginning to go south for me. I got a low grade on a trigonometry test. That in itself wouldn't be that

unusual, since math is my weak subject even at the best of times. But this was not a D-plus, but a D-minus, one point from an F, to be exact.

I tucked it into my notebook, and felt bad about it for the next two hours before lunch. Once I was at lunch, though, talking and laughing with Kenny and Lori and

Guthrie and the others, I felt better. It was just one test, I told myself. I just had to decide whether to tell Crane straight up about it, or

not say anything at all. If I didn't get any more dismal test scores, then I should be able to have my grade up to a low C at least by the time he actually

got wind of anything.

I considered it as I worked with Ivy that afternoon, and I considered it as I drove home, slowly.

Honesty is the best policy. I know. In the past, whenever I've run into situations with my grades, it's always worked best to just tell

Crane about whatever trouble I was having. Instead of hiding it, or cheating or whatever.

I decided to wait until I got home, until I actually encountered Crane, and then I would decide.

He wasn't around when I first got home, though. He was off somewhere with Brian. By the time they came in, we were already in the

middle of eating supper, so they just came in and washed and sat down in their chairs. Then there were the dishes to help with. If he and I had been

on dish washing duty together, and the kitchen cleared out, well, that might have been a good time to talk to Crane. Only I was on, but he wasn't. It

was Clare's turn to help me.

I did talk to Clare about it, after we were alone in the kitchen.

In true-Clare form, she didn't lecture me, or criticize, or even ask obvious things, like had I even studied for the test.

She listened, and then she said that she thought I would be better off telling Crane about the test now instead of waiting for the other shoe

to drop. I knew, though, that she gave her advice, and that was all. It wasn't as though she was going to go and tell Crane herself. She would leave it up

to me. I didn't think she'd even tell Brian about it.

I thought it over for the next little while, as I sat on the couch, working again on the article I was writing. Most everybody else was in the

living room, too, just as a usual evening. Brian made popcorn, and came, passing out bowls to us. I took it, and munched as I watched

Crane, working at his desk, without being observed by him. He was concentrating on what he was working on, so it wasn't that hard.

It got to be time for Guthrie and I to be heading up to bed. Guthrie got a snack and said his goodnights and headed upstairs. I was slower, packing

up all my papers and notebooks.

"Don't take all that upstairs with you, thinking you're gonna stay up late working," Adam said.

I flicked a look at him. I had planned to do that very thing, actually, but I figured it wasn't worth taking a stand on.

So I said okay, and then stood up stretching. It was Crane, Adam and Hannah, and Brian and Clare left now. I did not want to make an announcement

in front of all of them. Adam stood up, and told me goodnight, and he and Hannah went out on the porch to sit in the porch swing. Brian and Clare were

reading the newspaper, and she had her feet resting in his lap. I took out the offending test paper and went to stand beside Crane as he sat at the desk.

I waited, and after a couple of minutes, he looked up at me.

"What's up?" he asked.

I slid the paper over in front of him on the desk without saying anything.

He picked it up and looked at it, and then after a couple of long, tense moments, he took off his glasses, and looked at me, holding the

paper in his hand. There was no denying the disappointment on his face. I hate that.

"What happened?" he asked me.

I knew better than to say that I didn't know what had happened. That wouldn't appease him at all.

I settled for, "It was hard."

"Did you study, prepare for it?"

"Some," I said, in honesty.

"It's new material this quarter, right?"

At my nod, he said, "Hmm," and looked down at the test paper again.

I waited, hoping he would say, 'well, try harder' or 'next one will be better' or something like that. Only, he didn't.

"This is the time to get a hold on it," he said, instead, and looked back up at me.

"I know."

"You can do way better than this," Crane said, and gestured towards the paper.

I just did not want to be lectured, or anything remotely like that right then. I'd showed it to him. I felt as though I didn't deserve a lecture

to go along with my admission.

I made my error with my next statement. "It's one test," I pointed out.

His eyes took on a 'you're kidding' sort of gaze. "That's the wrong way to look at it, Harlie, and you know that," he said.

"At least I told you," I said.

"As opposed to what?" Crane said. "Not telling me?"

I sighed. "I didn't mean it like that." I gave him a concillitary look.

He held my gaze with his. "When's the next test?"

"I don't know. She hasn't said yet."

"Alright," Crane said, and handed the paper with the big red D- back to me. I still stood there, because I knew he wasn't finished.

Now he said what I'd been hoping he would say a whole lot earlier. "Next one will be better."

I nodded, relieved that it was over.

7

The dance was a week from Saturday. I was excited. Trent and Lori, Guthrie and Kristen, and Kenny and I were all going to go together. We

were talking about going out to eat dinner first.

Friday night at the supper table, Hannah was asking about the dance. Asking what time it started and what Guthrie and I planned to wear.

Guthrie said he was wearing jeans and a western dress shirt.

"One of your better pairs of jeans," Hannah warned him.

"What about you?" Hannah asked, turning to me. "Are you wearing something you have, or did you want a new dress?"

I thought for a long moment. A new dress would be nice. Really nice. But, it wasn't as though I had to have one.

"I could wear my blue dress," I said. "The one I wore to both of the weddings."

"You could," Hannah said, in agreement.

Clare leaned around Guthrie to talk to me. "If you wear the blue dress, you could still get something new, too-like a necklace, or

something for your hair."

I agreed, and Hannah suggested that on the next day, Saturday, the three of us might go the mall and do some looking.

"We could get some lunch out, too," Clare said.

"That sounds fun, doesn't it?" Hannah asked me.

"It does," I agreed. "I've got the bake sale tomorrow, though. You know-for the animal group-"

"That's right," Hannah said. "I forgot."

"That's from eight in the morning until noon," I said. "And, then, after that, I'll have to help clear up, and take the tables back to the church and all."

Hannah nodded.

"Could we go after that, though?" I asked, hopefully.

"Well," Hannah said, looking at Clare and considering. "It would depend-what do you think, Adam? If Nancy doesn't have to work, she might be able

to keep an eye on Isaac."

"Sounds alright to me," Adam said.

Clare looked to Brian, smiling at him. "How about you, hon? Mind if I go shopping?"

"I think it'll be nice for you all three of you," Brian said.

"What are you planning on taking to the sale?" Hannah asked me, then.

"Brownies, I think. And, maybe a cake, too. We all agreed to bring at least two or three things," I said.

"So you're doing that tonight?" Hannah asked me.

I hesitated, realizing that I hadn't even thought that far ahead. After work I had hoped to have Kenny over. We already had a date tomorrow night to

go out bowling, so tonight was to be an at-home night. I'd thought of a long walk, and maybe sitting on the porch.

"I guess," I considering. "Kenny was going to come over tonight."

"For supper?" Hannah asked me.

"If it's okay."

"It's fine." Hannah looked as though she was thinking. "I can probably do your baking for you today, if I get organized."

"Thanks!" I said, gratefully.

Adam was getting to his feet, and scooting in his chair. "I don't think you ought to expect Hannah to make your bake sale stuff for you," he said.

I gave him a surprised look. "I wasn't," I protested.

"She didn't ask me, Adam," Hannah defended me. "I offered."

"Alright. I think you have enough to do, but I guess it's between the two of you," he said.

As I got ready to leave for school, I found a moment alone to speak to Hannah again.

I did understand that Hannah has an extreme amount of things to do every day, especially with Clare not there every day to help out.

"If you don't have time to do the baking, it's okay," I told her, quietly. "I can do it tonight."

Hannah patted my face. "I think I'll be able to do it. We'll see, okay?"

I nodded, and told her thank you again.

7