A Paw-sible Theory

“My cat speaks sign language with her tail.”

––Robert A. Stern

CHAPTER TEN: Coming Soon

After his father left, Ethan trudged to his old room and fell forward on the bed. His cell phone jingled and he turned on his back. I crouched next to his head.

“Hey, Maggie what’s up?”

“I’m on my way back from seeing a client and I’m calling to see how your day went and what you want for dinner.”

“My day has been … full.”

“You sound a little down. What happened?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

“I won’t get there for a while; tell me now.”

“Okay, fine as long as you leave me alone after I tell you.”

“I didn’t sleep much last night and needed coffee when I got up this morning. I didn’t feel like making it so I stopped at the café next door to Antiques & Designs. Novie came out with a tray of muffins and told me to take one for later. She asked about Mom, wanted to know what happened, and said she’s going to send her flowers.”

He switched the phone to the other ear, and I switched sides.

“Maggie, I’m so tired of people asking me what happened. I don’t know what happened.”

“You didn’t say that to her, did you?”

He sighed in exasperation. “No, I didn’t.” He took a deep calming breath. “Then, when I turned left at the old Dixie Department Store building on the corner, I saw a large sign in the window with a picture of our building and Coming Soon––Luxury Condominiums––printed across it … but you know that already.”

“You sound upset. Did the sign bother you?”

“It bothered me because it would really upset Mom if she saw it.”

Maggie then asked him what he did at the hospital without commenting on what he had said. He took a deep breath and started to calm down. He told her he sat with his mother, occasionally talking to her, sometimes playing games on his phone or on the internet sending and checking e-mails.

“I left for a while when Marylyn Sims came to sit with her.”

“Good; I’m glad Marylyn made it. She didn’t think she would when she called me last night––something to do with her daughter needing a ride somewhere. Did you go home when you left?”

“Yeah, I went home to pack a few things and run some errands. Some other stuff happened but I’ll tell you about it later.”

I had been to Ethan’s apartment before and could imagine Ethan running up the outside stairs of the two-story wood structure that was built to look like a seaside resort.

He had decorated the comfortable apartment himself. Alyx had offered to help. He declined, saying her style wasn’t his style. This meant that he didn’t want to end up with half the stuff she had in her store that she didn’t have room to move. In the end, he asked for her input on furniture placement. He actually liked the suggestions she made and everybody was happy.

Ethan didn’t answer the ringing phone in the kitchen and let the answering machine take the message from his aunt, Alyx’s sister. I brought him toys to play with, Misty brought him her string, and we kept him busy until Maggie arrived with bags of take-out food from the local BBQ restaurant––ribs, chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, and rolls.