All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (42 page)

After each group, Lydia, Sylvie and Andy bagged up the
empty cups and put a new bag in the container. When they were finished, Beryl
handed Aaron a tablet with marks and names on it.

"I marked each cup, then wrote down who took
which cup with which mark. Each bag is numbered and I've numbered each piece of
paper." She grinned and with a little bit of a cocky attitude said,
"I'd make a
helluva
detective, wouldn't I!"

They all laughed and Aaron put the bags in a larger
trash bag. "Thank you so much, ladies. I'll let you know what we find.
Since we only have to do comparison, I'm hoping this goes quickly."

"Well!" Beryl said, "I'd call that a
good day. I'm done." She looked at Polly. "You have got to be
finished with all of this insanity around here
soon
. It is certainly playing
havoc with my creativity. I keep choosing to hang out here and I need to make
better choices.
One more day.
You get one more day and then I have to get to work! Shall
we make that day tomorrow and be finished then?"

Polly laughed. "Well, I'm sorry! If I'd known we
were cramping your style, I would have," she paused, "done nothing
differently." She went on. "I'll be here tomorrow if you guys want to
finish up."

Beryl hugged her, "I'd have done nothing
differently either.
But, one more day.
That's all it's going to take and we'll be finished
with that stuff."

Andy said, "It's been interesting, but I'm tired
of looking at other people's stuff
, too
. I'm ready to be finished. Tomorrow is a great idea."

"Me too," Sylvie said. She looked at her
watch. "Oh! I told the boys we could have tacos tonight. I suppose I'd
better get home and start cooking. I don't know what my schedule is, but if I'm
free, I might bring the boys over with some video games. It would be good for
them to get out of the house."

Lydia said, "Well, sure, then! No one in my life
has anything going on. Nine o'clock?" Everyone nodded,
then
she asked Polly, "Are you doing anything for
supper tonight? We'd love to have you over?"

"No," Polly said. "I think Obiwan and I
will stay at home. Now that my things are in the apartment, I can turn the
television on, sit around and play on the internet, turn on my music or sleep
in the living room on the couch!"

"Alright then, I'll see you all in the
morning!" Then, they looked at Stu, who stood there shaking his head. "I'll
talk to Aaron tonight. I doubt that I need to be here any longer. I will leave
a hard drive and SD card with Polly and unless he sends someone up, you guys
are on your own. Just keep the door locked until then, okay?"

"Whoops! Sorry about that," Polly said. "Oh,
we could have gotten ourselves in trouble!"

Everyone closed down their work and left for the
evening. Polly took Obiwan outside again and as they walked around the yard,
she watched cars taking off from the lots. Then, she saw Billy and Doug walking
toward her.

"So, we were wondering," Doug asked as they
got closer, "what would you think if we brought our friends back and
hooked up to your internet and played games tonight?"

"Oh!" she replied, "You like my school?"

"Yeah," he said. "It's great. There's
all that space and all those plugs we've put in the walls. We'll bring pop and
food
tonight,
you don't have to supply that. But, can we put stuff
in the cooler?"

"Absolutely.
Obiwan and I will be up and down. Have fun!"

"Thank you! You're the best! And, we're bringing
pizza in. You can have pizza with us if you want."

"Cool. I'd love that." she said. "See
you later."

The two boys went tripping along back to Doug's car. Obiwan
and she walked around the creek for a little while longer as the sun went down
and then went inside.

Getting up early wasn’t quite as easy as she’d hoped,
but since most of the workers were planning to be at the school to catch up,
she started moving.
Marvin had cleaned up
the coffee pot and gotten it ready last night before he left, so all she needed
to do was turn it on. The kids had played games until after midnight and she
wasn't sure what she would find downstairs, so she opened the kennel to a very
happy Obiwan and they went for a long morning walk. Polly was glad the weather
was still fairly mild. She wasn't afraid of the cold weather; Boston had its
share of bitter temperatures, but this was a nice way to spend an early
morning. The stars were out and she was still thrilled by the fact that she
could see them again. They walked across the highway into the park, greeting
one other jogger who was out with his dog. Obiwan got very excited to see
someone his own size, but the jogger waved and ran on down the road. After
forty-five minutes, she and Obiwan found themselves back at her front door; he
was still bouncing with anticipation.

"It's going to take a lot to wear you out isn't
it, little guy. Alright, let's get things going. She went back to the kitchen
and turned the coffee maker on. The kids had done a great job cleaning
up,
she saw that the trash can was filled with pizza
boxes and empty bags of chips. Other than that, the place was clear. Obiwan was
bouncing at her feet.

"Oh, that's right. I should probably feed you
first. Alright, let's go
,
Obiwan," and they went out and up the stairs to
her apartment.

Polly put food in his dish and while he was eating,
figured that was a great time to take a shower. When she came out, he was
sitting in the doorway of the bathroom waiting for her
again
.

"Really?
I can't get over this," she said
and reached down to pat his head. H
e leaned into her hand. "Yes. I know. We're the
best friends on earth." She bent over and picked him up, snuggling her
face into the nape of his neck. "I'm so glad you're here."

While she dressed for the day, she set him on her bed.
The first thing he did was to race back and forth from the base to the
headboard,
and
then he burrowed under her pillows and stuck his head
out at her, panting the entire time. "If you get too used to this bed, I'm
going to feel guilty every time I put you in the kennel," she said. "Alright,
it's time for me to find breakfast. Let's go."

They went downstairs in time to open the door when she
heard it chime. Obiwan barked at Leroy, Ben and Marv, who all stopped to say
good morning and then went up to begin working. Henry was pulling into the lot
out front and Polly waited at the door for him.

"Good morning!" she called.

"Good morning to both of you!" and as he
approached them, he knelt down to stroke Obiwan's head.

"That's how it is going to work, isn't it!"
declared Polly.

Henry looked up, confused.

"I will stand here and the dog will get all of
the attention. It's over for me now, isn't
it!
"

"Well, I suppose I could pat you on the head when
I say hello. It seems a little odd, though." Henry retorted.

"Uh huh.
Your guys are already upstairs. They just got here."

"Terrific," he replied, "we're going to
finish laying and sanding the wood today in the front apartment and at least
get a good start on the back apartment. I might have them haul your boxes to
that corner of the hallway by your kitchen, if you don't mind."

"Oh, sure!
I hadn't even been over to check things out on that
side."

"Don't worry about it. We'll get them out of the
way and then you should be able to dig through them whenever you have time. I wanted
to get as much wood put down today as possible so we could start finishing it
early next week."

"Thank you, Henry. I appreciate all the work. One
of these days we'll have to sit down and figure out what you project the end of
some of these projects to be. I'm going to have to start thinking about timing
on the next steps. There's a lot to process on before I can start advertising
an opening date."

"Maybe we should go out for dinner some evening
soon. I'd love to take you to a little place I know over in Ames." he said.

"That sounds great."

"Time to get started," Henry said and he
bent back down to rub the happy puppy. Then he went upstairs.

Polly
and Obiwan
wandered out to the kitchen. She thought about baking
something for the guys who were working today, it only seemed fair, since they
were working on Saturday. Her laptop was upstairs though and most of her
recipes were in there. She was going to have to buy some more technology around
here soon. The only recipe she could confidently bake from memory was chocolate
chip cookies and that didn't feel right this morning.
While she thought, she sliced two pieces of bread and
dropped them in the toaster, then poured a cup of coffee.

Her toast popped up and she buttered it, thought about
it a minute and said, "I've got plenty of time. Let's go back upstairs and
enjoy the new apartment. There's no reason to sit down here by myself. She and
Obiwan went up the stairs, unlocked her apartment, completely ignoring the
sounds coming from
across the big hallway,
went in and curled up on her sofa together. She watched mindless television
while snuggling with the puppy. "This is the life, little guy," she
said. "This is the life."

At nine o'clock they went back downstairs. She grabbed
a blanket for Obiwan. He had fallen asleep on the stage yesterday and she
couldn't bear to see him be uncomfortable, "Good heavens," she
thought, "I'm going to be one of those pet owners." Then she giggled
and thought, "
and
I love it."

She unlocked the stage door and turned on the computer
when she heard shoes click-clacking across the hall. Soon, Beryl and Andy came
in. Sylvie followed close behind them with her two boys, Jason and Andrew. Andrew
squealed when he saw the puppy and ran up to him, only to be stopped by his
mother's firm voice, "Andrew.
Stop."

He stopped, bu
t
not before startling Obiwan, but
Polly
had a close rein on his leash.

"Slow down, Andrew," his mother said. "Go
very slowly and ask Miss Polly if you can pet the puppy."

By now, both Andrew and the puppy were wiggling in
their attempts to get to each other.

"May I pet the puppy, please?" the little
boy asked Polly.

"You sure can," she said, as she knelt down
beside the two of them. "Just go slow and let him sniff your hand first,
like this." She put her hand out in front of Obiwan's nose and he
slobbered all over it. Andrew's hand was right in there beside hers and
collected some of the slobbering tongue's action.

He giggled and then began petting the dog. Polly
released the leash a little and Obiwan rushed the boy, who opened his arms and
took the puppy into them. Soon they were sitting together, Andrew with his legs
crossed and Obiwan in the crook of them. Jason sat down beside his brother and
asked Polly if it would be okay for him to pet the dog, too.

"Absolutely," she said.

By this point, Lydia had arrived and the girls had all
filled their coffee cups.

Beryl asked, "Well, do you suppose Aaron knows
yet who done it?"

Lydia said, "He hadn't heard anything when he
left this morning. I still feel badly for whoever this is. They obviously
haven't gotten into any more trouble since then and it seems a shame."

"Stop it, you old softie. You'd empty out all of
the prisons and let those criminals return home to their mommies. I don't know
how your husband puts up with you," Beryl scolded.

"I've got a big heart. He says so all the
time," Lydia smirked. "So there."

"Told me, didn't you!" Beryl laughed.