Page 66 of Now or Never

I grabbed the sneaker, stepped onto the front porch, and rang the bell. No one came to the door, but yelling and screaming could be heard from inside. I rang the bell again. Still, no answer. The door was unlocked, so Lula and I walked in. Three dogs rushed at us. Two were small, one was medium size, and all were mixtures of every breed possible. All were overly friendly, jumping on Lula and me, eyes bright, tongues hanging out looking for something to lick. Beyond the dogs was bedlam. Three kids running around, waving their arms and screaming. No one was bleeding. Seemed to be some sort of game. A man who I assumed was Zach was standing in the middle of the room, holding a toddler on his hip and a phone to his ear.

“Yeah,” he yelled into the phone. “One of the dogs pooped on the carpet in the family room, and I think Jonathan ate it. His teeth are brown, and he has real bad breath.”

I moved into his line of sight and waved at him.

“Gotta go,” he said into the phone. “There’s some ladies here.”

“Are you Zachary Zell?” I asked him.

“Yep,” he said. “People call me Zach.”

I held the sneaker up. “I found this on the front lawn.”

“That’s Jonathan’s. He don’t like wearing shoes. There’s another sneaker around here somewhere.”

I introduced myself and told him he needed to reschedule his court date.

“I didn’t know I missed it,” he said.

“It was yesterday,” I said.

“It’s a little crazy here,” he said. “My granddaughter is an ER nurse and works weekends. Her husband is a paramedic and alternates weekends. Needless to say, this is his weekend to work. My daughter is usually with the kids on weekends, but her husband’s brother had a heart attack, so my daughter and husband are in Virginia. That leaves me doing day care, and I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

The kids had stopped running and came over to size up Lula and me.

“The gap-toothed one is Ian,” Zach said. “He’s seven. His sister, Emmy, is five, and the one with oatmeal in his hair and no shoes is Jonathan. He’s four. I got baby Sue on my hip.”

“I’m hungry,” Emmy said.

“I’ll get you a snack right away,” Zach said, “but I’ve gotta brush Jonathan’s teeth first. Your mama said it’s not good to leave dog poop on his teeth.”

“I don’t want my teeth brushed,” Jonathan said.

Zach handed me baby Sue. “I’ll be right back. See if you can find something in the kitchen that Emmy wants to eat.”

I looked at Lula. “Help,” I said.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” Lula said. “I don’t know anything about babies.”

Emmy stood with her hands on her hips. “Well?” she said. “Are you going to feed me, or what?”

“Un-ah,” Lula said. “You don’t want to pull attitude with us. If you want something to eat, you better be nice.”

“I’m five,” she said. “I don’t have to be nice.”

“The heck you don’t,” Lula said. “Look how much bigger I am than you. If I sat on you, I’d squish you like a bug.”

“Eeeeeeee!” Emmy screamed, and she ran upstairs.

“Jeez Louise,” I said to Lula. “Couldn’t you just go get her a snack?”

“My mama would whup me upside the head if I talked like that. Course she wasn’t home a lot. Most of the time she was working her corner or in jail.”

I carried baby Sue into the kitchen and went through the cupboards. I found a bag of cookies and took it back to the living room. Emmy was sitting halfway down the stairs, looking through the balusters. Lula was in front of the television watching cartoons with Ian.

I rattled the bag at Emmy. “I brought you some cookies.”

“What kind?”

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