Page 3 of Trevor

No one knew that the child was with him.Well, not him, but his parents.Sherm was the only kid who knew that she was around, and he wouldn’t tell.He was the most adult child that he’d ever met and trusted him more than he did his own banker.

“She’s weird.”He told Sherm that wasn’t nice.“Well, she is.Last night, I asked her if she wanted to play a game on my reader, and she told me that it would melt my brain.I might be younger than her, but I know better than that.”

“Sherm, you’re younger than I am, and you know a lot of things that I don’t.But you found out her age?”He told him that she told him that she was twelve.“You say that like you don’t believe it.You think she’s older or younger?”

“I don’t know, to be honest.She’s just weird.”Sherm had been telling him that for the past three days.It was like he didn’t know what other label to put on the girl.While Mrs.J had left them notes on the child, there really wasn’t enough personal information about her to be able to know where she came from or how she had ended up at Mrs.J’s home.

Then there was the thumb drive that he’d been given.He no more understood that than he did how a kid could be so smart with the dumbest parents around.Correcting himself.He knew how that happened.Sherm was a product of a good home.Just yesterday, he’d been talking to someone at his office who said that their child had been tested and was considered gifted.

“She’s reading off the charts in books.Only ten years old and reading at a high school age.Can you believe it?”He was reasonably sure that he wasn’t supposed to answer no at that point.“I just can’t believe how smart my little girl is.”

Neither did he.He had attempted to converse with the child, who appeared to be an ordinary kid at first glance.However, when he offered her a book, she didn’t settle down to read as expected.Instead, she fidgeted restlessly, tearing out pages and eating them.Unless she was somehow absorbing the book’s contents through her mouth, he doubted she could read at all.

After spending what little time he did with Debra, he realized that she was forever staring at things.Not like looking, he looked at things and observed.But she would go off in this kind of trance and stare at something for a good hour before she’d look back at him.Trevor shivered.That just creeped him out, too.

“Did you know that there are tests that you can give someone to see what sort of intelligence they have?”Sherm told him all about the tests he’d taken them several times and what they would tellyou about a gifted person.“It…Grandma said I can’t call her an “it” anymore.She might be only gifted in one thing.Like I am.I can read, hear, or smell something, and I will remember it forever.But I’ve applied my gift, I guess you can call it, so that I can use it to help others.There are some kids who can do math and see things beyond the scope that it is.I can do that too but I have to have something to draw it out so that it doesn’t get all fuzzy in my head.”

“What do you think Debra is gifted with?”He told him, again, that she was just weird.“Sherm, I don’t think that’s a gift.Being weird, I mean.What would that even be?”But the more he thought about it, he thought that was what she was gifted with.Being weird.

Trevor hadn’t been able to talk to Jade or any of the others about the girl or the thumb drive.He’d watched it from beginning to end several times, and he no more understood what he was looking at then than he did a book on political science that Jenson had given him.It might as well have been in a different language as far as he was concerned.

There were other things about the girl, too.She had a habit, well, he wasn’t sure it was a habit or not, something else that made her weird, he supposed, but she wouldn’t eat things on her plate that touched something else.

Like she’d not eat succotash.The corn and the lima beans touching were too much for her.All her food was put into separate bowls or plates.And she would need a new fork with each thing, too.The other night, she’d had a meltdown because he’d put mushrooms on her steak.She had wanted both, but he’d not known about the touching thing until then.Dad had to leave the room, and Mom…well, she seemed like she thought the kid was…weird.Like Sherm had said.

Also, she wouldn’t wear socks with her shoes.She’d wear them around the house, keeping her feet cozy inside of them, but once she had to put on shoes, nope, she’d take them off and put them in the laundry.

As he was eating his lunch, making sure that everything on his paper plate touched, he had to laugh when his Mom sat down beside him and told him to behave.As if she knew just what he was up to.After kissing her on the cheek and offering her the last of his chips, she took one bite and picked up his drink.

“You could have warned me.”After she drank down most of what was left in his paper cup she made him go and get her a refill.While he was there, he also got her a bottle of water.Setting both down in front of her, he watched as she tried to get rid of the flaming hot taste in her mouth.“What am I going to do with you, Trevor?Some woman is going to come along, take one bite of your dinner, and run to the hills.”

“Nah, she’ll have to get used to it.But I don’t need another woman in my life.I have all I need right here with you.”She smacked him on his arm.“What are you doing in this part of town?Not that I’m complaining, I love seeing you, but you don’t usually come down here unless you need…did that girl say something to you?”

“She’s odd, don’t you think?But no, she didn’t say anything to me.I don’t know what to do with her most of the time.”Trevor almost told his mom not to be alone with her, but he didn’t.He had no idea where that thought came from but he knew it was true as much as his love for his mom.“I came into town to have lunch with Jade, but she’s in the middle of a huge project.Jenson is working on his office in DC.And Grace had already eaten by the time I was able to run her down.I felt so lonely.”

“I have an idea that both Jenson and Jade will be gone for the rest of the day.She told me that Jenson has some furniture that he needs to move.Grace told me that she had puppies.I’m not entirely sure what that means, but I didn’t ask.I love her to pieces, but she sometimes talks like she’s been having a conversation with you for several hours and that you just need to catch up with her.Also, and this one really floored me.What the heck is a Flintstone?She did mention it was an old cartoon, but I’ve never heard of it.”

Mom was laughing.He was happy to see it; she’d been down a bit for the last few days, and when she explained to him what the Flintstone reference was, she had him look it up and watch one of the cartoons that she had enjoyed as a child.

“Oh my, Trevor, you do my heart a lot of good.I’m so happy I came to find you.”She chuckled a bit more before she asked him what the puppies meant.“Do you think that it’s code for something?It would be like her to come up with something like that.I just love that girl.She’s forever making me have to think hard and then laugh just as hard.I believe that her sense of humor is just as good as Jade’s sarcasm.”

The two of them decided to go by to see Gracie.Pulling into the drive, they were amazed to see a truck backing up to the garage.Wondering what they had ordered now, the two of them bypassed the garage and made their way into the house.

The barking started first.Then the cutest little puppies, all of them round and fat, came running to them.Gracie, chasing them, yelled for us to close the door or they’d escape again had Trevor closing the door and then sitting on the floor to get as much loving as he could get from the rambunctious bunch.

After telling them how she’d ended up with the ten little beasts, she said that it had been so much fun watching them grow into their own personalities.But then, she explained that she’d only had them a few days and was still getting used to them.

“Are you going to sell them?”The look Grace gave him had him raising his hands in defense.I was just asking.Because if you are, I want my pick of them.Christ, this is like having a bundle of love right here in your hands.”

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do with them all.I don’t want to part with them, they give me so much joy all the time when I’m here alone, but I’ve only just realized today how much it’s going to cost for us to feed them when they get full-sized.The vet told us that they were going to be big dogs and would need a lot of yard to play in.I have that, we have it all fenced in as well, but we’ve had to have the local store bring us food for them on a semi.”That explained the truck in the garage.“Yes, I know.I might well have gone a little overboard with that but we won’t run out anytime soon.It’s difficult for me to bring home fifty-pound bags of dog food by myself weekly.”

“I’ll take two.”She asked him if he was serious.“Yes.I want to…do you know their sex yet?If so, I want to take a male and a female.I’ll have them both fixed, but I think that a brother and sister will have fun growing up together.I know that I’ll enjoy it.”

Trevor didn’t even mind that they had names.He figured that if Gracie was willing to part with two of them for him that he’d leave their names for them.Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were going to go home with him, along with their beds, food, and collars.Christ, he thought to himself, he was nuts but was going to enjoy this so much.

By the time Maverick made it home, his other brothers and their families showed up to get to know the newest additions to the family.Sherm wanted one so badly that it hurt him to know that he couldn’t.At least not until they got their yard fenced in as well.When all was said and done, Gracie was left with two of the dogs, Fred and Wilma, so that she could watch them grow up as well.

“I have something to tell you guys since you’re all here.”Maverick raised his glass of tea up, tapped it with a spoon, and smiled.“Grace and I are going to have a baby in June.By then, we’re hoping that the dogs will be able to be around them without falling over.”

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