Page 26 of Tom's Chance
“I made something for us. I was going to invite you over to the house when Duane got home, but now that you have the animals, if you agree, we’ll eat here. But not until Duane gets home.”
“What did you make?” Lorissa asked as her stomach growled and she grabbed a package of cheese crackers to hold her over until it was supper time.
“I made an extra-large pan of that spaghetti squash dish you like. The one with the meat.”
“Perfect.”
“I thought so. Oh, and I wanted to tell you that my father told me that Ralph was my dog, but in reality, he was Mom’s. I had school, and then after school activities, I wasn’t home all the time. Mom started taking him to work with her, and it was a given that whenever Mom left the house, Ralph was with her. He only hung out with me when I was doing homework or listening to music in my room. He would sleep at the end of my bed. I hadn’t realized how much I missed him until I saw Rose. She’s the exact coloring as our Ralph was.”
“Well, I’ll tell you both right now, that I can’t promise you anything yet. We have to wait for Tom to get ahold of the owner, and see what she wants to do. I don’t even know how bad the fire was and what damage it caused.” She shook her head and held upher hand to ward off anything they might say. “I also don’t know if Rose will even pull through. We won’t know for another forty-eight hours. Both Tom and I are hoping that with her being knocked out, the oxygen will help her with the smoke in her lungs. When Tom put the tube down her throat, there was more damage than we thought. It will be touch and go for the next couple of days.”
“We understand,” Lois said, then looked at her granddaughter with a grin. “I’m calling first dibs on a puppy.”
They all shared a laugh and talked for the next hour before Duane came home. In a flurry of activity, Laurie rushed about and before long, they all sat down to the meal she’d cooked for them, and they talked about their day. Since Duane had been at work, he didn’t know about the cat and her kittens, nor the dog and the puppies. After they cleaned up, Lorissa took him into the clinic just as the alarm on her watch sounded and she fed the puppies with Duane watching like a hawk. He didn’t offer to help, but that was okay.
When she was done, her guests left, and because she had just fed the animals, she knew she had time, so she went up to her room and took a shower, changed into her pajamas, and grabbed her favorite pillow and blanket. She placed them on the cot in the clinic, then grabbed some paper and started a file on all the animals with what she had done to them, andthe feeding schedule. By the time the next feeding came, she was ready, and once they were fed, she climbed onto the cot and was asleep before her head hit the pillow. It was a rough two days, but she stayed home, after calling Erin the next day to explain the situation, and was promised she would only be called in an emergency situation. The time home also afforded her the opportunity to draw up a contract for Jared Coleman to be his farrier. While she waited to bring Rose out of sedation, she was able to unpack some more items she’d just stuck in a room, and ended up cleaning the entire house. She knew it was much bigger than what she needed, but her mother and grandmother refused to give up one of the doublewides for her. Their biggest complaint was that they couldn’t go up and down the stairs as she could. She finally relented and started making the house into her home.
Mid-morningon the third day of having the animals, Lorissa jerked, then swore as she spilt her coffee when her phone rang. She hurried over and didn’t recognize the number, but answered it anyway.
“Hello?”
“Lorissa? Hi, it’s Tom. I’m not catching you at a bad time, am I?”
“No, not at all, what’s up?”
“I was wondering if you have taken Rose off sedation yet?”
“No, not yet, I was going to finish my coffee and go do that. I was sort of waiting until I fed the puppies so I wouldn’t be interrupted.”
“Got it. Would you mind if I come out and watch you?”
“Not at all. I have about forty-five minutes before the alarm goes off.”
“Good. I’m about thirty minutes away. I’ll see you then.” He hung up and Lorissa stood there with a sappy smile on her face and then laughed as she did a happy dance where she stood. She looked down and gave a little scream because the coffee she’d spilt when the phone rang was in blotches all over her white tee-shirt. She set the mug down and ran up the stairs to change. Not wanting to get fancy or girly, she tossed the shirt in the sink, started filling it with cold water, and grabbed another white shirt. She had no idea why she favored white, but it seemed like most of her shirts were that color. The new one happened to be a tank top, but since it was already in the mid-seventies, it didn’t bother her. She was sitting calmly at her kitchen table when a knock came on the back door, and she called out for them to enter.
She stared as Tom entered, then grinned when she saw the bakery bag in his hand.
“I know the last time you were at the bakery, you missed out on your treat because of me, so I thought I’d stop and pick us up a couple of muffins. I hope you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” she said as she rose to get him a cup of coffee and they dug right into the muffins he’d brought. She noticed he’d brought two different kinds, and only two of them.
“I didn’t know what you liked, and I know this is bad of me, but these are my two favorite ones, so I brought two of each.” He pointed to the blueberry, and mixed berry muffins.
“My favorite too, and I’m not just saying that to be coy. The muffin I left behind when I went to help Rose and Baby was a mixed berry one.”
“Great.” He laughed as he took one and left her the other one. They ate in silence and as soon as they finished, the alarm on her watch went off. With no fuss or muss, they cleaned up their area and went to feed the puppies. As she started mixing the ingredients she would need, Tom inspected Baby and was happy with how she was progressing. He washed his hands, donned a pair of gloves and helped her feed the other babies.
“Wow, these guys are little pigs.” He laughed when the puppy he held seemed to devour the eye dropper of food he held for it. “How many are you giving them?”
“Four, only because I don’t have the large size. I thought I did, but these are the only ones I have.”
“Depending on how Rose is after we wake her, remind me to get some out of my truck for you.”
“Okay, but I’m hoping once Rose wakes up fully, she won’t reject her babies and continue being a good mother to them.”
“Yeah, let’s hope.”
“This morning when the alarm went off, I used the bathroom before I got to them,” she said as she pointed to an area behind him. He turned to look then glanced back at her with a frown. “I’ve been sleeping here in case there’s a problem.”
