Page 85 of Love and Other Trials
They started back for the cottage. Marshall and Ripp and the otherLord of the Fliesboys ran over.
“Did you finish?” Marshall asked, reaching them with one shoelace untied.
Dax nodded only to hear the kid mutter a pretty bad swear word. “Hey!”
“Like anyone cares,” Marshall spat back, sunburned and sweaty. “So the wedding is still on?”
Ariel leaned down and nodded. “Yeah, it’s still on. Everyone appreciated your help. You guys did a great job.”
“Like we had a choice.” Ripp took a rock out of his pocket and winged it onto the grass. “Mom didn’t make Dad help. Hehadto play golf. Like always.”
“I hate golf,” one of the other boys huffed out.
“It’s not my favorite game either.” Ariel gave them a thorough look. “You guys look pretty good, but you’d better stick to the sidewalk. Your moms are going to complain about dirt and water on your shoes and slacks.”
“Who cares?” Marshall called, running off.
The others gave their own version of put-out children before running after him.
Dax shook his head. “Have you ever seen a more miserable group of kids?”
“Marshall’s clearly not happy, but who can blame him? He has to move away from everything he knows with all the other changes. That’s hard as a kid. I remember being angry at his age when my parents got divorced. Suddenly my whole world was upended. I wasn’t particularly happy either.”
He bit back a retort that she couldn’t have been that disagreeable. But then he spotted Jeffrey practically dancing toward them on the path with two brown paper sacks in his hands. He’d already changed and had on something Dax could never imagine looking good in—a blue seersucker suit.
“Hey, Jeffrey!” Ariel called as they started over toward him. “You look like the cat who swallowed the canary. What’s going on?”
When they reached him, he had a twinkle in his eyes. “Come with me and you’ll see.”
“Dax needs to shower?—”
“And you’ll get there in time to wash his back, I promise. This will only take a sec. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this.”
They followed him all the way to the edge of the beach. “Jeffrey, what are you up to?”
He handed one sack to Ariel and the other to Dax. When the sack moved, Dax practically jumped out of his skin and dropped it. “What the hell?—”
“Hang on!” Jeffrey pulled out his phone and crouched down in the sand. “I’m all set. Dax, will you please empty the sack onto the sand.Carefully.No peeking.”
“Jeffrey, there had better not be a baby alligator in here,” Dax warned, opening the sack and sliding the contents onto the sand.
A large crab took a few steps before digging its claws in, as if trying to anchor itself.
“A crab?”Ariel swung and gazed down at her brother with her mouth open. “Jeffrey?—”
“Open your sack, sweetie.” He winked. “We’re about to have fun and take care of your problem.”
She opened her sack and started laughing. Dax peered over and then laughed with her. Her wig was nestled inside.
Jeffrey leaned in for a closeup. “Now, put your wig on the crab, and then you’re going to watch them both head off into the sunset—and the ocean—while I film it.”
“Oh Jeffrey!” Ariel was sputtering with laughter beside him. “You’re going to get into so much trouble.”
“I don’t care. Your mother was horrible to suggest a wig. I thought this would be a fitting way to have it disappear. Uncle Johnny didn’t bring his beagle, so your original idea wasn’t going to work. This way, I’ll have a video proving the crab simply up and walked away with your hairpiece.”
Dax was guffawing as the crab walked on the sand, the wig perched on its body. They were only some dancing starfish and calypso music away from being in an animated feature. “That’s awesome, man!”
“I thought so.” Jeffrey followed the crab’s progress, bent over at the waist. “It’s a special wedding memory that will always make you laugh. We can’t only have horrible memories of mud pits and wedding dresses not fitting! It’s time to take something back, people, and this crab is going to help us do it.”
