Fuzzy Logic (2 page)

Jan giggled. “So that’s the Chelsey Hut?”

“Exactly.”

After they got Rosa settled in her enclosure with food, water, and her toys, Jan turned to Kat. “Please take care of my girl. I’m dreading this trip, and I’m going to miss her.”

Kat tilted her head and the flicker in her blue eyes made it seem like she wanted to inquire, but she said simply, “Rosa will be fine. Feel free to call and check in with me if you like. You have my number.”

Jan crawled into her car and sat in morose silence as Kat walked back toward the enclosure to tend to Rosa. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and leaned her forehead on the steering wheel as she turned the key in the ignition. The next few days were going to be complicated.

As Jan’s car clunked and rumbled away, Kat walked back to the Tessa Hut. She moved out of the sunshine into the darkness of the old building, and her eyes began to adjust to the light. Why was it so quiet in here? She bent down to peer through the chain-link enclosure. It was empty. Where was Rosa? Jan had been gone for all of two minutes and already Kat had misplaced the dog. She straightened, took a step backwards, and heard a yelp as her foot landed on Rosa’s tail.

Leaping backward, Kat grabbed the chain-link fencing to keep from falling over on the dog. “Rosa, what are you doing there? You’re supposed to be
inside
the kennel.”

Kat was sure that when she and Jan had come in here with Rosa, she had closed the kennel gate. The latch was still in the locked position. As Rosa sat next to her and wagged, Kat flipped the latch up and down idly. How had the dog gotten out of the kennel without going through the gate? Kat walked into the enclosure and examined the fencing, looking for holes, while Rosa supervised.

Kat stopped and looked at the dog. “Okay Rosa, how did you get out? What did you do?”

Rosa continued to wag and pant. The dog seemed to have a slightly smug look on her face. Like any good magician, Rosa wasn’t about to divulge her secrets. But she certainly looked pleased with herself.

Kat exited the kennel and led Rosa back inside. She stroked the smooth black fur on the dog’s head. “Rosa, you are staying here.
Inside
the kennel. This is your bed while your mom is gone. You have to stay in it. Take a nap, and after lunch I’ll take you for a walk. It will be fun.”

Carefully securing the latch on the gate, Kat left the Tessa Hut and walked toward the house. She shaded her eyes and looked up at the roof where Joel was whacking something with a hammer. “Hey, could you come down here for a minute?”

Joel stood up and waved his okay. Even though he’d been working up there for a while without any problem, Kat still wasn’t used to his ability to wander around on the steep roof. Having the person you love spending so much time two stories off the ground was stressful. Kat closed her eyes, acknowledging the twinge in her stomach, as he disappeared down the back side of the house. Hearing no crash, she opened her eyes again and smiled as he walked toward her. “I think there’s a problem with the Tessa Hut.”

Joel’s gaze moved behind her. “I’d say you’re right.”

Kat turned to see what he was looking at. “Rosa!” She grabbed the dog’s collar and started leading the dog back to the Tessa Hut. “What is wrong with you?”

Joel followed Kat as she led Rosa toward the outbuilding. “Did you lock the gate?”

“Twice. And yet here she is. I can’t figure out how she’s getting out. Tessa never got out.” Hadn’t Joel fixed the building? He said he had.

“Tessa doesn’t focus well. Getting out would require an attention span longer than six microseconds.”

Kat looked back and grinned at Joel. His tendency to make deadpan comments amused her. “Well, there is that. Maybe Rosa is smarter than Jan said. Or at least smarter than Tessa. Could you look at the fencing? I can’t figure out what she’s doing. It looks secure to me.”

Joel and Kat went inside the kennel and began examining the chain-link enclosure as Rosa looked on. Kat ran her hands down the fencing wires checking for any holes or broken areas. The outbuilding itself was old, dusty, and obviously not constructed by a skilled craftsman. The rough-hewn planks of the walls still exuded the scent of filthy antique straw. After he’d moved in with Kat, Joel had reinforced the building to keep it from falling down. But Kat didn’t know if he’d looked at the chain-link enclosure inside the building. Tessa had been sleeping inside the house by that point, so he may not have bothered with it.

Kat crouched down to get a closer look at the bottom of the fence. Rosa leaped over and licked Kat’s ear with her big pink tongue. Jerking her head away from the slimy feeling, Kat lost her balance and tipped over backward. As she went down, she grabbed the fabric on the leg of Joel’s jeans with one hand, yanking him toward her. Twisting to try to grab her other hand, Joel slammed his foot into Rosa’s water bowl, which flipped up and landed on Kat, covering her with dog-drool-infused water. Joel grabbed the fence and attempted to regain some equilibrium to avoid falling on top of her. Looking down at Kat’s soaked flannel shirt and shocked demeanor, he smirked and said, “Mmm, doggie backwash. That’s sexy.”

Kat’s expression clouded with fury and she blurted out, “Very funny. You were supposed to fix this! She’s not supposed to be able to get out!”

Sensing trouble, Rosa stopped panting, furrowed her brow, and retreated to the farthest corner of the kennel.

Attempting to muster some small sense of dignity, Kat sat up, smoothed her hair, and glared up at Joel, who was still hanging over her, clutching the fencing. He straightened, reached out a hand to help her up, and said through tight lips, “I fixed the building; the chain link looked fine.”

Kat had learned that when Joel used that particular low tone of voice, he wasn’t happy. Maybe she shouldn’t have snapped at him. She rubbed her left elbow, which had hit the floor hard. Pain made her cranky.

“But how is Rosa getting out? If something happens to her, Jan will kill me. And I’ll feel horrible. So much for the whole idea of setting up a boarding kennel. Maybe this isn’t going to work. I’ve only got one goofy black Lab here. What if I had more dogs?”

Joel took her other hand in his and looked down into her blue eyes. “This building wasn’t designed to be a kennel in the first place. That’s why we’re planning to build something new this spring.

Kat nodded. “I suppose so.”

“I’m not sure what Rosa is doing to get out. So far, she doesn’t seem to want to go anywhere. She just sits next to you. Maybe she’s lonely. Her owner has only been gone for a few minutes and she probably wonders where she is.”

“Great. The first dog I board has abandonment issues. But she has to be getting out somehow. We’ve got
five
dogs in the house already; it’s kind of crowded. I really want Rosa to stay out here like a dog that’s being boarded is supposed to.”

Deciding that the tense moment was over, Rosa jumped up from her corner and ran over to Kat to receive some affection. Kat obliged by stroking the dog’s head. She sighed. “Are you lonely, Rosa? Is that it? I guess taking care of you could be more difficult than I thought.”

Rosa wagged and leaned her sleek black body onto Kat’s thigh. Joel wrapped his arm around Kat and pulled her toward him. “At least she likes you.”

Kat snuggled into his arms and looked down at the dog. “Oh Rosa, what are we going to do with you?”

Chapter 2

J
an breathed a sigh of relief as she settled into seat 12F. It had been a long drive to the airport, and she was looking forward to some uninterrupted reading time during the flight. Considering that she was a librarian, she didn’t seem to get much opportunity to read books. Finding, repairing, buying, and filing books, yes. Reading, no.

At the sound of a loud throat clearing, Jan looked up to find a large woman pointing to the seat next to her. “I’m in 12E.”

Jan looked over at the man in 12D, who was disentangling himself from his seatbelt and moving into the aisle to let the woman get by him. He caught her gaze and frowned. Like him, Jan had hoped that the middle seat would remain unoccupied, but no such luck. She smiled in sympathy at Mr. 12D as the older woman rammed her luggage under the seat in front of her and settled her prodigious girth into the small space. Various body parts oozed over Jan’s lap as the woman bent over, attempting to extract something from her suitcase at her feet. Jan cringed inwardly at the violation of personal space and the unspoken rules of air travel.

Having completed her luggage ministrations, the woman turned to Jan and thrust out her hand. “Hi! My name is Ethel and I’m going to visit my granddaughter in San Diego! But I’m a little bit of a nervous flyer.” Her eyes widened and she whispered, “Sometimes it affects my digestion.”

Jan put her book down in her lap. So much for escaping into a good read. Clearly, she wasn’t going to be able to make any headway on her novel. “I’m sure you’ll be okay. It’s not a very long flight.” In the seat pocket, an airsick bag was placed within easy reach.

Ethel tilted her head, causing the ossified bluish curls on her head to shift in an unnatural way. “Why are you going to San Diego?”

Jan sighed a little too loudly. Maybe Ethel wouldn’t notice. “My mother is getting married.”

Ethel straightened in her seat and leaned closer to Jan. “That’s wonderful! I love weddings. Who is the lucky man? What does he do? Are you excited? It’s beautiful to see such an expression of love. Where are they getting married?”

It was apparent that Ethel had not been retrieving breath mints out of her suitcase. Jan replied slowly, “Well, they are getting married on the beach. The man was actually her next-door neighbor many years ago. I knew him when I was growing up.” Jan shrugged. “I don’t know if I’m excited exactly. But it will probably be interesting.”

“Interesting? But weddings are so gorgeous. The flowers! The lovely food! How can you not just adore that?”

Jan twisted in her seat, leaning her back away toward the window. If she were any farther away from Ethel, she’d be outside the plane. Discussing anything related to her mother was never fun. “My mother tends to do things differently, I guess.”

“What do you mean differently? It’s a wedding! There are traditions. People say vows!”

“Well, I think for one thing, there will be a puppet show.”

The woman looked slightly taken aback, but then smiled knowingly. “Oh, is it one of those sex-puppet shows? I’ve never seen that at a wedding. But it could be fun.”

Jan didn’t know what a sex-puppet show was. And she didn’t want to know. She’d seen way too many puppet shows in her lifetime as it was. “No, no, nothing like that. My mother was on local children’s television for a long time. She was the assistant to
The Farmer
, the kid’s TV show in San Diego. She did the puppet shows with the sock-puppet farm animals.”

“You mother is the
Farm Lady
? I loved her. My kids loved her. My grandkids love her in the reruns. Oh my goodness me, I can’t believe I’m sitting next to the daughter of the Farm Lady. This is so exciting! Oh and the Farm Lady is getting married? How wonderful for her! Is she finally marrying the Farmer?”

After so many years, Jan was used to people knowing her mother as the Farm Lady with the sock puppets. And it never failed to embarrass her. Years of being teased at school by other kids making every possible form of revolting farm noise was hard to shake. The pig sounds were to the point that she still couldn’t eat bacon. And what people didn’t know was that the wholesome sweet TV persona was nothing like the real woman, Angie Carpenter. Responsible motherly farm matron, she certainly was not. “Maybe you didn’t hear, but Bob Myers, the Farmer, died a few years ago and the show went off the air. The man my mother is marrying is in the plumbing business.”

Ethel narrowed her eyes and gave Jan a knowing look, “Oh, plumbers make a lot of money. He must be a great catch. How did their love blossom? I’m sure there’s a romantic story there.”

“I don’t know how romantic it is. Like I said, we were neighbors a long time ago, but he was on television, too. They met again recently on a retrospective special that featured stars from old TV shows and commercials. If you saw the ads for the Toilet King years ago, that’s him.”