The Mandie Collection (22 page)

Once inside her room she quickly set him down, closed the door, and lit a lamp. He was filthy dirty and smelled like something dead.

She picked him up, took him to the bathroom, and deposited him in the bathtub. Snowball was meowing the whole time, and she was sure he was going to wake everyone in the house. But he had to be cleaned so she turned on the water and bathed him, which made him howl louder than ever.

Finally picking him up in a towel, she sat down on the floor and tried to get him dry. Giving up trying to keep him still, she took a clean towel, rolled him up in it, carried him back to her room, and set him on a chair.

“Now, you stay right there. Don't you get in my bed. You're all wet, you understand?” she scolded him.

Snowball looked at her, managed to get his front feet out of the towel, and began washing his face.

Mandie put out the lamp, got back in bed, and waited to see what Snowball was going to do. Much to her surprise, he finally became quiet and as far as she could see in the darkness, he stayed in the chair, curled up, and went to sleep.

Happy that her cat had finally come home, Mandie drifted off to sleep. Now she could go back tomorrow to investigating the mystery of the light in the old house across the property line. And she and Joe
could go down through the tunnel to find out whether they could see the place from the exit. But maybe it wouldn't be raining tomorrow.

Sometime during the night, Snowball slipped up onto her bed and curled up on the other pillow.

Mandie dreamed she could hear the wind roaring and woke in the middle of the night to find Snowball purring in her ear. As she moved to push him away, she remembered his fur was wet, but when she touched him it was dry. And he was back home. She turned over and went back to sleep.

CHAPTER SIX

PLANNING

Mandie woke early the next morning and opened her eyes to bright sunlight streaming in through the window. She sat up quickly. Had she overslept? She ran to the window to look out. No, the sun just seemed brighter because the previous day had been so dark. The rooster crowed in the backyard. She stretched and turned to look for Snowball. He was not in the room. Now where had he gone?

“Oh, that cat!” she moaned to herself as she hastily got dressed. “I'm going to tie him up if he doesn't stop running off.”

She went straight to the kitchen. That's where he would go, but how did he get out of her room? John Shaw was sitting at the table drinking coffee and reading a newspaper. No one else was there.

“Good morning, my little blue eyes,” her uncle greeted her. “Coffee's ready.”

Mandie quickly got a cup and saucer, poured coffee from the percolator on the cookstove, and came to sit at the table with him.

“Snowball came home in the middle of the night and now he has disappeared out of my room with the door shut,” Mandie said with a loud groan.

John Shaw grinned at her, pointed toward the floor behind the stove, and said, “I know. There he is, already eating his breakfast. Liza brought him in just a few minutes ago.”

“Oh! How did Liza get him out of my room without waking me?” Mandie asked.

“She said she was going down the hallway up there and heard Snowball meowing inside the door of your room, and when she peeked inside he ran out,” John Shaw explained. “She didn't wake you because she was sure you were ‘done wore out.' ”

Mandie quickly related the happenings of the night before when Snowball showed up at the front door. “I mean he was absolutely filthy and he smelled like fish,” she said.

“He probably got hungry and tried to catch a fish out of the creek,” John Shaw suggested.

“But I can't figure out where he has been, and since he can't talk I suppose I'll never know,” Mandie concluded with a big sigh. She sipped the hot coffee and thought about it.

Joe came into the kitchen and joined them for coffee at the table. When Mandie related the story to him, he asked, “But how in the world could you have heard Snowball howling outside the front door? The front door is quite a distance from your room, I believe.”

“That's because I was listening for him all the time, trying to hear his meow, and I thought I was dreaming, but I got up and went downstairs and there he was,” Mandie explained.

Joe shrugged his shoulders and said, “Oh well, I'm certainly glad he decided to come home.”

“And now I'm afraid he will run away again,” Mandie said thoughtfully.

“Don't let him out of the house,” John Shaw told her. “Inform everyone that he is not to go outside. That way they'll be watching for him when they open outside doors.”

“I suppose I could put on his leash and take him out for air with me,” Mandie said. “You know the sun is shining.” She smiled as she glanced toward the window.

“Yes, I'm glad it has cleared up,” John Shaw said. Turning to Joe, he said, “Now would be a good time to put the cover on that rose arbor before it rains again.”

“Yes, sir, I agree,” Joe said. “Just let me know when.”

“How about right after breakfast?” John Shaw suggested, drinking the last of his coffee.

“That will be fine,” Joe agreed.

Liza came in the back door and smiled at Mandie. “I sees dat white cat dun come home agin,” she said.

“Finally,” Mandie replied and told her the events of the night before.

“Thank de Lawd,” Liza said, rolling her dark eyes.

“Yes, and as soon as breakfast is over we're going to cover the arbor in case it rains again,” Mandie replied.

“Dat's good to stay out of de rain, 'cause it sho' was rainin' last night when I seed a light down dere,” Liza told her as she went to the stove and began taking down pots and pans in preparation for breakfast.

“Last night? You saw a light down there last night?” Mandie quickly asked. “You were out last night?”

Liza put her hand over her mouth and said, “I dun put my foot in trouble if Aunt Lou find out. Lawsy mercy, Missy 'Manda, I better keep my big mouth shut.”

Joe grinned and said, “I do believe I'm getting hard of hearing this morning. What were you telling us about last night?”

Liza grinned back at him and said, “I ain't sayin' 'nuther word. I'se got to git breakfast started now.” She turned back to the stove.

“I heard you, Liza, but I'm not telling,” Mandie said. Turning to Uncle John, she said, “So there was a light down there last night. I do wish I could find out who's in that old house.”

“We'll eventually find out,” John Shaw replied, standing up from the table. “Right now I have a couple of things to do in my office before we eat breakfast. So I'll be back down to eat, Joe, and then we'll see about that arbor cover.” After putting his cup in the sink, he went to the door to the hallway.

“Yes, sir, whenever you are ready,” Joe agreed. As John Shaw left the room, Joe also stood up and said to Mandie, “I think we ought to go to the parlor before Aunt Lou comes in here. She might want to ask questions that we don't want to answer.” He nodded toward Liza and left his cup next to John Shaw's.

Mandie hurriedly added her cup to the other used ones and joined him as he headed toward the door. “I know what you mean,” she said.
Glancing back, she told Liza, “Would you please keep Snowball shut up in here and tell the others he is not to go outside without me?”

“Sho' 'nuff will, Missy 'Manda,” Liza replied, smiling at her as she bent to open the oven.

When Mandie and Joe got to the parlor, they found Mrs. Taft sitting by the fire in the fireplace. She looked up as they came into the room.

“My, you two are up early,” Mrs. Taft said.

“Yes, ma'am,” Mandie and Joe both replied.

The two sat down near Mrs. Taft, and Mandie explained about Snowball finally coming home.

“Well, I'm glad he came back, but, Amanda, please keep that cat shut up somewhere so he can't run off again,” her grandmother replied.

“He's staying in the kitchen for the time being,” Mandie said and then, looking at her grandmother, asked, “You are up awfully early, aren't you?”

Mrs. Taft cleared her throat and said, “Well, yes, I suppose so, but I had some notes to write that I want to go in the mail today so that I can make plans for the summer.”

“Notes about summer plans, Grandmother?” Mandie asked.

“Why, yes, I thought I'd ask Senator Morton to get together with us,” she explained. “And I wrote the Pattons. We could make a trip to Charleston to the beach and see them this summer.”

“Senator Morton and the Pattons,” Mandie repeated and glanced at Joe. He nodded as though reading her mind, and she continued, “Grandmother, I hope you are not including me, because Joe is coming home for the summer vacation from college this year, and we want to plan something.”

“Yes, I know he will be home. His mother has already told me,” Mrs. Taft replied. “And of course we want to include Joe in any plans we make.” She looked at Joe and smiled.

Joe smiled back and said, “Thank you for thinking of me, Mrs. Taft.”

Mandie was upset by her grandmother's plans but tried hard not to show it. “Does my mother know what you are planning? I mean, is she going to be involved, too?” she asked.

“Of course, your mother always goes along with whatever plans I make,” Mrs. Taft replied.

Joe spoke up. “I'm not sure what plans I will make yet for the summer. Have you discussed your plans with my mother?”

Mrs. Taft looked at him and smiled as she said, “Your mother informed me that anything I wanted to plan would be fine with her, and of course she meant you, too.”

Joe scratched his unruly brown hair and said, “But she doesn't know what plans I have for the summer because we haven't discussed them yet.”

Mandie cleared her throat and tried to steady her voice as she spoke. “Grandmother, I am planning to visit my Cherokee kinpeople this summer. I haven't mentioned this to my mother, but I'm sure she will agree. So before you make any definite commitments with Senator Morton and the Pattons, maybe we'd better all get together and discuss this summer's activities.” She held her breath, waiting for her grandmother to explode. Much to her surprise, Mrs. Taft didn't seem to have an answer to that.

Finally Mrs. Taft said, “Yes, we can all discuss this sometime today, I hope.”

Mrs. Woodard and Elizabeth came into the parlor then. Mandie held her breath and hoped her grandmother did not want to have that discussion right now. She was hungry, and breakfast would be ready soon. Besides, she planned to talk privately with her mother first.

“Good morning,” Elizabeth greeted everyone as she took a seat by the fire. “I'm sure glad to see the sun out this morning.”

As greetings were exchanged, Mrs. Woodard also sat down, glanced at Joe, and said, “Yes, that sunshine is welcome, especially with the doctor having to make a call up the mountain this morning.”

“Dad is already out and gone?” Joe asked his mother.

“Yes, it was time for more medicine for old Mr. Hanback, and your father decided this morning would be a good time to go,” Mrs. Woodard said. “He'll be back in time for the noon meal.”

“I'm glad Mr. Shaw didn't go with him, then, because he and I are going to cover the rose arbor after breakfast,” Joe told her. Smiling, he added, “If it rains again we'll have a roof to stand under to watch that old house down by the creek.”

The three ladies looked at him and shook their heads. Mrs. Woodard said, “I don't understand what the fascination is about that old place. Why, it's nothing but a barn, from what I remember.”

“But, Mother, someone is staying in it, no matter how run-down the house is, and whoever it is certainly tries not to be seen by anyone,” Joe said. He glanced at Mandie with a big grin and added, “It may be an outlaw, for all we know.”

“Joe! I hope not,” Elizabeth Shaw spoke quickly.

“Then it could be dangerous for you young people to snoop around down there,” Mrs. Taft said, looking at Elizabeth.

“They've been cautioned not to go all the way to the house and especially not to go down that way alone,” Elizabeth explained.

In an effort to turn the conversation away from the old house, Mandie explained to her mother and Mrs. Woodard that Snowball had returned home the night before.

“He's confined to the kitchen right now with notice that no one is to let him out,” Joe added.

“I'm glad he came home,” Elizabeth said.

“Yes, indeed, he's like one of the family,” Mrs. Woodard added, smiling at Mandie.

John Shaw came to the parlor doorway then and informed them, “I believe breakfast is ready if you ladies are ready.”

As soon as breakfast was over, John Shaw took Joe out to the barn with him to sort out the wood for the arbor. Mandie followed.

As she stood there, looking at the rough lumber her uncle was laying out, she asked, “Uncle John, that's going to look awfully tacky, isn't it—all that unfinished lumber on top of the rose arbor?”

John Shaw laughed and said, “It won't look that way when we get through with it. We're going to saw some of the good pieces, and after it's all attached to the arbor, we'll paint it.”

“But if it rains again you won't be able to paint the wood in the rain,” Mandie reminded him.

John Shaw straightened up to look at her and said, “Joe and I are going to do this real fast-like before it rains again so we can get the paint on before the wood gets wet. The sky looks bright and clear today, so I believe we have at least today to do this without rain.”

Mandie decided to talk to her uncle about her summer plans
while her grandmother was not around. She watched him and Joe laying out a pile of wood to be used and then finally spoke. “Uncle John, I would like to go visit my Cherokee kinpeople this summer. I haven't been out there in a long time.”