Cimarron, Denver Cereal Volume 4 by Claudia Hall Christian Page A

through her sobs.
    “ Road-a-vore?” Jacob
asked.
    “ The b-b-big machines,”
Katy said. “Mommy said they eat the street.”
    “ I promised the kids they
could drive the big equipment today,” Valerie said. “I’m so sorry.
I had no idea…”
    “ It’s totally my fault,”
Jacob said. He rocked Katy against him. “I knew she
was…”
    “ Insane?” Valerie
asked.
    Jacob nodded.
    “ They’re going to have
bruises on their wrists and Katy’s face…” Valerie said. “Jill’s
going to kill you. Have any arnica?”
    “ At home,” Jacob said. “I
don’t get bruised in the office.”
    “ Softy,” Valerie laughed.
“I have some in my bag from the movie. I think it’s in the
car.”
    There was a knock at the door. Aden’s
secretary poked her head in.
    “ I brought some ice for
Katy’s cheek,” she said. “Aden said to give you this.”
    She gave him a tube of Arnica gel. Standing
with Paddie, Valerie took the Arnica and ice.
    “ Thanks,” Valerie
said.
    Aden’s secretary nodded then closed the
door.
    “ Fix the door,” Valerie
said.
    “ Done.”
    Jacob worked his skill to seal the door
closed. Valerie put arnica gel on Paddie’s wrists then tossed the
tube to Jacob. Jacob put the soothing gel on Katy’s wrist and face.
He wrapped the ice pack in his handkerchief and held it against
Katy’s cheek. He said a silent prayer that the arnica gel would
help to keep the bruise down.
    “ Chocolate?” Jacob asked
Katy.
    As if agreeing to something important, Katy
gave him a solemn nod. Jacob took out the box of ‘fancy chocolates’
he kept for Katy’s visits. Paddie jumped off Valerie’s lap to
explore the box with Katy. Tears calmed, the chocolate seemed to
sufficiently restore the children.
    “ Road-a-vores?” Jacob
asked.
    Katy and Paddie clapped their hands.
    “ Let’s get out of here,”
Valerie said. “Can you come?”
    “ I wouldn’t miss it,” he
said.
    He unsealed the door. Moving quickly, they
walked past the crazy secretary. They never gave her another
thought. With road-a-vores and chocolate around, who could think of
anything else?
    ~~~~~~~~
    Thursday afternoon — 3:30 P.M.
     
    “ Hey Pete,” Sandy
said.
    She’d seen him standing outside her hair
studio. He looked up when her client left but didn’t come to the
door. She opened the door.
    “ Would you like a haircut?”
Sandy asked. “I have time.”
    Pete nodded. Sandy washed his hair. Because
of the surgery, she had to shave his hair down to less than a half
an inch. She lathered him up and gave him a shave. They went
through the ritual in silence.
    “ You’re done,” she
said.
    “ Molly says I need to have
a job before she’ll talk to me,” Pete said. “I’ve been looking all
day. I mean really looking. No one will hire me.”
    “ What about Lipson?” Sandy
asked.
    “ You have to be clean six
months to work there,” Pete said. “I’ve burned a lot of people with
my drug use. Plus, I look like a homeless person. At least now I
look like a homeless person with a good hair cut.”
    “ Do you use drugs any
more?” Sandy asked.
    “ No, Jill helped me with
it. I mean, she gave me a start but I still have a long way to go,”
Pete said. “I was clean in prison. I went to three meetings today
and I got a sponsor. I’m done with drugs. I need someone to give me
a chance.”
    “ I know that feeling,”
Sandy said.
    “ Yeah, I bet you do,” Pete
said. “I heard about what happened, you know, with your
Dad?”
    “ Father,” Sandy said. “You
remember my Dad? He was the cop.”
    “ Yea, I remember him. Great
guy.”
    Sandy picked up a load of towels and began
walking toward the back.
    “ I wanted you to know I
never thought anything bad about you,” Pete said. “You were always
nice about me and Molly. I knew something was going on when we were
in high school. I always thought it was that pilot guy. He
was old and so…
dashing.”
    Sandy stopped walking. She nodded to him and
put the towels in