A Blankie for Baby

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“I put your bag in the closet, Babes,” said Sam in answer to my question of where it was.  “You were a little indisposed, and I knew you wouldn’t want it left sitting out.”

It was after eleven o’clock in the morning and we were walking up the path to the main house.  “Indisposed?” I laughed.  “I was slockered!  You know you don’t have to pussy-foot around with me, Hon, I know when I’ve been drunk!  Woo!  That was some fantastic wine.  Remind me to ask Grandpa Zu where it came from so I can get a bottle for us.  I want some more of that!”

He grinned, shaking his head.  He’d always been amazed at the way I never had hangovers.  We don’t drink that much, and usually when we do, I don’t get that tipsy, but I’ve never had a hangover in my life.  Sam nearly always does, though.  Then he has to transform to get rid of it.  I felt great.  I was ready to eat and then go tackle finding and catching a rainbow.

We reached the front door, and Annamae yanked it open just as Sam reached for the knob.

“Good morning Dad! Hi, Mom!  What took you so long?  Did you oversleep?  Y’all missed breakfast but lunch is about ready!” All of this was said as she ran ahead of us toward the kitchen.

Everybody was gathered around the kitchen table, forks ready to lay into the lunch the cook was almost finished with.  Yeah, Grandpa Zu has a cook.  He hates cooking – except barbequing.  There’s a cook around even when he has a mate, since, he says, he doesn’t want her to waste time cooking if she doesn’t want to.

“Good almost-afternoon,” greeted Grandpa Zu as we stepped in.  “Hope you youngsters got a good nights’ sleep.  Kam says conditions are going to be good this afternoon for getting that cumulonimbus cloud, and possibly the rainbow.” He seemed to be in a very good mood.

Uncle Kambu nodded as the cook sat a plate in front of him.  “Yes.  We should see formations begin by one or two o’clock.”

“Ooo!  Y’all gonna catch a cloud and a rainbow?” asked Annamae, “Can I help?”

Now whywould she suppose I’d allow that, I wondered.  No way was I going to let her help with this.  Aunt Nayah must have seen my “Hell, no!” coming.

She laughed.  “I don’t think you’re quite big enough, yet, Baby.  Why don’t you and I go into town and shop.  We can get those pretty shoes you said you wanted, and perhaps pick up a cute outfit to go with it.  Then, we can go visit your cousins, Beth and Narise.”

Auntie sure knew how to defuse Annamae.  Those two cousins were the same age as Annamae, and they’d known each other since birth.  They were tight friends, and when they came South with their parents to visit relatives in South Carolina, they always begged to stop at our house for a couple of days.

Of course, when Aunt Nayah mentioned shoe shopping, something in me perked up.  Then I remembered I was going to have to catch a rainbow if one turned up, so, sadly, I had to tell that “something” to un-perk.

Annamae sighed, but her eyes danced.  “Well, okay, Auntie.  I do want to see Beth and Narise, and I guess if I have to shoe shop…”

She wasn’t fooling me.  The girl got the shoe shopping gene bad so I knew she was faking disappointment.

We finished lunch, and Sam, Grandpa Zu, Uncle Kambu, Tandy and I went out on the back patio as Aunt Nayah and Annamae went around to the garage, got into the deep blue Range Rover and left.  I watched as they went down the drive toward the gate, and reflected on how there were no poor old werewolves.  Anybody who’d managed to live as long as Grandpa Zu, and Aunt Nayah and Uncle Kambu, were pretty much rolling in cash.  Hell, even Tandy, at only a hundred and fifty, was probably up to her beautiful neck in dough.