Operation Wolfe Cub: A Chilling Historical Thriller (THE TIME TO TELL Book 1) (40 page)

Dwight’s mother asked, “Oh wow…pardon me for changing the subject because I need to…Getting back to Doll, normally. If the constable says it’s okay to keep him, are you going to adopt him then?”

Chantain seemed perplexed. “I just don’t know. Eddie’s making that call. Not me.”

Glenn’s mother asked, “You don’t sound so good. Eddie doesn’t have a problem with him, does he, Chantain?”

Chantain bobbed her eyelids in a quirky way. “I really can’t say…he’ll be coming home in an hour. If anyone’s still around, they can ask him when he comes through the door.”

Glenn and Dwight’s mothers backed down to calmly sitting. “Oh no, that’s all right.”

“Me too, that’s okay. I wouldn’t want to interfere with anything.”

Chantain then scanned over everyone. “Anyone here thinking of having another son? Maybe Landon wishes he could have a brother?”

Landon’s mother quickly looked down to the floor. “No, I-I I’m sorry I—”

Chantain continued, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong…I mean, you know. Doll might be hurt to
um
—to be living with me and my real son…you seem like a better fit to me, no?”

Chantain delivered the dirty dishes into the kitchen then walked back out. She sat down, crossing her legs, looking at everyone in a huff. “That’s just it... I’m not his real mom. Nobody here can tell me a kid’s not going to have problems with that.”

Julie seemed out of touch with their conversation. She was too busy growing green-eyed as she watched Doll gaining the other children’s following. By this time, he not only had shown them how to use their toys, he now seemed to be figuring out how to spin the top for her son.

One of the women observed Arlis faltering on his feet. “
Um
, Julie, is Arlis,
uh
, walking yet?”

Julie snapped out of her obsession with Doll, “Why, of course he is. Look, I’ll show you.”

She picked herself up and marched right over to Arlis, just as Doll let go the spinning top for everyone to see. Everyone laughed hysterically as the top changed directions around Julie’s feet, who was in the middle of trying to steady Arlis for a test walk. “Stop laughing everyone. I’m tryin’ to help out Arlis…oh, darn that spinning thing is in m’ way.” She kicked the top away, so Doll trotted to rescue the fallen top and gave it another quick spin.

Arlis saw the top take off again, except this time, he wanted to chase it. Julie let go his arms just in time to see him fall face down.

“
Boo-hoo! Boo-hoo-hooo!
”

Julie tried to stop his crying. “That’s all right, sweetheart. You’re not supposed to run; you’re supposed to walk. There, there, we know you can walk. It’s okay. Mommy makes it feel better.”

Landon’s mother scooped up the spinning top before it could do any further damage. “Oh, how cute. Hey look, everyone! The top has ten little Indians on it, like the song. Did anyone see that?”

Dwight’s mother waved her hand. “I did…I fell in love with it when I bought it. It looks like a flying saucer moving around on the floor, doesn’t it?”

Through Arlis’s cries getting louder, Landon’s mother quickly tried to help out by singing, “
One little, two little, three
little Indians! Four little, five little, six little Indians! Seven little, eight little, nine little Indians—ten little Indian booyyys!
”

Arlis quickly quieted down when yet another noise came in to raid their party from outside.

Chug-chug-kirpop! Chug-chug-kirpop!

The sound rattled through the windows and screen door as one of the ladies quietly blinked. “Oh my—what was
that
?”

Chantain started to explain when Julie beat her to it. “Oh, that’s Eddie coming home. Don’t bother. We live down the road and have to hear that thing-a-theirs, backfire all the time. You need to get it fixed, Chantain.”

Chantain rose up quickly from her chair, morosely cleaning up things that didn’t really need cleaning. Her subtle message was well received. Doll’s little birthday party was abruptly over.

After everyone’s faces grew sad, they gathered their children and quietly invited themselves to the door. Their timing couldn’t have been better. Eddie came walking inside at the same time the women were standing with their sons. Each of them turned back to thank Chantain for having them over. The good-bye gestures should have given Eddie enough time to get out of the way, but he didn’t. He was too preoccupied watching everyone, while holding books under his arm.

Julie wiggled her way up front, through the others, to face Eddie. She then glanced down at the books he was carrying. “My, my…since when’ve you gotten interested n’ books? What you readin’? How to fix noisy cars?”

Everyone lightheartedly rolled with the joke, until Eddie’s smile dropped. He awkwardly moved aside, preventing Julie from seeing their covers. “Yes…so how is everyone?” Nobody bothered to answer, so he swallowed down a faint sense of anxiety as he glanced over to the grandfather clock, watching it tick.

Chantain gave him only so much time before crossing her arms and glaring. “You’re early, Eddie. The least you could do is answer Julie’s question.”

“Oh no…I’m early? I mean—I-I’m sorry. Oh, these books? They’re nothing really, just history books. Books of—historical symbols and things.”

Landon’s mother seemed genuinely interested. “Oh, that sounds interesting. Can I see what they are?”

“
No
. I mean, no…you know, it’s just guy stuff. I don’t know why anyone would be interested in this stuff—”

Chantain rolled her eyes. “Oh God, that’s Eddie’s hobby. He can never get enough of that World War. He’s always listening, reading, or doing
something
about it.”

Eddie seemed grateful. “Yes, that’s right…I mean Chantain and I go ‘round and ‘round about it. Ever since I was discharged, I’ve become more critical. I mean of the war, not of Chantain.”

Everyone paused in the face of his conversation as if they were sorely confused. War seemed like a sour subject as their words dried up once again. Tongue-tied silence filtered throughout the living room, except for the children who had started to get fidgety.

As the clock ticked on, Eddie stayed anchored there, nervously tapping his cane. “Oh, sorry but—it’s never been my thing to talk to a house of women—to,
um
, talk about the war? Not good maybe…hey, I’ve got some things to do outside until the party’s really over. I’ll just—”

Glenn’s mother headed for the door. “No, no, Mr. Coolidge, you’re not breaking up the hen house. We’ve been here quite some time. Everyone was just about to leave anyway, right ladies?”

Landon’s mother nodded. “Yes, that’s right. We were just singing songs for Doll and the kids to break up the monotony.”

Everyone agreed as they shuffled their purses onto their other shoulder.

Eddie suddenly relaxed. “You really had a good time? Wow, that’s great. There’s nothing better than seeing a bunch of Doll’s friends here. My gosh, there’s Landon, Dwight, Glenn…I see Arlis next door all the time. All the kids—they’re growing up so fast, aren’t they?”

Chantain started tapping her foot. “Yes, but not fast enough—if you know what I mean, Eddie.”

Eddie hobbled aside, clearing the way for them to leave. “Maybe next time the husbands will throw a birthday party or something.”

As the women exited in single file, each of them thanked Chantain and Eddie for having them over except for Landon’s mother. She stopped at the door. “So, Eddie…what do you think about having a Leo on your hands?”

Eddie watched Chantain go to the kitchen, leaving the two of them alone. “Whatever Chantain says goes, I guess. He’s supposed to be a Gemini, did anyone mention that?”

Landon’s mother seemed bothered. “He might wind up with two signs. They’re not meant to be together—I mean in one person.”

“Oh? A Gemini-Leo, I guess. That’s right, you like astrology, don’t you? Not possible, right?”

She scowled toward the kitchen, watching out for Chantain. “
Hmmph
…Leos are kept away by more than a month for a reason. I don’t know what could happen…it could be dangerous.”

Eddie smiled, holding the screen door open for her. “Dangerous? Oh, come on…it’s not possible anyway, right?”

Landon’s mother hesitated before stepping out. “You never know…there’s always a first time. I know how Chantain is, though.”

Eddie smiled. “Yeah, well, she’s quite the devil’s advocate—I-I mean for Devil’s Gulch, isn’t she?”

“
Hmmm
…maybe she was tricked into giving the poor kid what he needs for some reason.”

Chantain strolled up from behind. “I heard that. I knew I was important for something…did you hear that, Eddie? I gave Doll just what he needs.”

Eddie said his good-byes and then spoke to Chantain as he closed the door. “Yeah? Who
or what
sent you down here to do your thing is what I would like to know?”

Chantain laughingly said, “
Ha!
Very funny. You want to know who? It was a team of angels…that’s who...I could just feel them tickling me all over today.”

By then, Eddie had already hobbled into his office, speaking over his shoulder, “Angels, she says. No kidding.”

Without further ado, he eagerly opened his rolltop desk, clearing his sloppy mess aside and placed his books down. While doing so, he muttered, “
Sssss
, angels, she says.” He pulled up his chair to look at the first book.

In the midst of his hurried research, he became mildly interrupted by the sound of music coming from the living room. He paused to glance from his chair, noticing that Doll was the one who had turned the radio on. For the moment, Eddie looked as if he was getting ready to go out there to tune it in better, but Doll already beat him to it. He whispered as he sat back down thumbing through another book, “That kid sometimes…where was I?
Hmmm
, let me see now.”

He fanned through the pages until he got to a spot that revealed various generic illustrations of symbols. Suddenly, he whispered, “
Ahhh
, yes…this is more like it…symbols, symbols…
hmmm
. Stars, right here,
yesss
.”

He knew he was on to something, so he reached into his drawer, pulling out a rough pencil tracing he had made of Doll’s medallion. Then he flipped through more pages while comparing his tracing to the pictures until he ran out of symbols.

Without successfully matching Doll’s symbol, he turned to his last book. Quickly, he turned to a chapter discussing and displaying more groups of symbols that didn’t relate to stars at all. This group of designs mainly ran vertically and horizontally. He muttered, “Crosses maybe.”

He flipped through those pages too, concluding once again that nothing resembled Doll’s rolling star. Disappointment glued a blank page on his face, so he shoved the books aside and rocked back in his chair, tapping his temple. In the face of his dim lamp, his little bit of homework seemed to be at its end. Shadows of doubt cast down upon his hard-thinking glare, but he didn’t want to give up that easily.

Just then, Chantain peeked through the French doors. “I have some leftover cake Doll didn’t eat. Do you want it with this cup of coffee?”

Eddie nearly jumped off his chair. At the same time, he awkwardly slid a newspaper over his books. “Oh! You scared me. Thank you for thinking about me…did everything go all right before I came home?”

“Yes. About as fine as expected—until Doll started showing up Arlis and the rest of them.”

“I would’ve guessed that. What happened?”

Chantain handed his cake and coffee over, then walked over to the window to stare outside. “Oh, you know. He’s walked around like he’s been doing. Some of the other kids aren’t walking all that good. This time—something else happened.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“Doll figured out the new toys that he got for his birthday.”

Eddie took a big bite of cake. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Well, after that, he shared them.” Chantain quickly whipped her hair around, facing him. “Then—he showed them how to use them.”

Eddie stopped chewing. “What did they say? Anything?”

“Nothing really…they probably thought Doll had the toys already. That’s what I would’ve thought.”

“Do we? What are they?”

Chantain didn’t bother answering at first. She glanced at her pretty, red fingernails as she wandered back over to Eddie. Then she surveyed his desk to see what he was hiding before casually saying, “He doesn’t have any spinning tops. He figured out how to push down the spinner thing that makes it work. You ever see one of those before?”

Eddie stopped to think. “
Hmmm
, no…can’t say I have. Well at least he didn’t play with the radio like he’s been doing.”

“Oh God, no. I’ll never tell that one.” She went on, “I thought Julie was going to come out of her skin when Doll and Arlis got together with the stupid top. She tried to make her kid walk in front of everybody while she almost tripped over it. It was spinning all around. Pretty funny, really.”

Chantain then leaned over to see that one of Eddie’s books wasn’t hidden quite well enough beneath the newspaper. Immediately, she saw part of the page, revealing black and white diagrams of crosses. “That’s not war stuff. Looks like religion to me.”

“What? Oh,
crosses
…yes well—it’s nothing. They relate to war, one way or another.”

Chantain abruptly snatched up the book, flipping through a couple of the pages. After suspecting she might have been on to something, she forged a big, fake yawn. “You’re not telling me the truth. Who do you think I am?”

“Okay…why can’t I get some privacy around here? I told you before, and I’ll tell you again. That symbol of Doll’s is probably some kinfolk mark from his dad—or mother. I don’t know.”

She wasn’t buying it, so Eddie showed her the rest of the books. “Look for yourself. Here you go. You won’t find it anywhere in these.”

She suspiciously went to a page he’d creased. “
Hmmm
interesting war stuff you got…says here, ‘The cross is one of the most ancient human symbols, dating back thousands of years.’
Ha
, look here—it says ‘before Christ’ even.”