Point of Attraction (5 page)

What about sleep? Oh yeah, she could
see that happening, and decided reading and critiquing might work
better this evening.

Daisy whimpered and Georgie smoothed a
hand over the Schnauzer’s head. “Are you through for the night,
Girl? Can I lock your doggie door?” Daisy wagged her tail and
Georgie went to the laundry room. When neither Daisy nor Max made a
move to go outside, she latched the hooks on the
pet-door.

“
Let’s try and get some
sleep, guys,” she said, snapped the laundry door deadbolt and went
back to her bedroom. Both Daisy and Max followed.

At the threshold, she stopped and
turned on the ceiling light. Three years, she thought, and the
queen-size bed still looked small in the large master bedroom. But
their king-size bed was the first thing she sent out of her life.
Its large mass was a nightly reminder of her Sam being gone. There
was no place in her life for a king-size bed; not without
Sam.

She turned on the lamp on the
nightstand, picked up her chapters, and turned off the ceiling
light. Tired from the evening’s event, she didn’t even turn on the
TV; simply crawled under the covers. She eased a hand over the
pillow beside her and pulled it to her in an embrace. “Oh, Sam,”
she sighed, and shook her head. Almost three years and she still
sought his presence, his essence. Burying her face in the clean
linen of the pillow, her thoughts turned to Raggs.

“
Why would they take my
Raggs?” she asked into the pillow.

Her brow puckered, but no answer came,
nor could she find Sam’s scent. With a resigning sigh and
determination, she stuffed the pillow behind her over her own for
support then scooted back snuggly against them and the
headboard.

“
Okay, Georgie Girl, let’s
see what the people in class submitted this week.” She picked up
her red pen and clicked its point into readiness. Five submissions
out of a class of twelve, she mused, and calculated in her head who
was going to drop out.

Daisy jerked upright from her corner
of the bed, her eyes and nose directed toward the curtained window.
Max too looked up.

“
What?” Georgie tried to
listen for whatever had set Daisy on alert.

Daisy’s stare was intense while a
little growl rolled in her throat. Max’s ears twitched like radar
dishes.

“
Is that a car?” The
digital clock displayed eleven forty-five. “Maybe I should have
taken that gun April wanted me to have,” Georgie said, turning off
the lamp then reached under the bed for her indoor Slugger
bat.

With the Slugger clutched in her hand,
she made her way to the living room with Daisy and Max at her side.
There was no sound other than a lonely train whistle resonating its
way up from Portland’s rail yards. She looked out through the small
glass pane in the door.

Nothing.

The outside lights weren’t
on.

At the large window, she slipped a
finger between the drapes to take a peek through the narrow slit.
All she saw were the taillights of a car disappearing down the
road. There was no way of telling if they had come from up the road
or... out of her own driveway. No. The motion detectors would have
activated the porch light and those along her drive.

Daisy’s nose nudged her a second
before her tail began its excited wagging.

“
You know, you and Max are
going to give me a heart attack. Where would you be then, with no
one to feed you?” Georgie said, and made her way back down the
hallway. Max and Daisy settled into their favorite corner of the
bed, Max quickly tucking his head into his fur.

After sliding the bat under the bed,
Georgie flicked on her electric blanket, and once more took pen in
hand. Reading through the pages, her attention kept returning to
the window, until she heard the soft snoring coming from Daisy and
Max.

~~0~~

Georgie woke with a start to the buzz,
buzz, buzz of the clock. Her lamp was still on, pen near her hand,
and the chapters on her lap. She hit the clock to stop its noise
and stacked the unread work on the empty side of the
bed.

“You guys could’ve at least turned off
the light,” she said to Daisy and Max as she tossed aside the
blankets and swung her feet over the side. After turning off the
electric blanket, she slowly reached for the ceiling; first on her
toes, then tilted to the left, to the right, taking the kinks out
of her back then her neck. “Not the best way to fall asleep, let me
tell you.”

But Daisy was already down the hallway
while Max just stretched and rolled, his mouth opening wide in a
yawn showing all his teeth and cavernous throat. A low bark called
to Georgie and she made her way to the laundry room where Daisy
waited at the locked door.

“Yeah, I’m get’n there, I’m get’n
there.” She turned the lock and opened the door. Her toes curled,
trying to get away from the cold linoleum laundry room
floor.

With toenails clicking across the
floor, Daisy ran to the locked doggie door. Georgie flipped the
little hooks and the Schnauzer darted out. With a yawn of her own,
Georgie slipped into her outdoor slippers, tied the sash to her
robe, and took out a plastic bag from its box.

The crisp morning air felt good on her
face. It wouldn’t be long before dew would cover the grass and
plants, with frost not far beyond that. She would have to dig out
her hooded winter robe and waterproof fur slippers.

“Daisy, where did you go?” As she
spoke, Georgie scooped up droppings from the day and night
before.

Daisy came around the corner of the
house barking excitedly, then sniffed at the ground as she followed
her nose to the left rear corner of the fenced yard. She barked
into the trees, then sniffed her way back to the side of the
house.

“Okay, girl, get it done and let’s
close out this chapter. I have a job to get to.”

Finally, Georgie tossed the
Daisy-poop-filled plastic bag into the trashcan. “What’s this?” It
was the tip of an impression in the soft earth around the
container. Tugging at the collar of her robe, she looked to the
still locked side gate, up into the trees and brush, then back down
at the indentation. She bent for a closer look. Was that a shoe
print? Looked like one, she thought, then straightened to put the
tip of her slipper down. The dirt was soft, and the print almost a
fit. Of course. She must have stepped there when she put back the
trashcan yesterday morning after the trash was picked up the day
before. Her other footprint was lost in the grass.

“
Duh, Georgie,” she
murmured to herself.

The phone rang in the house and she
rushed back in, Daisy beating her to the door.

“
Hey, Mom. Good
morning.”

“
Steven. You’re up
early.”

“
Yeah. Early class in
autopsy.”

“
Okay.” She winced with a
shudder. “That’s more than I wanted to hear this
morning.”

“
Is this the same mother
who wanted to witness my toenail extraction, then pouted when the
doctor nixed the idea?”

“
No. She moved away, and
left no forwarding address, smart woman.”

“
One day, I will be the
winner in these morning calls,” he said, then laughed.

“
I have my dreams too,
young grasshopper. What’s up?” His laughter both stabbed and warmed
her. It was a gentle echo of his dad’s ever-present
humor.

“
Just wanted to know if
you were up to cutting my hair this weekend.”

Georgie held her answer and looked
down at Daisy.

“
Mom?”

“
Have I ever said
no?”

“
No. But, Mom, you could
have a date or something...”

“
What time were you
thinking of coming out?” She didn’t want to let Steven get into
his
it’s time to get out more, mom,
speech.

“
I thought I could be your
last appointment on Saturday, and we could go out to dinner. Ask
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Darrow if they want to come too.”

“
Would you like it if
Paula and Ryan called you Doctor Green?” she asked, referring to
the character on the ER TV series.

“
They probably do call me
that, but Green has no hair, where as I do, and it needs
cutting.”

“
I’ll call Paula and Ryan.
Let’s make it a stay-at-home dinner.”

“
Even better,” he
said.

She half sighed and yawned.
Remembering him always being the last one to rise and fighting it
all the way, she wondered where he suddenly got all this early
morning vivacity, but thought it best not to ask. “I have to get in
the shower and get to work.”

“
Mom?”

“
Yeah?”

“
Don’t think I didn’t
notice you changed the subject. You should get out more, I know a
couple of doctors that think you’re a hottie...”

“
Have a good day poking
around inside some poor soul,” she said, hung up, then looked down
at Daisy with a smile. “You got’ta love him. Wonder what’s up with
him? He sounded very energetic for so early in the
morning.”

She was blessed with two
wonderful kids, but while Steven felt it was time for her to have
someone in her life, he openly said he had neither the time nor
room for a girl in his busy schedule. Now, Paula was a different
book all together. Paula talked a good game, but Georgie wasn’t
sure how
Daddy’s little girl
would feel if a man actually did enter her
mother’s life. Paula’s lawyer face gave no clues. Ryan Sheldon was
Paula’s Sam, and Georgie couldn’t ask for more in a
son-in-law.

When both Daisy and Max followed her
down the hall, Georgie played her morning game with them and rushed
to the bathroom, closed the door behind her, and left them on the
other side. “I’m taking a shower alone guys,” she called through
the door.

It was only seconds before Daisy’s
whimpering started and Max began poking his paw beneath the door,
Georgie laughed and called out, “Go lie down somewhere.”

The pitiful noise stopped and the paw
disappeared.

~~0~~

After parking her car in the Western
Shopping Center, Georgie waived her morning espresso from the
Center’s Cup Java Espresso House and went directly to the shop.
With a heavy heart, she turned the key at her Dare To Care Salon.
The moment she entered, her eyes darted to where Raggs always sat
waiting to greet her. The glass shelves filled with hair products
looked empty without her Raggs sitting there. When did Raggs leave
the house and come to be the salon mascot, she thought, and reached
to touch a hand on the empty place, but stopped. Best not, she
thought. What if the police decided to dust for fingerprints? Well,
that’s foolish. Even if the police thought the theft worthy of
dusting for prints, Emmee and Brandy must have touched the
spot.

She pulled out the reception desk
barstool and looked underneath, between the desk and wall, then
made her way to the back of the shop. When she reached the circuit
breaker box, she flipped on the lights, upped the thermostat for
the day, and continued looking around as she slowly made her way
back to the front. The bright morning sun glaring off the polished
linoleum floor made her squint.

The flashing digital light on the
answering machine indicated five new messages. Georgie listened,
taking down the names and numbers for return calls until the fourth
message came on. There was no voice.

“Drive-by hang up. I should
get a new machine with an ID indicator,” Georgie murmured, knowing
she wouldn’t do it until this one went belly-up, and listened to
the last message. If it wasn’t for Steven and Paula, she would
still have her old answering machine at home. “
It’s a safety factor, mom,
” they
said.

“George, this is Mason. Just wanted to
remind you to call in that theft. If you don’t, I’ll haunt you till
you do. I can be a nag. Trust me, you don’t want that.”

A smile tugged at her lips
while a rush of blood sent heat across her cheeks. That’s what she
needed... hot flashes to start. Did menopause start at forty-two?
The thought of growing old had never bothered her, but this time,
the thought stung, yet she forced herself to admit,
okay touching forty-three
.

“Oooh, who was that?”

Georgie jumped, bolting back. “Emmee!
Dammit! You scared me.” She had been so wrapped up in Raggs, she
had completely forgotten to lock the door behind her when she came
in. That was her normal procedure; come in, lock the door until one
of the girl’s came in or her first customer arrived.

“Oh, gee. I’m sorry. I thought you saw
me and unlocked the door.” Emmee looked up at the door. “Oh, no.
Our door chime. It’s gone.”

My attention must have really been
tunneled, Georgie thought. She hadn’t even noticed the chime was
missing.

“Guess what I found in the parking
lot?” Brandy’s impish voice asked. She was standing there, door
open, rolling a golden object between her fingers, then held it up.
It was the shop’s little door chime.