Read Online Time After Time by Antoinette Stockenberg - Free Book Online Page B

surprised
delight.
    And Liz decided, right
then and there, that either she was in menopause or she was in
trouble.
    She had to force herself
to stay on top of her plot — to bring up the dopey-dog puppet on
cue and to haul out the turtle-basket for her puppets to drag
around. She'd done the skit a hundred times, but never with her
heart in her throat the whole while.
    As intensely preoccupied
as she was, Liz still was able to notice two-year-old Bradley,
apparently escaped from his nap, toddle into the room with Snowball
in his arms. Because of the seating arrangements, no one else in
the whole damned Great Room was able to see him plop down, puppy on
his lap, against the back side of one of the sofas.
    Liz groaned inwardly and
thought about yanking the curtains shut in an impromptu
intermission and removing at least the dog. But the toddler and
puppy seemed content enough for the moment. She decided to let them
be.
    Warily, she hurried
through her lines.
    "Ow, ow, ow," cried
Misha-puppet. "This rocky beach is hurting my feet!"
    Kris-puppet reached down
and brought up something for his audience to see. "I found him!
Oops. Nope. It's a stone."
    "Here he is!" said
Misha-puppet. "Oh," she said, disappointed. "Another rock. Do you
think he swam into the ocean?"
    At this point Kris, who
knew all about land versus aquatic turtles, was supposed to have
given a little speech explaining the difference, and Misha was
supposed to have decided that her turtle was smart enough to stay
on land and close to home where it was safe, and all the puppets
were supposed to have begun heading home because it was getting
dark and where of course they would've found Tommy
Turtle.
    However.
    Liz glanced over to where
Bradley was sitting and noticed that Snowball had moved a couple of
feet away, where he was now in a squatting position over the
antique Heriz carpet.
    "Oh, no!" screamed Misha,
out of character. "Bad dog, Snowball!"
    At the sound of the name
Snowball, Bradley turned around, took in the situation in a glance,
and scrambled to his fat bare feet. "Snowbaw poopie! Bad Snowbaw!
Poopie poopie!"
    Little Bradley made a
waddling dash, right through the poopie, for the runaway puppy. Liz
shook the puppets from her hands and shot her head up into the
theater, surprising everyone except maybe Snowball, who clearly was
used to being screamed at and chased from hither to yon. She
watched, frozen with horror, as Bradley tramped dog poop from one
priceless rug to the next in his pursuit of the puppy.
    Jack Eastman, who had no
idea what was going on, naturally seized on Snowball and hauled him
out of the room. By the time he got back, it was very obvious, to
him and to everyone else with nostrils, that the party was
over.
    "Good God!" he said with
an expression of disgust. "What the hell—?"
    Liz had already tackled
Bradley to the floor and handed him over to Netta for hosing down,
but that didn't make her feel any less guilty about the social
disaster that had taken place on her watch.
    "I'm so sorry," she said,
mortified. "I saw Bradley bring in the dog ... but I had no idea
the dog was sick ... oh, lord," she said, trying not to retch, as
the guests began fleeing the house.
    Jack Eastman was amazed.
"You're telling me you saw what was going on?"
    "Well," she said lamely,
"sort of."
    "For goodness' sake, it's
nothing that can't be fixed," said Netta, rallying to Liz's
defense.
    But Cornelius Eastman
wasn't so sure. "It's so runny ... I don't know. . . the Kirman
looks bad."
    "I'll clean it," Liz
volunteered. "A little Woolite—"
    "Woolite!" Jack said,
unsure, apparently, whether to laugh or scream. "Woolite? And for
this you expect full payment?"
    It was so gratuitous. Did
she really need this fresh humiliation? She lifted her chin. "I've
learned to expect nothing from you, Mr. Eastman. Neither courtesy
nor respect. Why should you confuse me with a payment of money due?
If you'll excuse me, I'll get a bucket of water."
    She turned and found
herself