“Not just his daughter. He left everything behind,” said Ted. “His house, his business, his investments—his whole life.”
“So you took your trip, and then you disappeared. Why?” asked Chase.
“Like I said, I knew my uncle wouldn’t approve,” said Addie. “I wanted to get to know my dad. Finding him again after all these years, it really means something to me. So I decided to stick around for a while. It was actually his idea to bury the RV, so we could live here. And Ted’s been going into town to get supplies, making sure he’s not recognized.”
“You’d be surprised what a wig and a fake beard can do,” said Ted with a grin.
“I wasn’t going to go off the grid for too long,” said Addie. “I don’t want my uncle to worry, or to suffer, but I did think I deserved this time with my dad.”
“This wasn’t a long-term plan,” said Ted. “Just a couple of weeks, tops.”
“Though I should have known my uncle would try and find us,” said Addie.
“He tried to be discreet about it,” said Odelia. “He didn’t want to attract too much attention to your disappearance.”
“He must have been worried, though. Oh, I feel so bad about this now.”
“There was no way he would have allowed you to live with your dad, sweetie,” said Ted.
“I know, but still. He’s been like a father to me all these years.” She gave us a weak smile. “I’ll go home soon, I promise. But these two weeks with my dad have been so important to me. And I really feel like we’ve established a genuine connection, you know. I mean, I can tell he’s not okay. I’m not a psychologist, but I figure my mother’s passing must have scarred him for life, and the stresses and pressures of his business didn’t help, and so when he finally had a breakdown, it was a major one, and he still hasn’t recovered. But I can also see that my presence has done him good. He seems better now than when we first arrived.”
“He really does, doesn’t he?” said Ted.
“Oh, absolutely. I think he might even be ready to meet his brother again.”
“I have to say I’m impressed,” said Uncle Alec, looking around at the RV’s interior. “How much do you think a setup like this would set me back?”
“You’re not thinking about buying an RV, are you, buddy?” asked Chase.
“Well, maybe not right now, but at some point, why not?” He smiled. “Charlene—that’s my girlfriend—has been trying to persuade me to go on holiday together. First time as a couple. And I’ve been holding off. But traveling in an RV like this? I can definitely see that happening. Betterthan to lie on a beach someplace.”
“You’d have to ask my uncle about the price,” said Addie. “But knowing him, he probably got the best RV money can buy.”
“I’ll bet he won’t be happy that they buried his nice RV,” said Dooley.
“They could have just parked nearby,” said Brutus. “Now they’ll have to dig it up again, and clean it.”
“I think they planned to stay here for much longer than Addie is letting on,” I ventured. “Months, maybe. Only now that we found her, she’ll have to change her plans.”
“Oh, well. It was nice while it lasted,” said Harriet, who was bored already. And I could totally see why: no pets, and so: no kibble!
Then again, what pet would live underground like this? Moles might like it, but not cats.
“Humans are strange, aren’t they, Max?” said Dooley. “To live like this, just to be near their dad.”
“It’s a growing trend,” I said. “Tiny houses and back to nature and all that. Perhaps more people will come and live out here, and follow Edward’s example. Life for humans does get pretty stressful sometimes.”
“I’d never be able to live out here,” Brutus confessed. “I hate confined spaces.”
And so we said our goodbyes to Addie and Ted, who promised they’d get in touch with her uncle soon.
“I really thought Addie was buried in our backyard,” said Brutus as we resurfaced and breathed in that wonderful forest air once more.
“Why?” asked Harriet.
“Well, the snails,” he said. “They are attracted to dead and rotting stuff, and so I thought Addie must be out there.”
“It wasn’t dead and rotting stuff the snails were attracted to,” I said.
“Oh?” said Brutus. “Then what?”
I smiled.“Blue moon!”
CHAPTER 38
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The sun was giving of its best and so was Tex. Even his backyard was getting back on its feet, and here and there fresh green was already poking its head, indicating that pretty soon everything would be as verdant and colorful as before.
Tex had been manning the grill, and supplying us all with sustenance, and for the occasion actual chicken was on the menu, and it tasted like chicken, too!
“What’s that bottle of beer doing on the table, Max?” asked Dooley.
“It’s the beer I told you about,” I said. “Don’t you remember? Blue Moon beer?”
“Oh, that’s right. The beer that snails like so much.”
“They don’t like it, they love it,” I said. “Snails can smell beer from up to two hundred yards away.”
“I never knew snails liked beer,” said Harriet. “It makes me like them even less, to be honest.”
“It’s not the beer itself they like, but the yeast it contains. Snails love yeast.”
“You shouldn’t have done it is all I’m saying,” said Alec for the umpteenth time.
“And I keep telling you I did it because I thought it was the right thing to do,” said Gran. “Tex was complaining that his begonias were wilting, and Marge kept saying how terrible her forsythias looked this year, and so I decided to give them a helping hand.”
“By pouring beer on them,” said Alec, shaking his head.
“It sounded like a good idea!”
“Where have I heard that before?” said Scarlett with a slight grin, earning herself a light slap on the arm from her friend.
“Dick Bernstein said it made his plants grow twice as fast. He swears by Blue Moon beer. Says it’s the best fertilizer known to man. And who am I to question the guy? You should see his bush. It’s luxuriant, big… Everything a bush should be.”
“Please stop talking about Dick’s bush,” said Marge with a look of distaste. “I’m eating.”
“I think he was pulling your leg,” said Odelia. “Like that time he told Dad that mayonnaise can cure hair loss and he smeared the stuff all over his head. Remember?”
Smiling faces told us that everyone remembered, and Tex, whose hair loss had improved, said,“I think it worked.”
“It wasn’t the mayonnaise that did the trick, honey,” said Marge. “But that special shampoo Scarlett got you.”
“Chinese medicine,” said Scarlett. “You can’t go wrong with Chinese medicine.”
“I don’t like Chinese medicine,” said Uncle Alec. “Charlene once sent me to an acupuncturist. He stuck me full of needles.”
“That’s what an acupuncturist does, sweetie,” said Charlene.
“Well, I didn’t like it. It hurt.”
“Oh, poor baby,” said Charlene with a grin at Marge. “So when are we going to start looking at RVs?”
“Next week.”
“You said that last week.”
“So what happened with the snails?” asked Dooley. “I still don’t get it.”
“Gran asked Dick Bernstein how he managed to grow his bushes so luxuriant,” I explained, “and Dick told her that he sprayed Blue Moon beer on them. So Gran doused the entire backyard with beer, attracting so many snails they destroyed everything that grew.”
“Which may or may not have been Dick’s plan,” said Harriet. “Since there’s a garden competition coming up, and Gran had told Dick she was thinking of entering our backyard for the competition.”
“So he sabotaged her. Bad man,” said Brutus as he tucked into a piece of chicken.
“What I don’t understand,” said Marge, “is how Odelia’s backyard, and also Ted and Marcie’s, attracted all of those snails.”