Getting There: How I Learned to Love Dragons And Crazy, Talking Cats

Party On, Girl

By four-thirty, Sandy Fallon came home with Matt in tow from karate class, minus Brook. “Andi? You here?” She called as she dropped her purse and briefcase on the hall bench then hung up her suit jacket. “Sorry we’re late, traffic was a mess. Darn Brook, isn’t coming with us tonight.”

Matt was still bouncing around and throwing punches, excited from his class. He stopped when he backed into Sandy.

She steadied the boy. “Wow! Look at this place!” Exclaiming, she ran a finger along the dustless sofa table, also noting a vase of orange and yellow flowers on the side table.

“Andrea?” she called going through the house.

She gave a low whistle of appreciation seeing the clean kitchen. “Andi did a great job.” She sniffed as she opened the fridge. “Something smells good” she noted a casserole and a couple of Ziploc bags of food. “What is all this?”

Matt ran in, grabbed out a juice box, and then spied the wrapped cookies on a plate. “Cookies! Neat-o!”

“Cookies? Where did those come from?” She spun away from the fridge to holler, “Andrea June, get down here!” She stared at the ceiling then hearing nothing, she stamped to the stairs.

“Andrea, are you here?”

“Mom? Yeah.”

“What is going on?”

Andrea closed her door, adjusting an earring as she went to the stairs. “What do you mean?”

“Wow! Look at you.” Sandy exclaimed. “Come down here.”

Andi carefully stepped down wearing heels and a midi dress in dark rose. It was her confirmation dress from last spring.

“Where is my Andrea Fallon?” Sandy tickled her daughter.

“Don’t, Mom” she blushed hotly.

“You look terrific. Why can’t you dress like this all the time?” Sandy hugged her close.

Andi rolled her eyes wishing she hadn’t pulled her hair back in a barrette. Now self-conscious of the lower neckline, the air swishing between her bare legs as she tried to walk gracefully in the heels and silky dress, she shrugged. “You don’t know how long it took me to look like this. I hate all the fuss.”

Sandy laughed, “Now you know why Brook and I get up early to get ready. You can’t just roll out of bed like you do and be ready in five minutes.” She admonished then swept a hand toward the living room. “By the way, thanks for cleaning everything, the house looks wonderful!” She hugged Andi close again. “You win big Brownie points today, sweetie.”

Andi swallowed hard then said, “I didn’t.”

Sandy pulled her out to the kitchen, now briskly in Business-Mom-mode again. “I’m glad you are dressed already. Although, we should do something more with your hair. We are going to a very nice place tonight. You can’t walk in looking like something dragged in off the streets.”

“Mom!” Andi glared as Sandy took a bottle of water from the fridge.

Sandy then called to Matt in the den, “Turn off the video game. Upstairs, now, buster. We must get ready. We have dinner reservations for five-thirty.”

Andi gaped, “We are going out? I thought—”

“Of course, we are, silly. It’s your sweet sixteen b-day, we’ve gotta do something nice for our girl, right?” Sandy patted her cheek.

“Hm, right.” She secretly hoped there was a big stack of cool presents to make the day better. “Since nobody said anything this morning, I kinda thought everyone forgot about it. You know, like in Sixteen Candles.”

“Pish. We aren’t that dis-functional a family, are we?” Mom said then hustled Matt upstairs.

Andi turned to the clean kitchen, “It really does look nice. Hey, Flora?” She paced from room to room expecting to see the housekeeper then spied Snickers peeking in a freshly washed dining room window. Andi met him on the back porch. She sat on a step and petted the lab. Golden hair floated up on the dusky breeze.

“You need brushing. No, you can’t sit on me; I’m all dressed for dinner.” She gently pushed him aside as Snickers tried to lay on her.

She hugged him, moaning, “We lost our Petunia, buddy.” New tears crept up, sniffling, she buried her face in his thick fur.

Snickers licked her cheeks and whined, then offered a dirty paw.

She sighed. “You need a new buddy,” standing, she said “but this time, you can’t chase it to death. Maybe we’ll get a dog this time. Tonight, you get an early dinner.” She crossed the porch to find the pet bowls full and fresh. “Someone likes you.”

Snickers sniffed the food then buried his face in the dish.

“Enjoy.”

Andi went inside, wondering if Flora had put out the food. It was odd—everything that needed to be clean or organized was almost magically done. Every place she looked, the house was immaculate, no more dust bunnies or cobwebs. Everyone had been so busy these last months since school began, especially since Mom returned to work, that the house had become a shabby mess. She had felt like Cinderella, the only one who did weekly chores.

She stood at the window looking out on the darkening yard and wondering when and where she would have Petunia’s funeral. “I should have just buried her myself, this afternoon.”

She heard the phone ring, and then glanced up at the rooster clock to see it was nearing five-fifteen. She hoped that wherever they were going tonight, was close by. Traffic was always such a snarl around this time.

She wondered if Mom would answer upstairs, so by the fourth ring she sprang for the kitchen phone. “Hi!”

“Dad? What? Hey, thanks for the house cleaner … What? Can you call back? I can’t hear you—” she started to hang up then listened. “What? Oh, we are going out tonight, like, soon. Um … yes, okay. I’ll tell her. Can’t we just meet you there? Oh. See you. I love you.”

Andi with a lump in her throat dashed upstairs hollering, “Mom! Dad just called. He’s stuck on the 405, says there’s a big accident, a bus and taxi got into it. He probably won’t make it to dinner.”

Sandy, stepped out of the closet wearing a midnight blue dress with little sparkle rhinestones. She still looked like a model, slim, curvy in the right places, wearing perfect makeup and always a chic, short hairstyle.

“Come here, let’s fix your hair.” She pulled Andi in front of the bathroom mirror. “Now what were you saying?”

“Dad is stuck in traffic and won’t make dinner.”

Sandy frowned. “He said that? But … he’s only fifteen minutes from home. Get the phone. You call him back while I do your hair.”

Andi scooped up the phone and hit the speed dial for Rick’s cell. It rang and rang and rang … Meanwhile; Mom was raking a brush through the bush of Andi’s curly hair.

“Ow, do you have to scalp me?” She complained then said, “He’s not picking up, Mom.”

“Hm, well leave him a voice-mail to meet us there.”

“I already … ow … asked him to do that … ow, Mom … he said he couldn’t. Ouch!” She turned about and grabbed the brush away. “Will you stop?”

Tears in Sandy’s eyes clouded her vision for a moment. “Oh, sweetie, I wanted today to be so special for you, your father was—”

“It’s okay, Mom. We can go anyway.”

“No, we can’t.” Sighing, she slumped on the bed. “Well, there go my plans. As usual, Rick the Wrecker, did it again.”

Grinning, Andi sat down on the bed to ask, “Was it something super? Like a big surprise party or a cake? Are my friends coming?”

Sandy brushed the wavy locks from Andi’s face. “No, not that kind of a party, but it was special. We ordered the Maine lobster. It’s not every day my girl is sixteen, right?”

“Mom? I don’t want to rain on your parade again, but I’m a vegan and I’ve got some sad news too,” she watched as Sandy yanked off her dangling earrings and tossed them in her jewelry box.

“What now? As if this day wasn’t already the worst day from Hell.” She grumbled.

“What happened to you?” Andi asked and nibbled on a thumbnail.

“I lost two sales to a competitor company, which meant a really huge commission down the tubes.”

“Oh, sorry.” Andi murmured as Sandy continued to rant and pace, all the while, taking off her clothes, and re-dressing in a bathrobe and slippers.

“So, I guess we aren’t going to dinner?” Andi timidly queried.

“Of course, we can’t. Your father has the credit card.” She stopped and groaned. “Now I must cancel, then find something for dinner. I haven’t even gone to the grocery.” She pulled at Andi’s hand, “Come on, let’s raid your super clean kitchen.”

“Uh, shouldn’t I change first?” she looked down at her dress.

“Right. I know, forget dinner. Let’s have a pajama party, we’ll make popcorn, eat ice cream, and watch a movie.”

“Now that sounds good,” Andi pulled her mother into her bedroom saying, “but first, I gotta show you the something bad …”

Sandy looked about the dim room and turned on the light.

“Hey, you cleaned your room too. You were a busy little beaver today. Did you go to school or play hooky to stay and clean the house? I hope not—”

“Where’s Petunia?” Andi frantically looked about. “She was here earlier.”

“What’s the fuss? She probably went outside or is in her box, don’t worry.”

Andi threw her hands in the air. “The problem is, Petunia is dead! She couldn’t just go anywhere!”

Sandy frowned, “I don’t under—” then hearing Matt calling from the hallway, she stuck her head out the door. “Mattie, have you seen Petunia?”

“Nope. Should I wear my blue pants or the black ones?” Matt standing barefoot in his underpants, held up the clothes.

“Neither. We aren’t going out. Put on your PJs.”

“Mom! How come?” He whined, “I wanted spaghetti …”

“We’re having a pajama party instead, since Daddy can’t make it to the restaurant. Brook is busy too. Dang that girl! I can’t even plan a simple—”

Andi frustrated and angry now, yelled, “This family sucks!” She slammed her door and flung herself on the bed.

Sandy said, “Go change and meet us downstairs. The Drama Queen needs me.”

Matt ran to his room shouting, “Yippee, I don’t have to wash my feet!”

She rolled her eyes at the comment, struck up her courage and went in Andi’s room. She sat on the bed and poked her daughter in the shoulder. “Come on, what’s with the hysterics?”

Andi rolled over, her face streaked with melted mascara. “My kitty died. I don’t know why, she was asleep on her perch and just … just gone! Flora said—”

“I’m sorry. Now I feel terrible for throwing her outside.” Sandy sniffed and wiped her nose with a tissue from her robe pocket.

“Me too.”

“Did you clean everything before or after you found PB?”

“I didn’t clean anything!”

“But—”

“There was a lady here from Mighty Tidy Maids, she did all the work. She even made us cookies and dinner!” Andi popped up shouting, “Hey! We’ve got chicken fajitas for dinner!”

Andi changed into PJs while she talked about Flora, how Dad had hired her, how nice she was; then about them finding Petunia dead.

“Well, that is a surprise. We’ll have to thank Daddy properly. What a sweetie-pie. So maybe your Flora is a fairy godmother in disguise. I still cannot believe how great everything looks, or how pretty you look. Sweetie, I’m so sorry about your kitty. You can get another.”

Andi fell against Sandy to hug her. “I know, thanks, Mom. I think maybe Flora took Petunia and buried her while I showered, because I can’t find her. I mean, who would take a dead cat?”

They looked at each other and laughing, they headed downstairs for Andi’s party.

A grumbling Dad rolled in at seven, looking like a storm cloud and just as testy. His coffee- brown hair damply slicked back as if he had been in a rainstorm. He smelled terrible.

“What the heck is going on in here? Did we blow a fuse?” He demanded coming through the darkened kitchen and into the candlelit dim den.

“Dad! Glad, you could make it. Rescue me from Romance Movie Misery! Please!” Matt sprang from the couch and glommed onto Rick’s arm.

“Hi, Dad. It was only one show! —The Gilmore Girls DVD.” Andi piped. She stood and stretched, saying, “We still have some dinner for you. I’ll go heat it up.”

Rick watched his daughter as she sauntered away into the kitchen. “What happened to her? Is she wearing real lipstick and not that black crud?”

Sandy looked up and reached for Rick’s hand. “She’s sixteen.”

“So?” Rick shook off Matt and bent to kiss his wife.

“Can we play Frog Avengers from the Lost Lagoon?” Matt jumped up and down and patted Rick.

“Not now. Besides, its Andi’s birthday, maybe you should ask her.”

“I already did. Aw, poop. I never get to do fun stuff.” Matt slumped in a nearby chair then sloppily shoved a handful of popcorn in his mouth.

Sandy pulled Rick around the couch, “Sit for a spell, we need a pow-wow.”

“What’s with him? I expected Morose Martyr Andi, not Mattie. And where is Brook?”

“Brook? She has a sleep over at Angela’s, followed by a seven-a.m. track meet tomorrow. She missed our little party.”

“She’s taken up track? My Brook, who can’t have one drop of sweat or dirt or she’ll break into hives?”

Smirking, Sandy replied, “They are cheering the team.”

“Oh.” He nodded and picked up her hand, kissing it.

Sandy took a sniff asking, “So why do you smell like gasoline and look so bad? Why did it take you so long to get home?”

“You don’t want to know the whole story; it is so ludicrous. I played knight today and brought a damsel in distress some gas for her stalled car.”

“I hope she wasn’t too young or pretty,” Sandy said with a pout.

“Are you kidding? She was seventy if a day and so distraught over running out of gas that she gave me a fifty-dollar bill to help her.”

“Wow, lucky you.”

“Yeah, lucky me. I also hoofed it over a mile to get the gas, leaving my car stuck too, behind the wreck. I did bring us some water and candy bars. She liked that.”

“Then go take a shower, because you do stink, my hero. You can then join our party.”

Rick bent to kiss the pouting Sandy. “I suppose I won’t live this one down, huh?”

“Probably not. I was really looking forward to lobster tonight.”

“Sorry, at this rate I’ll only get a PBJ.”

“Nope, you get some delicious fajitas.”

“Take out?”

“No, that housemaid you hired was worth her weight in gold. We’ve got a clean house and great dinner.”

“I never hired anyone.”

“Flora from Mighty Tidy Maids?”

“No” he shook his head, “not me.”

Holding her nose with two fingers, Sandy rose to her feet, brushing him away. “No matter, get cleaned up and join our PJ party.” Watching her husband lope away, she murmured, “Curiouser and curiouser”, as she joined Andi in the kitchen.