The Fremont Saga
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 35 

One Thing At a Time

To say the least, Timmy, Tanner and I had a difficult time settling down after the events of the day.  Timmy admonished Morgan, “Leave your bedroom door open, so we can hear if something bad is happening.”

Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep that Tuesday night.  I don’t think any of us did.  When Tanner and I dropped Timmy and Morgan off, we reminded them that they were to go home with only Dad, Mother or us.

Both Morgan and Timmy were waiting for us after school.  I was beginning to get concerned when Dad and Mother hadn’t shown up by dinner time.  I tried to play it cool and we were eating another casserole and salad that had been dropped off.  Timmy looked up from his meal, “I’ll be glad when we can have some real food again.  These casseroles all taste the same.”

We had just finished the dishes when the garage door was activated.  The four of us let out a collective sigh of relief.  Timmy grinned, “Let’s pretend that everything went fine.  They don’t need to know that man was shooting at us again.”

Timmy ran to meet the parents as they walked in the door and started to give them a difficult time, “We’ve been worried sick about you.”

Dad picked Timmy up and hugged him, “We stopped in Des Moines and visited with some friends.  I guess I need to take your blood pressure.  What’s been happening, here?”

Timmy giggled, “Oh not very much,  Brian has us all under house arrest, because he’s worried that Cousin Leroy is going to come shoot us again.  The police go by the house every half hour, checking to make sure we’re okay.  It’s pretty hard to get much sleep when the police are pounding on the front door every half hour to make sure we’re okay.  You need to get the front door fixed so we can lock it right.  It was a boring couple days, around here.  How’s Lauren?”

“Lauren wasn’t really very pleased that she was going to have to share a bedroom with another student, until she found out that the other girl’s parents were movie stars.  When we left at lunch time, she was fine, and we have lined up someone to make sure she is taking her medications.  It seems that her roommate has to have medications every day, as well, so that made it even better.”

Dad looked at Tanner and me, “It appears that you two have a whole lot of explaining to do.  We’ll visit with you after Timmy is asleep.”

Timmy went to sleep very quickly, since he hadn’t slept well the night before.  I pulled on some cargo shorts as did Tanner and we went to talk Mother and Dad.”

Mother looked at us, “Was Timmy making up stories?  What happened while we were gone?”

Tanner pointed to me, “Over to you, evil one.”

I started, “When we were coming home from school, yesterday, Timmy recognized that the man standing trying to kick our front door open was Cousin Leroy.  I had Tanner drop me out of sight, so I could sneak into the house and get armed to attack the idiot before the other three appeared.  To make a long story short, I hit Cousin Leroy with a baseball bat and I don’t think he’ll be walking anytime soon.  He did shoot at the locks on the front door.  You might want to have a locksmith check them.  The dead bolt seems to be working fine, but the regular lock isn’t working.”

Both Tanner and I jumped when the front door bell sounded.  Dad went to answer.  I finally took a breath when I heard Dad say, “Hi, Detective Stevens, what can we do for you?”

I just wanted to tell you that Mr. Leroy Gleason shouldn’t be bothering you in the near future.  He has been transferred to the mental ward of the Douglas County Hospital.  His father, aunt and uncle left town as soon as they heard what happened to Leroy.  I don’t think they’ll be bothering you anytime soon, but you should still be alert.”

When Tanner and I arrived home on Thursday, Mr. Kahler was at the house, talking to Dad and Mother.  When we walked in, he was saying, “These are all the memorials that we have received so far.  We’ll bring any additional ones that we receive.  This is probably not something that you need to deal with right now in the face of everything that has happened.”

Mother sighed, “Thanks, Mr. Kahler, we have had a lot happening in the past week.”

We were eating dinner when the doorbell rang, I went to answer.  “Hi Father Wanamaker; what can we do for you?”

“I wanted to give your parents a listing of memorials that the church has received for your Grandmother Gleason.”

“Come on in. Where’s Doctor Crane?’’

“He's still working as usual.  He can’t seem to understand that he needs to take time to smell the roses.  I can‘t stay.  I need to go home.  The grandkids are coming to spend the weekend.”

After we had finished eating, I asked, “Mother, what can we do to help to acknowledge all the memorials that were made in memory of Grandmother?”

Mother shook her head, “Brian, we’ll worry about that this weekend.  We need to do one thing at a time.”

Timmy giggled, “Mother, if all six of us work on the project, you can say we’ll do it six things at a time.”

Mother laughed, “I’ll tell you what, Timmy, I'll call and order some monogrammed stationary so we don’t have to write so much.  It would be nice to get that project out of the way.”

I asked another stupid question, “Mother and Dad, what are you going to do with the things in Grandmother’s condo?” 

Mother sighed, “That’s something else we need to take care of in the very near future.”

Morgan scowled, “Why don’t you give her things to the thrift shop and let them sell them.”

Dad shook his head no, “There are some valuable things in Grandmother’s condo.  It would be better to have an auction and sell them, rather than just give them to the thrift shop.  It’s too bad that most of the antique stores in the area have gone out of business.”

Timmy asked, “Why don’t we have one of those G Sale things that we see signs for all the time?”

Dad laughed, “Timmy, it’s the wrong time of the year to have a garage sale.  If we opened the condo for people to walk around, it would be too difficult to make sure that the people weren’t walking off with little things.”

Timmy giggled again, “I guess we’ll have to go through the condo one room at a time to decide what to do with the things.”

I looked at Timmy, “Do you need to study for your spelling test?”

“Nope, I got a 100% plus all the bonus words right today.  I’m going to take a shower and read and figure out how we can do all these, one thing at time chores that need to be done.”

Timmy hugged Dad and Mother before going up the stairs, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

Morgan chuckled, “Life must have been very dull around here before Timmy arrived.  I don’t think anyone can accuse Timmy of being boring.  Guess I'd better go finish my homework, too.”

When Tanner and I went to the room, I realized that I hadn’t checked my email since the funeral.  I opened my inbox and looked at the long list of unread messages and decided that I would take care of them one at a time, after I took a shower.”

It was almost eleven o’clock when Tanner tapped me on the shoulder, “Brian, wrap it up for tonight.  Tomorrow is another day.  There can’t be anything that urgent that it can’t wait until this weekend.”

When Tanner arrived home after school on Friday, a locksmith was working on the front door.  Timmy was explaining, “Our bad cousin was shooting at the door trying to steal our money.  He got hit by a baseball bat and has two broken legs.  He’s still in the hospital.”

The locksmith had a questioning look, “Who hit him with a baseball bat?”

Timmy shrugged his shoulders, “Two policemen saw him getting hit by the bat, and it was as if the bat was flying through the air by itself.”

I came to Timmy’s defense, “Timmy’s description is what the two officers saw happening.  There weren’t any fingerprints on the baseball bat.”

As we were eating a real meal, according to Timmy,  Timmy explained, “I’ve been thinking about Grandmother’s things.   None of us are going to be able to wear her clothes.  We need to give them to a homeless shelter, because there are going to be a lot of people who need warm clothes now that it’s getting colder  We could pack the things tomorrow and Tanner can deliver them after school on Monday.”

Dad laughed, “Timmy, would you stop thinking all the time.  You’re going to have us all running around with tired backs.”

“That’s okay, Daddy, we four young people will do the heavy work,  We wouldn’t want you old people to hurt your backs.  Come on, Morgan, let’s take care of clean up before the parents yell at us again.”

I looked at Dad and laughed, “Chalk up one for Timmy’s team.”

Tanner and I went to help with the cleanup and Timmy asked, “Tanner, are you and Ron going to do anything fun tonight or tomorrow night?”

Tanner shook his head no, “Timmy, we haven’t made any plans.  Why do you ask?  Would you like to do something?”

“Not really, I was thinking that it would be nice if I gave his brother, Randy, another lesson on being kind to people.  Why don’t you call Ron and see if he and Randy would like to come over, tomorrow night.  You two can take off if you want and you’d probably better take Brian, so he can make sure you two don’t get in trouble.  Morgan and I can take care of the parents and Randy.”

Morgan put up her hands, “Count me out.  I have a babysitting job, so I can make some mad money for our trip next weekend.”

“Guess I need me a babysitting job too.  I’m broke, too.  Maybe Ron would pay me for babysitting Randy?”

Tanner pouted, “If you’re going to be mercenary about it, I won’t invite Ron and Randy over.”

Timmy walked into the living room, “Daddy and Mother, Tanner said I was being mercenary.  Are you going to pay me for babysitting Tanner, Brian and Morgan on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Mother, did you get the paper for the thank you notes for the memorials?”

Mother chuckled, “Timmy, it sounds to me that perhaps you are being a little mercenary, and no we're not going to pay you for babysitting the other three, since we had to spend all our money to pay the locksmith, and yes, I picked up the stationary and envelopes just before I picked you and Morgan up.  It’s on the hutch in the dining room with the memorials and the list of memorials to the church and what they were designated for.”

“Come on, guys and Morgan, let’s get busy.”

Timmy led us into the dining room and got the memorials and the stationary.  He handed us each a sheet of stationary, “Here, we’ll each write a practice thank you note and see which the parents think would be best.  I’m going to print because I’m just now learning to write in cursive.”

Morgan grinned, “I’ll print as well since people would never be able to read my handwriting.”

Tanner asked, “What are we supposed to say?”

Timmy shrugged his shoulders, “Tell the people how much we appreciate them remembering Grandmother Gleason.  The notes can all be different based on what the memorial was to go for.”

It took Timmy about ten minutes to write the note he was working on.  He handed it to me, “Brian, do you think this would be good?”

I read it and nodded, “Timmy, it looks great to me.  Take it and see what the parents have to say.”  

Tanner, Morgan and I followed Timmy to the living room.  Timmy handed his note to Mother, “Mommy, is this okay?”

Mother read it and started to get tears in her eyes, “Timmy, it’s perfect.  People will appreciate receiving their own personalized thank you notes.”

Tanner, Morgan and I showed a copy of our endeavors to the parents and Mother commented, “All four samples are great.  Beauregard, we need to go help our young ones to make sure they don’t work themselves to death.”

When we walked into the dining room, Timmy pointed to a stack of cards on the hutch, “What are those?”

“Those are sympathy cards.  Most of them have checks that will need to have thank you notes written, as well.”

Tanner asked, “Isn’t it a little risky to have the checks and money lying around where someone might see it and take it?”

Dad nodded, “Now that you mention it  I guess we should put everything in the safe, before we go to bed.  The best solution would be to work out a system so we could get the money out of the house as soon as possible.”

Timmy looked up, “You big people need to take care of that.  My little brain can only handle one thing a time.”

After Timmy had finished writing ten thank you notes, he stood, “I think we should only write about ten notes at a time so we don’t start to get sloppy.”

Mother agreed, “Good thinking, oh person with a little brain that doesn’t seem so little.”

Timmy went to get some boxes.  He labeled one Done and the other To Be Done.   Mother and Dad took any checks and money that had  thank you notes written and put them in a separate envelope.  Dad and Mother had been working on the list that Father Wanamaker had given us.

During the night, I woke up and had a brainstorm.  I decided that I could make our job so much easier if I used the computer to account for all the memorials we received and what they were designated for.  That way we could get the money out of the house.  I explained my idea, and Dad and Mother thought it was a good idea.”

Timmy started to giggle, “The son with a not so little brain has struck again.  He’ll do anything to get our of writing thank you notes.”

Timmy jumped out of his chair and ran behind Dad, “Daddy, protect me from Big Brain.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  Well, it would seem that Timmy and Brian and Tanner have pretty good sized brains. They are all very smart and they are willing to put themselves out, to make sure that other people are taken care of. 

Of course, none of them have inherited the stingy gene from their icky relatives. Of course, neither did Becca and of course neither did Grandmother Gleason. We won't even worry about the fact that Timmy and Tanner are not blood relatives. They are family, now and that is what counts. 

I am very proud of Timmy Tanner and Brian, for not using their magical abilities to solve simple everyday problems. They are all very careful to only use it in a dire emergency, and even in such cases, only when there is no other solution.

I think that Brian Tanner and Timmy are just plain wonderful people, and I am sure that Grandpa Nappy is very proud of all of them. 

Speaking of the icky relatives, let's hope they keep far far away, for a very long time.

I am ready for another chapter, any time, now.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 08/20/10