Max and Leonard were out feeding the sled dogs. Max asked Leonard what he was going to do when the time came to either stay or leave. Leonard answered, “You know, I have given it a lot of thought and I believe, since it has always been a dream of mine to teach young boys how to box and defend themselves, that I will return to Portland. My skills are just going to waste and the YMCA is always looking for trainers. Besides, there is a young lady I used to date down there and if she is not already dating someone else, I would like to renew our relationship.”
Max said, “I really hope things work out the way you want them to, Leonard. You are a good guy and have a lot to offer.” The dogs were eagerly devouring their polar bear meat. They usually got leftovers and the parts of the animals that were not going to be used for human consumption. Max would take them out to exercise and practice pulling the sleigh as soon as more snow came in tomorrow. He didn’t know very much about running the dogs, but Donald had used sled dogs before and the two of them would work on it together.
Karen walked up and asked how they were doing and opened a container she was holding and handed each of them a piping hot apple turnover. “Nancy’s crew outdid themselves this morning and I thought I would run these out to you guys so you didn’t miss out. They are disappearing pretty fast,” she explained.
Max and Leonard thanked her and made short work of the turnovers. They both had a big grin on their faces, enjoying the cinnamon and brown sugar goodies!
Inside was mass chaos when Karen returned from outside. It seems someone new was feeding the quails in the living room and had opened the wrong door to the cage. That allowed the quail, who by now had multiplied several times, to escape and fly all over the main room! Women were shrieking, birds were everywhere, people were rushing to close doors so the birds would be confined to one room and it is fair to describe the whole living room as a place of pandemonium! It took close to an hour to get things under control. Karen was running around with paper towels, cleaning up bird poop off of the furniture, the railing of the stairs, the floor, etc. Jim was barking out orders and the birds were losing feathers and generally freaking out! Nancy brought two large colanders from the kitchen, handed one to Jim and used the other one herself and they captured ten of the birds, using the colanders for nets! Nancy said, “Well, I have done my day's work, someone else can handle the kitchen for today!” Everyone roared with laughter!
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Meanwhile, aboard the Paradise Found, Jimmy Askins and Simon Obenchain were swimming and horsing around in the pool. Jimmy said, “Did you watch the Presidential address to the nation?”
Simon said, “You know I did. We watched it together; remember when he messed up and said Oahu instead of Portland and we both cracked up?!”
Jimmy laughed and said, “Oh yeah! It was a dream come true when he said that Portland was building apartment buildings for us and we would go back to living on land. Don’t get me wrong. I have been so happy to have a nice place here and be off of the streets, but I can’t wait to go to a real school and play sports!”
Simon said, “Oh yeah! Wow! Why can’t it happen today? We are going to have our choice of babes, too! I can just see those hot cheerleaders in their short skirts! You know, girls usually go for the new guys and we sure do fit into that category!”
The boys went back to playing in the pool while their moms were talking together on the edge of the pool, trying to get some tan on their legs. Dorothy, Simon’s mom said to Judy, Jimmy’s mom, “What are you going to do first when you get your new apartment?”
Judy said, “I want to go for a long walk in a park, go grocery shopping and decorate my apartment. Anything to just be normal! How about you?”
Dorothy said, “I want to go get a Starbucks coffee! Just one though. I need to do better with my finances with this chance to start over. I believe managing my finances better than I did before will be a big key into keeping this apartment. I can’t believe we are getting our own apartments and they will be brand new! It is a dream come true!”
