Ready or Not (Aggie's Inheritance) (20 page)

When the children came home, they all started the routines Allie instituted and that Aggie had continued. Vannie went downstairs to do a laundry
“
switch,
”
while Laird took out the trash in every room and Tavish swept the porches. Ellie wiped down all counters, and Aggie ran around trying to keep everyone on track and the mess from growing worse with the work.

“
Aunt Aggie, I can
’
t get the dryer to work! Something
’
s wrong with it! Do I just hang the clothes on hangers?
”
Vannie
’
s voice came up the stairs in a panicked wail.

“
Go ahead and do that, Vannie. I
’
ll send Kenzie down with more hangers and call the appliance guy.
”
Aggie picked up the phone and dialed the first appliance repair place listed in the phone book. The man on the other end was trying to help her troubleshoot when Aggie groaned.

“
Is something wrong, ma
’
am?
”
The deep voice sounded even more concerned now.

“
No. You don
’
t need to come out. I just remembered. I unplugged it the other day when I put my niece
’
s
schoolbooks
in there. It just has to be plugged in again.
”
Aggie thanked the very confused man and hung up.

“
All right, Vannie, try plugging in the dryer, I bet it
’
ll work better that way!
”
Aggie decided that if anything else went wrong, she
’
d send everyone to bed and call it a day.

Monday, April 15
^th

For the first time in a long time, that she could remember anyway, Aggie woke up feeling positive. She finally had the house completely clean; the baby had slept through the night and was still sleeping peacefully. The estate taxes had been filed days ago, thanks to the fast footwork of Mr. Moss
’
financial consultant at Franklin Financial Services, and it looked like a hefty return was headed their way. Aggie was excited about that. Thus far, she
’
d always had to pay at tax time.

That thought registered and then assaulted her mind causing her to wail,
“
Oh, noooooooooooo! My
taxes
! I forgot my
taxes
!
”
Aggie screamed to no one in particular.

After the children left for school, and after half an hour of frantic searching, she found the large box of mail that she
’
d neglected to look through since her dorm mate had shipped it all to her. Flipping feverishly through the stacks of paper in the box, she found the booklets, forms, and her W-2 forms. The children were instructed to eat standing at the counter while Aggie spread her forms across the table.

As Aggie was tallying up her totals, she heard Ian
’
s cry.
“
Hey, bub, your timing is lousy,
”
the overwrought
“
mother
”
said to the little boy as she picked him up from the crib. Ian felt a little warm, but with a heavy blanket sleeper and a warm baby quilt, Aggie assumed that he was just over dressed.

She bounced downstairs and into the kitchen, jostling the baby as she went, trying to keep him happy as she mixed and shook a bottle like a pro. The young woman was now so accustomed to her routine; her movements were automatic
--
almost rote. Taking a napkin she wiped a mouth full of drool from little Ian
’
s face.
“
Oh, dear, you drool like your grandpa Milliken. Why that man when he snores
--
Ohhh, nooo! Girls
stop
!
”

Aggie watched as both little girls froze in the middle of scribbling all over her almost completed tax forms. She had no spares. She hadn
’
t remembered that she needed to file, much less get extra forms! She fed the baby, found the twins
’
shoes, and packed everyone in the van.

Three post offices later, she was growing frantic. All of the EZ forms appeared to be gone. Either almost no one needed them this year or
everyone
did. Out of desperation, Aggie drove over to Brant
’
s Corners to see if maybe a smaller town
’
s post office would still have some.

Aggie backed into a sheriff
’
s deputy as she pushed the post office door open with her rear and tried to get the rambunctious children inside.
“
Excuse me, officer.
”
Aggie hardly made eye contact. If she took her eyes off the children for more than a second, Cari was sure to make a best friend with someone in the room and drive off with them. The child knew no strangers.

The deputy saw a woman coming at him backwards and thought of holding the door for her but realized that she
’
d probably end up sitting down rather hard. Instead, he stood still and took the jolt to protect the woman and her baby from sprawling across the entryway. Beautiful identical twin girls smiled at him and one spoke.
“
You are a nice powice man. I like you. I am C
--
”

“
Come along, Cari. We need to hurry and get those forms, and this officer has criminals to catch.
”
Aggie led the girls to the boxes of tax forms and tried to do a mini-jig as she found a box full of them.

The deputy sat in his cruiser, watching, as the woman came out with a handful of forms. The man shook his head at his partner.
“
Why is it that people wait until the last second to do their taxes? That baby is sick. I know it. I felt his little head as she bumped into me. He has a fever.
”
The deputies talked about how parents seemed to just drag their children everywhere, unless it cramped their style. Only then, a babysitter was called in
--
the children always the ones to suffer.

Aggie stood in line at the post office hours later and minutes before they closed. Eight children stood in line behind her like little ducks in a row. Aggie was determined to
watch
them postmark her check for $132.58 made payable to good old Uncle Sam. From now on, she would schedule this to be done by February fifteenth. It wouldn
’
t hurt to have a budget either. Tacking
“
make budget
”
onto the ever-growing mental list, Aggie wondered if she
’
d ever be able to cross any of her planned
“
Aggie-dos
”
off that list.

Tuesday, April 16
^th

“
Aunt Aggie
! Help! My ant farm is broken, and they
’
re all gone! They
’
ve vanished…. Oh, wait! There
’
s one… two…
”
Tavish
’
s voice trailed off as he tried to rescue his little pets.

Aggie stumbled into his room and shivered as she felt the critters crawling under her feet.
“
It
’
s my science project. I
’
m supposed to see if I can force them to go in a particular path by where I put their food, and now…
”
he looked around him.
“
It
’
s ruined. I
’
ll
fail
!
”
The boy was completely distraught.

Moments later, Aggie saw a bedraggled kitten dash from behind the dresser and out the door. Forcing her voice to remain pleasant, she spoke in deliberately measured tones,
“
Um, where did that filthy fur ball come from?
”

Sanity vanished as it disappeared down the hall, Aggie dashed after the kitten. The other children noticed and took up the chase as well. Aggie tried to calm the frenzied race, but it was all for naught. Chairs were toppled, a glass broken, and one pair of curtains were shredded before Aggie nabbed the kitten. The poor kitty
’
s heart raced, and she mewed pitifully.

Aggie picked up the phone and called animal control before demanding to know who had brought the kitten into the house.
“
I want to know how this kitten got in here, and I want to know now!
”

Laird spoke up.
“
I did, Aunt Aggie. I found her on the way home from the bus stop yesterday, but I couldn
’
t tell you about her with going to the post office and everything, and then I just forgot about her until last night, but you were on the phone, and I
’
m really sorry.
”
Aggie was glad that she wasn
’
t that boy
’
s grammar teacher. She
’
d never seen nor heard a worse run-on sentence in her life!

Tavish mourned his science experiment all the way to school. There were only three weeks until he had to turn in his project, and the best Aggie could come up with was the standard electric potatoes or volcanoes. Tavish was insulted at the thought. He was hoping for a spot in the science fair, and he couldn
’
t make it with
“
snow job
”
experiments.

Just before he jumped from the van, the boy had an idea.
“
Hey! Aunt Aggie? Can I get two mice? I could record which breed learns to find his food the fastest and through the most complex mazes. Please, Aunt Aggie… I
’
d give them to the science lab after I was done…
”
The
singsong plea
s of the boy were extremely out of character.