Shake Down Dead (23 page)

I began to slide out of the
booth.

“Wait a minute. Where do you think
you’re going?”

“Home. I’m very tired.” I faked a
yawn.

“No way, Jen,” Decker said, holding up
my car keys. “We aren’t going anywhere until you tell
me.”

I heaved a sigh. “Okay, Jennifer was my
Aunt Jennifer. She was so cool. In fact, she’s the one who got my
mom so interested in the peace movement.”

“Out with it, woman! What’s your middle
name?” He was doing all he could to keep from laughing. It wasn’t
going well for me.

I sighed. “Okay, actually I have two
middle names. The name on my birth certificate is Jennifer.” I
dropped my voice to a whisper. “Jennifer Janis Joplin.”

”What?”

“Joplin—like in Janis Joplin. My name
is Jennifer Janis Joplin Penny. Are you happy now?”

Decker laughed out loud, forgetting all
about his promise. “I’m sorry. It’s not really funny,” he said. But
he kept on laughing.

“Oh, shut up. I knew you’d
laugh.”

“I’m sorry, Honey. You have to admit
that it’s funny. I mean, not funny, but . . .” His voice trailed
off as he began laughing again.

I waited until he composed himself,
then I got up and walked out to the truck. The clouds were gone and
it was a beautiful night. A sliver of a moon was shining among a
sky full of twinkling stars. I was still looking up when Decker
came up behind me and put his arms around me. I leaned back into
his chest.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” he said. “You
could have been hurt—or worse.”

“I know, but I was careful. How could I
have known that Yvonne was following me?”

Decker left his arm around my shoulder
when we walked to my truck. I love the way he makes me feel so
protected. “I guess you couldn’t have known. I’m just glad the
library doesn’t have anything more lethal than books.”

“I don’t know why Yvonne was so
determined to keep the circumstances of Charlie’s birth a secret.
Single mothers are hardly scarce these days,” I said.

Decker handed me up into the passenger
seat of my SUV. “Charlie wasn’t born in ‘these days.’ Yvonne was
living on a farm in Iowa, hardly the Mecca of modern thought and
action. He’s a few years older than you and I’m pretty sure Yvonne
wasn’t part of the peace movement. If her parents were religious,
it would have just added to the shame of her actions.”

“That makes sense,” I said, rolling
down the window and letting in the crisp autumn air. “I just feel
sorry for Charlie. I wonder if he knows that his parents weren’t
married. And that his father wasn’t a war hero?”

“Don’t know.” Decker turned on the
heater. “But this will certainly wreck his chances of winning the
election. Who wants a governor whose mother is a
murderer?”

“I guess you’re right,” I said,
stretching out my toes toward the warm air. “Good thing he’s got
all that real estate. Sister Bernie will put out the word that he
can be trusted, even if his mother is a nutcase.”

“It might help, but there are people
who will still shy away from him.”

We pulled into my driveway and Decker
shut off the engine and turned to me.

“Wait a minute, Jennifer J. J. Penny,”
he said when I reached for the door handle. “I want to talk about
us.”

“What about us?” I asked, my stomach
doing a flip. Was Decker breaking up with me?

“I think it’s time,” he
said.

“Time for what?” I slowly
asked.

“We’ve been seeing each other for a
while now. Don’t you think it’s time for the next step?”

“You mean not seeing other people?” I
answered, relieved he wasn’t leaving me.

“That’s part of it. What do you think
about us living together?”

“I don’t know. We’re together most of
the time, anyway. And we are usually at my place. Can I think about
it?”

“Of course,” he answered, sounding
pleased. “Take all the time you need. I just want to know if you’ll
consider it.”

“Of course, it’s a possibility. It’s a
big step,” I said and leaned over to kiss him.

Decker enveloped me in his arms and
kissed me back. After a few minutes, we went into my little
cottage. The neighbors were getting some interesting views these
days.

I wondered what it would be like to
live with Decker. Did he have any obnoxious habits? Would he take
me for granted if he moved in? What did that mean, anyway? I gave
up thinking and moved into the bedroom, pulling off my sweater.
“What’s taking you so long, Big Boy,” I called out to Decker. I
heard the lock on the front door click.

He crossed the threshold of the bedroom
and shut off the light and began singing, “Hold on, I’m
coming.”

CAMPAIGN COOKIES

Megan Murphy created this recipe for
cookies that were served, with Primo Gusto Coffee, at political
rallies for Charlie Jackson, Independent Candidate for Governor of
Minnesota and former rock star from Hermann, MN.

Pre-heat oven to 400°.

Ingredients:

2 c. brown sugar

1 c. butter

2 eggs

up to 1 c. strong brewed coffee,
cooled

4 c. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. vanilla

1 pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
(Megan uses Ghirardelli)

1 c. chopped nuts (Megan uses either
walnuts or pecans)

Cream together butter and sugar. Add I
egg at a time, beat until creamy. Megan uses an electric
mixer.

Stir all dry ingredients together in a
separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients to butter, egg, and
sugar mixture, alternating with cold coffee.

Add vanilla, mix, and then add
chocolate chips and nuts.

For a stronger coffee flavor, add 2 T.
Natural Coffee Extract.

Drop from teaspoons onto cookie sheet.
Bake in 400° oven for 10 minutes.

Cool on cookie rack.

Queen Anne's Lace
Tablecloth

MATERIALS: Crochet cotton thread, size
20, 221 large motifs and 192 fill-in-motifs are required for a
tablecloth of about 60 x 80 inches (13 x 17 large
motifs)

Each motif requires 25 yds. of thread.
Fill-in-motif requires about 5 yds. Allow for extra thread for
edging.

Crochet hook No. 9

Special stitches:

Cluster - Make tr in each st indicated
always holding back last loop of each tr on hook, then thread over
and take off all remaining loops. A tight ch st should then be made
to fasten cluster.

FIRST LARGE MOTIF:

Ch 6, join with sl st.

1st Rnd: Ch 6, * tr in ring, ch 2,.
Repeat from * until 7 sps are made, join to 4th st of ch-6
(8sps).

2nd Rnd: Ch 4, 4 tr in 1st sp, * ch 2,
5 tr in next sp. Repeat from * around. Join last ch-2 to 4th st of
ch-4. (8 tr groups)

3rd Rnd: Ch 4, tr in same place as sl
st, tr in next 4 tr, * tr in 1st ch of ch-2, ch 3, tr in next ch of
same ch-2, tr in next 5 tr. Repeat from * around. Join last ch-3 to
4th st of ch-4; sl st in 1st tr of group.

4th Rnd: Ch 4; make tr in next 4 tr,
working off together as for a cluster; * ch 4, 5 tr in next ch-3
sp, ch 4, skip 1st tr of next group; make tr in next 5 tr, working
off together as for a cluster. Repeat from * around. Join last ch-4
to tip of first cluster.

5th Rnd: Ch 8, * skip 1st 3 ch of ch-4,
tr in next ch, tr in next 5 tr, tr in 1st ch of next ch-4, ch 4, tr
in tip of cluster, ch 4. Repeat from * around. Join to 4th st of
ch-8.

6th Rnd: * Ch 12, skip 1st tr of next
group, tr in next 5 tr, working off together as for a cluster; ch
12, sc in the single tr between groups. Repeat from * around. Join
last ch-12 to base of first ch-12 (16 loops). Break off.

SECOND LARGE MOTIF:

Work 1st 5 rnds as for 1st
motif.

6th RND: Ch 12, skip 1st tr of next
group; tr in next 5 tr, working off together as for a cluster; ch
6, sl st in 1st ch-12 loop on 1st motif (always keep right side of
work on top), ch 6, sc in next single tr on 2nd motif, ch 6, sl st
in next ch-12 loop on 1st motif, ch 6, make a cluster back on 2nd
motif. Complete this rnd as for 1st motif (no more joinings). Break
off.

Make 11 more motifs joining each motif
to previous one as second one was joined to first, leaving 6 ch-12
loops free on each side of joinings on each motif, thus making a
strip of 13 motifs.  Make a 2nd strip of 13 motifs
joining to first strip as follows:

FIRST MOTIF OF 2ND STRIP - Work as for
2nd motif of 1st strip and join, as before, to first motif
alongside of first strip, leaving 2 ch-12 loops free on 1st motif
(counting from joining of 1st 2 motifs).  

2ND MOTIF:

Work as before to 5th rnd incl. and
join to the 2 adjacent motifs as follows - 6th rnd:  Work as
for 6th rnd of previous motif, but join to the 3rd and 4th ch-12
loops (counting from joining) of 2nd motif on first strip, then
work 2 ch -12 loops back on same motif, then join 3rd and 4th ch-12
loops of 1st motif of 2nd strip.  Complete rnd as before, but
with no more joinings.  Break off. (Note. 2 ch-12 loops are
left free on each motif to be joined later to fill-in-motif).
 Work next 11 motifs of this strip thus joining each motif to
adjacent 2 motifs.  Work 15 more strips, joining as
before.

FILL IN MOTIF:

1st Rnd: Ch 8, tr in 8th ch from hook,
ch 4, tr in same place, ch 4, tr in same place, ch 4, join to 4th
ch of ch-8 (4 sps).

2nd Rnd: Ch 4, 6 tr in 1st sp, * ch 5,
 7 tr in next sp, repeat from * around, joining last ch 5 to
4th st of ch-4; sl st in 1st tr.

3rd Rnd: Ch 4; make tr in next 4 tr,
working off together as for a cluster; ch 5, join to 1st ch-12 loop
of a large motif (as large motifs were joined), * ch 5, sc in next
ch-5 loop back on fill in motif, ch 5, join to 2nd ch-12 loop of
same large motif, ch 5, work a 5-tr cluster back on fill in motif,
ch 5, join to 1st ch-12 loop of next large motif. Repeat from *
around. Join and break off.  Work and join the remainder of
fill-in-motifs in the same way. 

EDGING:

Attach thread to joining point between
any 2 large motifs, * 7 sc in 1st loop of next motif; in each
remaining loop of same motif make sc, half dc, 5 dc, 4 tr, 5 dc,
half dc, sc; 7 sc in last loop. Repeat from * all
around.

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Crochet

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