4: 4
My back went rigid.
"Uncle Frederick. What brings you here?"
His eyes roamed the yard. "Just passing by. Looked lively over here, so I thought I'd come take a look."
"We're doing renovations." I gestured at the wall. "This kennel's falling apart. Roof leaks, walls are cracked."
He made a noncommittal sound and strolled toward the truck, tossing out the words carelessly.
"Renovations can't be cheap. I thought you were broke? Heard you signed the jade pendant over to my older brother to settle a debt. So where's the money coming from?"
And as he said it, he reached out for the tarp covering the truck.
The air snapped tight.
"Uncle Frederick!" Leslie shot out from the side and grabbed his arm. "You showed up right on time. I've been going crazy without enough hands!"
Frederick blinked. "Enough hands for what?"
"Hauling stuff!" Leslie was already dragging him toward the kennel. "We're renovating, so all the junk inside has to come out. Miranda and me, just the two of us? No way we can move it all."
Frederick tugged, unable to break free. "I've got things to do today—"
"How big could it be?" Leslie deliberately raised his voice. "Uncle Frederick, how many years has it been since you came out to see this place? You have no idea how run-down it's gotten. I about killed myself hauling that pile of stone the other day—"
He clamped onto Frederick's arm and marched him past broken bricks and cracked tiles for a good long while.
Every other word out of his mouth was "Uncle Frederick, lend me a hand," until Frederick's face turned green.
Ten minutes later he all but fled.
Leslie and I let out our breath at the same time.
"Nicely done." I gave him a thumbs-up.
Leslie wiped the sweat off his face. "That old fox wasn't passing by. He caught wind of something."
He looked at the tarp on the truck, still rattled.
"We need to hurry. What's left?"
"Just the stone trough. It's too heavy. We'll need a crane."
"I'll call one first thing tomorrow. Get a few extra guys and finish it fast."
That night we didn't drive back into the city. We slept at the kennel.
Boss lay at my feet, the other old dogs ringed around us.
Stroking their heads, I felt something settle in me, and something ache.
The three years Grandma was sick, I quit my job to stay with her at the hospital. I did it gladly.
Her sons couldn't manage to visit once a month.
My cousin never showed her face at all.
Grandma never said a word about it, but she knew exactly how things stood.
Leslie spread a blanket beside me and lay down, then suddenly asked, "Miranda, if they find out about all this stuff, do you think they'll come demanding it back?"
"They schemed over your jade pendant. A fortune this size, you think they'd let it go?"
I paused, then laughed.
"None of it has a name on it. So what if they know it came out of the kennel?"
"Grandma said the kennel goes to me. Everything in it is mine. The will says so."
Leslie nodded. After a while, he said quietly, "Grandma really did... she paved the whole road for you. I misjudged her."
My eyes stung. Grandma raised me. Even if she'd left me nothing, I'd never have blamed her.
Early the next morning, the crane arrived.
I directed the workers to bind up the stone trough and hoist it, bit by bit, toward the truck bed.
The trough had barely cleared the ground when all eighteen of the old dogs erupted into barking at once.
I looked up. The kennel gate was blocked by a car again.
This time it was two.
The doors opened, and Anthony and Frederick walked in one after the other, four or five laborers in camo trailing behind them.
Frederick was smiling, every tooth full of calculation. "Miranda, I went home and thought it over last night. This kennel was your grandmother's, after all. It'd be a shame to throw out everything you clear out of here."
He pointed at the trough hanging in midair.
"That one there looks good to me. Happens I've been needing a stone trough for water lilies."
"You're just going to haul it off as construction junk anyway. Might as well let me take it home. Something to remember her by."
At his words, Leslie and I both sucked in a sharp breath.
