“The wheeler isn’t working yet,” I told the cat.
“And it never will. The rim is frozen on.” Patches started walking down the road.
“I don’t see any ice?” Ben-Ben said as he sniffed around the jack.
“What are you doing, cat?” I barked after her.
“He’s coming,” she responded without ever looking back.
The mysterious ‘he’ was not in doubt. However, how I was going to get Jess to abandon the wheeler was a different story. I lightly nipped at her shoulder and tried to pull her towards me.
“What are you doing, Riley?” She looked at me, water still flowing from her eyes.
I pulled harder.
“Stop, Riley!”
“Are we playing?” Ben-Ben asked as he grabbed her side and started tugging with me.
“The both of you just stop it!” She attempted to push us away.
I growled loudly and ferociously as she did so.
“That doesn’t sound like playing.” Ben-Ben let Jess’ side go.
“Get up!” I barked savagely at her.
“Riley, you’re scaring her and me,” Zach said as he began to cry.
“Icely’s coming, Zach, your sister needs to get moving now! Cry louder,” I told the baby.
Jess stood up, partly to get away from me, but mostly to get to her brother.
“I’ve got an idea,” Zach said as he kept crying.
“Icely’s coming?” Ben-Ben asked as he ran over to the side of the roadway.
“Didn’t you just go?” I asked.
“I’m nervous!”
“Zach, are you okay?” Jess asked as she picked him up.
The baby kept crying as she took him out of his seat. She placed him on her hip and hopped him up and down a little, something which generally made him giggle uncontrollably. This time, however, he just kept crying. She placed him up higher so his face was next to hers. Deep-throated cries came from him. I was impressed something so small had so much volume.
Jess began to walk towards the back of the car and somehow Zach found another level. His face reddened with the exertion of getting that volume level. The funny thing was, when Jess started to walk towards the front of the car, he stopped completely. At first I had no idea what he was doing, but whenever Jess did anything but walk straight down the roadway following the cat, he bellowed. She took longer than me to figure it out, but then again, I knew why. As soon as I did know, I joined him. When he cried I would bark and then get in her way if she was not following the desired course. Ben-Ben almost messed it up when he once again thought we were playing and would get in her way no matter which direction she was going.
“What’s going on?” she asked, pulling Zach away to look into his face and then down at me. Maybe it was the cat that finally got her. “Where’s she going?”
“Thanks for waiting,” I said sarcastically to the cat as we finally caught up.
“Took you long enough.”