Mulch Ado About Nothing

Shelley looked embarrassed. 'I've been looking around and had already decided I'm going to keep the stuff I rented. The yard looks so nice now.'

“What wimps we are,' Jane said. 'I've already committed to keeping the little fountain. I saw it when Mike showed me around the nursery last week and longed for it.'

“Then you should have it,' Shelley said authoritatively.

Jane's calf muscle was cramping, and she shifted around to get more comfortable. 'Does it strike you as strange that the only ones of us who found something to like in Ursula's garden were you and I and Miss Winstead?'

“Naturally we liked some of it because we're open-minded,' Shelley said. 'But yes, I was surprised to see Miss Winstead taking notes.'

“Don't you wish you could have seen the notes?”

Shelley looked at Jane and asked, 'What are you suggesting?'

“Maybe her notes weren't exactly about the garden. That's all. Maybe they were about Ursula herself.'

“Why would you think that? Oh, if she were a suspect…”

They both fell silent for a moment, then Shelley said, 'You have half an excuse to be speculating wildly, what with the foot, and the crutches, and Kipsy Topper and all. But there's really no reason to think anybody in the class had anything to do with hurting Julie even if Mel insists they're second-string suspects.'

“I suppose you're right. But Julie Jackson knew some of them. Dr. Eastman for one. She worked out the schedule with Stefan Eckert. Her own sister joined the class. And Miss Winstead has been in touch with her as well. What if one or even all of the others also knew her? We're all in the same neighborhood and have been for a pretty long time. Even I had met her at a city council meeting and remembered who she was.'

“But isn't it more logical that one of the men she was always being seen with is more likely?' Jane smiled. 'Maybe so, but we don't know who they are and can hardly gossip about them. Anyway, this is taking my mind off The Dreaded Kipsy and my foot.”

Mike was late again. At eleven o'clock as Jane was wondering how to get upstairs with her book, her last cup of decaf coffee, and the clean towels for her bathroom, Katie stormed down the steps. She was livid with sibling rivalry. 'Mike's not that much older than me.'

“Not much older than I…' Jane corrected her. 'Why can't I come and go whenever I want like he does?'

“Because you're younger. And, much as I hate to say it, a girl. Could you help me carry up some of these things?'

“Mom! You're positively medieval! I'm not a dumb little girl. I'm a young woman. If you just got me a can of Mace and a cell phone, I'd be perfectly safe anywhere.'

“You forgot to mention the car to get anywhere,' Jane said sarcastically.

“No, I didn't. You bought Mike a truck. Why not me?'

“Because you're too young. And you're not as good at driving yet as he was when I got him the truck.”

This was the honest truth. Katie wasn't making progress with driving safely. She was too busy looking around at boys walking down the street, checking her lipstick while driving. Forgetting to lock the car. Forgetting to put on the parkingbrake. Dumping chewing gum in the ashtray. But Jane hated being that honest.

For one thing, Katie was in a snit and jealous of her big brother, and would think it was an excuse for depriving her of her rights.

For another, Jane's own background wasn't anything like Katie's. She hadn't learned to drive until she was almost twenty, because her diplomat family always traveled in limos or trains or taxis or planes. They'd never lived in the same place for much more than six months, and it was never enough to get really familiar with any area, and she simply didn't need to drive until she came home to America for college.

Were daughters always so much more difficult to raise and protect than sons?

And for that matter, was her older son going off the rails after so many years of being so sensible and responsible?

Jane felt seriously tired.

Instead of continuing the argument, Jane had a brainstorm. 'Katie, I have an idea. Carry up the coffee cup and towels and I'll tell you about it.”

When Jane finally got to her bedroom, Katie was sprawled on her bed, petting the cats and teasing them with a string, but still looking sulky. 'So what's the idea?'

“How about you and Jenny taking a cooking class for the rest of the summer? You'd both have fun, and it would be a way for me to pay back Jenny's folks for taking you to France with them. And it would save me some pain and hassle.”

Katie was determined to stay mad at her mother, but the idea obviously appealed to her. The rest of the summer vacation must have been looming over her as much as it was Jane. 'You'd pay for both of us? And let us practice here?”

That was a scary thought, but Jane said, 'Of course. As long as you clean up after yourselves. I'll even give you two a grocery allowance.”

Katie was still trying to maintain her sulk, and strolled away saying, 'I guess I'll ask Jenny what she thinks.”

But once she was out of the bedroom, Jane could hear Katie running down the hall to call Jenny on her extension.

Sixteen '

Cooking lessons!' Shelley exclaimed the next morning as she was helping Jane into the van. 'What a good idea. Could we sign Denise up as well? I'd do anything to get her out from underfoot — take them to the lessons and make sure they clean up your kitchen.'

“Yes to Denise, yes to driving them, but no to cleaning. You know you'd end up doing it yourself. Part of any job is tidying up as you go along. That's as important in cooking as the ingredients.'

“You're right. Are all your parts and paraphernalia in the van now?”

As she took off backwards in the driveway at a speed Jane wouldn't have driven going forward, Shelley said, 'I heard Mike's truck come home after midnight.'

“I didn't,' Jane said. 'I woke suddenly at three A.M. and went to see if he was home. 1 got a crutch stuck in the legs of that foul little table in the upstairs hall, the one that's overbalanced, and woke the whole house up. The kids complained, the cats scattered, and Willard nearly barked himself into a full-fledged fit.'

“My aunt Eleanor had a rule you should know about grown kids coming back home. She said the standards in her house were up to her. It didn't matter that they didn't have to come home at a certain time and check in when they were in college or living elsewhere, but when they stayed with her, they were her children and had to live up to her standards.'

“And did it work?'

“My cousin Bill got divorced at thirty and moved in with her for a month. He had an eleven-o'clock curfew. If he was so much as a minute late, Aunt Eleanor wouldn't fix him breakfast. Bill lived for breakfast.'

“I'm going to have to have a talk with Mike. May I cite you as my authority?'

“Cite away.”

They were the first to arrive at the classroom. Ursula came moments later, having an intense discussion with Miss Winstead about Chinese computer-geek immigrants being banned from getting visas. Somehow the House of Windsor seemed to figure in the theory, but it was impossible to guess whether the Chinese immigrants were the Good Guys or the Bad. But clearly Queen Elizabeth was on the baddies' side. Miss Winstead was preoccupied and had obviously tuned Ursula out, merely nodding and making neutral noises.

Ursula abandoned Miss Winstead when she spotted Jane. 'I've got a whole new menu for you tonight. You'll love it. You wash, dry, brown, and grind rye seed from the nursery. Grass seed, my dear. Plain old grass seed. Be sure it's pesticide-free, of course, and it makes the most wonderful muffins to spread with butter flavoring added to tofu. Mine's baking dry right now, and this evening I'll grind it and make you bread.'

“No,' Jane said firmly. 'It sounds interesting, but I'm signing my daughter and two of her friends up for a cooking class today and I really must eat whatever they serve. It's a sacrifice, naturally, but what can a mother do?'

“What a good idea. There's a health food store across town that holds cooking classes. I'll give you the phone