glancing again at Renie.
“You ordered them for your mother,” Arlene broke
in. “That’s lovely, Judith. So thoughtful of you to give
her a little treat while you’re not able to be with her.
Let’s hope that the streets are passable in a few hours.
Oops!” she cried. “I must run. There goes Ernest. Now
how did he manage to get up
my minestrone soup!”
Arlene hung up.
“Is there no end to my troubles?” Judith wailed,
holding her head. “I finally get some encouraging
news about Joe, but now I realize that Mother has been
using my credit card to order all those weird items.
Only she would put me in debt for fifty pounds of
Granny Goodness chocolates.”
“Oh, dear,” Renie said, obviously trying not to
laugh. “That’s awful.”
292
Mary Daheim
“And Ernest is still on the loose,” Judith lamented.
“Damn this weather—I want those Pettigrew people to
leave my B&B and take their stupid snake with them.”
“Maybe they will today,” Renie said. “The airport
closing must have screwed up their travel plans.”
“I don’t care,” Judith groaned. “They never should
have brought the snake into Hillside Manor.”
“If they’d delivered the pigs, they might have eaten
Ernest,” Renie said brightly.
Judith gave Renie a dirty look. “It’s not funny. And
how am I supposed to make a speedy recovery if I’m
beset with all these horrible problems? My health is
probably beginning a downhill descent into my early
demise.”
“Speaking of which,” Renie said, “I’m curious. I
thought only really healthy people could get cornea
transplants.”
As the silent orderly came in with the cousins’
lunches, Judith gave Renie a puzzled look. “What are
you talking about?”
Renie withheld her answer until the orderly had
gone. “Jim Randall,” she said, scrutinizing the food on
her tray. “I may be wrong, and of course I have no idea
what the demand is for cornea transplants, but if he’s
as big a mess as everybody claims, how did he get so
high on the recipient list?”
“I don’t know how to answer that,” Judith admitted,
also staring at the three mounds of multicolored food
on her plate. “I think these are salads, by the way.”
“Like Donner & Blitzen Department Store has in
their tearoom?” Renie said. “Those salads are really
