Hunter jumped in the car first.
“That Mr. Dimple is an interesting guy! And he’s an architect. Maybe he can help us redesign the . . .”
Kendall put her hand over Hunter’s mouth. “Why don’t you just be quiet and hand us back our burgers, Hunter?”
My dad opened the driver’s side door, and Hunter’s eyes shifted over toward him. “Oh, yeah. Oops.” He reached in the bag and pulled out a box with secret sauce leaking all over it. “Yuck! Kendall, this looks like yours.”
Kendall reached in the napkin bag and carefully spread several out on her lap.
“I’m ready,” she said. Hunter handed her the burger box and turned around to get some more out of the bag.
“I’ll eat mine when we get to Mamaw’s,” Dad said. “I need to focus on driving the curves.”
He started up the SUV and backed out of the parking space. As he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway, the third bullfrog crawled out onto the middle of the floor and stopped.
When I saw that, I lost it. The iced tea I had just sipped blew out my nose. Same thing happened to Ruby, and we both started laughing uncontrollably in the way-back seat.
“I need another napkin!” Ruby yelled, and Kendall flew one back to her.
“You girls need to keep it down back there,” Dad said.
And then the bullfrog—who was still sitting there staring at us—croaked.
Thankfully, Lola had the presence of mind to burp at that same moment.
Dad glared at her through the rearview mirror, but then chuckled. “Lola? Was that you? You burp like your dad.”
“Thanks, Uncle Jake.”
At this point, we were all doubled over, laughing that kind of laugh where no sound comes out, you can’t breathe, and your stomach muscles feel like they’re going to cramp.
Hunter shook his head and took a bite of his burger. “Crazy girls.”
The frog—still staring—crawled toward me and Ruby. It was almost like he was daring us to pounce.
Ruby reached for the lid of the cooler and gestured to me to go get him. I moved my Kablooey burger off my lap and stretched my arms out till they felt like they were coming unhinged from my shoulders.
The frog inched toward me.
“Come on, big guy,” I whispered.
“Hang on!” Dad yelled, and he slammed on the brakes! The back of the SUV skidded right, then left. The frog leaped forward, right into my lap. It croaked and Lola covered it up with another loud burp. I screamed a little, but then regained my composure and stuffed froggy into the cooler. I was able to wedge the ice chest down between Ruby’s and my feet just as the SUV straightened out. Dad stopped the car at a pullout a few yards down the road.
“That was gnarly!” Hunter yelled.
Dad got out of the car, opened our back door, and looked in.
“Everybody all right back here? That car pulled onto the highway right in front of me! I’m sorry if I shook y’all up.”
“It’s okay, Dad. We’re good.” I had to stifle a chuckle, thinking about all those frogs that were stuck in the cooler at my feet.
“Maybe we should just turn around and go back home,” Dad said.
“No! This is all too fun!” Hunter pleaded.
That caused me to laugh again. Hunter had no idea just how much fun we were having in the way-back seat.
Mamaw was so glad to see us she practically burst a vein in her neck. She hugged my dad like five times.
“Thank you so much for bringing my darlin’ babies out to see me. We’re gonna have so much fun!” Then she pushed my dad away. “You can go now.”
“I will, just as soon as I explain to you about Allie’s inhaler.”
“Inhaler? What’s goin’ on with our sweet girl now?”
I rolled my eyes and then rolled my suitcase into the front kids’ room. We have lots of kids’ rooms at Mamaw’s. The front room has two double beds where I normally sleep if I’m not sleeping out on the porch. That would be on rainy nights like this.
Kendall, Ruby, and Lola followed me. Hunter ran off somewhere, I assumed to find Papaw Ray.
Ruby carried the frog cooler into the room with us.
“Ruby, why did you bring bullfrogs? That was almost a disaster!”
Ruby shrugged and looked a little sad. “Hunting frogs is easy for me, and I didn’t want Hunter to fail my part of the initiation, so I went out this morning and got these guys. I figured we could throw them in that old mud hole out by the barn and let him chase them around. It will still be yucky, but at least he’ll have a chance to catch some.”
“Well, you could have at least warned me they were in there.”
“I tried to. But you . . . were . . . too . . . hungry.” Ruby grabbed her stomach and bent over laughing again. “Oh, boy, you should have seen your face when that bullfrog jumped on the drinks. Hilarious!”
“Hilarious for me was seeing Lola down on the floor. You’re a pretty stylish bullfrog hunter, Pink Streak.”
Lola smoothed her hair. “I bet I look ridiculous. Where’s a mirror?” She took off toward a bathroom.
Kendall put her hand on my shoulder. “Allie, are you sure you still want to do the shed thing?” She walked over to a window and looked out at the gray stormy day.
“The shed thing? Are you still thinking that silly story is true?”
“Well, who is this Andy person then? I told you I’ve seen pictures.”
“Then you’ll have to show me.” I pointed to all the bookshelves in this one room alone. “If the story is true, we should be able to find some evidence here.”
“Girls!” Mamaw called from the kitchen. “The cookies are ready. I got some beads too, so we can all make matching bracelets!”
Lola emerged from the bathroom looking lovely again. “I hope the frogs were the last surprise of the evening.”
If only.
CHAPTER 17
Pumping for Information
We girls barely got ourselves settled in at the counter when Papaw Ray and Hunter burst through the kitchen door, soaking wet.
“No fishin’ today, friends,” Papaw Ray said. “Could be a little flood comin’ our way after all.”
“Are you serious?” Mamaw smiled. “You mean I might be stuck here with all these grandkids?” She bit off a chunk of snickerdoodle, chewed, and swallowed. “What a blessing.”
“I’m gonna help Papaw move some of the machines.” Hunter’s grin was ear-to-ear, and he was shaking. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was excited or cold.
“After we’re done out there, we’re gonna go for some sandbags.”
“Oh no, you don’t,” Mamaw said. “Hunter didn’t come here to just work. Let him come back in with us after he helps move the machines.”
Papaw Ray glanced at all the string and beads that were scattered on the counter.
“Looks like just a bunch of girly fun to me.”
“We have some other stuff planned,” Kendall said. “And we need Hunter.”
Hunter looked over at us through his wet, fogging glasses and tried to wink.
Papaw Ray grabbed a warm Snickerdoodle off the cooling rack and took a bite. Then he scanned each of our faces.
“I think you’re all up to somethin’.”
Mamaw pushed him in the shoulder. “Kids are always up to somethin,’ so you best be on your way and leave them up to it.”
Papaw put his arm around Mamaw.
“And you’re the biggest kid of the bunch. What kind of dastardly plan are you hatchin’?”
“Just fun. That’s all. Fun.”
Papaw finished up his cookie and brushed his hands together to get rid of the crumbs.
“Alrighty then, Kat, I’ll leave you to it. Hunter, you’re off the hook, buddy. Stay in here and keep these girls from gettin’ into too much trouble. I think I’ll go after those sandbags now. Be back in an hour or so.”
Just as Papaw said that, it seemed that the whole sky opened up and threw down all the
moisture it had been collecting. Rain, and possibly hail, pounded on the roof. Ruby gasped. The lights even flickered a bit.
“Oooh, we might have a blackout tonight!” Mamaw walked toward the pantry, opened the door, and disappeared for a minute. She soon backed out, holding a cardboard flat with several votive candles. “We better get ready!”
Great. This weather was not helping out with our initiation plans one bit.
“Here.” Mamaw pointed to the candles in the flat. “Each of you take two and light them in all the rooms. If the lights go out later, it’s gonna be too dark to even find a match.”
She handed us some stick lighters, and we spread out to take them around the house.
“I feel much better now,” Mamaw said. “You should have seen the last time the lights went out. I wasn’t ready, and I bruised my shins on that dumb coffee table. I still have dents in the fronts of my legs!”
Thunder clapped, and Mamaw’s little white dog with the cute black spots—Barney—appeared at my feet.
“Well, hello, Barn-Dog,” I said, and I patted the back of his neck. “You afraid of a little storm?”
Mamaw shook her head. “He’s been a scaredy-cat ever since Lucy ran away.” Lucy was this stray dog that hung around with Barney so much I actually thought she was Mamaw’s dog too. “He’s so lonely, I was thinking of getting another dog.”
“That would be fun,” Lola said.
“Oh, check this out! I have a picture of a little mutt I saw at the shelter this morning.” Mamaw took out her phone and scrolled her pictures to show us an adorable, white-haired puffball.
“She’ll get pretty dirty if she lives out here,” Lola said.
“Then you can come out and give her baths all the time,” Mamaw said. “I really love her even more now looking at her picture again. I hope nobody’s adopted her yet.”
“I’m sure nobody’s thinking of getting a new dog in the middle of this storm,” I said. Then I got an idea.
“What are you gonna name her?”
Mamaw shrugged. “What do you think about Fifi? Or Snowball?”
I scrunched up my face. “Those names sound a little too . . . uh . . . fancy . . . for living out here in the country.”
“But I like fancy names,” Mamaw said.
“Okay then, how about choosing a fancy name that you could shorten to sound spunky. Something like . . . Andrea.” I shrugged. “You could call her Andi for short. Kind of like how everyone calls me Allie instead of Allison.”
Kendall gasped.
I knew it was a risk to throw out the name Andi. But I had to do it.
I watched Mamaw’s face closely for any kind of shock. Or sadness. Or . . . well, anything that would prove that she once had a son named Andy who got eaten by a gator.
But there was nothing but sheer joy.
“Andi, huh? That does sound spunky! And it rhymes with Candy and Handy and Dandy! I like it.” Mamaw talked to the picture on the phone. “Okay, little Andi, you stay put now, until we can come and get you. I wish we could come now!”
For a minute I thought I’d encourage Mamaw to actually go out and get Andi so we could have the place to ourselves for the initiation, but that rain kept pelting down, and it was beginning to worry me a bit.
But then Mamaw’s house phone rang.
“I’ll get it!” Ruby ran to the phone. She’s mesmerized by the thing that is attached to the wall with the long, stretchy cord.
“It’s Aunt Janelle,” Ruby said, and she practically ran all the way back to us with that long cord. She handed the receiver to Mamaw. “She sounds scared.”
Mamaw scrunched her eyebrows, took the receiver from Ruby and held it to her ear. “Janelle, is everything okay?”
As Mamaw listened, she moved through the room, toward the coat closet. She pulled out a long raincoat and hat, and took her rain boots out of the closet while clamping that receiver between her chin and her shoulder.
“Now, honey, you listen to me. You’re going to be okay, you understand? Take some deep breaths and relax. I’m on my way.”
We girls froze in place and focused on Mamaw’s every move.
“Janelle . . . Janelle?”
Mamaw ran to hang up the phone on the far wall, and then returned to the coat closet for an umbrella.
“Girls, Aunt Janelle slipped out on her porch. She doesn’t think anything’s broken, but she’s having a panic attack or somethin’. I’ve gotta go over there.”
My Great Aunt Janelle lives just up the road from my grand-parents’ house, within walking distance. She’s a little older than Mamaw, and much more of a worrier.
“I hope she’s okay,” Lola said.
“Can I come with you?” Hunter bolted from the cookie plate where he had been throwing down snickerdoodles and went for his raincoat.
Mamaw held her hands out. “No, dear, I want you to stay here and help the girls out with whatever they need. Papaw will be back shortly. If you kids need anything, call me on my cell, okay?”
We all nodded, wide-eyed. I wasn’t happy that Aunt Janelle was suffering, but this was just the window of opportunity we needed.
As soon as the door closed behind Mamaw, Ruby pulled me aside.
“We have to do the frogs now—before they suffocate in that ice chest.”
CHAPTER 18
Mud Slinging
Did I hear you say frogs?” Hunter plopped down on Papaw’s overstuffed camo chair in the corner of the family room. “I like frogs.”
I pulled the curtains open to look out on the fading daylight. Yes, the outside challenges would have to come first.
“Gather around, people. We have an initiation to conduct.”
Kendall, Lola, and Ruby all sat down on Mamaw’s brown cushy sofa with the sunflower throw pillows. Lola pulled a blanket around her shoulders and snuggled in.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” I said. “We’re headed outside.”
“In that freezing rain?” Lola whimpered. “Can’t we do the singing first?”
“Frogs are dying,” Ruby said, and she ran into the bedroom—I assumed to retrieve the ice chest.
“They’ll be easier to catch if they’re dead,” Kendall said.
“Kendall!” Lola looked horrified. “How would you like to be suffocated in an ice chest?”
Ruby returned, with hope in her eyes and that beat-up ice chest in her hands.
“Wait,” Hunter said. “I have to catch frogs that you brought with you? Were they in that ice chest in the back of the SUV?”
“Yes,” I said. “Well, they were in there most of the time.”
The girls and I all giggled.
“I don’t get it,” Hunter said.
“We’ll fill you in later. For now, I need you to stand up so we can begin this Carroway Cousin Initiation.”
Hunter popped up and stood straight, like he was a soldier about to be sworn into the military.
“Hunter Buster Carroway, today we will test the depth of your commitment to the family. How far will you go outside your comfort zone to prove that you are dedicated to cousinhood? We, the Carroway girl cousins, hereby dedicate ourselves to your happiness and well-being, and to prove it, we promise to redo, redesign, rebuild, and even rename the Diva Duck Blind in the event that you complete four challenges put forth during this initiation. Do you promise to try your best, to not give up when things get rough, and to uphold the position of Carroway Cousin, no matter what the future holds?”
Hunter held his right hand up. “I do.”
“I think he should put his other hand on the Bible,” Kendall said.
I shook my head. “He’s not becoming president. I think we can skip the Bible. Plus, doesn’t it say somewhere in the Bible that you should just let your yes be yes and your no be no?”
“Yes,” Ruby said. “That’s what it says. It also says you should be kind to animals by not letting them die in ice chests … or something like that.”
“Okay then. Let’s get on with challe
nge number one. Ruby, since this is the one you picked, you’re in charge.”
Ruby stepped forward—frog ice chest in hand—and turned toward the cousins.
“Hunter, challenge number one is going to be a little messy. Since Carroways live in the bayou, we are confronted with the need to get muddy once in a while.”
Hunter lowered his head and covered his face with his hands.
“Oh, no, not mud! I hate mud!”
“This we know,” I said.
“But you can overcome it,” Lola said. “It’s only for a few minutes.”
“Just until you catch the five bullfrogs that are hopefully still breathing in this ice chest.” Ruby lifted the lid and a couple of them croaked. She sighed in relief.
“Okay,” I said, taking charge again. “Everyone, follow me out to the mud hole behind the barn.”
“But what will we tell Mamaw when she comes back and sees us all muddy?” Lola unzipped her backpack and snatched out one of her many beanies.
“We’ll tell her we went out and played in the mud,” I said. “Which is what we’re actually going to be doing. Man, you people sure try to complicate things.”
When we were all suited up in our rain clothes from the mudroom, Kendall opened the door which led out to the back of the house and the barn.
“I just want to remind you that damp weather is not at all good for my vocal chords.”
As we stepped out into the rain, I remembered what Dr. Snow said—and I felt a surge of adrenaline in my stomach. I was supposed to stay inside, but that was impossible.
“Hey guys, I forgot something. I’ll meet you out by the barn in one minute.”
“Hurry, Allie,” Ruby said. “The rain is letting up a little so we should start soon.”
“Okay.” The door closed behind them, and I ran to the bedroom to retrieve my pink mini-backpack—my “Allie-Kit.” And now, in addition to the Epi-pen, it contained the brand-new asthma inhaler. The one I hadn’t told the cousins about yet.
“When I say go, I will throw these frogs in the mud hole. Hunter, you can jump in at any time. When you catch one, yell over to me and I’ll send one of the girls in to retrieve it and put it back in the ice chest.”
“Wait, what?” Lola tucked her hair further into her beanie and stepped back from the mud hole. “I planned on just watching the madness, not getting involved.”
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