“Not until you take care of those 
poor animals in the kitchen. Put the   
one you're taking with us in a hundred 
extra-large garbage bags, and the other
one in two hundred bags, and then put  
them back in the bags they came in.    
     “After that, put the other one out
in the shed. Please. We'll bury him    
tomorrow, by that big oak tree, way in 
the back.”                             
     “Ok, but a hundred bags, Beth?”   
     She waved both her hands quickly, 
“Ok, ten or twenty, but no less.”      
     She meant it too.                 
     I turned to go. I was suddenly    
getting deeply depressed.              
     I guess, she could sense it,      
because she put both her hands on my   
shoulders, gave me one of her crooked  
smiles, and sighed.                    
*      “I know how hard this is for you,   
because I know you, but that don't mean
I have to like it. Now, get in there   
and do your job, and then get back out 
here to propose to me, so we can go get
that damn Cat of yours,” she said,     
while pointing into the kitchen.       
     I saluted her, “Yes sir. On my way
sir,” and did exactly that.            
     By the time I was done, it was    
almost eleven-thirty.                  
     Finally, I was able to get down on
one knee again, and hoped that this    
time, I’d be able to finish.           
     “Beth,” I said, and then took her 
hand. “Before I met you, happiness was 
just a concept to me, but you’ve made  
it real, and now I know what all those 
sappy songs on the radio mean.         



CHAPTER 14: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31st
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