Poor Denny, Poor Grandpa
Gloria and her husband had added a son to their family. Five year old daughter Clair felt left out. She liked her new baby brother, he didn’t do anything. When she asked for a puppy her parents agreed. They ended up at the animal shelter. A small, brown short haired dog was chosen. Clair named him Denny.
Clair and Denny were always up to something. Usually quite harmless. The little girl wanted to hang flags on the fence around the house. When her father came home from work he was horrified to see his best ties fluttering in the breeze. There was the day she used white shoe polish to write all over her grandma’s new car. She didn’t know the letters she put together were swear words. Her father had a fountain in the back yard. She poured a bottle of bubble bath in. Very pretty, but it really made her mom mad.
A popular thing some pregnant women like to do is have a plaster mold made of their expanded girth, while they are heavily laden with the unborn baby. Clair had watched the entire procedure with interest. Gloria explained it was a form of ornament, a keepsake, something to remember the wonderful occasion by.
Clair loved to play in water and dirt. Denny was laying on the grass, the sun was hot, she was bored. Until she had a great idea. She found a pail in the garage that had some dirt in it, she added some sand from her sandbox, then water from the fountain, stirred it into a nice runny mess. She added more dirt from a bag in the garage, squishing her fingers in it until it was thick, then talking to Denny, she held him with one hand, while she covered the dog with the stuff. He was overly warm from it sun, it felt sort of nice.
As children do, she went off to do something else, forgetting Denny. Gloria came out to the yard to check on her daughter. She looked at the lump that had a tail thrashing at one end, a nose and eyes out the other. What on earth had happened? She ran over to find Denny encased in concrete. The sun had dried it rock hard. Denny wanted to stand up, but his fur was stuck to the on the inside of his shell. She picked him up, yelled for her daughter then headed for the garage.
It took a lot of work to slowly chip the dog out of his cocoon. Clair was a bit put out. She wanted a keepsake of her own. A whole one, not a bag of pieces with a lot of dog hair caught in it. Denny survived, with lots of hugs and treats. Clair’s daddy thought it was funny. Her grandparent’s were visiting, warned the young couple, they were going to have their hands full with that young lady.
Gloria’s husband headed for the golf course along with grandma. Grandpa stayed home. He was tired, the hammock in the back yard looked very inviting. Some young mothers came to visit. As they chatted, one woman showed them a set of clippers she had bought to cut her husbands and two older son’s hair with. It saved her money, plus it was really easy to use. Clair lifted up the clippers, looked at Denny, before she could do anything, her mom snatched them back, “Don’t even think about it,” she warned. The girl sulked a bit, then remembered she had seen the same thing in her daddy’s box of things he bought at a yard sale.
She dug them up, wandered out to the back yard. Grandpa was snoring his moustache off. Clair looked at his thick silver hair, looked at the clippers………….later when grandpa woke up he felt a bit strange. Still half asleep he went into the house. All the women stared at him. Someone started to giggle. He had no moustache or eyebrows. Only the odd chunk of hair remained on his head. Gloria yelled, “Clair you are grounded for life!”
Clair felt rather sad. She held handfuls of hair in her hands. Silver, mixed with her own long golden curls. Her head felt like Denny’s now. It had been fun using the clippers. She wondered, just how long, “Grounded for life meant anyway.”
