Chapter 16

Mike knew that Kirsten was going to be of a limited and lessening amount of help with the move as the date of the move drew closer. That was a problem, with having to move so close to her due date, but getting her to agree to move at all make it worth the extra effort. Now, she couldn't move quickly enough.

As expected, Mike was still having to check the bathroom every time before Kirsten used it, but there still had been no sign of another snake. At least she didn't feel quite so uptight about the office, and there had been times, when both Mike and Tiffany had been gone somewhere, that Kirsten hopped in the car and drove down to the office when she had to go.

The really heavy work of moving didn't worry Mike as much. He'd talked to Danny Evachevski, Gil and Carrie's youngest, and he and some friend of his had agreed to spend several days doing the lifting and carrying. For that matter, Gil and Carrie would help out on the actual moving date, along with Denny and Sally Szczerowski, and maybe a couple of others. It would obviously be a great deal of confusion, and they'd spend a month packing and another month unpacking, but all they'd have to do on the actual day is direct traffic.

They'd agreed to start getting ready this Saturday, by sorting through boxes in the attic, closing up some of them, and getting rid of some of the contents of others.

It was obvious that the attic was going to be a major contributor to what Mike called the "Biannual Spearfish Lake Free Garage Sale." Usually, garbage pickup in Spearfish Lake was limited to bags, but if you were going to throw out brush, or furniture, or old tires, or just a lot of stuff, twice each year the landfill contractor put on extra crews, and the curbs around the town grew high with stuff that had to be saved until the semiannual cleanup.

Of course, one man's trash is another man's treasure, so as soon as the curbs started to get loaded, people began to cruise the streets, looking for whatever they might find.

Even Mike was not immune. The desk in their bedroom, the one where the home computer sat, was rescued drawerless from a trash pile on Point Drive. With a coat of paint, and some drawers made from wooden boxes found in another trash pile, it had served Mike for several years. It was earmarked to go into the place in the basement he had reserved for his den/office at the new house.

The only problem was that it was too nice a day to want to spend it screwing around in the attic. He and Kirsten had already shot one extra cup of coffee, sitting around the kitchen table and putting off the reality, and Mike was giving some thought to making another cup of instant; it wasn't worth making a whole pot of coffee for himself if Kirsten could only drink decaf out of packages.

"I can't believe how well the kids are taking it," Kirsten said.

"Well, I don't think it means a lot to Henry, one way or the other," Mike said. "Not having to share his room with his sister was the big news for him. Tiffany, on the other hand..."

" ... wants a dog team," Kirsten finished the sentence for him. In fact, Tiffany's reaction to the news Tuesday night had been a frowning comment that she'd have to ride the bus, but her smile had widened when she realized that she could have a dog. "Why'd you say that?" she accused.

"I didn't say she could have a dog team, but that'll blow over in a few days," Mike defended once again. "I told her a while back that we couldn't have a dog until we got a bigger place, and then we'd have to see. Actually, it might be good to have a dog, especially out there."

"I don't know," Kirsten frowned. "I don't think it's a good idea. They're noisy and expensive. I'm not denying that maybe she should have a pet, but maybe something smaller and easier to care for."

This was the third time the subject had come up, and Mike was getting a little tired of it. The time had come to nuke it. "I told her we'd think about getting a dog," he said, "when I told her she couldn't have a snake for a pet."

Kirsten's eyes widened, her face grew red, and she gulped before she replied, "Well, maybe an outdoor dog, but I don't want dog hair all over the furniture."