Chapter 38 The Dillards and the Goddard-Wans
One morning, Rhiannon was outside watering her garden. She enjoyed how green it was; she still couldn't get used to the oranges and browns of the desert.
Cassandra Goth stopped by to chat. "Just thought I'd let you know there's been a sighting of a flying saucer in the area."
"Flying saucers?" Rhiannon suppressed a giggle. "Are they a problem around here?"
Cassandra lowered her voice. "We've had at least one alien abduction Stacy Lee claims that she was taken, but she was too dazed to remember anything else."
"Sounds like Stacy had one too many juice on the rocks," said Rhiannon.
"Could be," said Cassandra, "but everyone's saying that there are aliens around. I just thought I'd let you know."
"I appreciate it," Rhiannon said hastily, afraid that she might have offended Cassandra. "And I'm glad you stopped by. It gets a little lonely around here once Ian has gone to school and Ismael to work."
"Come over to my Gallery," said Cassandra. "There's always a crowd there. It'll give you a chance to meet some of your neighbors."
The next day Rhiannon took Cassandra up on her suggestion. In a short time she had met Bristol Muniz, Olivia and Erica Lewis, and Robert Pancake. Alexander, she already knew, of course.
She hadn't intended to buy anything, but the guitar looked like fun. She strummed it experimentally, but quit when she saw Bristol frowning at her.
That afternoon Ian came home in a bad mood. "What's the matter?" Rhiannon asked when he climbed into bed and pulled the covers over his head. "I don't want to talk about it," came a muffled answer.
"Come on," said Rhiannon. "It can't be that bad. I put strawberries in the salad. You like strawberries. Come and get something to eat."
Ian came to the table, but he just pushed his fork around in his bowl.
"What happened?" Rhiannon asked gently.
"We had a test today, and I know this girl was trying to copy my answers," said Ian. "I called her on it, and she just started crying and said I was mean. She didn't even say she was innocent, just that I was mean not to let her see my answers. She was cheating, Mom, but I was the one that everyone got mad at."
Rhiannon sighed. "It's not easy being the smartest kid in the class," she said. "Sometimes you have to choose between being smart and being popular but I want you to choose being smart," she said firmly. "Anyway, it's probably going to be a long time before anyone tries to cheat off you again."
"Yeah, and a long time before anyone speaks to me," Ian said glumly. But he cheered up a bit after he'd worked on his chemistry lab for a while.
Rhiannon was relieved when Henrietta Goddard-Wan came over to play with him a little while later. She was a frequent visitor, especially on the evenings when her father was working on a case. "My mom used to play the guitar," she told Ismael, when Rhiannon was trying to master the G-chord. "She was better, though."
That night, Rhiannon woke up to discover that Ismael had gotten out of bed. She hurried outside and saw that he was looking up into a beam of light.
She looked up in the sky and saw an actual flying saucer, just like what Cassandra had been talking about.
The next morning Ismael didn't remember anything. "Flying saucer?" he said, when Rhiannon told him about it. "That sounds like some dream you had, honey." He didn't seem to have suffered any ill effects, though, so Rhiannon decided not to worry about it.
It wasn't easy being a single parent, Hank was discovering. There was no one to share the burden of listening to the first song played on the violin. "That's great, honey!"
"Do you want me to play it again, Dad?"
"No, once was enough. I need to get some supper and you need to do homework."
Also, it was terrifying when Henrietta got sick. Rhiannon Dillard told him it was just bloaty head, the same as Ian had had, and that a glass of orange juice would clear it right up. The orange juice had worked, but he'd spent an uneasy two hours waiting for it to take effect.
And of course, there was the guilt. Henrietta was a good little helper, but he knew she was taking on tasks that normally an adult or at least a teen would do.
It didn't help when Cassandra Goth told him she'd walked Henrietta home from the Dillards at 10 pm the other night before he'd gotten home from work. Cassandra was getting to be as nosy as her Great-aunt Agnes, but that was beside the point. "I can make a suggestion to the Chief of Police, if you like," she'd said. "You know, point out that an earlier shift would be better for someone with a young child at home."
Hank didn't like, but he couldn't say that. This had led to an awkward meeting with his Chief.
"We're keeping you up too late at night, Goddard?" the Chief chuckled. "Not getting your beauty sleep?"
"No, sir, not at all," Hank said earnestly.
"Well, there's plenty to do at the station if the streets are too much for you," the Chief said genially. '"Fingerprinting, taking mug shots, that sort of thing."
That evening Hank had his birthday. He blew out his candles alone Henrietta was busy with something.
"Don't look, Dad!" she protested. "It's your birthday card. It's supposed to be a surprise."
The next day it was a relief when someone came in reporting a crime, even if the person doing the reporting was a Bagley. Hank knew all about the family from his days in Sunset Valley. Shayna was all right, but he wouldn't be surprised to learn that her daughter had inherited some criminal tendencies.
There had been some fires started at the Blue Velvet Nightclub. Hank groaned. He hated arson cases, he'd had a phobia about them ever since his hair had caught on fire.
He collected some evidence and found a good witness, Robert Pancake, Bill's son.
Hank spent the rest of the day analyzing evidence and entering his pictures and reports into the database. At the end of the day all he knew was that the suspect had black hair and wore a long-sleeved shirt, a description that fit at least a quarter of the population of Oasis Springs.
When he got home, Henrietta made him close his eyes while she led him to look at a picture. "It's a cop arresting a bank robber, just like you, Dad," she explained.
"Aw, sweetie, that's great," said Hank.
"Wait," said Henrietta, "there's another." She took him to one on the other side of her desk. "That's you and Mom when you were kids. I copied it from a photograph."
Hank felt his eyes mist over, and he gave Henrietta a hug. What was it that ad said about the Army the toughest job you'll ever love? They had no idea. The Army didn't even come close.
