“We’re dressed,” I call back, my hands still buried in Rabbit’s hair. I’m a bit peeved that we can’t get ten minutes alone to have a mother-daughter talk, but I know Aggie means well.
Aggie pushes inside, and she’s got a towel on her shoulders and she’s not wearing one of her customary wigs. “I heard we were washing hair in here. I want my turn.”
I ease my hands out of Rabbit’s hair and swipe them through the water to get rid of the suds. There’s a folding metal chair in the bathroom as this doubles as our tornado shelter when the weather gets too nasty, and I unfold it and set it next to the pool. “I can do your hair, too, but you’ll have to wait. I’m working on Rabbit’s.”
“Mine won’t take long,” Aggie reassures me. “I’ve only got three hairs left.”
“Those three hairs can still wait,” I grump, returning to my daughter’s mane.
Rabbit grins at Aggie, not bothered by the other woman’s presence in the slightest. “Mom was just telling me she’s having date night tonight with Murr. They’re married now.”
Oh god. I mentally steel myself for Aggie to make some nasty joke.
“’Bout time,” is all Aggie says. “Dottie’s got a present for you. She’s feeling kinda under today. Doesn’t feel like washing her hair. Make sure you see her before you head off.”
Under? That’s not a good sign. I worry about anyone that doesn’t feel well, given that we don’t have doctors or medicine, and Dottie is elderly. “Is she okay?”
“She’s old. We’re both old,” Aggie says sharply. “Let her nap and she’ll manage. She doesn’t need her hand held, just some shut eye. Now, where are you heading on this date night of yours?”
That’s a quick change of topic. “I don’t know just yet.”
“Can you head by a baby store?”
I blink at the strange request. “I don’t know… why?”
“We need onesies for the puppies. Maybe some little bonnets. You’ll want to get preemie-sized clothes for them. We’re going to need seven different colors so we can tell them apart.”
Of all the impractical things… “You want to dress them up like babies?”
“It’s cold out here,” Aggie says, as if dressing a newborn dog in clothing makes total sense. “And theyaremy babies, just like Stella is. I’m pretty sure Doc looks just like me, too. He’s got my nose.”
“You’re insane,” Rabbit giggles.
“Duh,” is all Aggie says. “Have to be to survive this long. Now, tell me more about this date night.”
That is one thing I’m not going to do. “Actually, let me rinse Rabbit’s hair and put some conditioner on it, and we’ll get you started, too.”
CHAPTER 66
DAKOTA
While Rabbit’shair is deep conditioning and covered in a plastic bag, she puts on a bathrobe and takes charge of Aggie. “I can give you a nice wash, but how do you feel about some curlers?” she asks. “I bet we can give you some lift even without a blow dry.”
Aggie holds up a wispy tuft of gray hair. “I don’t think you can do anything with this.”
Undeterred, Rabbit holds up a yellow plastic curler. “I can try, and if it looks terrible, we can throw a wig over it.”
“Fair enough. Do your worst.” Aggie scoots her chair closer to the pool. “Where do you want me?”
I gesture at the door. “I’m going to check on Dottie and Murr and see if they need anything. I’ll be right back.”
Rabbit nods, already pulling her fingers through Aggie’s balding fluff to see what she can do with it. There’s a smile on Aggie’s face, and she takes off her glasses, closing her eyes. She looks as if she’s going to enjoy being pampered, and I feel a little guilty, thinking of my grandmother and how she’d go to the salon every week to get her hair set. The After is unfair forso many reasons, not just beauty, but at Aggie’s age, I wish the biggest thing she had to worry about was getting her hair curled.
Exiting the bathroom, I head back into the store, skirting around shelves and stacks of books. Sunlight streams in through the dirty, broken windows at the front of the store, so I’m able to get around without a candle. I’m tempted to go outside and just gulp in some of the crisp air, but I want to find Dottie first.
I head to the sectioned-off area that Dottie and Aggie have claimed as theirs. There’s a second, hard plastic kiddie pool in here for Stella and the puppies. It’s filled with blankets, and Stella is in it, her tail thumping and knocking some of her babies around the moment I appear. With a grimace, I give her pets and gently maneuver newborn puppies out of the tail danger-zone. Stella is an incredibly sweet dog, but Aggie likes to say she’s as dumb as a stump, and well, she’s not wrong. “Stay here, good girl,” I whisper, and glance over to the far side of the “room.” Sure enough, Dottie is in bed, a small form curled under a pile of blankets. That worries me. Aggie is so loud and overbearing that sometimes I forget that Dottie’s much quieter and will go under the radar.
Moving to Dottie’s side, I kneel down next to the bed. The mom in me can’t help but press the backs of my fingers to her brow, checking for a fever.
