“What are all those dials on your watch?” the kid asked, leaning in to study it.
“Date. Local time. Stopwatch slash timer and time in Israel.”
“Israel?”
“I have family there.”
“You also have family in Wisconsin, right?” Shay asked.
“Is it really that hard to subtract an hour from current time?” Tock asked.
“My dad is not a math guy,” Dani said.
“I know the basics. I just can’t do that fancy math you do,” Shay said.
“Fancy math?” Tock asked.
“He means fractions. Daddy struggles with fractions. I’m sure it’s because he’s been hit in the head so many times.”
“That doesn’t really affect our kind the way it does full-humans,” Tock explained. “But like all animals, some of us are just not as smart as the rest of us. That’s okay, though. He’s your father and you love him despite that.”
“Wow,” Shay said from behind her. “Just . . . wow.”
“Math is important,” she told him. “Just like science and time.”
“Time is a human construct,” Dani put in.
Tock glared down at the kid. “Excuse me?”
“It’s a human construct. It only exists because we brought it into being. Science and math exist because they just do. One is only as important as the power we give it. While the other two are important because they simply are. Without science or math, we wouldn’t exist.”
“Time management is extremely important. We couldn’t function as a society without time and the brutal, heartless control of it.”
Eyes wide, the kid gawked up at her, but Tock didn’t know why. That was a completely rational argument, and she didn’t need some ten-year-old telling her that time was not important! Time was always important! How could it not be? People running around, showing up whenever? No specific time or day to be where they needed to be? That was insanity! That was chaos! And chaos due to lack of time management was a world Tock refused to live in!
Charlie walked out onto the porch, yelling a “Fine!” over her shoulder.
With a little growl and shake of her head, she returned to stand in front of them.
“The puppies,” she said. “You were saying . . . ?”
Tock opened her mouth to speak but the cat jumped in first.
“Tock and I were debating dog balls.”
Closing her eyes, Tock shook her head. Dumbass!
“Dog balls?” Charlie repeated, glancing at Shay’s cub. “Um . . . what about them?”
“Is it really necessary to cut them off? Because my boys—”
“You haven’t had the dogs fixed?” Dani suddenly demanded, startling all the adults standing on the porch.
“Well—”
“Oh . . . Daddy.” And she said it with such infinite sadness and disappointment, neither Tock nor Charlie could say a word. “How could you?”
“I didn’t.”
“I mean, how could you not get the dogs fixed? My favorite math teacher rescues dogs and cats, and she says all dogs should be neutered and spayed so there are no unwanted animals.” She pointed at the crate. “Those are unwanted animals that you have put at risk. And why? Why, Daddy?”
“Um . . . if I wouldn’t want the same thing, why would I do it to my—”
“Oh . . . Daddy.” Lowering her head, the kid shook it slowly and very sadly. “Daddy. I’m so disappointed.”
“I see that.”
Putting her arm around Dani’s shoulders, Charlie wisely intervened. “It could be that your father just didn’t know.”
“How could he not? It’s not just my math teacher! I see stuff about fixing dogs all over the place! People are trying to help these poor animals roaming the streets!”
With one arm still around the kid’s shoulders and her other hand patting her right arm, Charlie briefly glanced off. And Tock knew it was to stop herself from laughing. The kid was just so damn earnest, concerned as only kids could be when it came to something they truly cared about. Of course, most ten-year-olds cared about comic books or butterflies. Or whatever kids were into these days. But worrying about whether dogs were fixed or not? Didn’t seem like a normal thing for a kid to concern herself over.
Clearing her throat, Charlie said, “How about this . . . ? Wait here.”
Charlie went back into the house while Shay’s daughter made “tsk-tsk-tsk” sounds and shook her head, all the while staring at her father with dark brown eyes.
When Charlie returned, she had a thick book. “Here.” She handed the book to Dani. “Read this. It’s a helpful book on how to care for your dog from birth to the end. You read it and you tell your father what you learned.”
“Shouldn’t he read it?” Dani asked; Tock was barely able to choke back her laugh at the haughtiness she heard in the kid’s tone.
“But we both know he won’t. So you read it and tell him what he needs to know. Okay? But first, take these puppies to the vet and get them checked out. You have a vet, right, Shay?”
“Uhhh . . .”
“Oh . . . Daddy.”
There was that unequivocal sound of disappointment again. Tock loved it. Especially when Shay tossed his arms out wide and said, “What?”
Dani looked the book over. “Thank you so much, Miss—”
“Just Charlie, sweetie. Now why don’t you get a bathing suit and go swimming? You might fit in one of Stevie’s bathing suits.”
“Because Stevie has the body of a ten-year-old?” Tock asked.
Tock ducked the back of the hand coming for her face by leaning into Shay, and Dani told Charlie, “I have a suit in my dad’s car. I’ll go get it.” She held the book to her chest. “And I’ll make sure my dad gets up to speed on taking care of Princess’s puppies.”
“Thank you, sweetie.”
After another look of disappointment directed at her father—“What?” Shay demanded again—Dani held her hand out so her father could give her the car keys and ran off toward the car parked down the street.
“Really?” Charlie said with a chuckle once the kid was gone. “You didn’t want to take your dogs’ balls?”
Shay shrugged. “I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me.”
“Oh, my God,” she said, laughing and picking up the crate filled with puppies. “You’re an idiot.”
She disappeared back into the house, Princess following right behind her, while one of the bears growled, “Why are you bringing those puppies in here?” as soon as the screen door slammed shut.
“That wasn’t so bad,” Shay noted.
“You can thank your daughter for that,” Tock told him. “She was so upset, she completely diffused the Charlie Rage.” Turning her upper body to look directly at Shay, she pointed a finger and said, “And just so you know, you and your brothers never want to trigger the Charlie Rage.”
Shay gazed at her. “Why?”
“Because”—she stood, vacating his lap and leaving it cold and lonely—“I don’t feel like digging the size graves you three cats would need. I’ve done enough of that in my life.”