I was pulling into the driveway when I noticed my husband Steven and our son Alex, were just finishing hanging the American flag I’d purchased.

“I love it!” I cried as I got out of my car. “Just in time for the fourth of July weekend!”

“You’re welcome.” Steven said and smiled as he put the power drill away. “I know it’s been sitting by the front door for a long time but I just couldn’t find the time to put it up.” he explained. “I figured you’d want it up for this weekend.”

“It’s perfect.” I said as I watched the breeze catch the ends and it began to gently wave. “This whole neighborhood reminds me of my childhood.” I said, “Everyone has a flag hung, you can smell the barbecue grills, and listen to that?” I was quiet for a moment so Steven and Alex could hear the sound of the metal bat hitting a ball.

“My childhood memory was a wooden bat hitting a ball.” Steven said. “But I hear what you’re saying.”

“We used both.” Alex said looking over at Steven. “I definitely liked the metal bats better, you could hit the ball further with them.”

I had to cut them off because I wasn’t finished telling my childhood memories.

“My Dad loved this time of year!” I said. “He’d be up early in the morning, put the flag out, get all of us into the car and head for the nearest parade .” I smiled just thinking about it.”The streets would be lined with hundreds of people and we’d all wave to the passing fire trucks as they blasted their sirens.”

“Wasn’t I in a parade once?” Alex asked.

“When you were a cub scout.” Steven said.

Once again, before they could take the conversation in a different direction I continued my thought. “Then we’d come home and fire up the charcoal briquets.” I said. “They’d need to be doused with a huge amount of lighter fluid but once the flames went down and the coals were a shimmering white you’d have the best tasting hamburgers ever!”

Alex looked over at me. “Doesn’t charcoal, lighter fluid and burnt meat cause cancer?”

“Well, of course it does.” I said. “But we didn’t know that then so, it was wonderful.”

Alex looked over at Steven who shrugged his shoulders, “Hey, there were a lot of things we didn’t know about then.” Steven said.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Just like when we went out to the parade. There were no seat belts in the car, we all just piled in the back of the station wagon and considered it fun when Dad took a turn too fast and we’d roll from one side of the car to other.”

“Yeah, we thought that was pretty fun, too.” Steven agreed.

“Didn’t anyone ever get hurt?” Alex asked.

“Sure.” I said. “If you hit a bump just the right way and landed against someone’s knee or elbow you’d come home with a bump on your head or a cut on your lip but that wasn’t like it happened every time.”

“It sounds awful!” Alex said.

“It was all part of summer outings with the family.” I said then looked over at Steven. “Remember when it got near dusk, the mosquito foggers would drive through town and you’d feel like you were running around in the clouds?” I had to laugh. “That was the best way to play hide and seek. No one could ever find you in that heavy fog!”

Alex looked horrified.

Steven shrugged his shoulders. “All part of growing up back then.” he said to him.

I smiled as I looked back at our flag. “It’s that small town feel you get around here!” I gushed. “Don’t you just love it!”

Alex looked at both Steven and I, “I’m thinking the flag part is nice but the rest of your memories sound crazy!”

I looked over at Steven. “I know he has a point, but I still think they were fun times.”

Steven looked at Alex and nodded in agreement. “You had to be there.”

“It looks like a pretty bad storm is coming,” I said to both my boys. We were in our car running errands when I looked up in the Northern sky.

“It probably won’t hit us for a while.” Max said. “Can we stop at Taco Bell? I’m starving!”

“I really think we should get home before it starts to pour.” I said.

“Can we pick up my laptop first?” Alex asked. “They finally got rid of the virus and I haven’t had it for days.”

“I guess we can squeeze in one last stop.” I knew that not having his laptop was almost painful to him.

“Thanks,” Alex said.

“Hey!” Max cried. “Why can you run another errand for Alex and not for me?”

“Taco Bell isn’t an errand,” I told Max. “Besides, we’re going to have dinner soon.”

“We’ll still eat dinner, right Alex?” Max looked over at his brother. “Taco Bell isn’t a meal. It’s more like a snack.”

I looked over at Alex as he shrugged his shoulders. “I could always eat.” he said.

“While we waited in the drive-thru line I could hear the rumbling of thunder in the distance.

“I just know we’re going to get caught in this storm.” I complained as I got the bag of food and handed it to the boys.

They were both happily munching on tacos as the quick stop for the laptop turned out to be longer than I expected.

Now I felt as if we were racing the storm clouds home. The sky go darker, the thunder got louder, and we could see the lightning strikes. Soon big drops of rain began to hit the windshield.

“I knew we should have gone home earlier.” I complained as I turned on my headlights and put the wipers one.

We pulled up to the house just in time for a true cloudburst to hit. We looked over at our front door, which was only thirty feet away, but you could barely see it through the sheets of rain coming down.

“Maybe we should wait in the car until it lets up a bit.” I suggested.

“That could be hours.” Alex said.

“Let’s make a run for it.” Max said.

So we did. Slipping and sliding through the ankle-high water, we made it to the front door looking as if someone had turned a garden hose on us.

“Stay here while I get some towels.” I said, leaving the boys dripping in our foyer.

In the few moemtns it took me to come back with the towels, I could see that the rain had stopped and the sun was peeking through the clouds.

“I guess we could have waited in the car for a few minutes.” Alex said as he reached for the towel and waited for me to start complaining about the wet floors.

I did look down at the huge puddle we were all standing in, all three of us drying ourselves off. “I have to admit I haven’t been caught in a downpour like that in a long time.” I said and then began to smile. “That was so much fun!”

I hadn’t been to a concert in years, so I was excited when I found myself sitting in Madison Square Garden last weekend waiting for Billy Joel to start playing.

I leaned over to my sister, Liz sitting next to me. “I don’t think there’s a song he sings that I don’t like.” I gushed.

It was just then that our seat mates for the evening arrived. Several men and women all about our age checking the seat numbers with their tickets. The man who would be sitting right next to me smiled at me, tipped his pork-pie hat, then sat down. I smiled and gave him a quick head nod back. That’s when I noticed several guys sitting around us wearing the same kind of hat.

I leaned over to my sister again. “What’s with the hats?” I whispered to her, hoping my new seat mate didn’t hear me.

Liz shrugged her shoulders. “Didn’t Billy Joel wear one in one of his videos?’

I tried to remember but I couldn’t so I had to assume they were honoring him in some way.

Just then the house lights dimmed and my seat mate took off his hat, balanced it on his knee and began screaming, “YOU RULE BILLY!!!”

I looked over at Liz, my eyebrows going up in concern. “You want to switch seats?” I asked tipping my head in the direction of Billy’s very obvious number one fan sitting next to me.

“Nope.” was all I got from Liz as she smiled and looked down at the stage .

Billy sat down at his piano and began playing his first song. My buddy next to me grabbed his phone and frantically began typing the name of the song being played. “Good choice!” he called. “Good choice!”

I looked over at him and smiled hoping he was going to be a well behaved number one fan. After he was done typing,he put his hat back on his head and began playing a duet with Billy on his newly acquired air piano.

I looked over at Liz again and mouthed “Wow!”

I was just grateful that he seemed to be playing a very small air piano and was keeping it right in front of him.

As the concert went on my seat mate would write down each song and then begin playing a new air instrument. “He can play everything!” I said to Liz as we now watched him play air bass with the emotion of a true musician.

By the forth song he seemed to have really warmed up. He took out his imaginary drumsticks and began tapping them over his head then he began playing, what seemed to be, his favorite air instrument of all. A very large drum kit. How do I know it was a large drum kit? Because he didn’t have enough room in front of him and he had to set up his crash cymbal just inches from my face. So while his foot kept a steady beat on his base pedal I’d have to duck back as his hand reached out for that cymbal that had to be hit several times in this particular song.

I looked over at my sister who was staring at me in disbelief, mouthing the words, “I’m sorry.” to me.

But I have to say I wasn’t sorry. Out of the thousands of people at this concert what were the odds of me sitting next to someone with so much talent? I could have been annoyed, but watching his speed as he moved around his drum kit was nothing short of amazing. By now my initial shock had worn off. I had to admit he was certainly having fun and I was having fun watching him.

He seemed to be a very accomplished drummer. Well, his form was good. I can’t be sure if he was really good because air instruments can be tricky that way.

It was a beautiful morning and I was enjoying it by sitting on my back deck. While I was sipping my tea I noticed four bunnies munching away on the clover flowers.

“Steven, you have to come see this!” I called to him through the kitchen window.

Before Steven could come outside another little bunny came hopping over from the yard next door to have breakfast in our yard.

“Is it me, or are you noticing that there are more bunnies this year than years before?” I asked him.

“There does seem to be more around this year,” Steven agreed. “But it could also be that our lawn needs to be cut and we have more for them to eat right now.”

I looked at our neighbors’ yards and could see that our lawn was a few inches taller.”I’m glad you’re keeping it a little longer for them.” I said.

Steven started to laugh.”I’m not keeping it longer for the rabbits,” he said. “I just don’t have the time or the energy to keep after Max or Alex to cut it!”

“Well, I like looking at a yard full of happy bunnies.” I seasoned. “Maybe we should keep the lawn a little longer for them.”

“The boys will be happy to hear that.” Steven said as he went back to getting ready for work. “But I’m sure the neighbors won’t be very happy.”

By mid-afternoon I heard the familiar sound of the lawnmower starting up. I headed for the front door and saw my son Alex had already cut a big portion of the clover patch in front. I raced out the door, waving my arms for him to stop.

“What are you doing?” I called.

He stopped the mower and took the ear buds out of his ears. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

“Why are you cutting the lawn?”

Alex looked confused. “I promised Dad a few days ago that I’d do it and I never got around to it until now.” he said.

“We’ve decided to keep the lawn a little longer for the bunnies, so they have something to eat.” I informed him.

“Dad said that?” Alex asked looking even more confused.

“Okay.” I admitted. “It wasn’t your Dad’s decision. It was mine.”

“So you don’t want me to cut the lawn?”

I looked at how tall the grass had gotten. Then I looked over at the neighbor’s yard and felt a bit guilty. “Maybe you could just cut the grass around the clover patches and leave the clover flowers alone.” I suggested.

Alex just stared at me.

I have to admit, at times like these I do get tired of the boys looking at me as if I were losing my mind.

“All right, I guess that would look ridiculous.” I admitted. “Why don’t you cut the front lawn and skip the back yard. They can eat the clover back there.”

“Fine by me.” Alex put his ear buds back into place and restarted the mower.

I walked back to the front door, wondering how I was going to explain this to Steven when it had already taken him days to get the boys to mow.

I went out on my back deck and looked at the half a dozen bunnies munching away. “You guys are going to have to eat a little quicker.” I said. “I don’t know how long I can hold out on the mowing for you.” I hadn’t noticed my other son, Max sitting in one of the chairs.

“Who are you talking to?” he asked.

“The bunnies.” I said pointing to our clover patch.

Max looked at the bunnies and then back at me. “Do they talk back to you?” he asked.

I walked into the living room carrying a small leather bound book and my favorite pen. I settled onto the couch next to my husband Steven and opened the book to the next blank page.

“What’s that?” Steven asked as he looked at the book I was holding in my hands.

“My Grateful Book.” I said as propped my feet up on the coffee table, tapped the pen against my teeth and stared at the blank page in front of me. “I try to think of at least one thing I’m grateful for each day and write it down.”

“So it’s a diary.” Steven said with a shrug.

“It’s nothing like a diary.” I said shaking my head at his total lack of knowledge on grateful journaling. “A diary has all your thoughts, good and bad.” I said. “I don’t want to dwell on the negatives of my day. I thought if I only wrote what I was grateful for it would stop me from thinking about the things that annoy me.”

“So it’s a happy diary.” he corrected himself.

“Stop calling it a diary!” Now I was getting annoyed. At the rate he was going he sure wasn’t going to be mentioned in my grateful book that day.

“I’m sorry.” he said. “But don’t you think you’re being a little touchy about the name of a book?”

“No.” I said. “Because when you call it a diary I feel like I’m fourteen years old complaining about my parents and how unfair it was growing up in a house with seven kids in it!”

“You kept a diary when you were little?” Steven asked. “How come I’ve never seen it?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I threw them out years ago.”

“Seriously?” Now Steven seemed surprised. “I thought those were things you were suppose to keep forever.”

“I would have but when I reread them I had no idea what I was talking about.” Seeing Steven’s look of confusion I felt the need to explain myself further. “ I was always afraid my Mom would find my diary and read it, so I abbreviated everything to trick her.” I had to laugh just thinking about it.

“Did it work?” he asked.

“It worked so well I tricked myself. With sentences like, I met up today with RK and PC.”

“Who were they?” Steven asked.

“I have no idea. I even went through my middle school yearbook and couldn’t find anyone with those initials.” I cried. “Then I had a lot of days that all I’d say was I’ll-never-forget-this day, with either a smiley face or frowny face next to it.”I had to laugh again. “I’m sure at the time I was writing it I was sure I’d never forget.” I looked at Steven and shrugged my shoulders. “But I did. So I threw them out.”

“That’s too bad, they would have been fun to read.” He looked back at the book in my hand. “I assume what you’re writing about today won’t be in code.”

“Nope. I’ve learned my lesson with that! Now everything is completely spelled out. I’ll be able to go back and look at these, years from now, and remember all the little things I was grateful for.”

Steven laughed. “So what are you grateful for today?”

I smiled. “I was thinking about how grateful I was that the boys finally found where the dishwasher was instead of stacking their dirty dishes in the sink.” I thought about that one for a moment, “Or I could write down that I’m grateful the newspaper delivery person didn’t throw the morning paper under my car today!” I looked over at Steven to see which one he liked.

“That doesn’t sound like your grateful.” Steven said. “It sounds like your complaining!”

“What are you talking about?”

“Just because you start a sentence with, I’m grateful for… and then add something you’d normally complain about doesn’t make it a happy event.” he said.

“Of course it does!” I said.

But then the more I thought about it I realized he was right. I got up from the couch and began walking to our bedroom.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Because of you I now have a lot of pages to rip out of this book and a ton of rewriting to do if I’m going to make this grateful book work.”

I could hear Steven call, “You’re welcome.” as I closed the bedroom door.

“OH COME ON!” I cried as I looked down at the scale. “YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!”

My husband, Steven has heard me and came to the bathroom door. “Are you okay in there?” he asked.

By now I’d dragged the scale to me favorite light spot, close to the sink so I can ‘accidentally’ lean on the vanity while I try one more time to get the stupid thing to say what I wanted it to say. “I hate you.” I hissed as I looked down again. I thought I had said it so only me and the scale could hear but, poor Steven heard it to.

“What did I do?” he sounded confused and hurt. “Everything was fine when we had breakfast together.”

“Not you.” I called slipping on my robe and opening the bathroom door to see Steven standing there looking dejected. “The scale is broken again.” I said. “I think we need a new one.”

Steven came into the bathroom and stood on the scale. “Wow, I dropped another pound.” he said as he smiled at me.

I pushed him off the scale and moved it from the skinny-weighing-area back to our usual spot. “Try it again.” I said.

He climbed back on. “Nope, still a pound down and that’s with my clothes on! I guess my diet is finally kicking in!” he patted his stomach as he stepped off and looked at me.

“Okay, now I really do hate you.” I pouted.

“Maybe we can both be on my diet.” he suggested. “It’s working for me.”

“Yours is nothing but meat!” I said. “I can’t eat that.” I thought for a minute. “A friend of mine was telling me about the juice diet she was on. She lost ten pounds!”

“Just drinking juice?” he seemed suspicious. “She doesn’t exercise?”

“Well, she’s a runner.” I admitted.

“I keep telling you to try my treadmill. You need to get more exercise.” he said.

“I walk almost every day!” I argued. “Besides I’m more of a sprinter than a runner.” I added.

“You sprint on your walks?” Steven seemed doubtful.

“Every time I’m in an intersection and a car is coming.” I smiled at him. “I’ve been known to sprint to the other side.”

“That’s not a sprinter.” he shook his head.

I ignored his remark and continued on about the juicing. “She said it’s really a cleanse but the weight just fell off!”

“Of course it did, she wasn’t eating anything!”

“I’d get rid of all the toxins in my body and feel more energetic!”

“You’d be hungry.” he countered.

“My mind would be clearer and I’d be more focused.” I continued.

“You’d be hungry.” Steven said again.

“Why aren’t you backing me on this?” I asked. “I’ve been very supportive on your all-you-can- eat-meat diet.”

“No, you weren’t.” he said. “You kept telling me how unhealthy it was.”

“Well, it is.” I said. “But the juice diet is just fruit and vegetables. Now that’s healthy!”

“I know you.” Steven said.

“What’s that suppose to mean?”

“It means if you go on this juice diet you’ll be hungry and when you’re hungry you’re not very nice to be around.” he quickly continued. “Besides you look great just the way you are!” he smiled at me, I could see the hope in his eyes that I would believe him.

“Ah, thanks.” I gave him a kiss on the cheek. “I needed to hear that.”

I saw the relief pass over his face.

To be honest I was relieved too. I really didn’t want to drink all of my meals for the next week anyway.

As American Pharoah raced over the finish line I swear I could hear my sister, Patty cheering six towns away. I looked over at my husband, Steven, “I’m going to wait until she stops crying before I call her.” I said.

“Is she really going to be that excited?” he asked.

Oh, if he only knew.

When we were little my two other sisters and I would have to spend summers sitting in our older sister Patty’s bedroom taking tests on Thoroughbred racing trivia. Patty always called it playing school but I considered it torture. I never had any idea what she was talking about. She’d give us paper after paper of information on the lineage not only of the horses but who the jockeys and trainers were.

I can still see my other sisters lying on the floor, sweating from the summer’s heat, waiting for a breeze to blow through the window as they studied for the next test. I, on the other hand, would be staring out the window wondering when we’d be allowed out to play.

The next day I called my sister Patty, she still sounded excited as she picked up the phone. “Did you watch the race?” she asked before even saying hello.

“I did!” I laughed knowing she would still be walking on cloud nine, acting as if she owned American Pharoah herself.

“I was screaming so loud when he crossed the finish line my throat is still sore!” she said.

I had to laugh, because that’s exactly how I pictured it at her house on race day. “When I was watching the race yesterday I was thinking about when we were little and you’d make us play horse racing school every summer.” I laughed.

“Made you?” she didn’t sound as excited anymore. “I thought you loved that game?”

Now it was time for me to back-peddle. “Oh, well maybe the other girls loved it.” I explained. “I just wasn’t into horse racing as much as the rest of you.”

“Oh.” she sounded a bit hurt.

I tried to change back into happier news, “But when American Pharoah crossed the finish line yesterday my first thought was, “Hey, at least if Patty were playing horse racing school now and asked who the latest triple crown winner was I’d finally get an answer right!”

“I used to love teaching you three.” she said sounding a bit happier again. “I have great memories of those summers.”

“I know, I guess I just wasn’t a very good student.” I reasoned. “But now at least I know two triple crown winners, American Pharoah and Seabiscuit!”

There was a brief pause. “Seabiscuit was never a triple crown winner.” she said.

“Oh, I guess I’m getting that one confused with another horse.” I said.

“But Seabiscut had a really great story…”

“Oh, That’s right. Maybe I’m thinking of another horse that begins with S.” I cut her off before

she went into the Seabiscuit’s history.

I felt a bit bad cutting her off but, I was having a flashback to her hot and stuffy bedroom where I was sure to fail the test

The weekend had arrived and I’d just gotten out of bed. My still sleepy self was making it’s way to the kitchen for a huge cup of wake-the-hell-up-tea, when I saw Steven sitting on the couch finishing the morning paper.

“Morning!” he said getting up to hand me the newspaper and give me a quick kiss on the cheek. I could see he’d been up for a while because he was already showered and dressed.

“Morning.” I grumbled rubbing the sleep from my eyes.

“How’d you sleep?” he asked.

Now in our house this can be a trick question. If I said “Great,” I might hear that I’d been tossing and turning all night, coughing, snoring, whatever it is that I do that can wake him up and that’s why he’s been up for so long. But if I shrugged my shoulders and gave a “Eh, I could use a little more.” I might have him looking at his watch wondering exactly how much sleep I really needed.

I decided to go with, “Great.” as I went into the kitchen to make my tea. “How about you?”

“Good.” he said leaning against the counter watching me fill my cup with water, drop a tea bag into it and place it in the microwave. “I had to get up early today to get some paperwork done, but I think I’m all caught up now.” he explained.

He watched me as I pushed the the start button on the microwave and I smiled as my cup slowly rotated inside. “That’s great!” I said sounding like I was excited that the paperwork went well when really I was just excited that I was that much closer to holding a hot cup of tea.

“I’m going to be heading out in a minute for a few appointments.” he said. “What are you up to today?”

Now, I know it’s an innocent question. It’s one I might ask him any other day, but today I really couldn’t stop wondering why I wasn’t’ going to be honest with him and say, “Absolute nothing. Not a single thing except maybe read a book or stare into space. Heck, I might not even get out of my pajamas!” but instead ,when you’re looking at someone who’s already accomplished so much before you even got out of bed well… it’s hard to be honest.

So instead I lied. “I’ve got loads and loads of laundry to do, I need to go grocery shopping, I want to get some of my own paperwork done and if I’m lucky maybe even tackle cleaning out the linen closet.” I smiled at him but inside I was screaming, “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE! COULD YOU HAVE MADE YOUR LIST ANY LONGER?”

We smiled at one another as he picked up his briefcase and gave me another quick kiss on the cheek. “Okay, have an easy day.” he said as he headed for the front door.

“You too.” I said then quickly added, “What time do you think you’ll be home?” I tried to make it sound as nonchalant as possible.

“Probably around three.” he said. “What do you want to do for dinner?”

“Well, with everything I want to get done today maybe we’ll order out.” I suggested.

“Sounds great!” He grabbed his keys and was out the door.

By then my tea was ready. I took my cup and the newspaper and headed for the back porch. I thought of the list I’d given him. Everyone had enough clothes for the day, we were ordering out for dinner, so grocery shopping could be pushed back and no one would know if I did my paperwork or not. So really the only thing I had to accomplish today was get dressed before three o’clock.

I smiled as I settled into the favorite rocking chair, took a sip of tea and opened the newspaper.  

The weekend had finally come and I was planning on doing nothing but sitting on my deck reading a good book.

That is until my son, Alex came out the kitchen door and said, “Hey, I think I might need new shorts.” He was holding up a pair of khaki shorts with one pocket ripped and the hems frayed on both legs.

Now, that might not sound like much to many people but, when Alex says he might need to go shopping ,you RUN to the car thanking whoever it was that told him his clothes were years old and looked awful.

“Yeah, I’ve been telling you that you needed new stuff since you took out your summer clothes.” I said calmly getting up, trying not to make any sudden moves and spooking him. “Would you like to run over to the mall?” I casually asked as I picked up my still warm cup of tea ready to toss it in the sink and get the car keys before he knew what was happening to him.

“I thought maybe you could just sew the pocket for me.” he said.

“Hmm.” I looked at the shorts he was holding out to me, pretending I was interested in trying to fix them. “I’m sorry, they seem too far gone to fix.” I was deliberately inching my way to the door, watching to make sure he was following me. “Maybe we should go to the mall?”

“The mall?” he seemed unsure. “Are you sure you can’t just fix these?”

“Hey,” I tried to sound as if I’d just come up with this idea. “Maybe while we’re there we can look at a few shirts, maybe even some pants?”

“Wait a minute.” He said. He’d stopped moving,

I’d gone too far and said too much too quickly. I regrouped. “No you’re right, maybe a quick trip just to replace those shorts.”

“Oh.” he seemed relieved. “Maybe I do need a new pair.” He was moving towards the door again.

I grabbed my car keys and quickly walked to the car, not even yelling out to Steven where we were going. I felt like my window of opportunity was closing and I didn’t want to stop for anything.

Once we were at the mall wandering through the racks of clothes I began loading his arms with shorts, pants, bathing suits, and shirts I was almost giddy with the luck I was having finding his size and the colors he liked.

I smiled as I passed other moms with their sons following them, their arms filled with clothes and bewildered looks in their eyes as if they had no idea how they got there.

One lucky mom was actually having her son try on suit jackets, I was envious but I knew Alex’s limits on this trip and I needed to keep it under an hour of shopping.

Once his arms were filled I headed his toward the fitting room where woman of all ages were outside the entrance waiting for their loved ones to come out and be told if they were buying that particular item.

As Alex found an empty room and dropped the pile of clothes on the chair I had to laugh at the baffled look of his face as he gazed at the amount of clothes he needed to try on.

Once his door was closed I looked over at the other women, giving a slight shrug and getting quick head nods back, our silent high five to each other for getting the guys we were with that far. None of us wanted to go too far in praising one another, just in case one of the guys came out of their fitting room, saw us and finally knew for sure they’d been tricked. We couldn’t risk any of them alerting the rest of the fitting room.

Alex comes walking out of his room with his phone in his hand, “What’s this suppose to mean?” he asks as he holds out his phone to me.

I look at the message I’d just sent him. It was a picture of a tiny cow’s head and a bell next to it. “The bell is for calling you for dinner.” I said as I handed him back his phone. “The cow’s head is letting you know what we’re having.” I held up the platter of hamburgers for him.

“Why not just call me?” he asked. “I’m right in the next room.” He asked as he took the platter and headed for the table.

“Because this way is more fun.” I said as I came over with a bowl of salad and put it on the table next to the burgers. “Besides if I’d called out to you there’s a good chance you’d pretend you’re deaf and I’d have to stop cooking and go knock on your door.”

By now Steven was coming upstairs. “Does this mean dinner’s ready?” He asked holding out his phone.

Alex looked over at Steven. “Did you get the cow’s head and bell too?” he asked.

Steven handed him his phone, “No I got the musical notes and and knife and fork.”

Alex looked back at me, “Why didn’t you send me that one?” he asked. “At least that one would have been easier to figure out.” he said.

“I like to mix it up a bit.” I said as I brought over the salad dressing. “It keeps it fresh.”

“Did anyone call Max, yet?” Steven asked as he sat down.

“I sent him a message.” I answered. “He got the musical notes, a cow’s head and a tomato.”

Just then my phone dinged. “I bet that’s Max.” I said picking it up.

“Where is he?” Alex asked.

“In his room.” I began checking my messages. “He just sent me back the hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil monkeys.” I looked over at Steven and Alex. “Okay I think he has me on that one? What do you think that means?”

Alex looked over at Steven and shrugged his shoulders. “I think it just means he likes monkeys.”

“Maybe he’d just rather be called for dinner instead of having to guess your code.” Steven suggested.

“Oh, come on this is fun>” I began clicking away looking for other emoji’s that would have him coming to the table. “Perfect!” I said clicking send. “That should get him in here.”

I sat down at the table and began to serve myself some salad.

That’s when we all heard Max’s door open.

Steven and Alex look at me. “I told you that one would work.” I said.

Max came into the dining room and looked at the table. “He, you sent a burger, fries, beer and an ice cream cone!”

“I was close.” I said as I passed him the burger platter. “They don’t have a salad bowl or a picture for ice water.”

Max sat down and took a burger off the platter. “Did you at least buy ice cream?” he asked.

I smiled as I handed him the bowl of salad. “It’s in the freezer.”