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Joseph Anderson Donetti More Adventures With Mac |
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Joseph Anderson Donetti -- More Adventures With Mac, Chapter 12 Mac's Surprise Joseph Anderson Donetti laughed to himself. Then he swallowed and put on a straight face. He clumped down the stairs. "Good morning, you!" G.M. said without looking around from the kitchen counter. "How did you know it was me?" Joseph asked. "What are you doing?" "I may be a grandmother, but I am not deaf!" G.M. answered. "When I hear what sounds like a small horse coming down the stairs, I know exactly who it is. And I'm sorting beans." "What are you going to do with the beans?" Joseph asked. G.M. put her hands on her hips. "I am going to cook them," she replied with a glint in her eye. "What do you think I would do with beans?" Joseph grinned. "I dreamed about you last night," he said. "I dreamed you cooked supper for us, and all the food you made was purple. Mom looked at it and asked why there wasn't anything green? We need healthy green vegetables. So I dreamed you got a tube of green paint and a big brush and painted half of the food and said, 'There you go. Are you happy now?' " Joseph's eyes danced. "Purple's a nice color. I like it," G.M. said. "Maybe I should try an all-purple meal sometime. Eggplants," she mused. "They're purple, but only the skins. And there are purple string beans, but I think they may turn green when they're cooked. I've seen purple-skinned potatoes, too, now that I think about it. I wonder if they're purple on the inside? Maybe I'd just have to cook something ordinary and paint it purple. With food coloring, of course," she added. Joseph sputtered out a laugh. He gave G.M. a hug. "I like you!" he said. "You're the funniest grandmother I know." "I like you too," G.M. said, returning the hug. She looked over Joseph's head at the clock. "Can you finish sorting the beans?" she asked. "It's late enough now that I can start calling prayer chains." "What's a prayer chain?" Joseph asked. "A prayer chain is a group of people who will pray for special requests," G.M. explained. "Almost every church that I know of has one. If you have something that you would like other people to pray about too, you can call the church and tell the pastor or the secretary about it, and then he or she will call the first person on the prayer chain. That person will pray about the request, and then call the next person on the chain. That person will pray and then call the next one. I think it would be a good thing to put Mac's mom on as many prayer chains as I can." G.M. sat down at the table with a pencil and a piece of paper. "Let's see," she said, staring at the refrigerator door, "I can call my friend Carolyn. She goes to the Nazarene Church. And Barb goes to the West Main Church of Christ." G.M. wrote the names down. Joseph looked up from the beans. "You're going to call people from other churches who don't even know Mac's mom?" he asked. "Of course I am," G.M. said. "You don't have to personally know everyone you pray for. The friends I'm calling are brothers and sisters in Christ. They will be happy to pray for Mac's mom." It was quiet in the kitchen. Joseph carefully sorted the beans, picking out any that looked funny in some way like really wrinkled or really dirty ones. He even found four small round rocks. He shuddered. It would be no fun to bite down on one of those! Knock! Knock! Knock! "Come in, Mac," G.M. called. She looked up from her list. The back door opened. Mac glided in. Her hands were cupped under a bulge in her jacket. She looked at G.M. and Joseph. She sort of glowed. "Look what I've got! You'll never believe it! I wanted one for a long, long time, but my dad always said animals are too much trouble--except for lizards, of course, because you can just put them back outside. But I guess he changed his mind because he brought me home a kitten this morning! A real kitten of my very own!" Mac practically purred. As if on cue, the bulge began to wiggle and move upwards. "Yikes!" Mac exclaimed as tiny claws climbed her T-shirt. Two little ears appeared at the top of Mac's zipper. The furry head turned around. Two dark eyes looked straight at Joseph. "Wait a minute, cat! Wait a minute!" Mac said. She unzipped her jacket all the way with one hand and held onto the kitten with the other. "It sure is a cute one!" G.M. said. She reached out and carefully detached the kitten from Mac's shirt. She held it so she could look into its face. "It's a tabby," she said. "Look at the M on its forehead." Mac and Joseph looked over G.M.'s shoulders. "It does have an M on its forehead!" Joseph exclaimed. He carefully traced the M with his finger. "Can I hold it?" he asked. Mac nodded. G.M. handed the kitten to Joseph. "What's its name?" Joseph asked. "How come your dad brought a kitten home for you?" "I haven't been able to think of just the perfect name yet," Mac answered. "And Dad brought it home because he ran into Dr. Samuel, the vet, this morning. Well, actually Dr. Samuel's burglar alarm went off, and Dad had to go see what was happening. Somebody had tried to get in the back door of the vet's office, but they got scared away by the alarm. "Anyway," Mac took a breath and went on, "Dad went into the office to look around when Dr. Samuel got there. And Dr. Samuel said that he might as well take home a free kitten for a reward. And Dad said there was no such thing as a free cat because you have to buy it food and give it shots and buy cat litter and stuff. And Dr. Samuel said he would give the cat all its shots and that was about as free as you could get!" "Well, good for your dad for saying yes!" G.M. said, laughing. She stuck her pencil behind her ear. "What names have you thought of?"
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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5
Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
