Chapter Fifty
“You want to tell uswhat that was all about?” Craig says after they return home.
“Can’t wait to hear this,” Erin says, as they walk into the kitchen and Maggie collapses into the nearest chair, shaking.
“Suppose you make your mother a cup of tea,” Craig suggests. “Unless you’d prefer something stronger,” he says to Maggie.
“No. Tea would be great.”
“Why was Dr. Wilson so mad?” Leo asks.
“I guess I said something he didn’t much like.”
“That’s a shock,” Erin says. “So unlike you.”
“Erin,” her father warns. “The tea…”
“Leo, honey,” Maggie tells her son, “why don’t you go upstairs and get ready for bed.”
“I want to hear.”
“There’s nothing to hear. Dr. Wilson and I just had a disagreement….”
“About what?”
“Nothing. Stupid stuff. I told him his generator is too loud,” she continues when the look on her son’s face tells her he isn’t satisfied with her answer. “It’s at the side of his house, and he’s supposed to have a cover around it so it doesn’t make so much noise, but he doesn’t. So, I told him I was going to complain to the city council if he didn’t do something about it.”
“And he got mad?”
“He got very mad.”
“He yelled at you.”
“Yes, he did.”
“That wasn’t nice.”
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Are you going to shoot him?”
“What?” Maggie.
“What?” Craig.
“What?” Erin.
“No!” Maggie sputters. “Of course not.”
“Where would you get an idea like that?” Erin asks her brother.
“Mom has a gun,” Leo says matter-of-factly.
Erin’s head snaps toward her mother. “You have a gun?”
“Ihada gun,” Maggie explains quickly. “I turned it in to the police on Sunday.”
“Well, thank God for that,” Craig says.