CHEEKS swelling like a chipmunk, Gideon sucked sweet juices off his thumb and took another bite of cobbler. The Rivers kept encouraging him to act like a relative, but just what this meant was indeed relative. He was pretty sure they didn’t mean squabbling at the least provocation or muttering about how everyone but yourself was the unintentional product of some unspoken relationship that had blossomed on the wrong side of the sheets.
Whatever it meant, Gideon really did not care. At the moment, what he did care about was his stomach which suggested that, all squabbling aside, what it could really get into agreement over was sweet, warm cobbler. Accordingly, he gulped down the last bite of crumbly topping. If he went unseen for too long the Rivers would start hunting him and that would put them on edge which, in turn, would drive him clean around the bend. Besides, he needed these folks to relax, not get all worked up.
At supper, Fort innocently brought the violated dessert to the table and drew back the covering cloth. Cricket gave an indignant squawk, accompanied by a scathing round of accusations aimed indiscriminately at all and sundry.
Fort didn’t much care if the treat was whole or not; cobbler was cobbler and not to be sneezed at. As for Cricket’s carrying on, that was a tune he had heard far more than once. He reached eagerly for the serving utensil— only to snatch his hand back, knuckles stinging.
“Ow! It wasn’t me, Cricket, honest!”
“Not you who steal my bread? Not you who take my sugar cookies?” Cricket shot back, fork waving.
“Aw, come on, I was a kid.”
“It last month!”
Gideon had not realized he had committed an offense, nor the enormity of the offense. He even tried to interject the truth into the proceedings, but wasn’t nearly fast enough to get ahead of Cricket’s tirade.
Mebbe that’s how he got pinned with that there moniker, on account-a gettin’ hoppin’ mad.
Gideon resorted to keeping shut and enjoying the show. Fingers were pointed, excuses trampled and all the while Cricket squawked like a feathered up parrot. With a payoff like that, Gideon decided filling the time with peccadillious crime just might balance out to an ounce of justice. At least until that dang judge arrived.