The rock crashes through the front window and glass shatters over Gladys. Crazy Olvie reaches for the telephone that sits in its cubby space in the short hallway. “Hurry up, now. Read me the name of the Sheriff’s Department.”
I know she meant to ask me to read the number instead of the name. But I can’t help it. I look at her telephone list of numbers taped to her fridge and say in my best deadpan voice, “Sheriff’s Department.”
“That’s what I said.” Her voice is louder now. “Read it to me!”
She’s clueless.
Her cheeks flush and her eyes look like they belong to one of Dracula’s brides.
“Glendale-4123.”
Mom had laughed when she told me that every time Olvie has to phone her doctor, she freaks out and curses all the zeros. She hates sticking her fingers in the seven-through-zero slots because she doesn’t like waiting for the dial to spin back around to home base. Lucky for her, these numbers won’t take any time.
Excerpt from my Work in Progress, Olvie and Chicken Coop (working title)
Carolyn Dennis-Willingham 