From Sisters

By Leah Napolin

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This part of the Midwest has big big storms--sometimes tornadoes.  Tornadoes come close but never actually blow down their house.  One day they're eating supper when the radio announces, "Tornado warning!  Tornado warning!" "Everyone in the cellar, now!" cries Leah, who has practiced this drill with the girls.  Bert refuses to practice it, however. He doesn't believe a tornado will ever hit them. But Leah is not so sure.  Leah runs into the cellar. No one follows her. Jessica and Margo prefer to stay with their Dad, who remains calm in the face of disaster. When Leah comes up from the cellar, ten minutes later, the storm is almost over. She sits down at the table, still feeling jumpy. Meanwhile, Jessica and Margo are having a food fight. Jessica slings some mashed potatoes, which hit Leah on the cheek just as they hear a loud clap of thunder, causing Leah to jump a foot in the air and the girls to laugh hysterically. No tornado this time!

 

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Jessica and Margo have very busy social schedules, with different birthday parties every week.  After one party, they are picked up by their parents in a spiffy-looking new car! It's called an Opel, and is white with sporty red upholstery.  Everything in the car is brand new--not a scratch, not a stain. It even has that new car smell. The girls are loaded down with party favors and ice cream.  Chocolate ice cream. They are sitting in the backseat of the new white Opel and the chocolate ice cream is melting. "Ah, well," sigh their parents. "How long did the car stay new?  An hour? Half an hour?"

 

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1971 is the Year of the Dog.  Not the Chinese New Year, but the year all sorts of dogs come to the house at 413 W. Sixth Avenue.  First, there's the mangy-looking dust mop dog who they find half dead on the lawn. When he recovers, he runs around barking and being a general nuisance.  The girls drive across town with their mother to find the dog's owner ...who doesn't even say "thank you.” There's a Basset Hound who walks through the open front door, out the back door, and is never seen again.  There's a Great Dane who sits down on the lawn and won't get up. So Jessica and her mom coax the Great Dane into the camp- mobile and drive him to the police station to be returned to his owner.

 

And then there's Maude.  One morning, the girls look out their kitchen window and see a beautiful black, tan and white collie lying in the yard.  She looks dead, but she's not. Only frozen like a popsicle. They take her inside and thaw her out and she begins her new life with the Katz

family, who love her dearly.  Maude, in turn, loves the Katzes who saved her but doesn't love the postman or the delivery man or, in fact, anyone who rings the doorbell.  Snarl! Woof!

 

She has other endearing qualities, though. Whenever there's a thunderstorm she hides in the bathroom and sits on the bathmat, drooling.  Maude gets pregnant.  The night she has her puppies Leah and Bert are at a faculty party.  Jessica and Margo and their babysitter are so excited that they call the party each time one of the puppies is born!  And for each puppy, the party guests cheer. There are six pups, six phone calls--at least! And six cheers! The family decides to keep one of the pups, a handsome sable male who they name Max.  All six puppies live in a box on the landing of the cellar steps, where Maude nurses them. Then, when they get bigger, in the dining room. And, finally, in a backyard run which Bert builds, until they go to their new homes.