Calamity Jayne Rides Again Read Online Free PDF

bleeding?" he asked, dabbing at his nostrils. I suddenly knew how Dorothy felt when she'd slapped the Cowardly Lion.
    "Of course not," I said, parroting Dorothy's response, if not feeling the same level of remorse.
    "You twisted my dose and yanked!" he accused, still checking the tissue for telltale signs of injury.
    "And you scared the peewadden out of me!" I countered. "What the heck are you doing here, Frankie? And where have you been
     all day? We've been looking everywhere for you."
    He sniffed and dabbed. "I've been... busy," he said.
    I gave an eye roll and crossed my arms. "Busy? Busy ? Is that what you call running off and leaving an ice cream establishment in the hands of a guy who regularly handles reptiles
     for a living? What were you thinking, Frankie?"
    He blew his nose, and I winced. "All right, all right. So, I was trying to prove a point," he said, sniffling. "I figured
     if I stayed away log enough for the line to get log, people would complain, and maybe Dad would fi-dally get the point. I
     do not want to be Mr. Dairee Freeze after my dad retires. Ed of story."
    "What do you want to be, Frankie?" I asked.
    Another sniffle. "That's the problem. I don't know, cous. I really don't know."
    I looked at the pale, red-nosed, tousle-haired goofball and felt instant empathy. I knew what it felt like to be chasing the
     wrong end of somebody else's dream just for the hell of it. I knew what it felt like to be running furiously to catch up with
     everyone else, only to discover you were headed in the wrong direction. And although I didn't have everything figured out
     in the career department, the events of earlier this summer had given me a not-so-gentle kick in the seat to get the ball
     in play, headed toward the right goal line this time, and to continue that forward progress no matter the opposition.
    I sat down on the foot of the bed. "As you know, Frankie, I can speak with some authority on this subject," I said, and patted
     one of his rather large feet. "And the best advice I can give you is to get real with yourself." Frankie made a someone-tooted
     face at my Dr. Phil remix, but I went on, determined to impart life lessons I'd learned in Finding Tressa 101. "Discover what
     you're really passionate about. Identify your talents and gifts. Learn all you can about related opportunities. List them
     all and then cross off the ones that don't trip your trigger. Experiment. Down deep, I think you have a general idea of what
     you want to do with your life." I grabbed hold of his big toe and pulled. "Sometimes you just need to stir things up a bit
     before the answer bubbles to the surface."
    He finally met my eyes. "Ya think?" he said, a touch of humor now apparent in the look he gave me.
    I grinned. "Turner's Law," I said with a wink.
    Frankie crumpled up the tissue in his hand and tossed it into a nearby wastebasket. "Dad'll never forgive me," he said, sobering.
     "I let him down. Embarrassed him in front of all his friends. Competitors, even. I bet Luther Daggett was in wunderbar heaven.
     His sales probably skyrocketed as a result."
    I shrugged my shoulders. "So Daggett got off to an early lead in the sales department this year. Big deal. We'll get him in
     the end."
    "But Dad's gonna chew my butt big-time," Frankie said. "And I guess I can't blame him. I do the dumbest things sometimes."
    I put a hand to my chest. In that moment I felt closer to Frankie than ever before.
    "That's why God invented 'do-overs,'" I told him. "So we can fix what we screw up. Again, speaking from experience. Or perhaps
     I need to introduce myself again. Calamity Jayne Turner," I said, holding out a hand. "Finder of dead bodies. Corrupter of
     senior citizens. Bail bondsman for bikers," I reminded him. "I'm sure we've met before."
    Frankie gave a half-hearted laugh. "Dad's still gonna be pissed, though, isn't he?"
    "Oh, buddy. Will Gramma Turner insist on wearing hot-pink flowered flip-flops tomorrow and complain about her