You must have to sweep dozens of them off the porch every morning just so you can get your paper from the sidewalk.â
âOh, we do,â Stacy said proudly. âWe have to use the very biggest brooms. But are you going to throw yourself at him?â
âNo,â Stacy said, although she wondered if just plain asking counted as throwing.
âWould you marry him if he asked you?â
âHe would never ask,â Stacy said.
âWhy not? I could use a mom.â
âOh, Karen, I think your father just needs to get used to being a dad. Being a husbandâs even rougher, Iâd imagine,â Stacy said, guiding the girl and the dog toward her house. âI have a few clients to visit this morning. Want to go with me?â
Karen pulled a face.
âClients? Eeeeooow. My dad has clients. Do I have to bring a coloring book?â
Mugs stood up and shook the compost off his body.
âIf you want to bring a book, you can,â Stacy said. âBut my clients donât expect little girls to be quiet.â
âReally?â
âOh, not quiet at all,â Stacy shook her head. âThey like girls who shout and sing and like to play in the mud and who get their clothes really, really dirty and donât mind taking a good, long bubble bath after the meeting is over.â
Karen pondered this with a fist shoved up under her dimpled jaw.
âThatâs the kind of girl I am.â
âAnd they like dogs who yawn and drool.â
They both looked at the dog.
âThatâs the kind of dog Mugs is. He yawns and droolsâ¦and farts!â
âThen my clients want to see both of you.â
âThey sound like nice clients.â
âOh, they are,â Stacy assured. âThey really are.â
Chapter Four
Deerhornâs mayor was known to his constituents by a nickname acquired during his reign as Wisconsinâs Featherweight Golden Gloves champion a quarter century ago. The honorable Eugene âLeftyâ Pincham had traded the boxing ring for the campaign trail and his renowned left hook for the tools of the political trade.
He talked. Interrupted. Asked a âjust supposingâ¦â question. Offered an anecdote related to him by one of his townâs many citizens. Reminisced about his personal experiences. And put in his two centsâ worth.
Not that he was hostile to any of the elements of Adamâs presentationâquite the contrary, since, as he had devoured the eclair with a suitably pained look on his face and in two bites, nodding at Adamâs wishes for a happy birthday, Lefty considered himself Adamâs newest best friend.
Itâs just, couldnât this wall be taller and that wall shorter? Couldnât Adam put this door there andthat door here? And wouldnât the whole building look better if the gymnasium was on the west side instead of the east side and the principalâs office was on the first floor instead of the second? And what about a little area for the teachers to give classes outside?
After all, one of his favorite memories was when his own teacher would take the children outside to listen to her read stories on the grassy knoll.
Adam took notes, nodded his head and figured Mayor Pincham could show the Brazilian government officials a thing or two about being difficult.
Leftyâs colleagues on the Village Council werenât any less expressive. Sitting around a long conference table in the mayorâs office, the six men and women oohed and aaahed over the scale model for the new elementary school, insisted on telling Adam about the original one-room schoolhouse that had served Deerhorn into this century, took apart the scale model into pieces that couldnât be rejoined and brought out pictures of grandchildren who would be going to the school that Adam would build.
âThey havenât got enough room for all the kids in the one-room school,â the Village Council president