Page 37 of Hoodoo House
“Coffee?”
“I thought it was time,” he answered as he got up and took it off the heat and went to get a mug.
“How did you learn to make coffee?”
“I watched you,” he replied.
“Hmm. Did you put a pinch of salt into it?”
“Yup.”
“Hmm,” she said as she settled into a chair at the table, the one facing the hallway. “Did you make enough for me as well.”
“Of course,” he said, putting down the mug in front of her. “I made a full pot. Here you go. Milk, one sugar, isn’t it?”
“You do pay attention.”
Henry returned with a mug for himself, half coffee, half milk.
“You know, at your age you shouldn’t drink too much of that,” she gently admonished.
He nodded and took a sip from his mug.
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Henry stared out through the window, and Gramma Carol stared down the hall towards the front door.
“You look tired. Up reading late last night?” she asked.
He nodded. “I noticed something funny in the last issue of my comic book. Something wasn’t right, so I went back to the start and read all of them again.”
“All of them?” she asked.
He drained the rest of his mug in a single go.
“In the latest issue, the writers said that Marty Finn’s mother was a secretary. I was sure that she was a cleaning lady. I checked and I was right. As usual.”
Gramma Carol raised her eyebrows.
“Well then, Mister Right. Maybe you have an answer to this question. Did you lock the front door last night?”
“Yup.”
“Are you sure? I know it can be a bit tricky.”
Henry looked at her. “I find that if you put your left hand on that gouge in the door beside the window and put your weight behind it, you can close it enough that the lock’ll catch.”
“On the gouge beside the window…”
“Yup. That’s the sweet spot,” he said, smiling, getting up and moving towards the coffee pot.
“You go easy on that stuff. I don’t want you getting all wound up.”
Henry smiled softly. “I can handle it. Now why were you worried about the door?”
“Because I got up last night and it was open.”
Henry frowned. “But I know I locked it.”
“Maybe,” she said, “your ‘spot’ isn’t as sweet as you think. Hopefully nothing got in. If I find a prairie dog running loose in the house, you’re going to be the one to deal with it.”
