A JEWEL FOR THE KEEPING

The soft light of dawn had barely kissed the eastern horizon, when the youngest in the Abbott household awakened with excitement.

“SSSHHH! No barking now. You’ll wake Mama.”

Buddy slowly wagged his tail as Mary Katherine stirred. She tiptoed past her mother’s room, along the upstairs hall and down the dimly lit stairs. Buddy was at her heels as she ran excitedly through the cramped parlor. Then she abruptly halted beneath the mantle, three feet above her head. Her eyes went to the large, tin-type photograph of her father.

“Mama says she always wakes with sweet thoughts of you, so don’t wake her just yet, Papa. We’re makin’ ourselves useful.”

Excitement prodded her across the room, where she lifted the drop latch on the pantry door and quickly retrieved a cobalt blue biscuit jar and a pint jar of fresh strawberry jam.

“Mama will be so surprised when she sees what we’ve done. I think she works too hard, and we gotta help her more.”

The dog wagged his tail as if in agreement and watched her every move.

Illana was just waking when Mary Katherine peeped around her mother’s door.

“We have a surprise for you.”

“A surprise?”

“Yes. Come downstairs, Mama. You’ll see.”

A small hand impatiently pulled the larger one, as the trio rushed over the thin hall runner, down the stairs and past the cramped parlor, to the kitchen.

Illana’s mouth dropped open and Mary Katherine started screaming at the sight.

The three inquisitive raccoons from the night before were on the table, feasting on the spilled, crumbled remains of Mary Katherine’s surprise.

“What!” Illana yelled, grabbing the broom. “Raccoons in this kitchen!”

“Get ‘em Buddy,” Mary cried. “Get ‘em out of here!”

The dog leaped at the table in a frenzy of attack barks, and bounced on hind legs toward the tempting striped tail that was hanging over the edge. He rounded the other side as the furry intruded sat up in a monologue of loud chatters and bounded over the dog’s head to the sink. The second raccoon jumped away from Illana’s broom, scampered up the ‘Home Enterprise’ cook stove and squeezed between a granite blue and white speckled coffee pot; and a row of salt-glazed crocks.

“Oh no! Not my grandmother’s crocks! ... Get off there!”

Mary screamed, as the smallest one stumbled over a row of tomatoes on the wide window sill, and knocked over a corked bottle of pine needle extract. It chattered wildly and clutched at the hem of the curtains, then clawed its way up, till it perched above the window.

“Mama! Grand-papa’s pain extract! And your curtains!”

Illana pressed her lips together in disgust. “Oh! They’re ruined!”

She swung the broom at the perched culprit and it fell into the empty dishpan leaving evidence of its excitement.

Mary grimaced. “Oh yuck. Look what it did, Mama.”

“I see! Get out, you filthy animals! Mary, go shut the pantry door! If they get in there we’ll be cleaning up the mess for a week.”

She ran across the room in terror, as the first raccoon jumped from the cold, flat burners of the stove, to the warming oven. Baking tins rattled to the floor; which only intensified its fear. It chattered wildly, and tried to hide behind the prized crocks, which pushed toward the edge as he moved behind them.

“OH NO!”  Illana yelled dropping the broom and catching the first crock. But her timing was insufficient for the second, as a flour crock crashed to the wood-planked floor, spreading its contents like a white lumpy carpet.

“Mary quick! Go prop open the screen door and I'll chase them out with the broom.”

Within seconds the door was propped wide and the trio had absconded to the weedy meadow beyond the yard.

Mary pointed to the gaping hole at the bottom of the screen door. “Look Mama! That’s how they got in. The screen is loose at the bottom.”

“I’ll have to fix that, or they’ll be back tonight.”