7026d51896537f7070e55fc097206916

“I don’t know about that,” I said. “To be honest it sounds more like a scam to me.”

“Max! How can you say that! Bitcoin is the future.”

“Of course it is,” I said, and closed my eyes for a nap. If I wasn’t getting a sausage, at least I could dream of sausages. It wasn’t the same thing, but it was a close second.

“You know what we should do, snuggle bear?” asked Harriet.

“What, sugar biscuit?”

“Start our own bitcoin!”

“Can we do that?”

“Of course! Anyone can start a bitcoin. We’ll call it… HarrietCoin.”

“Or BrutusCoin?”

“HarrietCoin sounds better.”

“I guess so.”

“Now all we have to do is start a website that can accept money, and we’re in business!”

“Don’t these bitcoins have to be mined or something?” I asked, opening my eyes for a moment to see if Tex hadn’t changed his mind and was coming our way bearing sausage.

“Oh, don’t you worry about that,” said Harriet with a gesture of her paw. “I looked into all of that today, and there’s plenty of people who don’t bother with the mining. Too much hassle. All they do is start a website, give it a fancy name, and start collecting money!”

“Won’t these investors expect a return on their investment?”

“Are you kidding! Once you’ve collected enough money, you simply close up shop!”

“I think that’s called fraud, Harriet,” I pointed out. “And you will go to jail.”

“No one would put a cat in jail, Max,” she said laughingly.

“They might put Odelia in jail, since it’s her computer you’ll be using.”

“Oh,” said Harriet, and gave this some thought. Then finally she shrugged. “I guess I’m prepared to take that chance.”

“Yeah, but will Odelia be prepared to take that chance?”

“If I make her enough money? Of course she will!”

Oh, brother.

Dooley had stretched himself out next to me, and while Harriet and Brutus were talking bitcoin—or HarrietCoin—my friend seemed to have other, more important matters on his mind. “When that baby comes, Max, do you think we’ll still be allowed to sleep at the foot of the bed?”

“Of course.”

“Because… I’ve heard that parents of babies stop sleeping, Max. They stay up all day and all night. And if Odelia and Chase don’t sleep, we won’t get any sleep either.”

“Of course they sleep. Humans can’t go without sleep, Dooley. They’d die.”

“Die! Oh, no!”

“Which is exactly why they have to sleep. And they will. Sleep, I mean—not die.”

“But I had it from a good source.”

“What source?”

“Kingman. He said that parents of newborns never sleep.”

“And how would Kingman know? His human doesn’t have babies.”

“Kingman knows everything, Max. It’s uncanny.”

Well, that’s true enough, I suppose. Kingman does know a lot about a lot of things. “I’m sure that everything will be all right,” I said, yawning and stretching.

Dooley didn’t get the message, though, for he continued, “If they don’t sleep, and don’t allow us to sleep, we’ll have to move in with Marge and Tex, Max.”

“We don’t have to move in with Marge and Tex.”

“If we want to get some sleep, we’ll have to move in with them. But Harriet and Brutus sleep at the foot of their bed. And so we’ll have to sleep with Gran. But her bed is too small. There’s no room for the both of us, so one of us will have to sleep on the couch.” He gave me nervous glances. “We’ll be split up, Max! We won’t be together anymore!”

“We’ll always be together, buddy,” I said sleepily. “Maybe we can both sleep on the couch. How about that?”

His furry face lit up.“You think?”

“Of course. We’ll sleep on Marge and Tex’s couch. Until the baby is old enough. And then we’ll move back to Odelia’s bed again.”

“Oh, Max,” said my friend, giving me an impromptu hug. “You’re so smart!”

And then I finally did nod off, and as I did, suddenly a bright idea occurred to me, and I was wide awake again.

Of course! Why didn’t I think of that sooner!

Chapter 11

Kristina Careen wasn’t exactly feeling on top of the world. When the police suddenly drop by and start accusing your husband and son of murder, the experience isn’t an enjoyable one. She’d been trying to get the police to take an interest in their plight for over a decade, and now all of a sudden the police wereshowing an interest, but for all the wrong reasons!

She had breakfasted with Dominic and Rick, before they’d left for work, and now she had the house all to herself again, and she soon found herself relaxing to a slight degree. She was sipping from her cup of coffee and looking out across the street, with its passersby. The first wave of the day had passed, with its school kids and people hurrying toget to work, and now the second wave was about to start with people going shopping, delivery services delivering their wares, the postman doing his rounds, and plumbers, roofers and electricians arriving to fix the myriad things in a house that can go kaput.

In other words: a day like all others. There was a certain calm that came with the routine, a calm she’d come to appreciate. It soothed her nerves, and actually she preferred weekdays over weekends. She liked the busyness of a regular day—the fixed routine.