173 Chapter 173

Dad waved goodbye to Thomas and closed the door. “If you wouldn’t mind?”

“Nope.”

“May we go, too?” David asked.

“If your dad says it’s okay.” I went into the kitchen, with Mina and Harker trotting behind me, and I took the leashes down from a hook near the back door. The dogs waited patiently while I snapped the leashes to their collars.

“Daddy says we can go,” Jonathan informed me.

“Okay. Stay on the sidewalk and don’t wander off.” That was what Dad always told me when I was little, although I imagined they wouldn’t like being referred to as “little.”

We went out the back door and around to the street, and I should have realized it would happen. We hadn’t gotten more than a few yards down the sidewalk when Mrs. Wilson popped out of her house.