The Real Macaw: A Meg Langslow Mystery

riding herd on the kids.”
    “Pack all you like, then,” Michael said. “If I get overwhelmed, I’ll draft some help. Your mother recruited a whole bunch of your relatives to help with the packing. She asked if we could put up a dozen or so of them here. I’m sure I can guilt-trip a few of them into babysitting in return for their room and board.”
    “That settles it,” I said. “If a horde of Hollingsworths is descending on us, I’m definitely packing all day.”
    “Can I come?”
    Timmy was standing in the doorway, still in pajamas.
    “I’m going to do work, you know,” I said.
    “I know,” he said. “I want to help save the library. I don’t want that mean mayor to steal all the books.”
    “How fast can you get dressed?” I asked.
    He vanished.
    “I like his priorities,” Michael said. “By the way, your mother’s already here, and full of energy.”
    “Damn,” I said. “I know I sicced her on the idea of sprucing up the yard, but after last night, I really don’t think I can focus on it.”
    “Relax,” he said. “She says she’s thinking about her landscaping plans, but right now, she’s hell-bent on undoing all the damage the animals did.”
    “Not to mention what Horace has done this morning while furthering the cause of justice.”
    “Yes,” he said. “I think it was the fingerprint powder that drove her over the edge. She’s got a couple of your cousins helping her with the heavy lifting.”
    “Awesome,” I said. “Let’s just hope her idea of undoing the damage doesn’t involve redecorating in Louis Quatorze.”
    I grabbed a cup of coffee and ambled into the living room.
    To my relief, Mother did seem focused on repair. She was minutely examining every inch of our sofa, while the two burly cousins waited nearby with anxious looks on their faces.
    “Needs work,” she said at last. “But I think it can be saved. “
    Apparently they’d been doing this for a while. The cousins immediately interpreted her words as a signal to hoist the sofa and whisk it off to a waiting truck.
    As Michael and I first fixed and then ate breakfast, we could hear her imperious voice giving orders, and every time I went through the hall and glanced in, the room looked a little emptier.
    She had the cousins roll up the soiled rug and load it on Dad’s truck. Several pieces of chewed-on furniture had joined them, no doubt to gladden the heart and pockets of the little old German man who did all her furniture repairs. Now they were taking down all the curtains while Mother prowled about making sure she hadn’t missed anything.
    I suspected that some of the things she was taking in for cleaning or repair had needed help before the animals and Horace had arrived, but I wasn’t about to quibble.
    “Looking better,” I said.
    “Looking a bit bare, you mean,” she said. “I might bring one or two things over to fill in until your stuff comes back. But not till I have a cleaning service in to scrub away all that nasty powder. They might not be able to come out till tomorrow.”
    “We’ll be fine,” I said. “We practically live in the nursery these days anyway.”
    “Well, that will have to do for now,” she said. “Are you going into town, dear?”
    “Yes,” I said. “Going to help with the library.”
    “Can you drop me off at the town hall?” she asked. “The garden club is gathering there.”
    “The garden club is having a meeting today?”
    “This morning we’re packing up the county extension agent’s office,” she said. “And then we’re going to rescue plants.”
    “Rescue what plants?” I asked. “And rescue them from what?”
    “Rescue them from falling into the hands of that horrible company when it seizes all our county buildings,” she said. “The county buys all the plants and pays the service that comes by to water and feed them. We got the county board to authorize the garden club to care for the plants during the interim. So we’re going to make a sweep through all the government buildings to make sure all the potted plants are moved to more suitable quarters.”
    “That’s nice,” I said. Unthinkable, of course, that any of our treasured houseplants might fall into the clutches of the evil lender. But then, I felt the same way about the books in the town library. To each his own.
    She followed me out to the hall where she donned a lavender hat trimmed with purple flowers and a pair of purple gardening gloves. Trust mother to have just the