It Sounded Good

"Do you remember what you said?" Charlie demanded.

"Well...", Barbara responded, "that was a long time ago."

"What do you mean?" Charlie snapped. "It was just yesterday!!"

"Gee, it feels like it was longer ago," Barbara said.

The day before, Barbara had an idea.

"You love Mom's apple pies," Barbara started. "She's baking one, and I know how to get it for ourselves."

"What about Dad, and John?" Charlie asked. "And Mom herself as far as that goes. They all would want a piece of that delicious pie."

"Well, if the pie was stolen by a hungry racoon, wouldn't Mom make another?"

"A hungry racoon?" Charlie laughed. "Do you have one?"

"Not exactly," Barbara smiled at him.

"Oh no, don't even go there."

"Just listen for a minute," Barbara said. "Mom puts the pie on the kitchen counter to cool. After it's cooled down some, I'll ask her to go out in the back yard with me to check out my little garden because I saw a racoon in it. And I really did see one, by the way. While we're out there...."

"Let me guess," Charlie said. "You want me to take the pie out the front door. How do we blame the racoon?"

"When Mom and I go out, I'll leave the back door open. I'll blame the racoon for the missing pie," Barbara summarized. It was a great plan.

Unfortunately, as Charlie went out the front door, Dad was coming home.

"Where do you think you're going with that?" Dad said before leading Charlie back inside and into the kitchen. Where Barbara was just explaining to Mom.

"It must have been the racoon I saw."

"Well, it's a good thing I caught the racoon," Dad quipped. "He and his partner, will be grounded for two weeks."