Robert raised his eyebrows. "So you're meaning to say that you keep your deceased hamster in the freezer?"
"Right next to the pizza rolls," Lynn smiled.
"Shut up, Linny," Carol frowned. "Amy is very sensitive about preserving the body. Blanche was important to her."
"Oh my God -- let me see her!" yelled Liz. There was a pause. "Eww!"
Scooter, the youngest boy, emerged through the living room doorway, his hands cupped gently around a wad of paper towels. He sat down next to Grandma Sis and, opening the paper towels around the object with strategic, mincing fingers, placed the swaddled mass on his sleeping grandmother's protruding belly. The wrinkled eyes fluttered and fixed on the opened package. "EH!" With an automatic sweep of her hand, Grandma flicked the body off of her, which consequently rolled free of its shroud across the vanilla shag carpet and tipped to a stop in front of the porch's sliding door. Bocephus and George W. immediately caught sight of the shrunken remains from outside and started scratching at the door, their nails slipping and shrieking against the glass.
Scooter was just scrambling to pick up the crumpled paper towels and recover the body when his mother entered the room, balancing plates of deviled eggs and taquitos in both hands.
"No! No no no!" Aunt Linda set the plates on the floor and shoved Scooter out of the way. "Put those plates on the coffee table, Terence Afton. Your mother will be very disappointed in you. AMY!" Amy appeared in the doorway, half of her head of hair curled. "Amy, put Blanche back in the fridge. My cheesy potatoes are burning in the oven."
2010
