Family

As promised lunch is served. Mary said with a huge smile, she brought beef stew and rolls, after lunch Ren looked at the stew and said that their was enough for dinner.

As Adam went over the plan with Ren, Ren is to stay across the street as a shoeshine. And keep an eye on the goings on, first watch for a pattern, second who goes inside, and how often they go inside. Troop movements count how many SS troops. We think they are operating out of three buildings in the area, do not set up your shoeshine directly in front at first start a little ways down the street, Ren this might take two weeks maybe even longer to get all the info we need. First don't look conspicuous don't look directly at them sorta keep your head down and look up with your eyes.

That's when Adam left to head out to his horse and buggy, a few moments later he came back with two buckets on a rope and two stools also on a rope . Come here Ren I need to teach you how to shine a shoe . Ren never doing this was eager to learn how it was done, Ren and Adam went outside and filled one bucket half way with water, the second bucket was full of rags and about six brushes, two of the brushes are for cleaning you use the water with the c.br brush, or c.bl the c.br written on the brush means clean brown shoes , the c.bl brush means clean black shoes, don't mix them up it makes a terrible mess. Now there are fine brown or coarse brown brushes, coarse brushes usually are used to clean the broken shine on shoes, fine is used to put the shine on and brush it try to get it even and all over , here sit down on the smaller stool

Ren sat down Adam put his foot on the bigger stool, clean my shoes Ren grabbed c.br and dipped it into the water and started to clean his shoe ,now with a rag grab some of the brown wax and put it on my shoes Ren did as he was told . Now apply it to my shoe , then use the fine brush and spread it around in a straight motion from front to back. Do it quickly, front back front back. No no no Adam said start from the toes and brush to the back ,lift up the brush and repeat front to back lift up the brush and front to back. Now take the brown rag and hold it firmly with both hands one on each side of the rag press down on both side of the rag and go back and forth with the rag .Adam showed Ren the proper way to shine shoes. Adam told Ren to hold on a sec while Adam ran inside the house as Adam came back out he had a big bag and a coat rack Ren was still sitting down and Adam put the coat rack in front of Ren and turned it upside down, then he put a shoe on one of the hooks and told Ren to shine all of his uncle's shoes as Adam flipped the bag open and poured out about thirty different pairs of shoes.

After about two hours Ren was really tired and decided to take a break, his arms were really sore. And his fingers and hands were brown and black. As Ren went to the kitchen he saw Mary cooking ,oh it smelled delicious ,salad and fresh bread, an apple pie ,even berry pie. He wasn't the only one attracted to the smell Bear and Spot were sitting by the kitchen door waiting for a dropped item or for some pity food.

Ren heard a growling noise from Spot and looked at him but he wasn't growling , it was his stomach. Ren grabbed an apple and tossed it to Spot , Spot sniffed it but did not want anything to do with it , he was staring at Mary with some big puppy dog eyes and was hoping she would look at him. Ren told Spot to eat the apple but Spot ignored him . Spot wanted what Mary was making .

How many pies did you make Ren asked Mary,

Mary said six , six why so many , then Mary replied my family owns the bakery in town and I am used to making alot of stuff ,I brought the filling with us when we came, and I accidentally made to much dough, well I just love cooking, then Mary looked at the animals waiting patiently and said to Ren I made too much could you give these to the two little beggars over there, only if I can get a slice from each pie , she said ok as she handed him a plate with an apple pie slice and a berry pie slice. Ren then took the pies over to Spot and Bear, they got all excited and started to dance around. Spot finished his in record time and looked at Bear , then decided to help bear eat his Bear took a couple bites and wasn't really interested in the pie I think he really wanted some sausages that was cooking on the stove .

Adam walked in, dinner ready yet ,nope Mary said, about an hour or so , you catch and fish , yeah six of them well clean them and bring'em inside, Mary said.

Ren help me out , as they cleaned all the fish , Adam told Ren to see if Spot would eat the guts ,Ren brought all the guts to the dog bowl outside and poured it in , in an instant Spot was outside munching on fish guts, your gross Ren thought, but its natural for him to like stuff like that. Adam cleaned the rest of the fish and handed Ren the fish heads and the rest of the guts he poured them into the bowl Spot was more than willing to do his part and waste no part of the fish . The house wasn't as lonely as it has been for the last few days.

It was lively and bright there was food and laughter. The animals were full and sleeping together in front of the fireplace. Ren thought these people are nice, maybe we can be a family,

that would be nice, Adam picked Ren up as he fell asleep on the chair and took him to the bedroom and gently put him in bed Mary watched , from the doorway and smiled your going to be a good father she whispered to Adam he smiled and said right now I have to be a father this poor kid has nobody, nothing I need to be here for him. Mary looked at Adam and said and I will be here for you, my love.

You know all that cooking you do is going to make all the animal's fat. Adam started to laugh . I think you're going to be a great mother someday .

Then Mary said well we will find out in a about nine months. Adam looked puzzled for a second then looked down, and patted her stomach , really, are you sure ,she replied yes I'm sure. We are going to have a family, and Ren will be our oldest son.

The next day Ren got up and was already shining shoes on the coat rack after about an hour he had finished all of them and was pretty confident on his shoe polishing ability.

Now he was ready , now he can get his revenge even if it's just spying on the house's, at least he is doing something.