Dangerous Hilarity: The Great Adventures of the Jackson Twins, Their Family and the Dogs in Their Lives, A Novel for Teens and Young Adults and All Those Who are Young at Heart. Sioux Dallas

boys all started talking about animals, and hunting, with camera, of course.

      Tim read, “Because of the many people who came during the gold rush, this area became a supply and transportation center. A big Federal building was built, but Juneau became the capital.”

      Jason started giggling and hissed. “That reminds me of a joke. This boys went up to his teacher and said, “What’s the capital of Alaska?” She answered, “Juneau.” He said, “No, that’s why I’m asking you.”

      The boys laughed so hard they were asked to leave the library. They walked side by side with arms around each other until they met someone they had to allow to pass. Then they ran and tagged each other, trying to trip each other as they made their way.

      This stopped when Alex staggered and fell off the sidewalk. The boys were concerned about the blood that showed through his jeans on his right knee. He assured them it was just a scrape. The boys went on more calmly.

      Being normal boys they soon left the memory of Alex’s misadventure behind and again ran down the sidewalk chasing, jumping up in the air pretending to shoot baskets and making up games as they ran. Life was good and they were enjoying every minute.

      That night Herb took Anna into Washington, D.C. to eat dinner and then attend a stage play at the Kennedy Center. It was late for her birthday, but Herb wanted to keep his promise to do something special for her.

       Chapter Six

      The eighteenth of June would be the eighteenth wedding anniversary of Herb and Irene. Relatives and friends wanted to give them a party, so, on June fifth there was a big celebration.

      “We’ll sure miss the Jackson family. They’re wonderful neighbors,” Mrs. Goodson said to Herb’s brother, Henry.

      “What will they do with the dog?” Mrs. Parsons asked as she watched Galena winding among the people, wagging her tail and loving everyone.

      “Oh, I guess she’ll be put to sleep. She’s so old.” Uncle Henry’s wife, Aunt Minnie stated.

      “Oh, no.” The twins spoke as one. Anna’s lips were tight as she rubbed Galena’s back. “If Galena doesn’t go, we don’t either,” she said.

      “Besides,” Tom said through gritted teeth, “we’d stay here if they’d let us.”

      “You really don’t want to go?” Uncle Henry was surprised. “But, why not? Most kids would be thrilled to get to travel and live adventures.”

      Aunt Minnie spoke forcefully. “You should be thankful that you have parents who are giving you opportunities like this.”

      “Who wants them?” Tom almost yelled. “Opportunities, I mean.”

      Irene had joined them. “Stop that,” she ordered. “You children are being rude. I’m sorry,” she said to the small group that had gathered. “There have been a lot of conflicting emotions concerning the move. I was hoping my children had accepted it by now.” She looked so sad that Anna put an arm around her mother.

      “I’m sure we’ll like it when we get there, Mom. It’ll take some getting used to, but we’ll be fine as long as we’re together as a family -- including Galena.” She turned to glare at her brothers.

      “Yeah, I guess it’ll be okay,” Tim mumbled. “Excuse us.” He and Tom left to go into the house taking Galena with them.

      Fortunately the conversation was just with the small groups and Herb and the remainder of the crowd were not aware of the conflicts. Everyone left saying what a great time they’d had and how much they would miss the Jackson family. The majority of them spoke of their envy of the move.

      Herb left the next day to start his work in Alaska. The family would follow soon. When one of the twins would ask Galena, “Do you want to go for a really long ride in the car?” she would bark excitedly and run around trying to figure out where they were going and when.

      Ten days later they received a letter from Herb. After dinner they sat around the dining room table while Irene read the letter to them. The children laughed hysterically until their sides ached when they heard about the honey bucket. It was so strange and funny.

      Herb wrote, “It’s impossible to dig and lay pipes in the hard, frozen ground. Farther north indoor bathrooms are as scarce as hen’s teeth.”

      “Hen’s don’t have teeth,” Tim shouted laughing.

      “That’s what it means,” Anna said, “Now hush and let mom finish.”

      Irene read on, “We could have a ten gallon bucket, called a honey bucket, to use as a commode.” The entire family was intrigued with this lifestyle.

      “Yuck! I just thought of something,” Tim frowned and shuddered.

      “What?” Tom asked.

      “That ole honey bucket would have to be emptied and washed.”

      “Ohhh. Would we have to do that?” Tom wrinkled his nose and waved his hand in front of his face as if to wave away an odor.

      “We’ll all have chores to do just as we do here.” Irene said with a straight face. The twins howled and rolled from their chairs to the floor. Galena was concerned thinking something bad had happened to her boys. She growled and ran around barking looking for the trouble. She was ready to defend her family and make short work of any trouble.

      “Get off the floor,” Irene ordered. “You’re disturbing Galena. She doesn’t understand what you’re doing. Now let me finish the letter. Daddy says there is a honey wagon which comes around to collect the dirty buckets and leave clean ones.” She had to stop again because the twins were making weird noises and exciting Galena. “Puh-leese, may I go on? Daddy says that since it’s warm enough now where we’ll be that he’ll be able to put in a bathroom for us.”

      “Wahoo! No chance of yucky stuff then,” Tom yelled. He saw some pictures sticking half out of the envelope. “What are those pictures dad sent?” Irene looked at them and then read the back.

      “This is one of the front of our house and these two are of our deep freeze.”

      “Deep freeze? Curiouser and curiouser,” Tim grinned. “But this is a hole in the ground,” Irene read on. “Our deep freeze is an underground room about eight feet by eight feet and seven feet deep. A metal door opens at ground level and we climb down a ladder to get whatever we want from the freezer. It’s dug deep to keep food cold and the metal door keeps wild animals from getting our food.”

      “There’s even shelves built in,” Anna observed. “Well, as my brothers would say, that’s neat and rico.”

      “Irene, how in the world are you going to adjust to such a dramatic change in your life?” Four of her friends were visiting to bring last minute gifts and to say goodbye.

      “I’ll be happy wherever my husband and children are. I’ve always wanted to write books for children and now, maybe I’ll have time to write. Anna is an excellent artist, so, I’m hoping she’ll be willing to illustrate for me.” Irene’s face glowed with the idea of her dreams coming true.

      “I didn’t know you were interested in writing,” Marion Parks exclaimed. “How wonderful. What type of writing have you done?”

      “Just for children in church, a few newspaper columns and for my own interests. I’m trying to write a family history for the children. I’ve done a lot of research on all four sides of our family. Genealogy is an addiction.”

      She laughed. “I’m sure there’ll be loads of material where we’ll be living, especially with the boys into enough to give me lots of inspiration. In fact, knowing them, I’ll probably have enough material for multi books.”

      Finishing their tea and finger sandwiches, the ladies wished the family all the best, gave Irene hugs