“She can’t see a thing without her glasses and she’s not wearing them. Just follow me. It won’t be pretty, but we’ll make it.”

Truer words were never spoken. By the time they’d crawled through the feed trough that ran along the outside of the stanchions, Hannah and Andrea were covered with liquids and solids that would give a microbiologist a nice workout.

The smaller door was standing open and Hannah raised her head to check on Winnie’s whereabouts. “Run!” Hannah hissed, grabbing her sister’s hand and pulling her through the open door.

Both sisters were breathing hard by the time they arrived at the Volvo. Andrea used her remote to open the door, and she was about to slide into the driver’s seat when she looked down at herself. “Yuck!”

“And another yuck for me,” Hannah said, realizing that she was just as filthy as Andrea. Do you have any blankets in the trunk?”

“Of course I do! I have two thermal blankets. They’re part of my Minnesota Winter Driver Survival Kit. Bill puts it together and he doesn’t let me take it out of the trunk until June.”

“Smart man,” Hannah said, recalling that they’d once had a blizzard in May. “You take one blanket and I’ll take the other. We’ll sit on them so we won’t get your upholstery dirty.”

“What is this stuff, anyway?” Andrea asked, popping the trunk and taking out the blankets.

“It’s muck. Drive straight to my place and we’ll take showers.”

“A shower would be good, but I don’t have any clean clothes with me.”

“Michelle left a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt the last time she stayed over. You can use those.”

“But

maybe I should just go home.”

“And let this muck dry on you? Don’t be silly, Andrea. Cow pies are like plaster. Once they set, nothing less than a flamethrower can dislodge them.”

“Cow pies?” Andrea turned to her sister in shock. “Are they the same as muck?”

“Pretty much. At least in our case.”

“Well, why didn’t you say so in the first place?! Hang on and we’ll be at your place in less than ten minutes!”

Chapter

Chapter

Twenty-Four

“You look like you’ve been through the wars,” Lisa said when Hannah came into the kitchen of The Cookie Jar the next morning.

“That about covers it.” Hannah headed to the sink to wash her hands.

“Where’s Moishe?”

“Home sleeping. He doesn’t have any scenes today.”

“I bet he’ll miss all the attention he gets when he’s here.”

“I don’t think so,” Hannah replied, reaching for the soap. “When I told him he didn’t have to come to work with me today, he licked my hand and then he burrowed under the blankets and hid at the bottom of the bed.”