Crimm made his way out of his office, preoccupied with questions about minihorses and what it would be like to be led around every minute. He supposed he might as well give himself up to it. His vision was getting worse daily. This morning, when he had made his way down the mansion’s sweeping staircase, he’d had to hold on to the banister with both hands. Then he’d sat in the Windsor chair in the ladies’ parlor again and ordered two eggs over easy and a strip of crisp bacon. When no one responded, he had gotten up and wandered across the entrance way into the men’s parlor and tried again. Finally, he’d ended up inside the elevator, where Pony had found him moments later as he was carrying fresh linens up to the second floor.
“Where am I?” the governor had puzzled as Pony led him to the family breakfast room.
“Have a seat, Governor, ” Pony had said as he pulled out a chair and draped a napkin over the governor’s lap. “Did you sleep well, sir?”
“I didn’t, ” Regina had answered as she piled butter on a mountain of grits. “I keep having the same bad dream. ”
Since no one at the table had seemed the least bit interested in her dream, she had decided to tell Andy about it the minute she climbed into his unmarked car.
“It’s just like last time, ” she started in. “I don’t know what it is about tires. Why do you think I keep dreaming about tires? One dream after another, there’s all these tires rolling down the highway with no cars attached, just rolling all by themselves. ”
“Where are you while this is happening?” Andy asked her as he fastened his seat belt and indicated she should do the same.
“In my own bed, as if it’s any of your business. ”
“In relation to the tires, ” Andy rephrased the question.
“I’m jumping out of their way. What do you think?” she retorted.
“You’re on foot, then. ”
“Of course I am! None of us are allowed to drive while Papa’s governor. We have to be driven around everywhere, and I’m sick and tired of it. ”
“I think it’s pretty apparent why you’re having tire dreams, ” Andy said. “You feel like you aren’t going anywhere. You’re like a car with no tires or tires with no car, and in either case, you are stuck on life’s highway, helpless and threatened and frustrated and feeling that the world is passing you by. ”
The governor and the First Lady watched Regina and Andy through the window.
“They seem to be arguing, ” the First Lady observed.
“We can’t have another dog, ” the governor decided.
“Who said anything about another dog, dearest?”
“I can’t get a Seeing Eye dog, ” the governor said. “Trooper Truth’s right. It wouldn’t be fair to Frisky to have another dog in the mansion. Maybe a cat, but I don’t think they have Seeing Eye cats, and I hate cats. ”
“I’m sure they can’t train cats that way, dearest, ” Mrs. Crimm said. “I would think they would jump up on things and crawl under other things or simply do nothing, and that would be pretty tricky if a cat did all that while you were tied to it. ”
“They don’t tie you to the animals, ” Faith said as she walked in on the conversation and jealously watched her dreadful younger sister leaving with the handsome trooper. “You hold on to a little handle. And I just read in Trooper Truth that they have Seeing Eye horses, too, and he wants you to get one immediately. I don’t think Frisky would mind a horse, Papa. ”
“Well, we most certainly can’t have a horse in the mansion, ” Mrs. Crimm protested.
“I want one, ” the governor decided. “Today. ” “I’m not sure how I feel about Regina going to the morgue, ” Mrs. Crimm worried as Andy and Regina drove out of sight.
“Maybe it would be good for her, ” the governor considered. “Might make her count her blessings and stop complaining so much. “