172 - Darla's
*Darkness, I need you to come home. I’m going to go get the kids from school. – Camille*
Camille paced the floor for most of the morning as she waited for any type of an update from Celt. When her phone buzzed, she dove for it and was momentarily confused. She could not think of a single recipe that she had ever called *Oma’s Stew*.
She could distinctly remember Oma Uittenbroek talking about how much she disliked stew. When Camille was little, before she knew everything that her mother’s Oma had gone through, she remembered asking the old woman why she did not like the meal that Camille adored. With her calm way, Oma had told the little girl something that flooded the woman’s mind now.
“Towards the end of the war, food was really scarce. Oom Jan and I nearly starved. We survived by making stew from whatever we could find or the Germans would give us.”
*MommA C – wanT 2 try To make Oma’S StEw*
Looking at the message again, she realized that it had nothing to do with food. Finding the notebook that they had used to create the code; she translated the message and called Celt. After her call and sending a coded message to Nicki, Camille resumed her pacing. After what felt like forever, her phone rang again, and the school’s name appeared on her screen.
After a quick conversation with Nicki, she had the teen give the phone to the principal. Camille made him understand without any doubt that she would be there in twenty minutes. At that time, both of her kids needed to be ready to leave, and they would be doing class at home for the rest of the week.
She called Tink and he happily trotted next to her to the Jeep. Just shy of twenty minutes later, she parked in the visitor spot, and she grabbed his lead to go inside the school. Walking in, she saw Celt looking to see if there was a place for her to hide a gun. There was not a place where she could hide a gun on her body, and she did not carry a purse like her mother did.
After giving Nicki a quick hug, Camille approached the counter and gave Tink the command to sit before looking at the secretary, “I said that both of my children needed to be ready to leave.”
“We’ve called for Mitch to come down,” the secretary admitted, “he just hasn’t made it down yet.”
“Might want to call again,” Camille suggested.
“Verm,” Celt said softly and she nodded in response.
The door to the office opened and Mitch entered. He walked over and wrapped his arms around her waist. Camille hugged him back and relaxed for the first time all day. She quickly signed both kids out of school and then guided them out. Celt followed them and met her at the Jeep.
“Can you give me a ride back to my car?”
Camille laughed, “Yes, you know that I will take you anywhere.”
“Glad to hear it,” he pulled her into a hug and kissed the top of her head. “You good?”
“I will be,” she said softly as she laid her head on his chest. “I need a good beating.”
He chuckled, “I’ll leave that to your husband.”
“Get in,” she laughed as she gave him a little shove.
He opened the back door and found both kids hugged up against Tink. “I’ll, uh, just go sit up front.”
“I’m telling your father that you said the forbidden word of uh,” Camille said as she got into the driver’s seat.
She started the engine as Celt walked around the hood and slid into the passenger seat. He started to ask if she knew where to go but saw that she had the Wolf Pack App pulled up and had it locating him. She hit location history, and it went exactly where he had been for the majority of the morning.
“I love this app,” Camille admitted.
“I didn’t even know that it could do that,” Celt admitted.
“I helped code it, I may have tweaked my personal app,” she admitted as she pulled out of the spot and headed towards the police station. “Yes, Werewolf knows. No, I won’t modify yours without his permission.”
“Fine,” Celt pouted, but grinned at her. “We get to the house; I want you to show me your code.”
“We can do that,” Nicki said from the back seat.
“I just want the basics. Because if I get called to testify-“
“It’s an alphanumeric code,” Camille explained. “Certain words or phrases indicate which words mean something different. Numbers indicate quantity or time. There are some alphanumeric combinations that have meanings.”
“Okay, that works,” he laughed and then looked at Camille with confusion as they passed a sign that advertised for Darla’s Daquiris. “What the hell is a daquiri barn?”
Camille laughed as she changed lanes and prepared to turn. “It’s a barn that sells daquiris.”
“You’re shitting me.”
“Can I get a fruit smoothie?” Mitch asked.
“Yeah,” Camille laughed as she turned away from the police station.
“Ummm,” Celt pointed at the little dot on the phone screen that was getting further away and not closer.
“Judge is not going to like hearing that you said uh and um.”
“Yeah, but my car is over there…” he pointed out the driver’s side window.
Nicki grabbed his hand and turned it more to the driver’s side back door, “More like that way. Can I have one of Momma Dee’s fruit smoothies?”
Laughing, Camille pulled into the drive-thru lane of Darla’s Daquiris. “She would approve.”
“Are you actually going to drive into that building?" Celt asked and the kids both laughed.
“You see that big space in the center?” Camille asked with a grin. “It’s wide enough for a car to drive through it.”
“That’s why it’s called Darla’s Daquiri Drive-Thru,” Mitch told him with a laugh. "Because you drive *through the building.”
“Ugh!”
“Oh. My. God!” Camille laughed as she pulled up to the sliding door inside the building and rolled the window down. “You’ve used Judge’s trifecta of the U words to never be used.”
“I’m not in court and I have teenagers in my house,” he objected as a dark-skinned woman stepped up to the Jeep window.
“Hey Camille, you got my good boy with you?”
Nicki rolled down the window and Tink rushed over to see his friend and keeper of the pupcup treats.
“There he is,” the woman moved to the back window and began to give the Doberman Pinscher attention. While playing with his ears, she asked, “Do you want your regular?” Tink gave a single arf.
“I want one of Momma Dee’s fruit smoothies,” Nicki said.
“I just want a strawberry banana fruit smoothie,” Mitch added.
“I want mine and Darkness’ usual and this is my friend from back home,” Camille motioned to Celt. “Make him a Momma Dee fruit smoothie.”
The woman stepped inside and then returned with five Styrofoam cups with blue tape going across the top with their names on it. Celt laughed because his simply said *friend*.
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