Kickass cancels the party

Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper and Phyllis as they find it impossible to follow their hearts and invite everyone to the house on the hill to celebrate a milestone birthday for Phyllis, a one-year anniversary of their marriage, and acknowledgement of their imminent relocation from Mazo to Fitchburg.

It would have been a great party, allowing Phyllis to let the world know she is finally old enough to legally buy wine and spirits, and giving the keeper yet one more opportunity to tell old stories.

But the two of them are only weeks out from a rib-fracturing car collision, and though Phyllis’s cancer treatment is on track, her immune system is compromised; and then there is the totally unpredictable coronavirus with its special warning for the elderly, which the keeper certainly is and Phyllis is working at it.

So it doesn’t make sense to take chances, which is contrary to the way Phyllis and the keeper usually manage their lives, and therefore there will not be a party; and that makes Kickass so damn mad he may stop stopping doors and let the ill wind blow through the house until everything and everyone gets better.