Blessed (10 page)

“It’s just not fair to tease us like that! A whole week of a light workload, and then they pile on the homework at the last minute while they get to go home and relax for the weekend! What a crock!”

Not wanting to think about the several pounds of paper that the weekend was bound to consume, Ardra tuned her out as they walked across the frigid campus to where Piper had parked that morning. She focused on the sidewalk to help shut out the incessant babble coming from her best friend’s mouth. It was hard enough for her not to slip on the ice and break something when she was well rested. In the state she was in, it would be a miracle if she made it to the car in one piece.

It must have been a day for miracles.

Without so much as throwing her back out from slipping on a patch of ice, she was seated in Piper’s tiny sedan waiting for the tiny engine to warm up and defrost the windows with its blessed heat. She sent a small prayer of thanks to whoever had been watching over her on that perilous two block journey.

By the time the car stopped in front of Ardra’s house, she was surprised that Piper hadn’t fainted from not taking a break to breathe the whole time. She glanced over to see if her friend was even winded. Piper was staring back at her like she had gone mad.

“You cool?”

“What? Yeah. I’m fine. Sorry. I didn’t sleep very well last night. More nightmares.”

“Aww! I’m sorry honey! And here I was rambling on and on like an idiot! Go take a nap before you crack open that spring loaded bag of yours and get buried in the avalanche of homework that is hiding in its depths.”

She leaned over and hugged her best friend. “Thanks for the ride.”

As she leaned down to swing her bag onto her shoulder Piper asked, “Hey, when did you guys get a dog?”

It was her turn to look at Piper like she was a crazy person, “Uhh, we didn’t.”

“Well someone tied a dog to your porch then.” She nodded in the direction of the house before adding, “And he looks cold.”

Ardra stood from the car and let her eyes drift toward the porch. Sure enough, there was a large yellow dog tied to one of the pillars.

She groaned audibly.

“This guy better have tags with a phone number on them.”

She closed the car door and waved to Piper as she pulled off.

She eyed the dog suspiciously from the sidewalk, debating if she should approach it or go into the house through the garage and leave it for her parents to deal with. It gave a thump if it’s tail and lay right down in the snow, causing her to wonder, briefly, if dogs could read minds.

She decided that she couldn’t leave him out there in the cold to freeze to death. He seemed harmless enough so she took a few cautious, crunchy steps through the snow towards him. When he didn’t get up to growl at her, she took a few more.

As she slowly inched closer, the dog’s tail began to thump against the ground more steadily. When she reached his side and unhooked the leash from the brick pillar that held the deck off of the master bedroom up, the dog jumped up and his tail went from rhythmic to pastic. She couldn’t help but smile and pet the top of his head.

As soon as her hand made contact with his fur, her body temperature shot up and the center of her chest tingled like there was a small electrical charge being shot through her. She jerked her hand back and looked at the dog. He cocked his head to the side and lolled out his tongue with what she could only describe as a smile on his face.

She reached out a shaky hand, careful not to touch the dog again, and grabbed the leash.

Suddenly not wanting the dog in the house, she used the keypad to open the garage.

“Stay!” she commanded from the door into the house. Not that she needed to. The dog had already lain down next to her car.

He seemed comfortable enough, so she went inside and shut the door behind her.

She dropped her backpack by the door, shrugged out of her coat, then kicked her shoes off on the mat in front of the washer and walked into the den to begin the hunt through the couch cushions for the remote. With a triumphant “Aha!” she held the little black box up above her head like a trophy before mashing the power button and heading for the stairs to the kitchen.

An apple from the fridge and a cookie from the jar by the stove returned to the den with her for some daytime television. She needed a snack and a quick nap before even trying to start her homework.

She fought back the mild panic attack that was threatening to surface at the thought of sleep. She reminded herself that she wasn’t a robot and couldn’t exactly plug herself into the wall, as convenient as that would be and forced herself to lie down and close her eyes.

Right as she was drifting off to sleep, a cacophony erupted from the garage. She shot off the couch, heart pounding and temper flaring. She was going to take that dog back outside and tie him to the front porch until her parents got home. They could deal with it.

The dog had other ideas.

He stopped barking and darted into the house the moment she opened the door. She tried to step on the leash as it slithered past her, but he had too much momentum and she was wearing socks on the tile entryway. Instead of stopping the dog, she just ended up having her feet ripped out from under her.

She cast an evil glare in the direction of the dog who was lying next to the couch with his head between his paws. He returned her stare with what she figured were considered “puppy eyes” and thumped his tail gently behind him. Her face softened a little in return. She pushed herself up off the floor, walked over to the dog and loomed over him while she decided what to do with him. He wasn’t scratching, he wasn’t peeing and he wasn’t dirty, so she wasn’t opposed to letting him lie there if it meant he wouldn’t scare the daylights out of her again.

“You’re going to be trouble.” She muttered as she stepped over him and flopped down on the couch.

She resumed her horizontal position and closed her eyes.

Her internal heater kicked on and relaxed every ounce of tension out of her muscles when her hand slid off the edge of the couch and rested on the dog’s soft back. She and the dog let out a heavy sigh as she drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

The last thing she remembered was wondering who was pinching her chest.

She woke up feeling like she had slept for days. There was a moment of slight panic which quickly escalated to full on frenzied panic when she heard a low growl coming from the living room. She jumped up the stairs into the kitchen and rounded the corner into the living room to find her parents pressed up against the door and the dog she had brought into their house looking quite feral as he bared his teeth at the intruders.

“Hey honey, would you mind taking care of your new friend so we can come in the house?” her mother asked her, casting a wary glance at the dog.

He let out a loud bark and everyone in the room jumped. Ardra finally continued her path into the living room and grabbed the leash that was still clipped to the dog’s neck. He backed down immediately and came to her side where he took a seat and stared up at her seeking praise. When she didn’t give him any, he nudged her hand with his nose.

She jerked her hand away and explained to her parents, “He was tied to the front porch when I got home and it was cold so I let him inside! I’m so sorry! He seemed harmless! I fell asleep and must have slept much longer than I had intended to!”

They glanced at each other and exchanged thoughts in the way that only her parents could.

“Ardra, it’s only five thirty. You can’t have slept
that
long.” His concern for her mental state was blatant in his eyes.

That surprised her a little.

“Is it really only five thirty? I feel like I slept for days.”

She stretched her neck to try to work out the kink that had settled in while she’d been dead to the world.

“Well, no harm done. Actually, while your mother and I stood here pinned to the door by your new attack dog, we had a little talk. We’d actually feel good about you keeping him.”

“Assuming we can’t find his owner.” Her mother interjected.

“Right. Anyway, we’re going on a trip to tour the temple in Nauvoo. We’d feel a whole lot better about leaving you alone here for so long with him around.”

That one
really
threw her for a loop.

“You guys know Piper will be more than happy to get out of the dorm and come stay here while you’re gone. There’s no need for me to take in a stray animal. What if he’s rabid?”

“Don’t be silly dear,” her mother began “he’s not foaming at the mouth.”

Her parents removed their coats and shoes and put them in the closet next to the front door. Her father appeared reluctant to release the briefcase that he had been using as a shield when Ardra had first walked into the living room. He finally seemed to decide that the dog was no longer a threat and set it down beside the door.

“We’ll see if any reports of a missing dog matching his description have been filed, if not, we’ll take him to the vet and have him checked out. If he’s in ship shape, he’s staying. It’ll be good for you to have a dog finally. You always wanted one when you were little”

Her father had spoken the words more like a mandate from Heaven than a plan, but that’s how he was about some things. She knew there was no point in arguing.

She looked down at her newly assigned protector who thumped his tail a couple of times in approval of the new plan.

“I guess that settles it then.” She sighed.

Her father crouched down in front of the dog and scratched behind his ears. The dog licked his hand gently as he soaked up the attention. Ardra thought he looked a little sheepish. As if he wanted to apologize to her father for being rude.

Her mother kept her distance as she walked into the kitchen and hit the fridge for an apple. “What’s his name?” she asked.

Ardra considered the dog for a moment seemed to be making fast friends with her father then back up at her mother. She shrugged, “He doesn’t have any tags.”

Her father’s voice chimed in behind her, “Well, I guess that means you should probably come up with one. I’m going to call Animal Control and the Humane Society to see if this guy has been reported missing.”

He gave the dog a final scratch on the head before heading off for the phone near the fridge.

This was all so strange to Ardra. More than once in her life she had asked her parents if she could have a pet. The answer had always been the same. “Not until you’re older.” Or “None of us are ever home. The poor thing would be bored to death!” or her personal favorite, “Who’s going to clean up after it?”

That last one had always sealed the deal. None of them wanted to run around the yard with a pooper scooper and clean up dog doo.

Now it appeared she had no choice. She had finally grown out of wanting to get a pet and suddenly she was saddled with one against her will.

Go figure.

Since it appeared she would be keeping the animal, for the time being, she supposed the leash could come off. She removed it and tossed it on the kitchen table and headed back downstairs without a word, expecting him to follow. When he didn’t she looked around and spotted him sitting at the back door staring intently at the door knob.

“I think he needs to go out.” Her mother translated as she popped the last slice of her apple into her mouth. She pulled a grocery bag from the container hanging on the side of the fridge and waved it at Ardra like a surrender flag.

Ardra sighed and sent another icy glare at the dog. He didn’t see it that time. He was still staring at the door knob like it was going to do a trick.

She opened the back door and he jetted out into the snow-covered back yard. A few birds took flight from underneath the large maple tree in the center of the yard and he barked happily as he chased their trail across the sky.

Once they were well out of sight, he began to do the sniffing thing that dogs tended to do. Dreading what came next, she sent up a small prayer that it would be solid. She wasn’t entirely sure how she would clean up the mess that doggy indigestion would create.

She let out a sigh of relief when he had peed on everything in the yard that would hold still, chased off everything that didn’t and came sauntering up to her at the door. She didn’t think her parents wanted her to run around behind the dog collecting his pee in a plastic bag, so she opened the door and they both went back inside.

Her mother glared at the plastic bag and crinkled her nose in disgust, “I know you did not bring a bag of poo into my kitchen.”

Ardra shrugged, “I guess he only had to pee. Lucky for me!”

She hung the blessedly empty plastic bag on the door handle and headed down to grab her backpack from where she had dropped it in the laundry room.

The dog curled up at her feet as she settled on the couch to do her homework.

Before long he was snoring gently, his breath keeping her toes warm.

Her father informed her shortly after she had finished her first assignment that no reports had been filed for a dog matching his description. It was official. They had a new family member.