glad he wasn't around now. I got enraged just thinking about the begging tone he'd have in his voice when he asked me to forgive him.
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My neighbor's daughter came into her yard and waved hello. Emmy was fifteen and dressed crazily. She wore iridescent exercise tights, a long T-shirt, and a black leather belt cinched around her hips to school. Other times she dressed in dashing plaid pants and blouses, with men's white shoelaces braided through her hair. I didn't know what clothes meant anymore. All the fashions seemed designed to confuse you about a person's values and financial status. When I was growing up, I was taught that clothes told the world what you thought of yourself.
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"Your dogs was crying all night long," Emmy called out to me. "My dad was fit to be tied."
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"That's what Daddy said."
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On Saturday, the judges spotted BJ first behind the fox three times. But at the end of the day, when the pack gathered, their tongues hanging out like sodden rags, she was missing. Dory had remained until after dark, calling, honking the horn, playing the radio full blast.
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We spent Sunday searching for her. We set aside our differences like parents do when a child is in danger. Dory wore his Wellingtons, and I drove the truck from point to point. People don't realize this end of the Suwannee, being so close to the Gulf, has tides. The water was high in the swamps and in the river basin. By nightfall, we were both hoarse from calling. Uncle Jones was waiting by my trailer when we got back. "It's in her blood," he said, without getting out of his truck. "She's more wild than domestic."
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Dory said he didn't think it was wildness, because the feral dogs he'd seen always looked scared, as if they'd trade their terrain in a minute for a feed bowl and a warm place to sleep. BJ was another story. BJ had a job to dochase all the foxes and deer in the world, though she would likely never have been able to bring one down on her own. "I guess you were right about her. It was real bad that she got along so fine that time she was gone for three weeks," Dory said.
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"Yeah," Uncle adjusted his cap. "She'd have been better off if she'd
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