Last Chance (17 page)

“He hasn't told me anything.” He shook his head, as if he were struggling to absorb what I had just told him. “I only got to see him for a few minutes. He asked me to talk to Kathy.” He shook his head again. “No way would Nick take a car. He says doing stuff like that is stupid. He tells me that all the time.”

He sounded so positive. It had to mean something that even Antoine couldn't understand why Nick would give up so much—the chance to finally leave the group home, the chance to live with his aunt and, maybe, Orion—to do something as stupid as go joyriding.

“What are you going to do, Antoine?” I said.

“Am I going to tell him that if he doesn't come back, Orion doesn't get to be in the program anymore? That he might get put down?” He shook his head firmly. “I didn't even tell him that Orion was sick. He'd freak out. He's crazy about that dog. And he's got enough to worry about already, you know?”

 

. . .

I went downtown after work to pick up my new sandals. After I paid for them, I called my mother's office. I thought that if she were finished for the day, we could go home together.

“She's in a meeting,” Tralee told me. “But she should be out pretty soon.”

“Tell her not to leave without me,” I said.

As soon as I turned the corner to the street where my mother works, I stopped dead in my tracks. Nick was standing on the sidewalk outside of her office. As usual, he was dressed in black from head to toe, and as usual, his backpack hung off one shoulder. His friend Joey was with him. Nick glanced in my direction. I know he saw me, but he turned away as if he hadn't. Joey saw me too, but he didn't try to hide it. He gave me a critical once-over before dismissing me. I walked toward them.

“I saw Orion today,” I said to Nick.

He didn't say anything. He didn't even look at me. Instead, he focused on the ground.

“I don't know if anyone told you,” I said. I knew Antoine hadn't. “But he's been sick.”

That got a reaction. Nick's head bobbed up. He glanced at Joey. If I didn't know better, I'd say he looked angry. “He's going to be okay, right?” he said.

It was a funny question. If I was as fond of a dog as Nick was of Orion and someone told me that the dog had been sick, the first thing I would have asked was what exactly was wrong with him or how had he gotten sick.

“I don't know,” I said. “All I know is that he was really sick on Sunday. Yesterday, too. They think maybe he caught something.” I had talked to one of the kennel attendants, who reminded me that there had been a virus going around. “He was feeling a little better today, except that Antoine told me he was barking like crazy when all the other dogs got out for the program today and he had to stay in his kennel.”

Hurt flickered in Nick's eyes. I think Joey noticed.

“Why don't you take off, little girl?” Joey said.

I ignored him.

“Kathy says if you don't come back to the shelter, Orion won't be able to finish the program,” I said. “And if he doesn't finish the program, he can't be adopted.”

“That's not fair,” Nick said. “Orion is doing great. Kathy would never let anything happen to him. Besides, my lawyer's going to fix it so I can stay with the program. And the wheels of justice don't turn as fast as they make you think on TV.” He glanced at Joey, who nodded. “My court date is a couple of weeks away. That will give me time to finish the program. Orion will be okay. Anyway, my lawyer said it would look good when I go to court if I could show that I'd done the program.”

I couldn't believe it. He was acting as if nothing serious had happened, as if he hadn't done anything wrong, and as if, of course, he'd be allowed to go back. He didn't seem even remotely concerned about the poor man he'd knocked off his bike.

“You hit someone,” I said.

Finally. He flinched. For a split second I thought I saw pain and regret in his eyes, maybe even remorse. He glanced at Joey again.

“The guy walked away,” Nick said. “How bad could it be?”

“Hey, Nick, you don't want to be talking about this with anyone,” Joey said. “The less you say, the better. Right?”

The
less
he said? He had already been caught. He had admitted he'd done it.

“Yeah, I guess,” Nick said. He looked defiantly at me.

That did it. That made me mad.

“You're too much,” I said. “You put everything you have into helping a dog, but there's a man in the hospital because of what you did, and you don't even care. Antoine tried to tell me you're okay. He said you're always telling him not to do anything stupid. But look at what you did! And you think it's all a big joke.”

Joey stepped between Nick and me. He moved in close and kept coming, trying to back me away from Nick.

“Why don't you mind your own business?” he said.

Nick grabbed him by the arm and yanked him away.

“Leave her alone,” he said. He sounded angry—with Joey, not with me. He looked at me, his eyes not nearly as hard as they had been a moment ago.

“I'm sorry about the guy,” he said. “But he's going to be okay.”

“Nick!” an angry voice called.

All three of us turned. A woman was standing in the door to my mother's office building, her hands on her hips, glowering disapproval at him. It was the same woman who picked him up every day from the animal shelter. Nick shot a worried look at Joey. Joey shrugged, like it was no big deal. He walked away, just like that, without a word.

“Are you
trying
to make things harder on yourself, Nick?” the woman said. “I trust you to go to the rest-room and what happens? You leave the building. And then I find you out here with Joey.” She shook her head.

“He just showed up,” Nick said. “My aunt must have told him I was seeing my lawyer.”

The woman was as stern as a school principal. “Your aunt wouldn't do that, Nick. Your aunt wants you to stay out of trouble, not get into more of it. I know you're not allowed to receive calls from Joey. Did you phone him, Nick? Because I can't think of any other way that he'd be here, can you?” Of course Nick didn't answer.

“About the RAD program,” Nick said. “Did my lawyer fix it? Am I still in?”

“That depends. Am I going to see Joey around again anytime soon?”

“Never. I promise,” Nick said. He sounded like a little kid now. Please, please, please.

“You were ordered to do an anger management program,” the woman said. “So, yes, you're still in RAD. But only until a judge says differently and only if you follow the rules. You got that?” Nick nodded. “Okay. Let's go.”

 

. . .

Maybe Nick was allowed to stay in RAD, but he must not have been allowed out otherwise. He didn't show up at the shelter the next day for his once-a-week Wednesday volunteering. I didn't see him again until Thursday when he arrived with Antoine and Dougie and the rest of the RAD guys. They all took their dogs outside for ten or fifteen minutes. Nick brought Orion to one side of the fenced-in lawn they started to practice what they had been learning. Nick had Orion sit, lie down, sit again, and then shake a paw. It looked like Orion hadn't forgotten a thing while he was gone. Nick smiled, dropped down on his knees, and scratched behind the dog's ears. Then he put his arms around Orion and hugged him. He adored that dog. I still couldn't figure out how he could be so attached to an animal and, at the same time, not seem to care at all about someone he had injured.

“Robyn?”

I tore my eyes away from the window. Kathy stood in the door to my office, her face flushed. She was dressed more formally than usual, in a skirt and light jacket.

“Go and tell Mr. Jarvis and Stella they can get started. We'll be around in a few minutes. And tell them not to let the guys know what's going on, okay? I want everyone to act the way they would if this were a regular day.”

But it wasn't a regular day. It was a big day. The chairman of the shelter's board of directors had called Kathy at home that morning. He'd said that he was bringing some visitors to observe the RAD program in action. Apparently, there was a possibility that these visitors might fund the program so that it could continue. Kathy wanted everything to be perfect. All morning, shelter staff had been running around, tidying up, and making sure that everything sparkled. Kathy was especially eager. She wanted the visitors to understand how the program helped both the kids and the dogs. She also wanted to talk to them about expanding the program to other shelters. It was, she said, the best opportunity she'd had in a long time.

The visitors had arrived thirty minutes ago, and Kathy had been showing them around. I could see them over her shoulder—two men in suits (one of them the chairman of the shelter's board of directors) and a woman in a summer dress. They were in the office across the hall from mine, watching a video of the RAD participants and their dogs on the first day of the program. Kathy had showed me the video while she was setting up earlier. She said it would make a big impression because, in it, the dogs all barked and jumped up on people and generally misbehaved. A lot of the RAD participants looked uncomfortable. One of them—Dougie—looked terrified. They had no idea how to control the rambunctious dogs. The plan was that the visitors would watch the video—the “be-fore”—and then go outside, watch the RAD group in action and see the “after.”

I hurried outside to deliver Kathy's message. Mr. Jarvis looked as tense as Kathy. He wanted the program to continue too. He whispered something in Stella's ear, and she called for the group's attention. The RAD participants and their animals lined up in front of her. A door to the field opened, and Kathy came out, leading the visitors. Stella nodded to Nick, who was at the beginning of the line of RAD participants.

“Why don't you run Orion through everything he's learned so far?” she said.

Nick seemed delighted to do so. First, he got Orion to sit. Then he got him to lie down. As the visitors approached, Orion extended a paw for Nick to shake. Kathy was beaming. The visitors were standing with the boys and the dogs. One of them said something to Nick. Nick grinned and said something to the woman visitor and she nodded. Orion sat again and extended a paw. The woman took it and shook it. She smiled first at the dog and then at Nick. Then she smiled at the male visitor. I had a pretty good idea what was going through their minds. After viewing the video of the first day of the program, they couldn't help but be impressed by what they were seeing. Kathy was talking the whole time. I glanced at Mr. Jarvis. He seemed more relaxed now too. It looked like everything was going as smoothly as Kathy had planned.

Then it all went wrong.

J
anet was leading two uniformed police officers across the lawn toward the RAD group. When Kathy saw them, she excused herself and hurried over to speak with them. I watched her shoulders slump as she listened to what they said. She turned and gestured at the RAD group. The two police officers walked across the lawn to Nick. One of them touched him on the shoulder. While the first cop said something to Nick, the second one pulled Nick's hands behind his back to handcuff him. Orion went crazy. I took a big step back—an automatic reflex. He barked ferociously and jumped up on the police officer who was trying to handcuff Nick. The rest of the RAD group just stood there, watching. Stella, the dog trainer, stepped forward, but Nick shook his head. He said something to the two cops. The one who was holding him let him go. Nick got Orion to stop barking. He made him sit and stay. Then he let himself be handcuffed. I saw Nick's face clearly when he turned around. He seemed dazed. The chairman of the shelter's board of directors did not look pleased. The police officer who had handcuffed Nick touched him on the shoulder again and nodded toward the police car in the parking lot. When Nick began to walk toward it, Orion sprang to his feet and started barking again. This time Stella took him by the collar and got him to sit. But she couldn't make him stop barking. As the police led Nick past me, I heard him say, “This wasn't supposed to happen.” He looked over his shoulder at the big dog. I'd never seen anyone look so sad or so lost.

Kathy put on a brave face. She continued to smile, but I could see that the spark had vanished from her eyes. The discipline of the RAD group fell apart. The guys watched the police put Nick into the back of a patrol car and talked among themselves. Even Mr. Jarvis watched Nick for a few moments before clapping his hands to bring the group back to order. The chairman of the shelter's board of directors was talking to the two visitors, but their eyes kept shifting back to the police car. They didn't stay for long after that.

I went back to my office and called my mother.

“I'm just on my way out, Robyn,” she said. “Is this important?”

“The police were just here, Mom. They arrested Nick.”