“I found this out there digging up the deer guts and stringing them around all over the ground. He made a hell of a mess,” said Jessie rather loudly. “What in the hell are we going to do with him!”
“Well,” I said, “um, feed him?”
************
We didn’t get much sleep after that. I thought the little dog would just settle down on the floor somewhere and sleep. But no. He was too much of a baby. He cried and peed on the floor and all the things little pups do.
His arrival was a total mystery, but he was here now. Who tosses a pup out of their car, or whatever, out here in the sticks?
“Look Beth, it’s only about midnight. Let’s just go in, make a fuss, put him in the tub, he’s dirty. Then we can get a bowl of water, some leftovers, and a box to sleep in with an old towel and bring him back out here.
“Maybe when he isn’t so hungry, he’ll quiet down,” he added. This was a bony little guy under all the fluff.
“Hey, Jess, can we keep him?” I said.
“Dogs are like kids, baby, you have to be with them all the time, train them, talk to them, be in charge. They don’t do well if you don’t,” he told me. “Besides, I think we better get my aunt’s approval before we bond with him totally.”
“Okay Jess.” So, we went into the house and made a bunch of noise and woke up Auntie Julia, who seemed fine with the whole circus.
“You know, we might just need a dog around here,” she grinned at us. She bent over and whispered to the puppy, right in his ear. She sat back up and winked. It was settled in that moment, I guess. We had a dog now.
I started thinking about this pup’s name. I kept thinking of one kind of funny name, and the thought just wouldn’t go away. So, back in our place, I said, “um, how about we call him Honda Jessie? What do you think? Is that too weird?”
“Beth, you are a strange chick, you know that? Sure, why not,” he was laughing at me, but fondly.
I folded the old towel up nicely and laid it in the box we got from Julia, and I put the box next to our bed on my side. Then I picked up our little Honda dog and put him in the box. I could reach him from the bed so I could pat him if he cried during the rest of the night. But he didn’t. He went right to sleep.
***
No doggie food there!
The land was beautiful, the light was so different from home. It was a pleasure to drive home through it all.
Our lives had assumed a slow dreamy pace. One day was much as the previous, and all pleasant.
Aunt Julia and I met with her old lady dentist friend at her little office next to her house. She said that I was healed up enough for her to make a bridge where I had lost the two teeth. That was set in motion. It took another good chunk of our cash. I had two appointments with her. Honda came along for those trips too. All three of us rode in the pickup with the pup in my lap so he could see out. Aunt Julia seemed to greatly enjoy getting to see the world outside her place.
When it was done you couldn’t tell that anything had ever happened to me. My hand was healed also. I was able to use it quite normally. Speaking of dreamlike, that whole episode kept getting more and more distant in my mind. But I knew that it had been real.
Winter faded into early spring. The chill in the air began to moderate. The six hens began to lay a few eggs, every couple of days. Honda grew taller and less fuzzy. He was becoming a very good boy. He did not bark at just anything. That was not his style. He watched everything carefully. He was introduced to Ben Jr., whom he loved. He was instructed to leave the chickens alone. If anything, he seemed to just be happy to have a family, so he did his best.
It was still too early to plant anything, but we started spading up a strip of garden every day. To buy seeds we would need to take another trip to town. The Walmart would have that sort of thing.
Every time we went to town, we kept an eye open for that ominous van, but we never saw it. I could only hope that I wasn’t important enough for the search to continue. The famous stoic reticence of American Natives could only help me to stay hidden.
Sometimes, sitting outside after dark, just watching the stars, I prayed for the little band up north, those who had been warned and had gone on to warn others. The trouble with a word-of-mouth movement is that it is limited in scope, but it also lacks the exposure of an online presence. But even word of mouth has its dangers I knew to my regret.
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