Page 8 of Security and Submission
“Grace. There’s a fucking dog.”
“What?” Confusion was obvious.
“I came back to Sarah’s house to clean up the dishes and things. I just let myself in, and when I turned around, there was a fucking golden retriever staring at me!” Yasmine’s voice got shriller as she spoke.
“Oh my God! Is it Hope?”
Yasmine gulped as her heart pounded even harder than when she’d been looking around the house earlier. The dog kept wagging slowly, panting, and seemingly smiling at her. If it was a ghost dog or a zombie dog or something like that, it probably would have attacked by now, right?
“Hold on,” she muttered, and took a step forward. The dog wagged its tail harder. Gingerly, she reached for the collar on its neck. Its fur was very soft and fluffy, and it certainly felt real. She tugged on the collar, sliding it so she could see the attached tag. “Yeah, the tag says Hope.”
“Oh my God, that’s amazing!” Grace sounded like she was crying again.
Yasmine guessed she couldn’t blame her, although she wanted to just sag to the ground in relief that the dog was real and not a ghost or a hallucination or something.
“It is.” At least Sarah hadn’t lost her dog on top of everything else. Yasmine let out a long breath. Her heart felt like it was sort of going back to normal now. She scratched behind Hope’s ears, and the dog happily leaned into the attention. “But where the heck was she when I was looking around earlier?”
“Maybe she was hiding?”
“Maybe.” Yasmine crouched down to give Hope better pets. “Were you hiding somewhere, pretty girl? Did I scare you when I came by earlier?”
“She’s not the best guard dog,” Grace said. “Oh, my goodness, I’m so glad you went back. That poor baby might have been alone in the house for days!”
And then Sarah might have actually come back to no dog. Yasmine winced. Hopefully, someone would have realized… but Grace and the rest of her friends had thought that Hope had been put down. Did Sarah’s parents know she hadn’t?
“Okay, well… what do I do with her? I can’t leave her here alone, right? No, obviously I can’t leave her here alone.” Yasmine shook her head. “I can’t keep coming back and forth either. She’s going to need to be fed. And walked.”
Holy shit.
“Oh… I don’t know.” Grace was back to sounding uncertain.
“Does she have a place she normally goes when Sarah travels?”
“If she does, I don’t know.”
“Okay, let me look around.” Yasmine gave Hope one last good scratch, then got to her feet. There were some fliers and things on the fridge; maybe there would be something there. Hope followed her, clearly no longer afraid and far more interested in being right next to the human in the house.
Maybe she’d been freaked out earlier after Sarah’s heart attack and hadn’t known what to do when Yasmine came in, but now she’d been alone long enough, she’d decided to show herself. That made sense.
She scanned the stuff on the fridge and pursed her lips. Nothing.
“I don’t see any kennels or anything on the fridge… I…” She looked down at Hope. Hope looked back up at her with warm, soulful eyes. Poor baby. “Is there any way to get in touch with Sarah?”
“I don’t think so. She might be in the operating room by now. I can try.”
“Can you? Can you find out where she normally keeps Hope? If not… I guess I can take her home with me. I don’t feel like I can just leave her here.” Especially with Hope looking at her like that. It was like she was begging to go with Yasmine. Begging not to be left alone in the house. Talk about tugging on the heartstrings.
“I’ll call her now and see if I can get through,” Grace said immediately. “I can call her parents, too, and find out if they know who usually looks after Hope.”
“Okay, I’m going to do the dishes, so I’m going to be here for a bit, but not super long. I’d feel a lot more comfortable taking Hope if Sarah knew about it. Or I’d be happy to take her where she normally goes.”
“Got it. Thank you, Yasmine, so much.”
They hung up, and Yasmine looked down at the happy golden retriever, who planted her butt next to Yasmine’s feet and looked up at her. She really did look like she was smiling. Yasmine couldn’t help but give her another pat before turning her attention to the dishes in the sink.
It didn’t take her long, and she was just finishing them up when Grace called back. She glanced at the dog, now lying by her feet. Hope’s head lifted, and she looked back up at Yasmine as if she knew the phone call was about her.
“I’m so sorry; no one knows who normally takes care of Hope,” Grace said in a rush, rather than giving Yasmine the usual greeting.
