Page 67 of Base Block
“We’re prepared to provide a full refund,” the manager said as I knelt down.
“No shit,” Callum told him and the poor guy looked ready to cry.
“Why did you do this?” I asked the dog. He lunged forward and knocked me back into the snow.
“Hell!” Callum pulled me up and then announced, “We’re going home.” He told Maverick to come and the dog walked fairly normally on a leash over to the green car. “This damn thing doesn’t have four-wheel drive,” he said as he used his arm to sweep snow off the back window. Then he opened the door to let Maverick jump inside. “I can’t believe that I just spent two hours riding around in the dark to find you,” Callum told him and the dog wagged his tail in happiness.
“I’m sorry,” I said when we also got in. This was my fault for bringing home this uncontrollable animal.
“It’s not your fault. Give me your hands.” He held them, rubbing away the cold for a minute before he said, “Let’s go home.”
We were all quiet on the way, except for Maverick who didn’t like cars and whined a lot. Then he started gagging and threw up something that he must have eaten on his adventure.
“It got worse,” Callum said as he pulled over. He rubbed a hand down his face.
I put the dog into the back seat and did my best to remove the vomit from the cargo area before we continued, now with the windows cracked despite the temperature outside. After we had parked in our complex’s lot, he brought the dog up to our condo while I tugged out the mat from the way back, one which still had bloodstains from my old cut and now also smelled like death. I almost threw up, too.
Callum was coming to meet me as I walked up the path and we returned home together, exhausted. “Long day,” he commented as he sat in our chair. “Come here.”
First, I needed to wash my hands very, very well and then I did go to join him, settling down and closing my eyes. “That was awful. When I heard that he was missing, and then you had to run over there…”
“He’s also my dog, right? I’m responsible for him just like you are.”
I had a sudden image of Callum in the future, maybe with some gray in his beard and surrounded by Maverick and other small figures. They were children, not more pets, and he would be a good father.
“What are we going to do?”
“About what?” I asked.
“About the dog. If he’s running away from trainers, that’s a real bad sign.”
“He listens to you,” I reminded him. “He always pays attention to what you say.”
“But I’m gone all the damn time,” he reminded me back.
“I’m handling him.”
“Rainey, you’re not. You’re still scared of him,” he said. “When I brought him back, you bent down to hug him, but when he moved? You fell trying to get away.”
“He pushed me!”
“Maybe he nudged you, but you were scared. You were trying to escape.”
“So what? That’s my problem, not his. Do you want to give him away or something?” I demanded. I sat up straight so we could look each other in the eye.
“Most people don’t start out with a dog like this. He could do better with someone with more time and someone else who doesn’t have to jump away in fear,” he told me. “That’s not fair to you. We could find him a good home with someone who loves him and can take good care of him.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “I won’t give up on Maverick.”
He put his hand on my cheek, letting it rest there. “Can you explain to me why you want this dog so damn bad? This particular dog? There were a whole lot of them there at the rescue when we went. They probably all have sad stories like his, with owners who sucked.”
“I don’t want to be that kind of owner.”
“Me neither. Don’t avoid my question, ok? Tell me the truth.”
Right, the truth. What was it, again? “I can’t save all the dogs at the rescue place but I could do something for him,” I said. “He knocked me down at first but it was only because the woman who owned him was an idiot about training and then ran off to Turkmenistan. And there I was, lying on the ground instead of standing up for myself!”
“So, this about you proving something?” Callum asked me. “Like that you’re tough enough to handle this?”
