Arts & Entertainment

Chapter 23

It's Warm, And It's Safe. There's Plenty Of Food. It Is A Good Place. But It's Not Home.

Zoe wakes early, and listens. She is sleeping in a little bed in the corner of the pool house. Joey is sleeping on the floor nearby. She can hear him breathing. The cat is surely here somewhere, prowling, or hidden in a closet, or under a chair.

Wesley and Buddy are sleeping on the bed, Wesley beneath the covers and Buddy on the covers, at his feet. Zoe can hear Buddy snoring.

This is a good place, she thinks. It's warm, and it's safe. There's plenty of food. It is a good place. But it's not home.

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She curls back up in her little bed and falls back to sleep, lulled by the breathing of her friends, and the dark, warm room they share.

In a while, Zoe is awakened by the sound of Wesley waking. She can tell that the sun has risen, and that it is time to get up. She steps out of the bed and stretches. Joey wakes, stands, stretches, and shakes his head so that his ears flap against the side of his face. Zoe likes the noise.

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Buddy lumbers down from the bed. He is slow, and Zoe knows that his hips hurt him and on these cold days, all of his joints ache.

Zoe hears the cat jump down from somewhere, landing with a thump on the carpeted floor.

Wesley dresses, and they all go outside.  Joey takes a few short sprints in the frosty morning fields.

The woman comes out of the barn, then, leading a horse, and she says hello and gets up on the enormous creature. Joey growls, and the horse stomps a huge foot and snorts loudly.

The woman and the horse start to walk off, then the horse begins to go faster, and then, faster still. And at this, Joey can stand it no longer. He sees that horse running, and he hears the sound of its hoofs hitting the ground, and he takes off, running as fast as he can after it.

When he reaches it, he starts barking, a loud, sharp bark that cuts through all the noise of the horse's hooves. The woman pulls the horse to a walk, but Joey keeps barking.

Then, he reaches in and nips the horse on the tender part of his leg, just above the hoof.

The horse makes a startled whinny, and Joe barks again, and the horse rears up and tosses the woman to the ground. She lands hard, but nothing breaks, and she picks herself up and sees the big creature running for all he's worth back to the barn, straight for the little blind dog.

"No!" she screams, and the whole car incident runs through her head, and she screams again, "No!" and starts running.

Zoe hears the woman, and freezes and looks around. She only sees shadows and light, but she can hear the giant coming toward her, and she doesn't know where to go, where to move. She hears those huge, metal feet coming toward her, and then she hears human footsteps running toward her, too, and she tenses her little body, and just at the last moment, just when it seems that the giant creature must be nearly on her, strong arms grab her and yank her up from the ground, and Jake holds her close, and turns from the rushing horse, and carries her to safety.

The horse stops running as soon as he reaches the barn. The woman races up, breathless and crying again. Wesley and Buddy are there, too, and Joey is there, barking and barking.

"This is not going to work," the woman says. "It's just not going to work. I love this little dog, but she just can't stay here."


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