This 30th, though, comes from the phrase "taking a stand."
Which was how, after what seemed like weeks even though it
was less than half an hour, we all finally started off under the
clear blue of an early summer evening: Deena and her father
walking ahead of me, his hands in his pockets, hers fiddling
with the sleeves of her windbreaker, me rolling along behind, El
Brujo and Heather in my lap, Serena on my shoulder.
A light cackling from the big ficus between the street and
the sidewalk just outside the front gate, though, told me that
wasn't all of us, too. "You need air support, 'Mano?" Jefe's
scratchy voice asked.
But before I could answer,-- "In the trees!" Heather
barked, leaping and spinning from her spot beside El Brujo, her
paws barely reaching halfway up my chest, her eyes big and black
and shiny. "Thousands of them, Mr. Augie! But I'll protect
you! I'll tear out their throats, soak my fur in their blood
till it's even redder than--"
Deena looked back in alarm, and I quickly said in animal
talk, "They're friends, Heather, friends you can meet later if
you're good. But you need to behave now, or Deena might think
you're not happy to be coming along."
"Deena!" Heather sprang away from me, raced down my
thighs, and took a stance on my right knee like the figurehead
of some old sailing ship, her tongue lolling out, her tail a
blur. "I am as happy as the clouds in the sky when they get all
big and light and fluffy and floaty!"
Smiling, Deena reached back and scratched the little dog's
poofy ears. "Everything all right back here?"
"Bliss!" Heather announced, her eyes rolling shut.
I nodded, shrugged the bits of my brain around till I could
produce human speech: "Just some crows in the trees." I jerked
my head upward since my hands were kind of busy pushing the
wheels along.
She craned her head up and around. "More friends of
yours?" she asked with a grin that made me feel just as floaty
as I imagined Heather did.
"I got 'em ev'rywhere," I told her.
That got a quiet little cat laugh from El Brujo. "Your
helplessness is just so endearing," she said.
"Hmmmph!" Serena scrambled partway down my jacket. "I
would say it is rather Mr. Augie's willingness to listen!"
El Brujo's ears flicked. "Willing? He has no
choice but to listen, Miss Serena, despite the undeniable
fact that his life would be a great deal easier without this odd
ability of his."
I ran a hand down her back. "Easier? Prob'bly. But
nowhere near as interesting."
Things stayed calm the rest of the way to Chrysalis House,
a few comments about how lovely the evening was passing between
Deena and her father, and I managed to get in on some of that
without stumbling over my tongue too much. It was strange: I'd
only known the two of them for a few days, but I hadn't felt so
comfortable talking to other humans in years...
They headed for the public entrance to the house around
front, and I followed. "We'll need to check in at the desk and
all," Deena's father said, glancing back at me. "You sure
you'll be all right with Heather, Gus?"
"We'll keep her entertained." I gave him a smile that I
actually meant.
He nodded. "The first session should be about an hour,
they said. Shall we meet you back here then?"
I started to nod back, but froze when Deena gave a little
sob, dropped to her knees, and wrapped Heather in a hug. "You
be good, Heather," she said, her face pressed into the little
dog's fur. "It's all about being good."
The sleeves of her windbreaker rode up along her arms,
pocked with needle tracks, and I swear I could almost feel the
warmth of her pressing against my cold, dead legs. And before I
knew what I was doing, I was reaching out, touching her
shoulder, looking into her startled eyes when she snapped her
head up from Heather. I swallowed, but anything I might've
wanted to say got lost in the tangle of moss and dental floss
that my nervous system was slowly turning into.
Still, the message--whatever it was--must've gotten through
because she smiled, sniffed, unwrapped Heather, and stood.
"We'll see you guys later," she said. Her father's eyes
shining, too, they both went up the ramp into the big glass
doors of the front lobby.
Heather was leaning so far forward, I don't see how she
didn't topple off onto the sidewalk. "Why??" the little dog
moaned. "Why does she go into that place if it makes her so
sad??"
I touched the fur between her ears. "Because she's the
bravest person I've ever met," I told her.
31 then follows in the ol' progression.
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