Рита Браун - Tail Gait

Reaching the door, she rolled down one window, cut the motor, hopped out, and pushed open the glass door.

“Snoop.”

Crouched against the wall, he stood up. “Mrs. Haristeen.”

“Come on, let’s get out of here. You’ll have a dog and two cats to contend with, but it will work.”

Once Snoop climbed in, she drove out, Mrs. Murphy on her lap, Pewter between Harry and Snoop, and Tucker, heavy though she was, on Snoop’s lap.

Reaching the ticket taker in the booth, Harry unrolled the window, leaned way out to give the lady the ticket. As she’d been there less than ten minutes, the lady waved her on, none too happy about her arm now being wet.

The rain pounded on the Ford’s roof.

“You okay?” she asked.

He nodded. “Before the storm, I don’t know the time but before shops open, early enough, maybe seven-thirty or eight, the Huber truck parked in the lot, the guy came down looking for workmen. I said I didn’t want to work. He pressured me a little, said they had repairs to do because of the earthquake. Didn’t want to go. Picked up three men and left. Not ten minutes later the paving truck came down. Same story. I said I didn’t want to go. Dunno. Don’t trust any of those guys. You know?”

“I can see why.” She stopped at the stoplight at the top of the hill, the statue at the intersection barely visible.

“How’d you call me?”

He pulled a thin cellphone from his pants pocket. “Made enough to get one. A cheap one, but it works. After our talk, I thought I’d better have one. What if something went wrong when shops are closed? I think a few of the people down on the mall would let me use their phone. But I need my own.”

“I’m taking you home. You’ll be safe there. I’ll call Deputy Cooper and inform her.” She thought to herself she’d better inform her husband, too.

“I can work.”

“Good,” Harry replied.

It took her an hour to reach the farm, the waters in creeks and streams at the top of the beds but not over them yet.

Everyone was soaked running from the truck to the house.

“I need a dryer,” Pewter complained in the kitchen.

“Go roll on a rug,” Tucker told her.

As that wasn’t a bad idea, both cats did.

Harry took Snoop into the basement, where a small room contained a shower, a bed, a dresser. She never used it, but sometimes if Fair had a late night and was particularly dirty, he’d shower down there.

“Snoop, clean up. There’s a disposable razor in there and I’ll put fresh clothes at the top of the stairs.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.”

By the time he came up, shaved, in clean clothes that hung on him, as Fair was so tall, he smiled, for Harry had made lunch.

Pewter, fur spiky, sat next to Harry, for she could smell the chicken.

Feeling like a human being again, he finished his sandwich.

“Did the work-crew bosses say what the jobs were?”

“No. Only that there was damage. I don’t want to be out there. I don’t know if they were looking for me exactly, but they knew where I was.”

“How long before they know he’s here?” Tucker sagely commented.

May 11, 2015

Lilac scent filled the air. A soft breeze gently touched the spring-green leaves of trees, causing a slight flutter. A high spring day almost guaranteed to lift spirits.

Harry, Cooper, Snoop, Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker piled into Harry’s Volvo station wagon. Although retained for driving people in comfort, it had racked up a lot of miles over the years. The animals had special car beds in the back but preferred to leap over the seatbacks to sit in available laps.

They drove in silence until reaching Crozet. Passing through, they stayed on Route 810, which was getting built up like the rest of the county.

“Turn right,” Cooper directed.

Harry bumped along a gravel road.

“Whoo.” Mrs. Murphy felt a big bump.

Pewter sat up to look out the window. “Potholes. Guess they don’t want people coming down the road.”

Pewter was right, they didn’t. Up ahead a white clapboard farmhouse with gable windows and maroon shutters awaited them. Parked in the simple driveway rested a van with a big painted blue water drop on it but no writing.

“Here we are.” Cooper got out quickly as a burly man opened the farmhouse’s screen door. “Hey, Riley.”

The porch stairs shook as he stepped down. “Deputy. Who’ve we got?”

“Snoop, like I said when I called.”

Snoop stepped out of the station wagon, as did Harry. The dog and cats looked and listened, for Harry partially rolled down the windows.

Riley grew up here and knew Harry, and vice versa. “Hello, Harry.”

Riley worked for the sheriff’s department. “Snoop, you’ll be safe here,” Harry reassured him.

Snoop smiled but said nothing. He wanted a drink. He wanted to stay with Harry, but he understood the wisdom of a safe house. He’d try to stay on the wagon.

“We go around in that van, which looks like an old plumbing van. We don’t draw attention to ourselves and most of the time you’ll be here. But if there’s a baseball game you want to see or something, we try to do it. Put you to work. It’s not bad and the food’s not bad either.” He laughed. “I’m proof.”

Harry, sensing Snoop’s worry, reassured him again. “You’ve got my card. You’ve got your cell and I’ll come by. Snoop, we hope this gets resolved quickly, but until then, you have to be kept in a safe place with someone who knows how to protect you and others.”

“Who else’ve you got?” Cooper inquired.

“Only one other guest.” He smiled when he said guest.

“All right, then. Snoop, you’re in good hands.” Cooper spoke to Snoop and then to Riley. “Good to see you.”

Harry reached for Snoop’s hand, squeezed it, and whispered, “It will be okay.”

Bumping back down the road, Harry said, “I feel bad leaving him here.”

“You can’t protect him.”

“Yeah, I know, but he’s a lost soul.”

“All drunks are lost souls.” Cooper, having arrested, handcuffed, and hauled in plenty of aggressive drunks during her years of service, figured they did it to themselves.

“Ever pick up one who froze to death?”

“Not yet. Ever notice how many miserable people there are in the world?”

“Can’t say that I have, but then you’re in a profession that deals with them.”

“Yes, I am. I never thought of that when I went into law enforcement. I thought I would be helping people.”

“You do,” Harry insisted.

“Sometimes.” She avoided one pothole but hit the other, strategically placed. If you avoided the one on the right side, you were bound to thump into the one on the left.

Pewter raised her voice. “Let’s get out of here.”

Harry smiled. “We’re getting an editorial comment.”

“You have no idea what I’m talking about,” Pewter complained.

“If I were you, I’d be grateful,” Tucker said.

“Coop, let’s drive down to The Barracks. We’ll be coming in from the opposite direction. Maybe we’ll see something or think of something we’ve missed.”

“ ‘We’? You’re on the case now?” Cooper held on to the armrest on the door. “Damn, this road seems longer on the way out than the way in.”

“It does. Ever notice how distances seem longer at night?”

Cooper nodded in agreement. “Sure. Let’s go on down to The Barracks.”

Farms along the way, houses closer to the road, caught the eye as lilacs, dogwoods, tulips bloomed. Especially lovely were lavender lilacs interspersed with the white.