Paul Kohler - The Borrowed Souls, A Novel

I stepped back, flipped on the light switch, and fully took in my surroundings. I noticed that the puppy was in fact a beagle. And now that I could see him more clearly, he looked to be maybe a few months old.

“Come here, pup,” I said as I knelt down in the middle of the room. I remained still for several minutes before the he turned and looked in my direction. “Come on,” I said as I patted my leg.

Like a bolt of lightning, the puppy shot forward and tried to jump up and nip at my face, barking and howling the whole while.

“Hush, now. You’re gonna wake the family,” I said, hoping it wasn’t already too late. I grabbed him, shuttled him back into his sleeping crate, and relatched the door. The howling didn’t subside though, and I knew it would only be a matter of moments before someone would come barging in to check on the little guy.

I stood up quickly and leaped for the light switch. No sooner had I done so I heard the floor creak just outside in the hallway. I sprang back from the door just as Katie, Noah’s daughter, burst into the room, followed closely by Tim, Noah’s son.

I wasn’t sure how our bodies would interact in such close quarters, so I froze. After a quick moment, I changed my stance. I didn’t want to cause the two kids to accidentally bump into an invisible being, so I climbed up on the countertop next to the washer. I sat there and watched the kids kneel close to the pet cage, slipping their fingers through the wire-framed door, touching the puppy’s soft fur coat.

“Do you think we should let him out?” Tim asked anxiously.

Katie, being a few years older than Timmy, nodded thoughtfully. “I think we can, but just for a minute. We don’t want to wake Mom and Dad.”

With a flick of the metal latch, the door sprang wide and puppy sprang from the cage once again. Once out, he bolted toward the door. Luckily, Katie was able to kick it shut just seconds before he could make it out of the room.

The puppy stopped and barked a few times, then howled loudly. Being in such a confined space, the echo in the room was grating.

“Hush!” Tim screamed, but the puppy continued to shriek. Katie sat on the floor and began to pet him, from the top of his head to the tip of his tail. Within moments, the puppy’s howling began to subside as he was placated by the attention. Just when I thought it was going to be okay, the puppy looked up at me sitting on the counter and it started all over again. He began his yip-like barks at first, running to the base of the cabinets and trying to jump up, before the full-on howling continued. Thankfully, the kids couldn’t see me. I figured the only way I could possibly calm the ruckus was to remove myself from the situation. I vanished and a moment later popped back into the living room, where I was alone once again.

“Shit,” I mumbled. “That complicates things.” By now the sunrise was nearly complete, and the rays of light that came through the window were strong. I sat down on the faded leather sofa and contemplated my predicament. The noise from the yelping dog down the hall was subsiding, but I knew it would only start up again once they let him out into the rest of the apartment. How was I going to continue to follow Noah around if that little dog raised hell every time I was around?

No sooner had the thought crossed my mind than the bedroom door clicked open and Noah stepped out. He had donned his bathrobe and wore a look of complete displeasure on his face. He headed straight for the laundry room, to the source of the early morning distraction. A moment later Ashley sauntered out and into the kitchen. Within minutes she had begun to make breakfast.

The glorious smell of coffee filled the air, and I had a moment of a craving so uncontrollable that I almost stood up and walked right into the kitchen to pour myself a cup. But like most people in the world, coffee makes me poop, so I forced the desire from my mind. Instead, I tried to figure out what it was about that dog the seemed… off. In the past month or so, hadn’t I been around other animals? Hadn’t they all ignored me like every other person that I’d come into contact with?

As I shuffled through the last four weeks’ activities in my mind, I was slow to notice Noah come back into the living room. He was carrying the puppy and was trailed by his two kids. Before I could react, the dog started to howl almost instantly. It was clear that they were going to take the pup for a walk. Noah stopped in his bedroom first to dress. Unfortunately, he failed to close the door all the way, and the dog nosed his way out, back into the living room.

YELP YELP YELP!

Before I could stand, he was jumping up on my legs, trying to get onto my lap. I looked at the kids, who just stood in the center of the room, watching the dog.

“Kids, don’t let him get on the couch. If we want to keep him, he’s going to have to be trained,” Ashley said, coming into the living room. She walked up to where I was sitting and bent down to pick up the puppy. Before she could get ahold of him, he bolted out of her grasp and began to circle the coffee table, barking and yipping as if playing a game.

Normally I would have found the scene quite comical, but at the moment I needed to think. And to do so I needed some quiet. Noah was in his room, dressing, and the kitchen was relatively open to the rest of the flat. I decided to just jump to another, unoccupied room of the apartment and go from there. Katie’s room was the first to come to mind, and a second later I was standing at the foot of her bed.

“Ah, finally. Peace and quiet,” I said as I sat at on a wooden trunk in the corner of her room.

“ Squawk . Peace and quiet,” came a scratchy voice from the adjacent wall. I nearly jumped out of my skin, but I saw no one.

“Hello? Who’s there?” I asked as I moved to the center of the room for a better look. Upon further investigation, I was certain I was alone. There was nobody else in the room but me.

“Hello. Who’s there. Squawk, ” came the voice from beneath a sheet on the dresser.

I moved toward the sheet and lifted the edge slightly. As I peeked underneath, I saw a colorful bird perched on a wooden bar at the middle of the birdcage. The bird locked its beady eyes onto mine and bobbed its head a few times before speaking again.

“Who’s there?” it said, stepping sideways along the bar.

“Are you kidding me?” I asked. Was I suddenly doomed to a nearly impossible job?

“Who’s kidding. Squawk! ” said the bird, raising his volume several decibels. Before I knew it, Katie came running back into the bedroom and right up to the bird’s cage. She pulled at the sheet before tossing it to the floor.

“Good morning, Baxter,” Katie said.

Baxter continued to bob his feathery head as he twisted it about, scanning the room beyond his wire-wrapped prison.

“ Squawk . Morning.”

Then, all of a sudden, the room became much more cramped as the rest of the family came rushing in.

“Hey, is Baxter talking?” asked Timmy.

“Yeah, he started it a few days ago,” Katie said.

“ Squawk . Talk.”

Along with the presence of the entire family, the puppy followed. The moment he came in, he bolted right for me. This time, though, I was prepared. I was about to leave the godforsaken house for the morning anyway, and popped out just as the dog got near.

I reappeared on my park bench. Thankful to be away from the sudden and unexpected madhouse, I leaned back and considered my situation. There was something about what Hauser had said earlier that continued to stay with me. Other items ?

I pulled the rosary from my pocket to reexamine it and focused on each bead as I pulled it through my fingers. There had to be something about the chaplet that had helped Wilson along. Perhaps I needed to chant something. But what? Maybe some kind of prayer? I smirked. Perhaps I should have listened to my grandmother’s urging and attended Sunday school after all.