Dennis Yates - Red Mountain

He pulled into the vet’s parking lot and slid out of his pickup. When he heard Nugget’s barking coming from an opened window, warm tears filled his eyes and he wiped them away before going inside.

CHAPTER 5

They sat in line at a fast food drive-through. Robert had ordered two cheeseburgers and a coffee for himself and two cheeseburgers for Nugget. She sat on the passenger seat next to him, her chocolate eyes deep with concern. Normally she’d be grinning like a silly happy kid, trying to contain her excitement.

She dipped her gray speckled nose under Robert’s hand, forcing him out of his current daze. He rubbed the top of her head, played with her floppy gold ears. Nugget flicked her tongue affectionately against his wrist.

“I know girl… I know you’re worried about me.”

Nugget stopped licking, scooted closer to his face and stared into his eyes.

“I’m going to get them back. I don’t care what happens to me. They’ll still have you to protect them.”

The car ahead finished collecting its order and drove off. Robert eased up to the window and paid for their food. A teenage girl with braces smiled when she noticed Nugget sitting next to him. She handed him a bag and a cup of black coffee, did her best not to stare too long at Robert’s black eye.

“Cute puppy,” she said.

“Thanks.” Although she was in her early teens, Robert could still see his own child in her sweet smile. Perhaps it was the freckles and the slight over bite. Whatever it was, it made him hurt.

“She’s not really a puppy,” he said, wondering why he wasn’t driving away. “She’s actually much older than she looks.”

“Really? How old?”

“She’s about four years younger than my son. Connor’s nine and a half.”

“What’s her name?”

“Nugget. She was mostly gold and black when we first got her. But she’s getting more silver every year now.”

“How’d you come up with a name like that?”

“My wife and I were traveling in California. Thought it might be fun to try and pan for gold in this shallow river. An old man who’d rented us the pans said we might get lucky, but we didn’t find a single speck in two hours. Then when we were about to leave, Nugget shows up out of nowhere, scared and hungry. We couldn’t just leave her behind. The old man said he had no idea who she belonged to, never saw her before.”

“Wow…” the girl said, obviously taken by his story. Nugget was usually a big crowd pleaser whenever he took her out in public. He always found it ironic, since she could turn into one hell of a wolf if she sensed her pack was in any danger. The personality she displayed now was what he fondly called her “Disney” side, and Nugget had learned from experience this was the best way to soften up strangers for treats.

Someone honked from behind, startling them both. Robert stared nervously into the rearview mirror. In a fogged-up minivan he made out a haggard looking woman in her early thirties. Three young children appeared to be in the throes of fast food withdrawal, jumping up and down in the backseat and screaming.

“I better not hold her up,” Robert said.

The girl leaned out the window to have a look. She turned to Robert and grinned broadly. “You know what mister? I think when I get old I’m going to stick with dogs.”

“You take care, young lady.”

“Thanks. See you next time, Nugget.”

After Robert pulled away, he found an empty place to park. While Nugget thumped her tail in anticipation, he set down his coffee. He pulled the contents out of the sack and picked out the two burgers minus sauce he’d ordered for her, unwrapped them and set them on the seat. It took her thirty seconds to inhale them both, buns and all. When she finished licking the wrappers, she looked up at him and smacked her mouth.

“Didn’t like the hospital chow?”

Nugget cocked her head, but he could see that her eyes were secretly narrowing on the unwrapped burger sitting next to him.

“Forget it, girl.”

She let out a snort, and when she concluded there wasn’t going to be any chance of seconds she turned her attention to some seagulls fighting over a soggy bag of fries. Robert watched also as he ate his second burger and gulped his coffee. When he saw a patrol car cruise by from behind, he glanced down at the floor to be sure the handgun was out of sight.

The patrol car stopped several spaces to his right. Two officers got out and headed inside, laughing. Robert quickly finished his meal and drove off.

****

Mt. Tabor was partially fog-hidden when he arrived at the entrance. Instead of driving up the road that took you to the crater of the extinct volcano, Robert pulled over and parked as soon as he found an empty shoulder on the two lane road.

Nugget stared excitedly out the window, hoping to spot the usual squirrels zipping between trees. Robert popped the glove compartment and got out her leash. She looked at it unhappily as he clipped it to her collar.

“You know the rules. You can’t eat the wildlife.”

Nugget feigned innocence. But he knew better. Once, when he’d forgotten to put on her leash right away, she’d caught a squirrel no more than five seconds after jumping out of the car. So strange it was, that both he and the dog were surprised when it happened. It seemed as if the poor animal had run purposely into her jaws. He’d yelled at her to let the squirrel go, knowing that it was pointless to try and stop her. And when he’d finally gotten close enough to try and intervene, she’d whipped it back and forth until its neck snapped, just as she’d practiced on his leather slippers while still a pup.

Before they left the truck, he slipped the handgun into a dark plastic bag and tucked it into his jacket.

There was no one around at the moment, except for some runners coming down the road far away.

A light mist was falling, and Robert breathed in deeply. He loved coming here whenever he could to inhale the forest air. After giving up smoking and allowing his acute sense of smell to return, he was amazed by the variety of scents he encountered. It was like he’d awakened part of his boyhood again.

The woods smelled strongly of decayed leaves, fungi and moss. As Robert walked Nugget along a narrow path surrounded by maples, he caught himself imagining Peggy and Connor next to him in the early fall, with engine puffs of steam coming from their mouths while they talked about what they saw along the way.

He recalled an autumn morning when the four of them had encountered a whole gallery of intricately woven spider webs sparkling with frost. Connor was excitedly pointing them out, forcing them to stop at almost every step. He soon discovered if he positioned himself with his back to the sun, the ice particles on the webs would appear iridescent, almost magical.

That’s when you finally stopped being afraid of spiders, wasn’t it kiddo?

Robert’s throat ached as he forced back another wave of scalding tears. He swallowed hard and took several deep breaths. Except for the painfully twisted nerve wirings in his shoulder, his body felt numb and bloodless. It made him feel as if he were floating up the trail rather than walking. Nugget came to a halt to sniff a fungus-covered tree stump. Her leather leash dug into his palm.

“Who’s been here?” He asked.

Nugget leaped up and set her front paws on the stump’s edge. There were piles of chewed up pinecones covering the top. She’d found a squirrel’s dining table. But then something pulled her attention away. She stopped sniffing and cocked her head sideways.

Robert soon understood what she knew. After a few moments, he heard the familiar crunch of gravel as someone came down the trail. He peered up under the dense evergreen bows. On the switchback above he saw a flicker of red.