A Dog's Promise, page 13
I was always at Burke’s side but would often smell Wenling and Grant and see them in the halls. My boy had many friends and they were all very nice to me. “You can pet him, but please don’t give him any treats,” Burke often said. Yet despite saying the word “treats” over and over, no one ever gave me any.
I noticed how stiffly Wenling and Grant spoke to each other, if they spoke at all. There was an odd, unsettled feeling passing between them, and I never encountered them alone with each other.
One afternoon, when the sun was warm in the sky, a car full of girls around Burke’s age came over and they sat on the porch and talked and laughed and gave me treats—a perfect day! The girls reeked with sweetness and flowers and musk. One of them had a scent on her clothes that I instantly recognized as belonging to the mystery creatures that lived in barns and ran from me in such an unfriendly fashion.
Grant and Chase Dad emerged from the direction of the fields and I ran to greet them, wagging. Their hands were rich with traces of soil.
“Hi, Grant!” several girls called, waving. “Hello, Mr. Trevino.”
Both of them came up and everyone talked for a little while. “Leaves are just starting to turn,” Chase Dad finally said, passing into the house. Grant remained behind.
“And where’s Wenling today?” Grant asked his brother.
Everyone went quiet and looked at Burke. He frowned, and I could feel that he was uncomfortable. I went to nose his hand in a reminder that the best way to cheer up is to toss a dog a chicken treat.
“We heard you guys broke up,” a girl said.
Grant cocked his head. “Oh?”
“Well,” Burke said.
“So sorry, Burke,” another girl said.
Burke looked down in his lap for a moment. “It’s not really … we had a fight. It’s not like we’ve broken up.”
“Oh, okay,” a girl said.
Grinning, Grant went into the house. Shortly after that, the girls departed, which meant all treats stopped. I followed Burke as he wheeled into the kitchen. “Thanks, for that, Grant,” he said flatly. “It wasn’t really the moment I wanted to talk about Wenling, you know?”
Grant held up his hands. “Sorry, you don’t keep me posted on your celebrity love life.”
“You know what I mean.”
“What I know is that you’ve peaked, brother.”
“Peaked?”
“As in, you’re only a sophomore and you’re already with the best-looking girlfriend you’re ever going to have in your life. After this it’s all downhill for you.”
“You do know you’re adopted, right?”
Not long after that, Burke and I were down at the pond for duck patrol. Wenling came over on her bicycle and Burke said “I’m sorry” over and over and sounded sad, so I brought him a stick. Eventually Wenling hugged him and they pressed their lips on each other in a long kiss. I chewed the stick into bits.
Grandma sometimes drove us to Wenling’s house and left us there, but she always came back later. One such night I sat in the backseat with my nose up, smelling cheese in the air, though no one was eating and no one gave me any. It seemed to be coming from Grandma’s hair. The car stopped and I did Assist and Steady. “See you in a while!” Burke called.
I did Assist on the front steps and Burke knocked on the door. A loud shout, a man’s voice, came from within the house, and a moment later a woman’s angry yell answered it. I gazed at my boy anxiously.
Wenling opened the door. She was crying.
“My God, Wenling, what’s going on?” Burke asked her.
{ SEVENTEEN }
Wenling wiped at her eyes. “Come in,” she invited. I gave her hand a lick, tasting salt. “My parents are fighting over me.”
“What? Why?” I did Assist and Steady so Burke could climb into his chair.
“My dad says he would never allow me to apply to the Air Force Academy. He says it is out of the question, that he doesn’t want me going away to college, he wants me to live at home and go to school,” she said. She held thin paper to her face.
“At home? Around here there’s just community college,” Burke objected.
The yelling continued, and I pressed up against Wenling’s legs, wishing we could leave this angry place.
“I know, but he thinks I should be here to ‘take care’ of them. Now she’s saying, she’s saying we’ll leave him. Oh Burke!” Wenling’s voice was anguished. I raised my paw, touching her leg. “She says she’ll move with me, get a job, and put me through school.”
“I’m really sorry. Do you want us to go, Wenling?”
“God, no.” Wenling knelt and threw her arms around me and I leaned into her, grateful to be able to be the dog she needed.
There was a loud bang that I recognized as the sound the door makes when it swings shut with force, and then the yelling stopped. Burke and Wenling sat in the backyard, and I sat with them, being a good dog, until eventually Wenling’s sadness left.
Winter was approaching and both the air and the grasses were moist on a day Grant took us for a car ride.
Alone in the backseat, I pressed my nose to the partially opened window, delightedly breathing in the wet leaves that were lying pressed to the ground. I wagged when we passed the goat ranch, and inhaled deeply when we drove over a river. I would gladly have jumped into that water, but instead we traveled to a flat, hard place with small buildings and strange cars tied to the ground.
Wenling was there! I did Steady as Grant held the chair for Burke but then was allowed to dash to her and greet her properly, licking her face when she bent down to me. She stood up, grinning.
“Are you sure you want to do this? Wouldn’t it be more fun to eat some cake or something?” Burke asked as she reached to hug him.
She laughed. “I’m sure.”
She faced Grant and there was a moment of stiff awkwardness, and then he stepped forward with his arms extended. “Okay, hi, Wenling,” he said quietly. They held each other for a moment, then broke apart and both glanced down at Burke, for some reason.
Wenling smiled. “So, you guys ready for this?”
Burke peered at the sky. “It’s a good day to die,” he noted dryly.
“Oh,” replied Wenling, “you’ll be perfectly safe unless we decide to throw you out of the airplane because of your comments.”
“Or even if you don’t say anything, I’d be up for that,” Grant offered.
We wheeled over to a car and met a nice woman named Elizabeth. She briefly gripped hands with Grant and Burke and then held out her palms for me to sniff. The boys’ scents were intermingled with hers.
The inside of the car was small, and Burke left his chair parked outside on the ground. Elizabeth and Wenling sat up front and I sat in back on the floor between the boys’ seats. When the car started it was very loud. I wagged because I was unsure what was happening.
“You’ve done this before, right?” Burke asked. I sensed his nervousness and nosed his hand.
Wenling and Elizabeth smiled at each other. “Never!” Wenling shouted above the noise.
With a lurch, the car roared and I felt us starting to move. An odd, heavy sensation ran through my stomach, reminding me of a time long ago when I was with my mother in the metal den and she had her nails extended to keep from sliding. Burke drew in a sharp breath. “How about if we keep it maybe ten feet off the ground?” he asked loudly.
Grant was grinning. “I didn’t realize you would be doing it all!” he yelled. “I thought Elizabeth would fly and you would just observe.”
“I can’t solo yet but as long as I am with my flight instructor I am allowed to fly the plane,” Wenling advised above the rumble.
“I see Grandpa telling me to move into the light!” Burke called.
It was a boring car ride. Nobody opened a window, and the oily smells were not very interesting. When the noise lessened somewhat, I felt Burke’s anxiety loosen its grip and his hand relaxed on my fur.
“Look,” he said. “You can see how the rivers are formed by little streams and how the lakes all have small creeks flowing into them. The whole hydraulic system is laid out as if someone designed it.”
“Yeah,” Grant agreed, “and you can see how the robo-farms are taking over the entire county.”
I slept, vibrating, but jerked awake when the car hit something and then stopped. We climbed out and Burke lay on the ground and kissed it.
“Very funny,” Wenling said.
“Wenling, that was amazing. You are amazing,” Grant told her.
She lowered her eyes. “Thanks.”
“I mean it.”
Burke asked me to do Assist. The car ride back home was much better because the window was down and I saw a horse running and smelled goats.
Very often in the evenings I would stay home with Grandma and Chase Dad and Grant would drive away with Burke sitting next to him. When they returned, both boys always smelled like Wenling, but the fragrance was much stronger on Burke.
I always paced and passed in and out of the dog door while Burke was gone, until Chase Dad spoke to me sternly. I didn’t know what he was saying, but it seemed clear he didn’t understand that Burke needed to come home. So I was thrilled when, one night, I went along for the ride! We picked up Wenling and drove to a building and talked to a man who had been standing in a doorway waiting for us. He wore a hat and smelled like burning leaves.
“Any one of you twenty-one years old?” the man asked.
Grant and Burke and Wenling glanced at one another.
“Thought not,” the man said.
“I’m seventeen,” Grant volunteered.
“Cooper is twenty-one!” Burke said brightly. I wagged.
The man in the door had a stick in his mouth that he now took out and held between two fingers. It was such a tiny stick that if he threw it I decided I wouldn’t even bother to go try to pick it up. “Sorry, kids, we got a policy.”
“Our dad is Chase Trevino,” Burke said. “We just want to hear him play.”
The man eyed us silently for a moment. “We got a manager’s office upstairs with an open window, but I don’t know how you’d get up there,” he drawled. He gestured with his little stick toward Burke’s chair.
“I can get up there if Cooper helps,” Burke assured him. I wagged.
I did Assist up some very narrow and steep steps, Grant carrying the chair behind us, and then we were in a small room. It was noisy because people were talking in big voices and then it became even noisier, the building filled with such strong vibrations that the walls hummed. Wenling and Grant started jumping around and Burke was nodding his head. I yawned, wondering if this was my new life: I would go with Burke and Wenling and Grant to small places and then it would be very loud. Would Elizabeth arrive next?
“He’s really great!” Grant exclaimed with a grin.
Though I could sense that everyone was excited, as far as I was concerned this was about as interesting as watching ducks swim around in the pond. I eventually sprawled myself out in front of Burke’s chair and fell asleep.
Assist down those stairs was difficult, but I moved very slowly and then did Steady so Burke could slide into his chair. I started wagging because I smelled Chase Dad, and a moment later he was standing in front of us.
“I’m a little surprised to see you boys here. Hello, Wenling.” He reached down to pet me and I licked his hand, tasting salt and cheese.
“We wanted to hear you play, Dad,” Burke explained.
“You are really good,” Wenling said. “The whole band is.”
Chase Dad cocked his head. “Sneaking around is never the way to go about being an honest adult,” he finally said. “You could have asked me.”
“We knew you would say no,” Burke objected.
“It was my idea, Dad,” Grant offered.
He nodded. “If I had said no, you’d be in trouble, so you didn’t ask. You parse your arguments the way you build your models, Burke. Be careful where that takes you.” He looked at Grant and Wenling. “I hope we didn’t ruin music for you.”
There had been a tension between the humans that I only noticed now, as it left. They all chuckled. “I need to get back up there for another set. Head on home and I’ll catch up,” Chase Dad said.
We left but Chase Dad remained. Out on the sidewalk, Burke encountered some people whose smells I recognized from being in Grant’s building. Wenling and Grant went and sat in the car while Burke talked and laughed with his friends. I wagged, but other than a few halfhearted pats on my head nobody paid any attention to me and none of them had treats in their pockets. Bored, I went to the car door and Grant opened it for me without otherwise paying attention. He was twisted and facing Wenling in the seat next to him.
“How could you even suggest such a thing?” Grant was asking. He seemed upset. I wagged uncertainly.
“She’s nice,” Wenling responded.
“No, I mean how could you say it, when I told you how I feel about you? For you to try to fix me up with one of your friends is like spitting in my face.”
Grant turned and faced the front and didn’t react when Wenling reached out and lightly touched his arm. He seemed tense and angry and moved briskly to put Burke’s chair in the trunk when I was allowed to do Steady.
Burke ran his hand down my back and I wagged.
Grant started the car. “You are always leaving me alone with your girlfriend,” he observed tightly. “Maybe someday we will forget and drive off without you.”
No one said anything and I could sense that Wenling was tense all the way to her house, where she slipped out, opened the back door to give me a hug, and also hugged Burke.
“You know what I wish?” Burke said as we drove off. “I wish that just once Dad wouldn’t make a lesson about everything. If he was pissed, okay, but instead I get a moral lecture.”
“This whole thing, like if we see him playing in his band, we’ll think he’s going to move away, like Mom? Is that it?” Grant asked Burke.
“It’s like he’s ashamed. Like if we see him having fun, it means he’s a bad father. Or bad farmer. Or something,” Burke replied.
“It’s psycho,” Grant said hotly.
“So says the man who keeps trying to kill his brother,” Burke observed.
Grant made a disgusted noise.
The next morning was one of those days when we didn’t go to Grant’s building. Wenling came over and she and Burke went down to the dock. “Was your dad mad?” Wenling asked.
“He’s a hard person to figure out sometimes. Most of the time. He has this code of conduct—it’s all bound up with being our father, and running the farm, and my mom leaving.”
They were silent for a while. “So was it weird? Going out as just friends, last night,” she asked softly.
“Did you think it was weird?”
They were silent some more. A duck flew in from overhead and landed with a splash right in front of me. I eased to the end of the dock and glared at it.
“No, actually I thought it was fun,” Wenling said. “I mean it doesn’t feel much different being broken up than when we were dating.”
“You and me and Grant and Cooper, like any other night,” Burke agreed.
They smiled at each other, but I could tell that Wenling was sad.
On the way up from the pond, I saw the slinky barn animal! I dashed toward it, and it ran into the barn where I knew I could catch it. Except when I burst in the open door, I couldn’t find the thing. My nose told me it was up above me somewhere, up where Chase Dad and Grant sometimes climbed up. Why didn’t it want to play with me?
When we arrived back at the house, Chase Dad and Grandma were in the living room, sitting next to each other with tense postures. I wagged, not sure why they were afraid. Burke and Wenling stopped in the middle of the room. Burke was staring. “What’s going on?”
Grant came down the stairs and halted. “Hi, Wenling.”
“Hi, Grant.”
He looked at everyone. “What happened?”
Chase Dad held up a hand. “It’s not bad. No, just the opposite. Dr. Moore called. He’s happy with what he’s seen in your latest X-rays, Burke.”
Wenling gasped. I noticed Grandma was crying and went to her.
“So…,” Burke said slowly.
“It’s set for Christmas break. You’re going to have your operation, son.”
{ EIGHTEEN }
Grant was the first to react. “So you’re fifteen and you’re as tall as you’re ever going to be,” he snorted.
Chase Dad frowned. “Really, Grant? That’s all you’ve got to say?”
Grant’s grin dropped. He gave Wenling a look, and then glanced away.
“It is true?” Burke asked softly.
“Is what true? What Grant said? No. You could still grow a touch. I guess they just feel you’ve mostly reached adult size. You’re taller than I am, Burke.”
Burke licked his lips. “No, I mean, that I am going to have my surgery. Is it really true?”
We had many nights after that when Burke did not sleep much. I sensed he was anxious and afraid and did my best to do Steady in bed, lying there next to him and offering him all the support I could give.
“What if it doesn’t work, Cooper?” he whispered to me in the dark.
I licked his hand.
I was perplexed when Chase Dad and Grant moved the couch out of the living room and in its place put in an upright structure that had rails like the ones Grandma held when she went up the stairs, except these didn’t slant up or down. I was very suspicious of the thing. It reminded me of the ladder lying on the floor of the barn, except there were no rungs and it was almost as high as Grant’s shoulders. In the corner they pulled and twisted on a machine with cables and lead plates until, panting, they stood back and looked at it. Grant sat on a low chair in front of the machine and pushed pedals and the metal plates glided up and down, clanging. I sniffed it and found it utterly unremarkable except for the fact that my bed was now across the room and the couch was out in the barn. Whatever they were doing, they were certainly causing the dog of the house a great inconvenience, though I later discovered I could lie on the couch in its new location and no one told me to do Off.
