Read an Excerpt
Chapter 1
Just No Fun
Retching, I spat the last of breakfast into the tissue Darcy held to my mouth. My mouth felt like I’d been eating sand, and my throat burned. Would this torture never end?
Darcy wiped my mouth and stroked my head, sadness darkening her blue eyes. “Poor little dog. I’m surprised there’s anything left in your tummy. Being car sick isn’t fun, is it?”
No, it isn’t. I tapped my stubby tail on the seat to show how much I agreed with her.
She caressed my neck, sending golden hair flying onto her cheeks. “Poof. Your fur tickles, you little fox face, you.”
Bending she whispered in my pointed ear, “I’ll tell you something else that isn’t fun, Belle. Moving across country. I’m going to miss Auntie Ellen.”
I pushed my black muzzle against her arm and sniffed, detecting dead leaves, the aroma of sadness instead of her usual happy lily of the valley scent.
“But,” she continued, “I don’t think I’ll miss Uncle Jim. We can think of leaving him as a good thing about moving to New Mexico.”
Yes, we can. I nuzzled her face. (Uncle Jim despised animals and put Auntie Ellen’s dog, Painter, and her cat, Misty, outside with a ‘git.’ He kicked my butt more than once when I didn’t jump out of his way.)
But Auntie Ellen loved me and Darcy’s other dog, Buster. I already missed her as much as Darcy did.
In the front seat, Darcy’s father, Bob, flexed his large hands on the steering wheel. “A lot of nothing out here, that’s for sure.” The scent of dust mixed into his normal odor of shaving cream and ink jet printers.
Darcy’s mother, Margaret, switched on the radio. Static grated my ear drums.
Buster stuck his head out the window. Lucky he could do that without getting sick. If I stood up, I’d barf again.
Margaret turned off the radio. “I think we have a big adjustment ahead. We’re not in Illinois anymore.”
I sniffed her to gauge her mood. Usually she smelled of lily of the valley like Darcy. Today Margaret was wilted lily of the valley.
Lifting my head from Darcy’s lap, I looked out the window at land that seemed to fill the world with grass and pebbles. Rocks jutted into a sky empty except for the sun. I thought its heat would fry me. No wonder Margaret had wilted.
Panting and drooling, I glanced at Buster. How was he managing with his black coat?
He stood enjoying the wind, his Irish setter fringe fluttering on his legs and tail. He’d gotten that fringe from his mother.
“Rabid skunks,” I said to him on the dog channel. Only canines could hear it. “How much longer is this trip?”
Except to draw his head back through the window, he didn’t move the solid Labrador Retriever body his father had given him. “Bob told Margaret we’ll get to our new den today.”
A shiver ran from my nose to my tail. “Thank dog heaven there’s nothing left in my stomach.”
“Think about something nice to forget your belly.”
“Okay. I hope I can do dog agility wherever we end up.” I put my head back on Darcy’s lap.
“I’m sure you can. Stop worrying,” he replied and stuck his head out again.
“We herding dogs need jobs, otherwise we get in trouble.” I sighed and closed my eyes.
I didn’t need to remind him. I’d grown up wild in a barn with no discipline. Darcy and Auntie Ellen rescued me from that life, and offered me a chance to be a pet, though I had no idea how to be one. During the last cool time when the leaves turned gold, I’d dug out of Darcy’s yard, knocked over waste baskets, and lured Buster into the creek by Auntie Ellen’s house, getting his long hair filthy. Together, we knocked over the grill grate, spewing ash across the lawn.
Margaret and Bob wanted to give me to a farmer, so I could have a job herding cattle and stay busy, but Darcy begged to enroll me in 4-H dog agility to teach me discipline. Because she, Buster and I loved each other, and I had gotten top marks in basic obedience school, her parents granted her request.
During the cold time and the flowering time, Darcy and I worked together. I performed so well jumping fences and running on dog walks that her parents let me stay with them.
Now I must use the discipline I learned in agility by learning to fit into a new place. I wondered how hard that would be.
The car lurched. Bracing my feet against Darcy’s leg, I forced my thoughts to find something else nice to focus on. How about Misty, and Painter?
With her fluffy coat, Misty resembled a white lion. Sadness made my eyes burn. I shook myself. Why was I even thinking about her? Who’d play with a stupid cat that grabbed my favorite ball and raced around agility weave poles with it? Bones, I would. I had. Trying to snatch the ball back, I’d learned how weave poles worked. I’ll think of you, Misty, if I ever do agility again. I’ll miss both you and Painter.
Orange, blue, brown, and black splotches speckled Painter’s smooth white body. He smelled earthy, like the terrier he was. An image of Auntie Ellen’s yard popped into my mind. Bright bobbing flowers, paw-tickling grass sloping to a creek. Painter and I often raced on its banks while Buster wallowed midstream catching branches and turtles.
Pressing closer to Darcy, I whimpered. Buster turned and nuzzled me. Thank dog heaven he was here.
Darcy rested one hand on my neck and held a folded paper with the other. “Here’s Appleton.” She tapped the page. “According to the map, it’s in the Four Corners where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah touch.”
Was our new town called Appleton? Fine, as long as I could get out of this flea bitten car soon.
The vinegary odor of worry mixed with the dry leaf smell on Darcy as she folded the map and stuck it into a pocket in the car door. “It’s going to be weird walking into a strange school.”
Margaret reached across the seat and took her free hand. “I’ll feel the same way walking into a strange job, when I find one.”
“I hope my new school has a soccer team and a chorus,” Darcy sighed.
I licked her hand. All of us had things we hoped for in this new place—things that might or might not be. All of us but Bob, that is. He knew he’d be installing computers, and he loved that as much as I loved liver flavored dog treats.
Patting me, Darcy stared at the back of her father’s head. “Dad, why couldn’t you have waited until I went to college to change jobs? It’s so brown here, it’s like another planet. I wonder if Mars looks like New Mexico.”
“According to what I’ve read, Mars may look very much like New Mexico,” Bob answered turning to her, a grin lighting his broad face. Mischief crackled in his brown eyes before he faced the windshield again.
Margaret squeezed Darcy’s fingers. Someday, Darcy would be tall and strong like her, but with Auntie Ellen’s small nose, mouth, fair skin, and heart-shaped face, instead of Margaret’s prominent features.
Margaret let Darcy go. “There’s a town in New Mexico called Roswell with little green aliens on its lamp posts,” said Margaret. Amusement flickered in her brown eyes. “Maybe they’re Martians and you can ask them what Mars looks like.”
Darcy put her chin onto her palm. “Meeting a Martian might actually be cool,” she said and smiled. “The desert is pretty in a way.” She rubbed my shoulder. “Oh well, at least I’ll have you, Belle.”
I leaned against her, letting her sun colored tresses tickle my face. Yes, I’ll be here for you, no matter what.
The car slowed, and Bob pointed through the windshield. “There’s Appleton,” he said, and pushed damp brown hair back on his head. “We’ll be home in two clicks of a computer tech’s mouse.”
Darcy, Buster, and Margaret leaned forward. Easing to my feet, I put my chin against Margaret’s shoulder to steady myself, and stared at our new town.
Either side of the highway, brown dens seemed to rise out of browner earth. Sunlight flashed off gray metal barns with trucks and tractors in front of them, and people clustered in front of little white food burrows with giant hamburgers on top.
Gagging, I dropped back onto the seat beside Darcy.
The air stank of left over French fries and the special water that made cars go.
Darcy heaved a long sigh and smelled of dried leaves. Bending, she whispered in my ear, “Is this dump ugly or what?”
Closing my eyes, I nuzzled her and braced my ears against the snarl of what Darcy called an 18-wheeler rumbling up behind us. Rabid skunks! If I heard one more of those, my hearing wouldn’t be worth fleas.
But before the roar could deafen me, we slowed further, and turned. The truck’s thunder vanished. So did the stench of greasy food and water for cars.
I caught my breath, smelling and hearing nothing for about as long as it takes to sniff and pick up a dog treat. Then, I smelled green leaves, grass and fresh water. Shadows cooled my face. Had we left the highway for a quiet street? Maybe one with houses on it? I longed to stand up and look, but my stomach swayed like a branch in the wind.
Darcy sat up. “Trees! Lots of them. They have apples and peaches. Look at the pretty houses. Whew! I was scared for a minute. The edge of town looked like the moon.”
Bob and Margaret laughed, and Buster thumped his tail against the back of Bob’s seat, as the car turned once more, and stopped.
“Here we are,” said Bob. “Let’s look around. The moving van will be here any time.”
With a turn onto the nice street, this trip was over. Thank you, dog heaven.