Dog Whisperer (2 page)

Their neighbors, the Peabodys, were down in Florida—they were retired now, and spent at least half of the year there—so they had missed the storm entirely. But, a couple of days earlier, Emily's father and one of their other neighbors, Dr. Henrik, had gone over and closed all of the shutters, and put tape on the windows, and moved the lawn furniture into the garage, and that sort of thing.

Emily and her father walked—well, her father
limped
—around the Peabodys' house, while Zachary wandered along behind them, wagging his tail and playing with sticks.

“Does it hurt?” Emily asked.

Her father shook his head. “No, it's not so bad. I guess it's a little uncomfortable, maybe.”

It probably
did
hurt a lot, since she had seen him wince a few times, but he was moving along pretty well, at least.

For the most part, everything at their neighbors' house looked okay, but they found a wheelbarrow that had blown up onto the porch, and the mailbox was just plain
gone
. Then, as they rounded the corner of the house, they saw that a bunch of tree limbs had fallen onto the Peabodys' garden, and crushed a lot of the plants.

Above them, some of the trees were creaking loudly as they swayed in the wind, and her father glanced up.

“I think we'll have to see how soon we can get a tree surgeon to come out here and take a look,” he said.

Emily laughed. “They're actually called
surgeons
? Do they have to go to special schools and everything?”

Her father thought about that. “I assume so. But, I don't actually know,” he said, and took out his iPhone so that he could look it up on the Internet. “Oh. Right,” he said, and then sighed and put it away, since no one in town had had any cell phone service for
hours
now.

“It's totally weird not to be able to get on the Internet,” Emily said.

Her father nodded. “I hope we get our service back soon, because I am
definitely
going through withdrawal.”

Emily was, too, actually, especially because she hadn't been able to check her email for—wow, more than a whole day now! She started to say something, but then stopped, sensing that her dog was alarmed a split second
before
she saw him straighten up, looking very alert. She wasn't sure what was bothering him, until she heard the creaking sounds above them turn into a loud
cracking
sound.

A massive tree limb had just broken off—and it was going to hit her father!

 

2

“Dad, look out!” Emily yelled.

Her father glanced around in confusion, just as Zachary slammed into him at top speed and knocked him off his feet and into a pile of wet leaves. Before her father could even open his mouth to protest, there was a loud whooshing noise, and then, a
huge
branch crashed onto the ground right where her father had been standing a few seconds earlier. The branch was so big and heavy that the ground actually
shook
when it landed.

“Wow,” her father said, and blinked. “That was—wow.”

“Are you okay?” Emily asked nervously.

Her father nodded, picking himself up and brushing off wet leaves. “I'm fine. It didn't get anywhere near
you
, did it?”

Emily shook her head. “No, I'm okay.”

“Good,” her father said. “Let's hope I didn't break the
other
ankle.”

Emily stared at him.

He grinned at her. “Sorry, bad joke.”

Whew. Emily gathered up his crutches, and used her sleeve to wipe off the wet leaves and dirt from them.

Before taking his crutches from her, her father reached over to pat Zachary on the head. “What a good dog you are. Thank you!”

Zack wagged his tail, and then held up his right paw.

“Um, does he want me to shake it?” her father asked uncertainly. He had never had a dog before in his whole life, so a lot of the things Zachary did still pretty much
baffled
him.

Emily shook her head again. “No, he got a lot of mud stuck in his paw, and he really hates that.” She bent down and carefully cleaned away the mud from between each toe, and off his claws, and Zack wagged his tail in response.

“There are times when I really think you two read each other's minds,” her father said.

The honest truth—and the most complicated part of her life these days—was that she
could
read Zachary's mind, sort of.

Sort of exactly.

She didn't understand it, but ever since the night she had found him, the two of them had been connected, somehow. When he was hungry, she felt hungry. When he was sleepy, she started yawning.

And when someone—
anyone
—was in trouble, she would find herself helping them somehow.

It was completely cool, and had totally changed her life, but sometimes, the whole thing seemed overwhelming, too. She hadn't been able to figure out a good way to tell her parents yet, so the only people who knew about it were her best friends, Bobby and Karen.

“Is his paw okay now?” her father asked.

Emily realized that she was still holding Zack's right paw, and she carefully lowered it to the ground. “Yeah, he's fine now,” she said, although she checked his left front paw, too, just to be sure.

“Well, let's go get him a special reward treat of some kind,” her father said, maneuvering his crutches so that he could stand up again.

Emily instinctively pictured a box of dog biscuits, and Zack must have been paying close attention, because he barked a happy bark. She didn't understand why the two of them could send each other images, and instantly understand them—but, they could, and they
did
, constantly.

When they got inside, her mother was impressed, and distressed, when she heard about the tree limb that had fallen. She patted Zachary on the head and gave him two biscuits, which he carried over to the rug near the kitchen door. Then, he flopped down to eat them, chewing noisily.

Apparently, the telephone and electrical wires were down all over Bailey's Cove, and it looked as though they weren't going to get their power back anytime soon. But, they had plenty of flashlights and some battery-powered lanterns for light, and if they needed more, they had a bunch of candles, too. The water was still running, but the town was advising that people either not drink it, or boil it for a few minutes, first. Luckily, her parents had bought a lot of bottled water before the storm hit, and they had filled up a bunch of plastic containers with tap water, too. Both bathtubs were also full, and Emily assumed that was water they could use for washing, since the idea of
drinking
it wasn't really all that appealing.

With the power off, her parents were afraid that all of the food in the refrigerator and freezer was going to spoil. As a result, they had decided to finish off as much as they could, and throw away the rest. If the power came back in the next twelve hours or so, they could probably save some of the stuff in the freezer, but judging from the amount of damage to the telephone and electrical poles outside, that didn't seem likely. Besides, her birthday cake was tucked away inside the freezer, and she would have been kind of disappointed if they didn't get to eat it on her actual birthday.

So, they had an unusual supper of bottled water, sliced tomatoes, carrot sticks, bananas, cheese, crackers, peanut butter, and rye bread. Emily had been a vegetarian for about three years now, so that was all fine with her. But, her father didn't look particularly excited about his dinner, and she had a feeling that he might open a can of ravioli or chili or something later and eat it cold.

“Not exactly the birthday supper we had in mind,” her mother said, serving each of them some yoghurt with cut-up fruit mixed in.

No, they had been planning to create a big feast of homemade Mexican food. They were even going to make a couple of different kinds of fresh salsa, and everything.

“It still all tastes good,” Emily said.

“We can make up for it, as soon as the power is back,” her father promised. “And we'll drive into Brunswick or down to Portland or someplace tomorrow, and find a nice fancy dinner somewhere.”

“And we can still cook Mexican food soon, right?” Emily asked. She'd been particularly looking forward to the part where they were going to roast chipotle peppers, and grind their own cumin, and all.

“Absolutely,” her mother said. “Maybe that's what we can do when your grandparents get here.”

Since the local airports had closed because of the hurricane, her grandparents had to postpone their trip. Originally, they had been planning to be there on her birthday, but now, they were hoping to come up next weekend, instead.

Emily nodded enthusiastically. Her grandparents on her father's side lived in New York, and usually liked to order in food every night, instead of cooking on their own. But, she knew they would be happy to make an exception in this case.

When they were finished with their supper-that-felt-more-like-an-afternoon-snack, Emily went into the den, so that her parents could get the cake ready without her watching. When they called her back in, there was a chocolate cake with chocolate-chip ice cream filling and frozen mocha whipped cream for frosting, waiting for her on the kitchen table. Her name was spelled across the top in brightly colored M&M's, too.

Her parents sang “Happy Birthday” to her, and then, Emily blew out the candles with one burst of air—twelve blue candles, with one to grow on.

“Happy birthday!” her mother said. “Do you feel any different now?”

“
Very
old,” Emily said. “And mature.”

Her father nodded. “You look so mature, that I might not even have recognized you.”

Since the cake wasn't going to last very long with the freezer off, they could eat as much as they wanted, which was fun. It was melting pretty quickly, but still tasted great.

Josephine jumped onto the table and tasted the whipped cream on the cake—which made Emily's father cringe a little. He did his best to be comfortable around their pets, but for him, it was still a very long work-in-progress.

“Don't worry, we'll cut off that part, Theo,” Emily's mother said.

He nodded emphatically. “We'd better, yeah. To be safe.”

Emily never worried much about cat
or
dog germs, but it would make her father shudder if she reminded him of that.

Before the storm hit, they had bought a special battery-operated emergency radio, which was designed to pick up weather reports. But, they also had an old AM/FM radio that also used batteries, and after supper, they went into the den to listen to the Red Sox game.

It was dark out now, but her mother had set up two of their lanterns, too, and the den felt nice and cozy. So, they played Monopoly for a while, and they also had their e-book readers.

Of course, they could read
actual
books, if they wanted, but the light was pretty dim.

They listened to the baseball game, until it was over, and the Red Sox had, unfortunately, lost
again
.

It was very quiet in the room. Josephine was on Emily's lap, purring, and Zack had climbed up onto the couch next to her. Her father was in an easy chair across from her, with his ankle propped up on some pillows on the coffee table, and her mother was in the antique rocking chair.

“It's been an awfully long day,” her mother said. “I think it's really time for all of us to get some sleep.”

It
had
been a long day, and none of them had gotten much sleep the night before, inside the hurricane shelter.

Still, this seemed like it might be a good time to talk to her parents, while it was so quiet and there were no distractions. They couldn't turn on the television, none of the phones were going to ring, and their computers weren't working, so there weren't going to be any outside interruptions.

The mood in the room was nice and relaxed, and Emily didn't want to change that. But, she had a huge question she wanted—and needed—to ask. A question she had been
waiting
to ask for hours. She was afraid to bring it up, though. She patted Zack, trying to make up her mind.

“What?” her father said. “You look very worried.”

“Is it okay if I ask an important question?” Emily asked. “I don't want you guys to be upset.”

Her parents both shrugged.

“Sure,” her mother said. “Why not?”

Okay. After all, her parents always said that she could talk to them about
anything
, so maybe they wouldn't mind her bringing this up? Emily took a deep breath. “Did both of you know my mother? Like, as a friend, not a stranger? My birth mother, I mean?”

For a minute, it was completely silent in the room, and then her parents exchanged uneasy glances.

Wait, did that mean that it was
true
? Emily stared at them.

“Who told you that?” her father asked.

Did it matter? And wasn't the important part that her parents, who
should
have told her, didn't? “I know it's true,” Emily said, “and I feel like you guys should, you know, tell me about it.”

It was very quiet again.

Her father sighed. “We don't know very much, Emily. We really don't.”

“But, you know a lot more about it than I thought,” Emily said.

Her parents exchanged glances again, and then nodded.

“So, can you tell me about her?” Emily asked.

Her mother let out her breath. “I guess this conversation is long overdue, but—well, it's complicated. Are you sure you want to get into it tonight? Maybe we could wait until tomorrow morning, or—”

The longer they waited, the more tense they were all going to be. Emily shook her head. “I'd really rather do it tonight. I mean, I know you guys are tired and everything, but—” She was feeling guilty now, so she decided to stop and just concentrate on patting Zachary.