The Bear in a Muddy Tutu (16 page)

“Put the fucking gun down,
”
Bagg screamed at
Gates
, who stood dripping swea
t, the muscle cords in his neck twisted in a painful spasm as he fought the Glock’s trigger and the mocking voice of his father.

“It’s just trying to hide!
”
Bagg shouted directly into
Gates’
ear, but there was no change, just
more tremors from
the man
’
s
outstretched arms.

Officer
Norman
Gates
had become a deadly statue, frozen somewhere between a
humiliated
ten-year-old boy in a frigid tree stand and a
pathetic
man unable to squeeze the last ounce of pressure needed to finish the job and stop the unrelenting voice in his head.

Gates
sensed the sudden motion next to him but was helpless
to react. There
was a flash of
black, a glint of light reflecting from
the glass lens, and he recognized the object as the reporter’s camera just as it struck him in the side of the head
,
stopp
ing
his father’s
jeering
voice.

Graceful Gracie woke up in a dark place and was at first relieved to be done with
the
terrible dream. But then she smelled the acrid clean
s
ers and remembered she was hiding from the screaming cars
that
hunt
ed
her.

When she heard human voices behind her,
Gracie cringed and closed her eyes. She tried to wiggle a little f
a
rther into her hiding place, but she was already in as far as she could go.

Even with the harsh
-
smelling clean
s
ers, Gracie could clearly smell one of the
men
hunting
for her now. The entire cabinet had been invaded by his odor. It was metal and oil, and full of heat. It was an electric smell
that
burned inside her nostrils. It was a heavy reek
that
cut through the air like a snake, looking for something to hurt. It was the bad, bad smell of the bad
man
who had trained her to dance.

“Help,
”
Gracie murmured in her bear language. “Please help me.
”

At the sound of
shouting and fright
ening commands
,
Gracie tried pushing even
deeper into
her
hiding spot, her
claws
scrabbling against linoleum and wood. The awful reek became worse and then there was a
heavy
thump
,
followed by what sounded
like
someone
falling
hard onto the floor.
Had one of the men turned on the other? Had they fought over who had the privilege of coming in for the kill? Gracie began to cry, weeping big bear tears as her nose became stuffy despite all the ammonia under the sink.

One
man approached, taking short
steps
toward Gracie. She cringed,
squeezing
her eyes shut in anticipation of kicking or whipping, o
f the terrible beating
to come
. Instead, the man stroked her fur, fingers running gently across the old scars made by the man who had taught her to dance.

“It’s okay, girl,
”
the man
cooed
. His fingers found a good
spot. “I
’m not going to hurt you. You can come out of there if you promise not to eat me.
”

Gracie
stopped crying but couldn’t stop shaking
. She wanted to be back in her cage more than anything in the whole world. She missed her smelly drunk
man
so bad it hurt. If Gracie had paid attention to what the roustabouts had been watching so intently on television one night last week, she’d have been trying to click her heels together three times, repeating the
“no
place like
home
”
line over and over
.

Gracie startled at the touch
of this new
man
and tried
to wedge herself deeper into the cabinet. But all the bark had gone out of his voice,
which
was now low and soothing. The
man
put his hand on her le
ft leg, making long strokes along her
trembling
side and flank
. But Gracie wasn’t sure. What
had
happened to the other one? She thought
s
he could still hear him breathing, but it sounded like he was making snoring sounds from down on her level. Gracie was confused, bu
t the stroking was really nice and
helping
her
to
relax
a little
.
Oh, god, being touched was good.
She wanted to believe this new
man
wasn’t going to hurt her if she came out.
But if staying put made him keep rubbing her like this, maybe she’d never come out.

“C’mon, girl, c’mon outta there,
”
the man
said, sti
ll rubbing
Gracie’s
quivering
hind
leg.
“That cop is going to wake up soon and I don’t think he’s going to be in such a good mood. You have to help me, girl.
”

Not eliciting
any sounds remotely menacing,
the man
moved forward on his knees and squeezed his arm f
a
rther into the cabinet to rub behind
Gracie’s
head, gently coaxing her. “It’s safe to come out, girl. C’mon.
”

Gracie decided to budge. The old bear tried to get a grip on the linoleum floor with her back paws, but they kept sliding. The
man
started pulling behind her left shoulder
so that
she was able to push away from the back of the cabinet with her front paws.

“That’s a girl,
”
the
man
encouraged in his human language. “Here we go!
”

Gracie emerged from the acrid darkness in a sitting position. She looked down at her ruined tutu and
the
tears
began
to well up
again
. The stress had made her very emotional. But this
man
sitting
next
to her seemed to think everything was going to be okay.

“Everything’s going to be okay, girl,
”
he
was saying to her.

Gracie looked beyond the
man’s
shoulder to see the one who was sleeping.
She eyed
the
gun still attached to his
fingers. Gracie knew about guns. The bad
man
who trained her to dance had used one on her. It spit little steel balls at her
that
stung like bees.
H
uman cubs
also
used them to pop the colored balloons to win stuffed animals. She didn’t like the sound of
guns
or bursting balloons. There was nothing good about guns.

“
I need to get you out of here
.
”
The man
looked
around the food prep room, maybe hoping for an answer
to leap out at him
.

The man
showed his hands to
Gracie the way she’d seen new people introduce themselves to the mutt circus dogs.
Gracie
leaned forward and sniffed, then licked
the man’s
right palm.
He
let her lap his hand with her long, scratchy tongue. He reached around behind her ear for a gentle rub and
Gracie
melted
forward into him, nuzzling and sniffing his armpit. “That’s a girl,
”
he told her. “You might be big, but you don’t have any teeth, do you?
”

From behind them came a
single
low groan.

The man
pulled away from
Gracie
, keeping his left hand on her head
,
and struggled to his fee
t. “We have to go right now.
”

Gracie thought this new
man
tasted just fine and liked the sound of his voice. She let him lead her away from her hiding place
. She
was careful not to step on the gun or the sleeping human. She stop
ped
to take a quick sniff
at
the spot on his head
that
leak
ed
blood but decided it wasn’t a bad wound. She had sniffed much worse.

Gracie followed the new
man
past where she’d scarfed down the yummy hotdogs, stopping to take a few quick licks of tasty grease she’d missed before. But this new
man
wanted her to keep moving and tugged her by the scruff of the neck just the way her good
man
did. She was a little nervous about going through the door where she’d heard the bad cars approaching, but it was all quiet now. She could hear birds jabbering away.

“Everything’s going to be okay,
”
the
man
said in human, tugging again at her scruff.

Gracie looked around at this outside world she hadn’t had a chance to see
much of
before. The barking animals were gone except for their meaty scent.
T
wo human faces look
ed
out at her through windows in the back of a shiny, red and white truck. She’d seen those trucks come to the circus and take away hurt humans before. Those two faces were nothing to worry about. The bad car was there, but it was quiet and the flashing lights were dark.

The new
man
led her to a strange little
truck
and made a great sweeping motion with a zipper that opened up a back window. He swung open the back door and clicked a lever to get the backseats to lift forward, then patted a spot for her to climb up
, just like when her
good man
wanted her
to get
inside her cage
.
Gracie knew this meant they were leaving, going someplace far away, and that made her very happy.

But Gracie’s muscles were too sore from the swim and the
escape
from the barking animals. She got her two front paws up, but that was all she could manage.

“I can’t,
”
she said
in bear
to the
man
, looking over her shoulder apologetically. “I can’t get up.
”

The
man seemed to understand
. He
knelt down behind her and put his shoulder into her rear, pushing and grunting. There wasn’t much room, but Gracie’s big old body fit sideways as the
man
swung the back door closed.

The man
rubbed
Gracie’s
ears for a moment and she lunged at him with her long tongue, catching him across the lips when he started to pull away
.

“It’s going to be all right,
”
the man
told
Gracie
, and she tried to lick his face again. He stroked her head once more
and
then walked around to the driver
’s
side door
and hopped
in. Adjusting the rearview mirror,
the man
started
the
little truck
and drove, slowly at first, then sped up as he turned out onto the
smooth road
.

Gracie
leaned out the back, craning her neck as far as she could around the side,
hoping
to catch the wind in he
r nose and flapping lips. She
loved driving, and this
truck
was much faster than the
big one
that
hauled
her cage. It was very green here, and the sun flashed and flickered behind the tall trees
. There were a million smells along this
road
, both old and
new
born
. She closed her eyes and huffed, pretending she was flying.