Depart the Darkness

by Melissa R. L. Simonin

  I bit my thumbnail as I looked at Miles out of the corner of my eye.

  He and Trixie were looking at each other. He looked disturbed, and she looked patient. And rather pious.

  Suddenly he laughed.

  “I’m glad to hear you won’t complain when Anika and I have children,” he said, and laughed again as he rubbed his forehead, and rolled his eyes a little. Then he turned the subject in the direction of the service dog training center, which Grandma Polly wanted to hear all about.

  Lunch was delivered from one of our restaurants in town. We ate together as we continued to catch up, and catch Polly up, on our latest encounter with the darkness. We told her all about our plan to help Phillip and his family. She knew that because of our earlier phone conversations, but now that we were together, we went into detail.

  “It’s just terrible what they’re doing to that family,” Grandma Polly said, her eyes snapping. “I’m inclined to agree with Xander and John.”

  “Miles did get the HOA involved, and they took care of the guys who were following Phillip and watching his family,” I reminded her.

  “Yes, well that Dillon and Jadon could certainly afford to be taken care of,” she said spiritedly. Then she calmed slightly. “I know that the Bible says to repay good for evil. I’m quite certain a strong beating would do those two a world of good!”

  I choked a little on my water, and Miles managed to hide a smile as he patted me on the back.

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Grandma,” was all he said.

  Miles removed our empty plates, and I passed out dessert. Grandma Polly’s feather’s unruffled a bit, and we got back to our planning.

  “And when will your friends arrive, dear?” she asked Miles.

  “Tonight. That will give us all day tomorrow to prepare for the Edmunds’ arrival.”

  “Jenny has the menus written,” I elaborated. “Susan, her mom, has the ingredients waiting for her and Xander to pick up from the store on their way here, and John and Annette have a list of errands to run tomorrow. She’s putting together a Valentine’s Day gift basket with gift certificates for meals in town, the movie theater, and other entertainment options. They’ll provide activities for the kids, too, so that Phillip and Lorna are free to reconnect as a couple. They really need that.”

  “It sounds wonderful,” Polly said approvingly.

  “More than anything, I hope we’re able to help their family get back on track,” I said, and Miles nodded.

  “To accomplish that completely, we need to know what Phillip is being threatened with, and by whom.”

  “It won’t take Anika long to find that out,” Polly said. She sounded proud, and that filled me with pride, but in a humble sort of way.

  “No, it won’t,” Miles agreed, smiling as he squeezed my hand. “With the answer to a simple question, she’ll know everything Phillip does.”

  “Will that be enough, dear?” Polly asked me.

  “It depends on what Phillip knows,” I replied.

  “Phillip may not know all,” Miles said. “But, at the very least, what he knows will illuminate the next step. To find the truth, one step at a time is all we need.”

  Chapter 14

  Before we returned to Glen Haven and the Lodge, the head trainer at the service dog training center would assess the service dog pups. But first, we had some assessing of our own to do. So after lunch when Polly took a nap, instead of doing the same, we tucked the puppies into the room beside our own. One day it would serve as a nursery for our children, but for now it was available, and the perfect place for our puppies to rest while we were away.

  “Warm enough?” Miles asked, as I adjusted the heating vents on our SUV.

  “Yes, just fine,” I replied. I looked around us at the world of white as we followed the mountain road. Instead of driving toward Cedar Oaks, we were headed the other direction, toward the Bannerman Foundation’s service dog training center. Or it would be, anyway, once it was up and running. We were glad to have an opportunity to check on its progress.

  “Are there any buildings left to complete?” I wondered.

  “No, not since the plans were based around the campground’s existing structures. I’m thankful the owners were willing to sell, otherwise we wouldn’t be nearly this far along.”

  “I can’t wait to see it in person. Photos aren’t satisfying enough.”

  “It won’t be much longer. Look, there’s the sign.”

  “Very descriptive,” I said, as we drove through the open gate and underneath the sign on which was written, Service Dog Training Center.

  “You think? I hope it’s enough to keep parents from dropping their kids off for summer camp.”

  “Probably,” I laughed. “That, and the lack of summer camp advertising.”

  Miles smiled, and parked our vehicle in front of the office. As I waited for him to open my door for me, I looked around.

  The office’s exterior resembled that of a log cabin, as did the surrounding buildings. Steps led to the porch which stretched from one end of the office to the other. Plate glass windows stood on each side of the wooden door, which bore the word Office.

  Several yards away, stood the large two-story building which housed the training center, meeting rooms, and guest lodging. On the other side of the private road was the dining hall and laundry facilities. Further down, several small cabins dotted the landscape. The vet clinic and dog dorm stood in the center.

  Miles opened my door and offered me a hand, then we walked up the steps to the office. He knocked briefly, then opened the door and we stepped inside.

  “Mr. and Mrs. Bannerman!” a friendly-looking middle-aged guy greeted us, stepping forward to shake hands. “It’s great to see you!”

  “How are you, Rick?” Miles smiled, and so did I.

  The inside of the building smelled of fresh paint and new flooring. A counter, likewise new, spanned one end of the room. On one side of it was the office equipment, ready to be put to use. On the other were chairs in which to sit while waiting.

  “I’m doing great, thank you,” Rick smiled. “As you can see, we’re coming along.”

  “It’s looking good,” Miles said, glancing around like I was doing. “The pups will be ready to begin training in another three and a half weeks. Will the training center be ready for them by then?”

  “Yes,” Rick said, and looked a little nervous.

  Not because it wouldn’t be ready. It would. He was telling the truth.

  That wasn’t what made him nervous. I didn’t have to ask what did, or gain the information through supernatural means. It wasn’t hard to figure out. Rick, the training center’s director, was wondering how he’d break it to Miles, the executive director of the Bannerman Foundation, that his pet dog’s puppies weren’t service dog material.

  Rick had no idea how special their mother was, or how special they were. He needn’t be nervous about that.

  But if he suggested breeding Trixie for more pups…

  That was something to be nervous about! I felt nervous about it myself. I made a mental note to tell Rick never to do that. Never.

  Ever.

  Ever.

  And if they didn’t already, they better come up with a better term to use when referring to female dogs. I made a note to tell him that, too.

  It suddenly registered that Miles was leading me toward the door, and I snapped out of my thoughts. Rick was going to take us on a tour, and it looked like that tour was about to begin.

  “We have sufficient staff, so that isn’t a problem,” Rick said. “Those with experience will oversee those who are fresh out of training. Instead of finding volunteer homes for our canine trainees to spend their first year of life, they’ll stay here.”

  “How will they learn what a normal life is like?” I wondered.

  “The pups will live with the trainers themselves, rather than in a kennel,” Rick answered. “There will be frequent outings to socialize the pups and provide exposure to t
he ordinary and not so ordinary distractions which they may encounter as working dogs.”

  “It’s great there were cabins already here,” I said. “Will everyone live on site?”

  “The option is available,” Rick replied. “All of our experienced trainers, including some of our newly trained, were recruited from out of town.”

  “Understandable, considering the size of Cedar Oaks,” Miles commented.

  “Yes, and…” Rick sounded like he had a question. “It’s… interesting… that those who required training had no previous experience.”

  “It makes sense that anyone without experience would require it,” I pointed out, even though I knew that’s not what he meant.

  “You may also find it interesting that we looked outside of Cedar Oaks for those recruits,” Miles said.

  “Yes. I have wondered about that,” Rick admitted.

  “Rick, I’m going to level with you,” I said, realizing after I said it, that I probably just scared my husband. “We do take past experiences into account when hiring. It’s worth it to offer training when we find the right job to fit the person.”

  I confused the poor man even more.

  “Sometimes we search for the right person to fit the job,” Miles clarified. “Sometimes, we search for the right job to fit the person.”

  Rick looked surprised, which wasn’t surprising.

  “How are our new trainers coming along?” I asked. Or pointed out.

  “Excellent,” Rick said.

  “Would you say highly motivated to succeed?” Miles asked.

  “Yes,” Rick answered.

  “Are they naturals, would you say?” I wanted to know.

  “That’s what I’ve been told by their individual instructors,” he said, looking at us sort of funny. Like in awe or something. Either that, or he was scared now. Who knew what these crazy rich people might do next.

  He wasn’t scared though, or in awe. The look on his face was the dawning of revelation.

  “You gave them a chance,” Rick said slowly. He still looked at us funny. “Maybe a second chance.”

  “Some of them, yes,” Miles said. “We have confidence that they won’t let it go to waste.”

  Rick nodded and glanced away, then back at Miles.

  “I won’t either,” he said.

  “We know you won’t,” Miles said seriously. “That’s why you’re here.”

  “And lest you should get too humble on us, never forget that this training center needs you as much as you need it,” I admonished him. “So… how do you train the pups? How do you start?”

  Rick pulled himself together at this question, and his equilibrium was restored.

  “We’ll use what’s known as operant conditioning,” he replied. We reached the main building, and he ushered us inside. “To put it simply, we’ll teach them what to do, rather than focus on what not to do.”

  “How in the world is that going to work?” I wondered. “I can think of all sorts of things I wouldn’t want a dog to do!”

  “Name one,” Rick said. Enthusiasm filled his eyes now.

  “Okay… if I leave my plate on the coffee table, I don’t want to come back and find it licked clean. Or licked at all.”

  “Then we need to start locking up the cats when we eat,” Miles said, which made me laugh, and Rick too.

  “They’re horrible!” I said, although really, the truth was… they’d like to be. Miles often employed force fields where they were concerned, creating a peace in our home that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

  “Believe it or not, cats can be trained using this same method. But in the case of your dog, you’d teach the ‘leave it’ command to prevent the undesired behavior in the first place.”

  “I use that command,” I replied. “But I’m telling Chip not to do that.”

  “Did you train Chip yourself?”

  “Yes,” I answered. “I enrolled us in a class.”

  “What method of training was used?” Rick asked.

  “It was a mixture of correcting bad behavior and rewarding good,” I said.

  “What we’ll do instead, is to replace bad behavior with the desired behavior. In this case, we want Chip to ignore any food not given to him. To train that, we would reward him for looking away.”

  “If he wasn’t trained, he wouldn’t look away,” I said with certainty. “There would be nothing to reward.”

  “Not if we put temptation in front of him too soon,” he replied. “That would come later, as part of a training session. First we would create an association between a clicking sound, and a food reward. The dog hears a click, he gets a treat. When he makes that association, we begin to reward any step toward the desired behavior with a click. ‘Watch me’ is the first command we’ll teach the pups. During training sessions, which are kept brief, the pups will be watching their handlers because they hold the almighty clicker, which signals good things to come. So it isn’t difficult to build on that. They’re already looking at the handler now, waiting. Instead of rewarding for that, we want the pup to focus on the handler’s eyes, not the clicker or treat bag. Any upward eye movement toward the handler’s face results in a click, and a reward. They figure out quickly what they have to do to get that click.”

  “Why not just reward?” I asked.

  “Because pressing the button on a clicker is immediate. The click signals exactly what is being rewarded. Once they’re consistently doing the desired behavior, we give it a name. ‘Watch me.’ At that point we only reward the behavior when it’s in response to the command. When that happens, they’re rewarded big-time. Lots of treats, and praise.”

  “The pup learns to drop everything at the sound of the command,” Miles summed up.

  “Because here’s his opportunity to get a treat,” Rick nodded. “Training sessions are kept distraction free in the beginning. Gradually the dogs become conditioned so that they give the desired response automatically. A point comes when ‘watch me’ or ‘leave it’ will stop a dog in its tracks if it’s in the middle of chasing a squirrel. Ultimately, the squirrel itself will trigger the desired response. The squirrel triggers ‘ignore.’ A plate of food triggers ‘ignore.’ Crumbs underneath a table at a restaurant trigger ‘ignore.’ A child holding out an ice cream cone triggers ‘ignore.’ It takes a lot of training sessions to get there. But we’ll get there.”

  “That’s cool,” I said, kind of getting it now. There was a lot I still didn’t understand, but that was fine. For everything I didn’t understand, or Miles didn’t understand enough, we had an expert who did.

  Rick showed us through the buildings. We enjoyed seeing where the service dog pups would play games, have fun, and learn to assist persons with disabilities. There were both casual, and more formal meeting rooms. Guest rooms were available for service dog recipients, who would require training themselves. It would never do to hand someone a leash and leave it at that. A two-week training camp would take place before our hard-working working dogs would be sent forth with their new handlers. By the end of that two weeks, both would be prepared.

  The cabins were small, but more than ample for a single person. Or a couple that liked each other as much as Miles and I did. A couple could like each other a little less, and still have enough space.

  Once again, I was thankful for the chance to take over—purchase, rather—a campground with buildings already on the ground. It would make all the difference to some of our trainers that the center offered furnished lodging. But, if the cabins weren’t already there, and in need of a designated purpose… we might not think of including that in the plan for the center. It all worked out perfectly.

  As we neared the building that held the vet clinic and dog dorm, the door opened and a guy stepped out. He looked preoccupied at first, but smiled and waved when he saw us.

  “How are you, Mack?” Rick called to him, waving back. Then he turned to us as we continued to walk toward the building. “This is Mack, one of our more experienced train
ers.”

  “We’ve met,” I informed him.

  Of course we met! We wouldn’t hire a trainer we didn’t, any more than we would an accountant.

  Wherever Mack was headed, he put it off for later and waited on the steps for us.

  “Good to see you again,” Miles said, as the two shook hands.

  “It’s great to see you both,” Mack smiled. “What do you think so far?”

  “We’re favorably impressed,” I replied.

  “Would you care for a tour of the building?” Mack asked, motioning to the door behind him.

  “Sounds great,” Miles said. Mack opened the door and held it, then followed the rest of us inside. The smell of lumber and fresh paint met us.

  “It looks brand-new,” I commented.

  “It practically is,” Mack replied.

  “Insulation was put in and drywall installed in this building as well as the others,” Rick added.

  “Good,” Miles said approvingly. “The original structures weren’t built with winter in mind.”

  “No, it was great for summer camp,” Rick agreed. “Not for occupying year-round, though.”

  “Especially the cabins,” I said. “How did the pipes keep from freezing?”

  “The cabins were primitive before the Foundation purchased the camp,” Rick answered. “There were no pipes to freeze. After renovation began, heating units were installed around the same time as the plumbing. We were ready for cold weather long before it hit.”

  “When do you expect the other trainers and the rest of the staff to arrive?” I wondered.

  “Any time between now and March 4th,” Rick replied.

  “Orientation will take place the 5th and 6th,” Mack added.

  “Just in time,” Miles said.

  Rick looked nervous again, but Mack was interested.

  “I understand you have some candidates for us,” he said.

  “We do,” Miles replied. “Seven goldens.”

  “After we finish the tour, you and Rick can follow us back to the estate and meet them,” I said.