Heaven Sent Rain

by Lauraine Snelling

  Dinah. It had been a few days since their celebratory dinner, and he hadn’t heard from her. But why should he expect to? Jonah was coming by to paint with him this afternoon. In just a couple weeks, they’d have Julie for backup, and he might be able to cut out early. That would be nice.

  He pulled out his phone and instructed, “Call Taylor.”

  No answer. He glanced at the screen. So no one was home to pick up her landline. She wouldn’t be at her office, would she? “Call Dinah.”

  The receptionist, April, answered.

  “This is Garret Miller. Surely you’re not working there on Saturday!”

  Pause. “Dr. G, my caller ID tells me you’re at your clinic. Do I hear the pot calling the kettle black?”

  He laughed. “You do. Is Dinah available?”

  Another pause. “May I ask you a favor?”

  “Certainly.”

  “Two favors, actually. I have a bit of a problem. Well, actually, a pretty big problem. Could you please pray for me to make the right and best decision?”

  “Of course. And God knows the situation, right?”

  April giggled, a sort of audible smile. “He does. And Dinah needs extra prayer. Jonah’s been having nightmares, so she’s not getting enough sleep, and she has her own FDA nightmare to deal with. Say, do you know any good lawyers who handle something like an FDA problem?”

  “I’ll ask around. I might. If not a friend, a friend of a friend. We have a couple lawyers in our church.”

  “Thank you. I’ll put you through.”

  Dinah answered and greeted him.

  “Barring emergencies, I should be out of here a little early. Is Jonah with you?”

  “In the back room watching television. He’s been looking forward to this, that’s for sure.”

  “We have not talked yet about Mutt’s pregnancy. I’d like to X-ray her to make sure the pregnancy diagnosis is correct and how big any pups are.”

  “I’ve been avoiding that whole issue. It’s not avoidable, is it?”

  “No. I’m afraid it’s inexorable.”

  “Just another cupful in my ocean of things to not avoid. Call when you leave there and I’ll have Jonah ready for you.”

  “Thank you.” He thumbed the End Call button and studied the wall. How had she sounded just now? Tired. April said no sleep. Harried. And defeated. This hotshot CEO sounded defeated.

  But then the next client was a super feel-good case, a little Cavalier King Charles spaniel that had accidentally been stepped on. Garret removed the cast today and the dog bounced around the room without a limp, fully recovered. Then Mrs. Porter’s Abyssinian cat with an advanced case of mange was growing new hair just fine. Tigger, one of the cutest cocker spaniel puppies known to man, sailed through his shots and checkup with flying colors.

  Despite the rough morning, Garret was still smiling when he entered the break room at two. He buzzed Amber. “I can leave now, right?”

  “You better get out of here quick, while it’s quiet.”

  He left out the back, calling Dinah as he went.

  They were waiting in front of the Extraburger as he pulled to the curb.

  “Hi, Dr. G!” Jonah bounced into the back seat.

  Dinah stepped back and waved. “Have fun.” Her smile did not quite reach her eyes.

  “You can come if you like. Have you ever painted?”

  “No, but I’m not an artist. Besides, I need to get some work done.”

  He waved again and pulled out into traffic.

  From the back seat, Jonah asked, “You live far away?”

  “No, but farther than the clinic. Have you ever drawn a basset hound?”

  “No. But I saw one once. They have long ears.”

  “And short legs.”

  “How come?”

  “They are hunting dogs and can dig or go under brush and trees to get their prey.”

  “Oh. What are your dogs’ names again?”

  “Soandso and Sam, the yellow Labs. They’re rescue dogs but probably full blooded.”

  “What’s rescue dogs?”

  “Rescue is when a dog or cat doesn’t have a home, so you take it in. Or a horse. There are farms that rescue horses.”

  “Like Dinah rescued me?”

  Garret paused at the last light in town. “Uh, no. Not like you. You were loved, and you are still loved, and Dinah is taking care of you. You weren’t just cast off. Thrown away, like rescued pets.”

  “Why did someone throw your dogs away?”

  “I have no idea. That person made a big mistake, because these are some of the best dogs anywhere. I know they’ll be happy to see you.”

  Happy didn’t begin to describe the way they greeted Jonah, yipping and jigging and licking the moment Jonah got out.

  “Enough!” Garret finally said as he led the way to his studio. Apparently the dogs didn’t think it was enough yet, so he yelled at them and they backed off.

  “Where is your cat?”

  “He’ll come out when he’s ready. Cats don’t usually welcome company like the dogs do.”

  “Shut up!”

  Jonah’s eyes widened. “What was that?”

  “You ever see a macaw up close? A macaw is one of the largest of the parrot family; certainly has the longest tail. Come in the sun room and meet them.”

  “Hello.” The hyacinth macaw sidled down his horizontal perch for a better view.

  Jonah stared at the huge blue bird. “He talks.”

  “Hello.”

  “He won’t stop until you answer.”

  Hesitantly, Jonah said, “Hello.”

  The bird cocked its head. “Cute.”

  Jonah giggled. “What’s his name?”

  “He is Side Car, and the other one who was squawking when we came in is Orinoco. That’s why Side Car yells ‘Shut up.’ He wasn’t yelling at us, but at Orinoco.”

  Jonah looked over at the big flight cage. “More birds?”

  “Finches, canaries, and a pair of lovebirds. The lovebirds have a nest again, with three eggs in it.”

  “How come you have all these birds?”

  “I like birds.” Garret turned around. “You ready to paint, Sport?”

  “Why do you call me Sport when my name is Jonah?”

  “Because when I was your age a favorite uncle called me Sport. It’s sort of a general name for any guy kid.”

  “Oh.” Jonah followed him into the studio. “Then I guess it’s okay.”

  Garret waved an arm toward the glass wall. “I set up an easel your size and one for me.” He had moved the three problematic easels to the far wall and covered them. He was still not sure why he hadn’t just left them out.

  He settled on his stool and was glad he had guessed the right height for Jonah’s seat. “There are many kinds of painting surfaces—Masonite, illustration board for instance. I like gessoed canvas. So let’s start with canvas.”

  Jonah ran his fingers over it. “It really is canvas.”

  “Yes. With a sort of thin, white plaster painted over it. I thought we’d paint with acrylics today. Another time maybe we’ll try watercolors or oils.” He picked up a palette from the table between them. “All these paints can be used if you like. And these will be your brushes. You have to clean your brushes well, or they will get hard and not be any good anymore. I’ll show you how when we’re done for today. What would you like to paint?”

  Jonah shrugged. “A picture of Mutt?”

  “Mutt is not easy to paint because her hair goes every direction. What if you started with Soandso or Sam? They’re only one color and they’re short-haired.” He nodded to where the two lay by the chair, jaws between their front legs, watching everything the two humans did. “Now, the first step is to draw what you want to paint on the canvas. I have some pictures you can look at, if you want. I do that a lot of times.” He pulled open a file drawer and drew out a folder to lay on the table. The pictures were of both dogs in various poses. “How about sitting like this? Use
your pencil lightly.”

  He took a pencil and drew a few lines that quickly became the form of a dog.

  Jonah watched him, stared at the picture, then drew, but shook his head and quit.

  “Let me show you what I used to use.” Garret flicked on his old camera lucida, laid the picture on its bed, and flashed the picture on the wall. “Now you go hold your canvas in the light and I’ll make the dog fit. Then you draw around what you see.” He moved the black box back until the dogs looked right.

  Jonah sketched around the projected image and when he returned to the table, his eyes were dancing. “Could we do that with one of my drawings?”

  “Good idea! We could, and we will another time.” Garret took an inch-wide brush, dipped it in paint, and started on the background. “Since I am just going to paint the dogs, not with trees and sky and such, I choose a neutral color to start with. ‘Neutral’ means not sock-you-in-the-eye.” He held the palette in one hand and the brush in the other.

  Jonah picked up a palette. “Like Side Car and Orinoco are not neutral.” He mimicked Garret’s motions, perched at the shorter easel. “Can I put blue in there, too?”

  “You sure can. Go ahead.”

  Jonah dabbed at first, then made bolder strokes, gaining courage as he went. “When can I do the dog?”

  “Anytime. I just like to paint the background first. What color will you use for the dog?” Garret stepped back and returned to the easel. “If you want to make a color lighter, you add white to it. If you want to make it darker, you add that gray or the black or sometimes just another deep color, like purple or blue.” He mixed the colors on his palette and applied samples to a paper.

  “So if I take yellow and mix with white it will look more like their color?”

  “Yes. And then if you want some darker, you add Payne’s gray like this. You can use this to show shadows. Like, see where there is shadow between the front legs and the chest?”

  Together they mixed and made samples. Jonah grinned at Garret. “This is fun!”

  “Glad you think so. One of the neat things is that if you paint something and you don’t like it, you can paint over it until you get it the way you want. And you can make it look three-dimensional this way. Here, let me show you on a box.” He quickly drew a box shape showing the front, the top, and the side, then painted the top light, the front medium, and the side dark. “This is how you show shapes and shadows.” Using brush and paint, he made a round ball.

  Jonah stared at it, picked up his brush, and did the same. “It looks round.”

  “You did well. Keep plenty of paint on your brush.”

  Jonah played with the shapes awhile, then turned his attention to the easel and studied it. He painted the dog a medium yellow. He added dark in the shadowed areas and light on the top of the dog’s head. “Ah, no.” He looked to Garret. “How can I erase it?”

  “What did I say before?”

  “Paint over it.”

  Garret grinned. “Hey, I want something to drink. What would you like?”

  “Orange soda?”

  “I have that. Wrap your brush in this and we’ll go get the drinks.”

  Jonah followed him out and pointed at the kitchen clock. “It’s past five.”

  “Oh my gosh, I was having so much fun I didn’t watch the clock. We better get our brushes cleaned up. We’ll have to finish those paintings another time.”

  “Next Saturday?”

  “If you like. Maybe even sooner.” He handed Jonah a cold can. “We can drink and clean up at the same time.” He dropped his brushes into soapy water. Jonah was good at copying actions. He was also good at understanding why they did what they did. Garret showed him how to hang the brushes to dry.

  Jonah took a swig of his drink as he stood in front of his easel. “This is better ’n’ crayons.”

  “Glad you think so. But we might try the colored markers sometime, too.”

  Garret led Jonah out to the SUV and opened the rear door. “Should we stop for pizza for supper?”

  The boy hopped in. “Sure. Can I call Dinah?”

  Garret handed him the phone as he got in. “Just say ‘Call Dinah.’” He twisted the ignition.

  “‘Call Dinah.’ Hey! It’s doing it. That’s so cool!” He chatted a moment, hung up, and handed the phone back over Garret’s shoulder. “She says pizza is fine.”

  When Jonah became quiet after that, Garret looked in the rearview mirror to see if he had fallen asleep. Jonah looked at Garret’s reflection looking at him. “Teacher said at Sunday School that if I believe in Jesus, I get to go to heaven. Like Mommy did, huh?”

  “Yes, that’s what the Bible says.”

  “Dr. G, I really want to see my Mommy again. I want to be with her.”

  “Ah, Jonah, how I wish you could be, too.”

  “When I die I get to be with Mommy, right?”

  “That’s right. But that will be a long time away.”

  The kid lapsed back into thought.

  Now what to talk about? Garret asked, “What did you do at Grandma Trudy’s yesterday?”

  “I drew the picture for Judge Henny and started one for Mr. Jensen. And she made cookies, so I helped her.” He paused. “But I miss school. How come I have to stay out so long?”

  “Sorry, Sport, but those are the rules. Having a knife at school is way against the law.”

  “I won’t do it again.”

  “Good.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  This is overkill. Three kinds of pizza.” Dinah had relaxed considerably since they had settled themselves at her kitchen table, the pizzas in front of them. She transferred another ham-and-pineapple slice from the box to her plate.

  Garret chose an Italian sausage. “In the next couple days, I’d like to X-ray Mutt, see what’s going on in there. Very short visit; step in, do it, step out. You don’t even have to meet with a vet. Jason or someone can snap the pictures and we’ll call you later.”

  Jonah was still working on his three-cheese special. “Can I see the pictures? Please?”

  “This early in her pregnancy; the puppies’ bones are not really calcified, and they don’t show up well on an X-ray. Little gray blobby things, not real puppies. We could do an ultrasound, but that’s very expensive. Not worth the cost. But sure, Sport. If you want to see blobs, I can email the X-rays to Dinah for you.”

  “She has to be spayed.” Dinah lifted her coffee mug, looked in it a moment, and set it down again. “Can you do it now?”

  Garret crossed over to the coffee maker and brought the pot. He poured for her and warmed up his. “It depends; another reason for the X-ray. There’s a cut-off point, so to speak, a point when the puppies are too far advanced in development for the operation to be safe for the mother. If they’re still as small as we think, yes. We can spay her now. Jonah, if she became pregnant the night she was chewed up, the puppies are still tiny. But if it happened before then—Did she ever get away from you before that night?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “When? A long time? Days? Weeks? Can you remember?”

  Jonah’s forehead puckered. “I’m thinking. Mommy was really sick one day and Mutt wouldn’t come back when I called her and so I went up to make sure Mommy was okay and Mutt came when I went back down. I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry about, Sport. You didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, you did everything right.”

  “What’s a spade?” Jonah eyed the triple cheese but lifted out a ham-and-pineapple instead.

  “To spay a female dog is to remove her reproductive organs so that she cannot have puppies.” Garret sounded casual, matter-of-fact.

  Jonah narrowed his eyes. “But the puppies that are in there will be okay, right?”

  “No. They are inside the reproductive organs, so they’d be removed with the reproductive organs.”

  Here it came, as Dinah feared. Jonah dropped his pizza; he looked shocked. “But that would kill the puppies!”

  Dina
h spoke gently. “Well, yes, but…”

  “We can’t kill her puppies!” Instantly, he teetered on the verge of another meltdown. How could this little boy flick the switch so instantaneously from calm to out of control?

  Dinah said loudly, “Jonah, stop! Listen. If it means that much to you, we won’t.”

  “You can’t kill her puppies!”

  And Dinah borrowed a page from Garret. “Remember, we don’t want to upset Mutt, especially if she’s pregnant. We won’t do it, Jonah. We won’t spay her.”

  “Promise?” He was yelling.

  “Promise.” Dinah sank forward, her elbows on her white table and her head in her hands. “Puppies.”

  Garret’s voice soothed the troubled waters further. “Might put it too close to the line anyway. If she’s gaining weight noticeably now, it would have started earlier. Are you prepared for a litter of puppies?”

  “No. Of course not. How could I ever handle puppies here?”

  He grimaced. “I guess puppies and an all-white condo don’t go together well.”

  “You see what happened to my sofa in there.” She felt near tears. “Puppies.”

  “Your kitchen is small, but you have enough room here to put up a collapsible fence. They sell them at the pet supply places. It would be for about ten weeks, until you can wean them and find them new homes.”

  “But we’ll keep the puppies!” Jonah nearly shouted. “We can’t give her children away. Her children would all lose their mommy!”

  Garret looked at Dinah and Dinah looked at Garret, an aha! moment. Think, Dinah!

  Garret spoke first. “Ever hear of ‘Don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched’? Well, that’s what we’re doing. We don’t know how many puppies there are, and we don’t even know if she has any. The time to think about these things is after the puppies are born; if there really are puppies in her and she’s not just getting fat from lack of exercise.”

  The silence lay heavy. Another grotesque thought jumped into Dinah’s mind. Jonah obviously understood that babies came from inside mommies, at least in regard to dogs. But sooner or later his education in such things was going to have to be expanded. And it was his brand-new guardian who would have to do the expanding. This time she could not fall back on the nice sterile considerations of the biochemistry of reproduction. It was going to get rough.