The Glasgow Gray: Spot and Smudge - Book 2

by Robert Udulutch

  The people and the sidewalks seemed to go on forever. The buildings also seemed far too tall. Spot wondered why humans felt the need to be so vertical when there was so much horizontal space outside the city.

  They could also detect literally a hundred dogs within a few blocks, and thousands upon thousands of lingering dog smells. There were plenty of other smells as well, some pleasant, some interesting, some not so great. Even the local wildlife seemed odd to the pups as they generally ignored humans that were only inches away.

  The distractions were limitless, and they were having a blast.

  Ben saw Smudge poke Spot. She nodded to a man near them who was dressed in a suit and holding a fistful of napkins. He was waiting for his chubby black lab to finish doing her business. As the big dog crouched right in the middle of the sidewalk she looked at the pups with bored detachment. The pups looked at each other and Ben could tell they were a little confused. Neither of his dogs were overly prissy about such things as there were few taboos in the Walker-Hogan households, but the dogs wouldn’t just stop and drop anywhere they could be easily seen either.

  Spot looked away to give the lab some privacy but Ben could tell Smudge and the dog were having a chat. The dog’s hind legs shook and her owner waited patiently for her to finish as Smudge happily nodded and huffed with the dog. Spot looked up at Ben and shook his head.

  “Alright,” Ben said, nudging Smudge forward, “Let’s go.”

  Ben checked his phone again and looped them back toward the financial district. They crossed over Washington Street into a seedier area of Chinatown. The sidewalks were uneven and narrow, and in the shadows the piles of snow hadn’t melted much and they were forced to walk single file.

  As they rounded a blind corner they ran smack into a pair of large German shepherds, and their even larger cop handlers.

  “Hey there, how are yah little man?” one of the huge cops said in a thick South Boston accent. Ben could barely see their eyes under the brim of their hats, and both men had big ruddy cheeks and a circle of goatee and mustache. They could have been twins if one wasn’t much darker than the other. They both took a drink from steaming coffee cups and watched the four dogs getting to know each other.

  “Hi,” Ben said, flustered, “Nice Alsatians.”

  Both of the cops burst out laughing.

  “Alsatians?” the second cop said, “Kid, I haven’t heard that word in a friggin’ fort-night.”

  Choking back a laugh the first cop asked, “Where yah headed with these guys?”

  Ben stumbled through his story as casually as he could muster.

  “Yah, well they gotta be on a leash, son,” the first cop said.

  Ben never had the pups on a leash. He didn’t need to. They never went where they weren’t supposed to, especially in public. Even when they trotted off to play or chase after something they always came right back when asked.

  Ben said, “Oh yeah, right, sorry,” and fished in his backpack. The pups left the shepherds and trotted over to stand in front of him. The leashes he clipped to their vests still had the store tags attached to them. As Ben straightened up the pups turned to face the cops.

  The cops stared down at the dogs, and the dogs continued to stare up at the cops.

  “Well,” Ben said, rubbing his shoulders like he was cold, “You officers take care, be safe, keep up the good work.”

  He led the pups away.

  “Hey kid,” the second cop called after him, “Stay warm, Govenah.”

  He could still hear the cops chuckling when they rounded the next corner. Ben knelt and pulled the pups to him as he unclipped their collars. “Crap that was close,” he said, “You guys did awesome!”

  Smudge looked around to make sure no one was paying attention and raised her split paw to sign, We totally got this, B. Five-o just wanted to sweat us for ridin’ dirty. It’s a good thing they didn’t get me angry…they wouldn’t like me when I’m—

  Spot rump checked his sister hard and looked at Ben as he signed, Can we have her put down, please?

  Ben laughed and booted them both forward.

  Two blocks later he and the pups jogged up a short flight of steps and entered the lobby of the State Street Financial Center. They crossed the gleaming marble floor and stopped at the reception desk. A pretty woman wearing a fitted uniform and a headscarf came out from behind the desk. She clasped her hands and bent down, being careful to stay a few steps away from the pups.

  “Oh my,” she said, “Aren’t they the most handsome animals?”

  Ben read her nametag and said, “Hello Nelly, I’m Ben. This is Spot and Smudge.” To all of them he said, “It’s okay, you can say hi.”

  The pups stepped forward and accepted her vigorous scratching welcome. “What are they in training for?” Nelly asked.

  “Truffle detection,” Ben said.

  “That’s amazing,” Nelly said. She stopped scratching and cocked an eye up at Ben.

  Ben smiled broadly at her.

  “Funny,” Nelly said with a smile. She nodded towards the elevators behind her and said, “Go ahead,” as she gave the pups a final pat.

  The elevator doors slid open and Ben and the pups stepped in. He looked around for a camera but he didn’t see an obvious one. The ornate ceiling tiles could possibly hide one, but he just shrugged and said, “Yeah, you can do it,” to Spot.

  Spot put a front paw up on the brass handrail, and with his other paw touched the button for the thirty-fourth floor. The doors closed and he hopped down to stand next to Smudge.

  His sister didn’t appear to appreciate his sense of accomplishment.

  They all faced the front of the elevator to watch the numbers counting up.

  After a few moments Ben noticed his pups’ heads had started to slowly nod up and down together. The nodding turned into full-on tandem head bobs. Ben started to nod as well, and then he sang along quietly to the piped-in music. It was a much softer, lyric-less version of a heavy metal song he knew well, “…I’m your eyes while your away…I’m your pain while you repay…you know its sad but truuue…sad but truuuue…”

  The song was one of his dad’s favorites. He played the whole album on repeat whenever he got a bug up his backside about a mess in the house and felt a cleaning marathon was needed. The album was usually preceded by his dad saying something like, “We are going to give this entire damn kitchen a good scrubbin’.”

  The pups turned back to look up at Ben, and wag. Ben started to sing louder, “Pay-ay…pay the price…pay for nothins’ fairrr!” By the time he reached, “I’m your pain when you can’t feeeel,” his arms were spread out wide and he was exaggerating James Hetfeld’s breathy inflections to the pups’ happy wiggling.

  The elevator stopped on the twenty-eighth floor. An instant before the doors opened the pups ceased wagging and turned to face forward with blank expressions.

  The doors opened and a woman in a jogging outfit stood in front of them. She stared at Ben as he held an imaginary microphone in one hand. The other hand was pulsing devil horns at her as his head pounded up and down. He opened his eyes, and let the final, “You know it’s sad but true…” trail off as he looked up at her.

  The doors closed again between them, without her stepping into the elevator.

  Spot and Smudge looked back at Ben.

  “You could had warned me,” Ben said. The pups wagged, and head bobbed for the rest of the ride.

  When the doors opened again Ben walked into the small lobby with the pups following behind. There was no one at the reception desk and the office’s rows of low-walled cubicles were empty. They passed a row of glass offices along an outside wall, and as they turned a corner at a huge conference room the pups stopped him.

  “Yeah, alright,” he said, and followed them in.

  The pups went around the conference table to the far corner of the room and put their paws up on the low windowsill. Panoramic windows ran the length of both corner walls, giving an incredible view of the Bost
on skyline.

  Ben pointed out the landmarks as they scanned the city. From the north window they could see Boston Harbor and Logan airport, and past the famous Italian neighborhood of the North End to the Longfellow Bridge. From the west facing window they could see Beacon Hill, the Charles river, Harvard, MIT, and all the way south to the Prudential Tower and Fenway Park.

  “Cool, eh?” Ben said.

  Smudge nodded and signed, This must be what birds see.

  So now I understand your fascination with building vertically, Spot signed, Impressive.

  They continued down the hall to the next corner. Ben stopped and the pups almost ran into him as he leaned around a doorway. He saw his dad sitting at his desk against the far wall, typing with his back to the open office door. Ben crept into the office and dropped silently into one of the contemporary chairs set around a small coffee table in the middle of the room. The pups did the same.

  Ben said, “Hogan! I think we need to recheck these quarterlies. What do you think, lads?”

  Spot and Smudge both gave a quick yap of agreement.

  An hour later father and son were finishing up lunch at Dan’s favorite spot in the financial district where he knew enough of the staff so the dogs weren’t going to be an issue on a quiet Saturday.

  “Ya still peeved, Dad?” Ben asked as he palmed another roll from the basket on the table and split it in half in his lap.

  “Gonna use the big D word on you, Ben,” Dan said.

  “Dummy, daft, dipshit?” Ben said.

  “You’re on thin ice boy, and it’s a hot day,” Dan said, and then a little quieter he said to no one, “And I’m disappointed in you two as well…would have thought you had more sense. Gifted my ass.”

  It was very quiet on the floor under the table.

  “Sorry Dad, really,” Ben said, “but you gotta admit, we’re ready to be out and about on our own.”

  “We’ll talk about this when we get home,” Dan said, fighting back another smile and noticing the third empty bowl of rolls on the table, “Let’s go, the pups gotta be full by now.”

  Chapter 8

  “Thanks for that,” Aila said quietly as she wove her fingers into Dan’s.

  “No charge,” Dan said, and found her lips in the dark for another deep kiss.

  He drew the covers up and around her shoulders as Aila moved her hips off him and lay against his side. As he pulled her close his fingers slid over the scar on her upper arm. The skin had healed into a two inch creased dimple around the bullet wound.

  She slid a leg between his and they lay there for some time, letting their heartbeats slow and their body heat subside to a comforting, all over glow.

  Aila hadn’t mentioned it to her husband but she’s been appreciating Dan’s rough hands and new muscle. He had been doing a lot of work around the farm since they moved to the South Shore, and it’s been years since he worked on a car but he’d started doing his own maintenance again with the kids, and even the pups, pitching in. She even liked the odd bruise or scrape that came with that, too. She had always loved his lean shape but he had firmed up in the butt and put on some real muscle in his arms and chest. He looked good, and he looked tough. Aila wasn’t minding one bit as she ran her hands over the curves of his warm body.

  She wondered if he had started spending a little time in the gym at his office as well. She also wondered if maybe the attacks by the deranged thugs had him questioning his ability to protect the family, but he hadn’t indicated it in any other way that she’d noticed. She let the thought drift away, it was a discussion for another time.

  She nibbled on his shoulder, enjoying the salty sweat of his warm flesh and said, “You are the sweetest man I know, Daniel Hogan.”

  “And you are the most conniving woman I know, Aila Hogan,” Dan said into her forehead, and then added, “Maybe the second most.”

  “Guilty, but that’s one excited little man,” Aila said. She laughed as she moved her leg out from between his and added, “Ben I mean, and in his eyes you are the best dad on the planet.”

  “Well you guys were right,” Dan said, “He’s ready, and he deserves a break. Hamish and Christa will take good care of him and the ranch is going to be a wonderland for a boy like him.”

  Aila lowered her voice and said, “And by a boy like him I trust you mean our new Ben?”

  Dan nodded into her hair.

  “It was Kels who was right,” Aila said as she traced a fingertip around his ribs, “They’re both maturing so fast. I’d like to think I was an amazing parent, and turned our significantly introverted son with overprotective aggression issues around into a well-adjusted, super-sharp kid. But just between us previously borderline helicopter parents I have to face facts. More than a few of the kudos gotta go to those smart fucking dogs of ours. I mean there’s no doubt moving down here to the South Shore has helped, with me working from home, spending a lot more time with Mom, and working with you around the farm…but the hot-housing from those damn dogs has our children ready to skip grades for fuck sakes, and in just a few short months.”

  Aila put her chin on Dan’s shoulder and added, “The big question is should we be concerned? Is it too much, you know, with the pups and all?”

  “Honestly,” Dan said, “I’m not sure what to make of it but we can’t argue with how far they’ve come, both of them. All of them. Ben’s transition has been more obvious but as Mimi pointed out Kels is operating at a much higher level as well. She thinks the kids are doing just fine. She says they have good friends, they’re loving school, and they still do normal kid stuff. I guess I agree but it’s odd to see them buried in their tablets with the pups for hours on end, and they sure aren’t playing video games. Most parents would be thrilled, I suppose. The other night I got sucked into an argument they were having about Animal Farm. It was something about the pigs’ seven commandments and should the animals be walking upright. I didn’t recall enough of the story to contribute much but watching the four of them beating the issue to death was fascinating. It felt like a bunch of stuffy college professors going at it. The really bizarre part was Ben giving his scarily astute opinion while translating for the pups who were signing way too fast for Kels or me to keep up with, especially once they got agitated. It was a bizarre scene, but mostly I was just proud of them. Even the dogs, oddly enough. Spot’s logic and Smudge’s empathy are definitely resonating with our kids, and the pups have certainly picked up Ben’s humor and Kels’ insights…and more than a little of their slang. I asked Ben about the book and he said it normally gets assigned to tenth graders. He said the pups tried following the normal high school curriculum so they could use the same books but they got bored with the pace, and now so have our kids, apparently. I knew they were way ahead on the reading, but were you aware they’ve been doing the same thing with math…and physics…and biology…and—”

  “Yeah, about that,” Aila said, “They made me promise I wouldn’t tell you how much I’m spending on book downloads.” She twisted a finger around in his chest hair and said, “But I can tell you it’s less than two additional college educations.”

  “That’s not even a little bit funny,” Dan said.

  He thought for a moment and said, “I guess the answer to your question is I don’t know, Hun, but my gut tells me they’re fine. They laugh much more than they used to, and never argue anymore. They seem very happy, and the four of them certainly are thick as thieves. All five of them are, actually.”

  Aila nodded. They laid together for a while in silence, mulling, and listening to the wind.

  Eventually Aila asked, “We’re you surprised our daughter wants to be a vet?”

  “I was at first,” Dan said, “but it was clear she’s thought it through and has a plan. Man that kid is sharp, takes after her father.”

  “Obviously,” Aila said with a snort and a tweak of his nipple.

  “Kels was right about Spot and Smudge, too,” Dan said, “We do have a responsibility to our new family me
mbers. Not that I necessarily want to pay for them to go to Harvard, but nothing like them has ever existed, as far as we know. The smart little bastards really might just end up being game changing. Maybe Hamish can teach them something useful.”

  He yawned and added, “Anyway, she’s right that someone in our inner circle needs to ensure their ongoing care. It’s not like we can take them to just any vet if they get sick, and I think she’d be good at it.”

  Aila raised up on one elbow and said, “I think it goes deeper than that for her. She seems obsessed with finding out what happened to them, and what makes them tick. Mom said Kels and Spot went through all of his paw modification designs. She says there’s diagrams Kels couldn’t begin to understand yet, even with Spot explaining them to her.”

  Dan thought about that for a moment and said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if Spot was the one that lit the vet fire under Kels.”

  “Fucking probably,” Aila said, “and you call me calculating. I gave up playing chess with that adorable little freak weeks ago.”

  Dan decided to not explore that comment. He had never beaten his wife in chess. “I wish I had that level of passion when I was a teen,” he said, “I was only concerned with being cool and trying to not get caught playing with myself…which Ben has started to do, by the way. I got him all straightened out on that front so, you know, make noise before you walk into his room or open the bathroom door. I noticed Spot deliberately bumping his hip on the loose baluster as he was coming up the stairs so it appears the pups have also figured it out.”