“I’m out!” John yelled.
“Take some of mine,” Jimmy yelled, tossing his brother a few. “Come on Luke!”
“There’s hardly any snow left!” Luke said. “I’m trying!”
A snowball bounced off the top of the wall and skipped into Luke’s hair. He didn’t even notice. He was forming snow into balls as fast as he could and when his pile was gone he knelt next to John and started digging near the right side of the wall. The Willow Branch boys were gaining on them and he heard them shout out ‘Eleven!’ as Jimmy cursed and spat snow from his mouth.
“Damn that hurt!”
Luke reached out beyond the wall and scooped snow into his side. A snowball whizzed past his head. He scraped another armful and something caught his eye. It looked like tan carpet or somebody’s discarded dirty coat buried in the snow. He scraped another armful toward him, uncovering more of the buried object, which now looked like fur and what Luke thought might be a red collar. He stopped and stared, not sure what to do. The battle seemed to fade into the background as his arm took on a life of its own, reaching toward the matted, dirty fur. He carefully scraped away some more and then stood, horrified. A snowball smacked into the side of his face and then he vomited all over the white snow as Patrick Pemberton yelled, “Twelve!”
Chapter 2
Eliana Pemberton cried into her pillow wondering when the ache in her chest would stop. Bentley, her two year old poodle mix and best friend in the world, was missing, and no one in the neighborhood had seen him. She put flyers up on every lamp post, knocked on every door, and searched relentlessly in all the places she knew he loved. He had disappeared, and she blamed herself.
Two years ago, it had taken quite a bit of begging and pleading for her mom to finally give in and let her have the dog. She promised no one else would have to take care of him, swearing she’d be the one to housebreak him, cleaning up after his messes. Her mother actually said she was proud of how Eliana stuck to her promise, even when Bentley was sick and having diarrhea, even when he cried at night the first week, and especially when her brother threatened to drown the dog after he chewed up his favorite shoes.
Eliana paid for new ones herself with her babysitting money. Two weeks of cleaning up after the Harris’ twins had been a nightmare, but Bentley had been worth it.
And now, one little lapse in attention, one moment of laziness, and everything she’d done in the past meant nothing. All the devotion and attention wasted and tossed away because she hadn’t wanted her feet to get cold. She hated herself and sobbed even harder as she thought of the last time she had seen him.
The snow had just fallen new and white, and Bentley needed to go. She had just gotten her pjs on when he whined at the back door.
“Bent, no. You just went. It’s cold now,” she said, and he cocked his head the way he always did at the sound of her voice, but then scratched at the door and whined again. She sighed and walked over as he wagged his tail and yipped at her, seeming to smile. He was so cute it was hard for her to stay irritated at him.
“Alright, but I’m staying in. It’s too cold and I don’t have any shoes.”
He cocked his head again, his ears perking up as she unlocked the back door and held it open. He took a few steps into the icy night and then stopped, waiting for her. He never went out by himself.
“No—you go. I’ll wait right here. Now hurry up.” She shooed at him with her hand and he got the point. She watched him make his way through the snow and ice, sniffing here and there, but taking his time.
“Bentley, come on! Hurry up! It’s freezing!”
He looked up once as she hugged herself against the cold and shivered, then he trotted off around the corner of the house into the dark as if on a mission.
“Bentley, no! Stay in the back yard! Bentley!” That was the last time she ever saw him.
They searched for over an hour with flashlights, but found nothing. It was as if he just up and vanished. They followed his footsteps in the new fallen snow to the front of the house where they disappeared into a row of bushes and never emerged again. Her mom couldn’t figure it out. It was as if someone picked him up and flew off with him. She waited all night by the back door so that when he found his way home, she would be there for him, but he never came back and she eventually dozed off sitting up against the door.
Now, as she cried harder, she hated herself for abandoning him. If only she’d put her shoes on and gone out with him on the leash, she’d be hugging him to her right now while he licked her face and rolled over to get his tummy scratched. She missed him so much.
She heard the front door slam shut and then her loser brother, Patrick, yelled up from the bottom of the stairs, “Ellie! I found your stupid dog!”
She couldn’t believe her ears. “Bentley!” she shouted as she jumped up from her bed and bounded down the steps. Her brother stood at the base of the stairs with a wicked grin on his face, but she was too excited to question it. “Bentley! Where is he?”
Her mom came into the hall from the kitchen, drying her hands on a towel. “You found the dog?” she said to Patrick.
He nodded, still grinning.
“Where is he?” Ellie asked, almost pleading.
“He’s over on Cotton Court,” Patrick said.
Ellie made a move for the door, but her mother grabbed her arm. “Hold on a sec’, hon. Why didn’t you bring him home?”
Patrick’s grin grew and he glanced at Ellie and then his mother. “I couldn’t move him,” he said.
“What do you mean?” his mother said warily.
Ellie felt something in her stomach lurch. She grabbed her brother’s arm tight and said with a voice that sounded far away, “What’s wrong with him?”
Her brother continued to grin but said nothing. Ellie bolted for the door, bursting out into the morning cold and snow in just her PJ’s and socks. She ran as fast as she could, her feet numb from the snow and tears streaming back into her hair as she fought back the panic rising in her throat. Her mother’s voice chased her down the street, but Ellie was too fast and nothing would have stopped her anyway. Cotton Court was up ahead.
* * *
Jimmy and John stood staring at what was left of the dog while Luke scraped snow over the vomit with his shoe. He didn’t want to look at the headless dog anymore even though he had little left to throw up. He’d seen worse in his short life and it wasn’t that he couldn’t handle some cut up animal, but he knew this dog and knew its owner. In fact, Ellie Pemberton was someone very special to him. And Bentley had been pretty cool, too.
“Crap,” Luke said. “Why did someone do this to Bentley?”
Jimmy and John knew the dog, too, and shook their heads slowly in unison, like they were watching some demented tennis match.
“I want to know WHO did this,” Jimmy said. “’Cause when I find out…” His voice trailed off as his fists clenched and unclenched in his gloves. It was so quiet, the leather squeaked as his fingers squeezed.
The other boys had left and Patrick Pemberton had gone home to tell his sister. Luke had seen the glint in his eye and knew he would not be gentle with the news. Had Luke known exactly what Patrick was going to do, he would have never let him go alone. Luke couldn’t understand the huge difference between Patrick and his sister, Ellie. It was like night and day.
Luke caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a harried and distraught Ellie lurching through the snow toward them.
“Oh crap!” he said, and hurried to cut her off. John and Jimmy moved in front of the frozen Bentley to block her view.
“Ellie! No!” Luke said grabbing her shoulders and stopping her from getting any closer.
Her face was pale except for two red spots high on her cheeks. Her breath came in gasps and she was trembling beneath his hands. “Lucas Harrison, you get out of my way!” she said, trying to look past him.
“No,” Luke said, and he shook her shoulders once. “Look at me.”
She wouldn’t at first and struggled a bit in his grasp, then her lip trembled and her eyes went to his. As she saw what was in them, she dropped her head to his shoulder, clutched at his coat and sobbed, “No!”
He held her that way until her mother came up and took her into her arms.
Chapter 3
A week passed since the discovery of Bentley’s frozen and decapitated body, and Luke finally stopped having nightmares. School re-opened and he trudged through each class as the day dragged. Ellie shared two classes with him and he tried talking to her but she was withdrawn and quiet. He understood, he just missed his happy go lucky friend.
On the fourth day after they found the dog, Luke put a small, white, stuffed bear on her locker and watched from a distance as she finally smiled for the first time. She looked around finding him, and she raised it in a salute as her eyes found his, a small glimmer of a smile sneaking across her lips. He knew then she would be alright.
Ellie’s mother had called the police and they came out and looked around, inspecting the dog’s carcass and hauling it away. They promised they would follow up but they told the Pembertons it had probably been some kids. The one detective had eyed Luke’s little group of boys as he said this, but didn’t question any of them. Luke had been pissed that he would silently accuse them just because they were conveniently there. At least Ellie hadn’t seen the detective look at him that way. He didn’t know if he could handle Ellie blaming him for Bentley.
On Friday, snow started to fall again and they were expecting a blizzard. Hopefully it would snow all weekend and school would be canceled again on Monday. Luke was walking home from the bus stop with Jimmy and John when he saw Ellie sitting on her front step. She hadn’t been at school.
“I’ll catch up with you guys later,” he said, and wandered over to her.
When he got closer he could see she was crying. He stopped short of her porch thinking he should just leave her alone, but then she wiped her face and looked up at him.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey. Missed you in class today. You sick?”
She shook her head. “No, I didn’t want to go.”
“Me neither. Maybe school will be canceled again on Monday because of the snow.”
“Uh huh. I hope it snows hard.”
Luke didn’t know what to say so he just stood there for a minute as the silence dragged out. Finally he said, “Whatcha doing?”
“Just watching the snow.”
He nodded and the silence went on for a few more seconds. “Are your parents gonna let you get another dog?”
He watched her face fall and realized, too late, what an idiot he was. He tried to backtrack. “I mean, when you’re ready. Jeez—I’m sorry Ellie. I didn’t mean…”
“I know. It’s okay. Come sit by me.” She patted the spot next to her and he walked over and sat. “I just don’t know right now,” she said. “I can’t even think of looking at another dog. Maybe it sounds stupid to people, but he was like my best friend. I could never replace him.”
Luke nodded. “He was pretty cool.”
She was silent for a moment and Luke could actually hear the snow falling. Just a hint of a whisper as the snowflakes fell past his eyes. Ellie had a few flakes stuck to the bangs around her face and he thought she looked like an angel.
“I’m glad you stopped me the other day. I was a little out of my head.”
“No problem,” he said. “He was…uh, kind of messed up.”
She looked about to cry again. “Was he really that bad?”
Luke nodded. “I got sick.”
“Oh God—maybe I shouldn’t have asked you.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t say anymore.”
“Okay—I don’t want to know. They took him away and I won’t ever see, so that’s good, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll just remember him the way he was.”
Luke looked at the ground thinking he wasn’t helping her at all. He didn’t know how to talk to her without upsetting her. He felt like a jerk.
She was staring off into the falling snow and a single tear ran down her cheek. He wanted to reach up and brush it away, but was scared, so he just sat and shuffled his feet, not knowing what to do.
“You know,” she said, “I blame myself. I let him out all alone and I never do that. It was just cold and I…”
“Ellie, it’s not your fault. Somebody else did this to him. You would never hurt Bentley.”
“I know, but if I had gone out with him, he wouldn’t have run off like that.”
“I think whoever did this, would have gotten to him no matter what. I think they were waiting for the right moment.”
She turned to him. “Why do you say that?”
“I don’t know. Just a feeling, I guess. You said it was like he just disappeared. Somebody had to make it look like he vanished without a trace.”
She didn’t look convinced. “So some dog stalker is out there stealing dogs and—and doing stuff to them?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know—maybe. Some sicko is out there. Why else would his head be missing?”
Her mouth dropped open and then she made a small cry as her hand went to her lips. She stood abruptly and ran into the house. Luke tried to think of something to say to stop her but he just sat there kicking himself and wondering why he was so stupid. He went to the door and knocked, but no one answered. He was turning to go when the door opened and Mrs. Pemberton said, “Hello, Lucas.”
“Hello Mrs. Pemberton. I think I upset Ellie. I wanted to tell her sorry.”
She looked back behind her and up the stairs. “I’ll tell her for you. I’m sure she’ll be okay in a bit.”
“Sorry about Bentley,” he offered. She nodded once and shut the door.
* * *
Luke climbed the steep driveway to his three story house and concentrated on keeping his footing in the new fallen snow. In the short walk from Ellie’s house, the snowfall had intensified and a few inches had already accumulated on everything. The older, brown, dirty snow was covered completely and the world had a new, white, clean sheen that made Luke feel better despite the fact he had botched it with Ellie.
He pushed the front door open just as his older sister Deana pulled from the inside. He stumbled off balance and fell into her.
“Watch it, loser!” she grinned, and pushed her way past out into the whiteness. Apparently she was in a hurry. Her boyfriend’s beat up Ford F-150 was just pulling up. Luke’s mom yelled from the kitchen, “You tell that boy to drive careful in this,” but Deana was already gone.
“She didn’t hear you, Mom,” Luke said.
She peered around the kitchen door and said, “Where have you been? It’s already 4 o‘clock.”
“I stopped and talked to Ellie.”
“How is she?”
“Worse now. I’m an idiot.”
His mom smiled and shook her head. “I’m sure that’s not true. You two have been friends for a long time. What did you say?”
Luke and his mom were close. He was still at an age where he would let her help him if he needed it and right now he needed it. He relayed the conversation to her and she laughed.
“You men really have a way with words,” she said.
“Thanks Mom—I feel so much better now. I told you I was an idiot.”
“She’ll be fine. She would have found out eventually anyway. I think you just shocked her. Apologize when you see her again and give her one of these.” She held up one of her famous chocolate chip cookies and Luke knew Ellie would smile at that. All the kids in the neighborhood knew of his mom’s chocolate chip cookies.
Luke smiled. “Could you put some in one of those awesome girlie bags you have?”
“Of course.” She turned and started sorting through a drawer looking for the bags. “So, how was school?”
“Stupid.”
She stopped and stood up straight. “Are you talking about the school system itself or maybe the student.
”
“Both.”
“I know the student, and he is definitely not stupid.”
“I just hate school. Ninth grade seems like such a waste.”
“We’ve had this conversation before and you know what I’m going to say.”
“I know. I can’t see the forest for the trees right now, blah, blah, blah…”
She put her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. “Do I need to be worrying about you?” she said.
“No. I’ll be fine.” He grabbed a cookie and took a bite. The warm chocolate was heaven.
“Don’t spoil your appetite. We’ll be eating in an hour. Any homework?”
“No,” Luke lied. “I did it at lunch.”
“Alright, I know you don’t want to hear this but you’re going to be a wonderful man some day.”
Luke blushed but said nothing.
“Until that time, though, your father wants you to shovel the walk.”
He felt duped. Sometimes he wished his mother would stop being his mother for five minutes. He shook his head, said “Alright,” and headed for his room.
As he climbed the stairs, he could hear his little brother Christopher and his younger sister Katy laughing at something in Katy’s room. He stopped at her doorway and looked inside. Katy, a year younger than himself, held six year old Christopher hanging by his feet and was tickling him while he laughed hysterically. Luke couldn’t help but smile at the two.
“You’re going to make him puke,” Luke said.
As if on cue, Christopher threw up all over the floor. She almost dropped him. Christopher looked shocked for a second and then started laughing again. She put him down and said, “Aw Christopher! Gross!”
“I’m not cleaning that up,” Luke said and shuffled down the hall to his room. Katy was yelling for their mom as he closed the door.
Luke turned his computer and cell phone on and waited for both to boot up. He carried the cell with him but wasn’t allowed to have it on at school. Sometimes he forgot to turn it on until he got home. His mother reminded him periodically that she wasn’t paying for the phone for his enjoyment. It was supposed to be for security and a way to get in touch with him. If he didn’t answer it or turn it on, then that was defeating its purpose. This usually came after she had been trying to get a hold of him and couldn’t.
Near Sighted (A Jake Townsend Science Fiction, Action and Adventure, Thriller Series Book 2) Page 25