Spot and Smudge - Book One

by Robert Udulutch

  Ben paused to let his eyes adjust to the dark, and then he listened. There was no sound and no movement that he could detect. Grabbing onto the cinder blocks, he scooched forward a little more and Mimi let her fingers trail down his leg as he disappeared into the dark under the shed. She held onto his shoe, not wanting him to go all the way under.

  Ben scanned the bottom of the shed. Cob webs from the dirty floor joists brushed his neck as he pulled himself along using the back sides of the cinder blocks.

  He saw movement, and shifted to look around one of the center supporting blocks. Sitting in a ball in the exact same spot where they had been born two weeks earlier, and where their mother had died, were his little black pups. They were holding each other and when they saw Ben they untangled and walked over to him, licked his face, and wagged their little tails in sync.

  “Mimi!” Ben giggled.

  Chapter 30

  Mimi and Ben drove with the napping pups in their box over to the new house to meet up with his sister and parents, and the moving van. It was a short drive and they couldn’t stop smiling at each other, and looking in on their pups. The little dogs had been filthy and smelly when Ben pulled them out from under the shed but Mimi cleaned them up and fed them, and they seemed no worse for the wear.

  The northern and eastern parts of Mimi’s farm were bordered by the gentle curve of Morgan Road. On the far side of the road were houses that had originally been summer cabins. They were set back from the street and nestled in the trees. Far behind these houses, through wooded paths, was Cape Cod Bay.

  To the north were The Bogs, at least that’s what the local kids called the dozens of acres of protected wetlands. It held a maze of trails that snaked through thick forests, abandoned cranberry bogs, kettle ponds, and salt marshes. The Bogs also protected almost a mile long stretch of one of the last remaining undeveloped shorelines south of Boston.

  South of the Morgan Road houses the land was clear-cut. A new, garish McMansion development had been built there on the land Papa had sold to that dipshit.

  At one time the Morgan family owned all of the cabins, with the road being named for General Monty Morgan of the First Massachusetts Light Infantry. The remaining matriarch, Dottie Morgan, was a class act and an old family friend of the Walkers. The Morgan’s place, like all of the homes on this little stretch, was a beautiful craftsman style bungalow. The original cabin had eventually been insulated, upgraded, and expanded several times over the years. Dottie had overseen all of the construction and kept true to the original style. She was delighted to have the Hogan’s rent her parents’ old place. It had stood empty for almost two years and Dottie had no use for it as all of her kids were grown and away, but she just couldn’t part with it yet. Dottie lived in a condo on the water in Plymouth, but when her husband was alive and they lived here on Morgan Road they used to go out dancing with Mimi and Papa. The couples had even taken a few cruises together. Dottie had paid a crew to come in the week before to make sure the house was ship-shape, and she dropped off a basket of scones and turnovers a few minutes after Dan and Aila had pulled in behind the moving van.

  The last few weeks had been a whirlwind and Dan and Aila ended up not coming down at all while their son stayed at Mimi’s. Ben seemed to be having the time of his life, and Mimi assured them he was a love to have around the house. There was also plenty to get done in Boston. The brownstone needed to be packed up and the parents were busy getting ready to take some time off work. Kelcy enjoyed her last few weeks at school, and Dan and Aila were enjoying having a little one on one time with just their daughter.

  Kelcy shot from the front door when Mimi and Ben pulled up and she strangled both of them with a huge hug. While planting a kiss on Mimi’s cheek she put Ben into a headlock and pulled him to the passenger door of the Wagoneer. She looked into the pups’ box, clasped her hands and jumped up and down as she squealed. Ben rolled his eyes and slid the box off the seat and handed it to her. Kelcy was still bouncing up and down a little, and both pups were staring intently up at her with their heads bobbing in time with her bouncing. Both of the pups yawned widely and Kelcy melted all over again.

  “Wow, have they gotten big,” she gushed to Ben.

  While the movers carried a steady stream of wrapped furniture and labelled boxes into the house Ben and Kelcy took the pups to the back yard so they wouldn’t be underfoot.

  Kelcy couldn’t help staring at them. They were cute little balls of pouncing fur like all puppies, but they seemed so very alert. She noticed they interrupted their bounding whenever someone was speaking. They stared, and tipped their heads together at whomever was talking. She was also mesmerized as they ran, always together and almost always with the exact same footwork.

  Ben showed Kelcy how to play hide and seek with the pups. He sat their box on its side with the open end facing away from the house. When he placed the pups in the box they couldn’t see the house or where Ben and Kelcy had run off to hide. A moment later the pups wandered out of the box and the game was afoot.

  The first time the kids just ran a few feet and hid behind a tree. The pups emerged from the box and stopped, listened, smelled, and made a beeline for the correct tree, wagging as they pounced on them. Ben said it wasn’t really a fair test as Kelcy was laughing the whole time.

  His sister became more focused as they played. After a few more rounds she realized they could not stump them. She hadn’t believed Ben when he had first told her about the pups’ abilities, but when the little dogs pulled the trick of heading in the opposite direction from where Kelcy ran, and then sneaking up on her from behind she just stood there with her mouth agape.

  When they played the next round the puppies split up after leaving their box and one of the pups acted as a decoy. While one was bounding around in the open, cutely exploring the wrong places, the other snuck up on the kids’ from the rear and pounced on their feet.

  That trick put Kelcy over the edge.

  “Okay,” she said, “I give up.”

  She patted the pups and took a break to join Mimi on the back porch. She’d been watching them over her cup of tea. Grandmother and granddaughter watched Ben playing tag with the pups in the trees on the edge of the woods.

  “Meem, am I nuts or was that seriously weird?” Kelcy asked.

  “Yes love, it’s quite odd,” Mimi said, “I didn’t believe it the first time I saw it, or the second, or the third.” Mimi laughed while shielding her eyes from the late afternoon sun. She watched the pups playing with Ben in the shadows of the trees and said, “They are a pair of uncanny little things.”

  “And what’s with that in-sync thing they do?” Kelcy asked, “It’s creeping me out. They walk the same, run at the exact same time and then stop on a dime together. They even wag in sync. I don’t think I could do that with Ben even if we practiced. Our cheerleaders would sell a kidney for that kind of timing.”

  Mimi didn’t appreciate the reference but smiled and put her arm around Kelcy’s shoulders. “I think this is going to be an interesting summer,” Mimi said as she pulled her granddaughter in for a cuddle, “I am so glad you’re here dear.”

  “Me too, love you Meem,” Kelcy said as she squeezed he grandmother back.

  The pups came bounding across the yard towards them on tiny legs with Ben chasing behind. One pup took a detour to their box. The little girl dog had retrieved Ronnie’s chicken plush toy. As she carried it in her mouth it drug on the ground as she bound towards them. She ran up to Kelcy, set the toy in her lap, and looked up at her with a determined look.

  “Oh, thank you little one,” Kelcy said as she scratched the wagging puppy’s chin.

  The pup looked at Ben.

  “She’s not giving it to you,” Ben said, “She wants you to play hide and seek with it.”

  Chapter 31

  Jerry had been sick for almost two weeks, and a week had passed since she freaked out in the bathroom.

  Doug had almost taken her head off when she interrupted
his call. She had locked herself in the bathroom and was in hysterics until he passed some of his private stash through the door to her.

  Jerry sailed away to happy land for the next few days. She added a couple of things here and there to keep her flying for a few days more. Somewhere in there she had missed having Liko’s shit ready on time but she barely remembered Doug bouncing her head off the hallway wall.

  Days later she woke up staring at a long tendril of unbroken drool that ended in a puddle on the floor. She was lying on the kitchen table where she was curled into a ball with the afghan from the couch wrapped around her.

  Moving at all gave every muscle and joint an excuse to yell at her. Her neck felt like someone had her in a headlock. Eventually she was able to slide off the table, and she wiped her mouth as she stood on shaky legs.

  Whoa, maybe not such a good fucking idea, she thought and almost missed the chair as she dropped into it. She steeled herself and slowly brought her hands out from under the afghan. Through her barely focused eyes her fingers and hands still didn’t look right, but she thought they were a hell of a lot better than they were a week ago. She took another stab at standing and was able to make it to the bathroom. Jerry didn’t turn the light on and avoided the mirror. She just sat on the toilet and rested her head in her hands.

  She must have dozed off because when she floated back both of her legs were asleep. She had relieved herself at some point, based on the smell. Her calves complained as she wiped and carefully stood up. She reached for the handle to flush but couldn’t find it so she gave up. Thankfully it was too dark for her to notice the blood and oily slurry in the toilet.

  Steadying herself with one hand on the hallway wall, she made it to the kitchen and filled a large glass of water. The water tasted horrible in her nasty, fur covered sleep-mouth. She used her toes to pick up the afghan from the kitchen floor and wrapped it around her shoulders as she shuffled into the dark living room and sat down slowly on the couch. She dreaded turning on her laptop but flipped it open and finished the glass of water while it booted up. After a few minutes of work and another few glasses of water she was starting to feel better, even if all of the emails were pissed off ones. She even opened the front curtains a little.

  Aaron came thumping up the back steps. As he reached the deck he dropped a trash bag full of what sounded like empty plastic containers next to the rubbish cans. He walked across the creaking kitchen floor in his muddy boots, took a coffee cup from the counter, and filled it with tap water.

  He looked through the pass-through and noticed Jerry in the dark living room. In the shard of light from the open curtain Jerry’s features were even more harsh than normal.

  “It lives,” he said, taking a gulp and coughing, “Your water tastes worse than you look.”

  “Fucking funny,” she groaned as she leaned back and put her feet up on the coffee table.

  Jerry looked down and decided to ignore what she saw. The drugs must still be fucking with her. There was no way her toes and half of her feet were actually black. She pulled her legs under the afghan so she was sitting cross legged on the couch and said, “How bad is it out there?”

  “It’s fine, not that either one of you care,” he said, and coughed again into the back of his hand.

  She looked over the laptop screen at him. Just a big fucking baby, she thought, and said, “You sick?”

  “Yeah, you infected me,” he said, “and I’m outta here. When Doug gets back tell him I left my time sheet on his dashboard. I don’t want any shit about the hours, I’ve been cutting school to be here all fucking day lately.”

  “He’s not here?” she asked, “Without his truck?”

  “Well, it’s not my job to keep tabs on your fucking wayward husband,” Aaron said, pausing for another cough, “but I overheard something about going to Providence with Liko again tonight.”

  “Again?” Jerry asked.

  “He’s been going almost every night,” Aaron coughed long and raspy before he put down the empty coffee cup. He looked at her for a few moments, even in the dark she looked like death on a shingle. He turned to leave.

  “Hey, come here for a minute,” she rasped.

  “Nah, I gotta run,” Aaron said and started to head for the back door.

  “Fucking come here,” she said, firmly.

  Aaron came around the corner and stepped into the dark living room. He stood on the opposite side of the coffee table, looking down at her. “What?” he said.

  “Whip it out,” she said.

  “Aww, c’mon Jerry, I gotta go,” Aaron said, but he wasn’t moving away.

  “Yeah, I fucking heard you,” she said, closing the laptop and leaning over the table, “And I said whip your fucking shit out. I need something to kill this headache and nothing else is working.”

  Chapter 32

  The exhausted pups were snoozing in their box. Mimi took them with Kelcy and Ben back to her house before the next feeding time. The movers had left, and Dan and Aila stayed to unpack a few of the larger boxes that were clogging up the hallways. The sun was starting to set and they plugged in a few lamps and played with the furniture arrangement in the living room for a while but decided to leave the rest for tomorrow. They were anxious to spend time with Ben and were headed to Mimi’s for supper and one last night at the farmhouse.

  Ben delivered the floor show at dinner. He walked the family through every detail of the pups’ first two weeks of life. It was done in true Ben fashion, complete with sound effects, multiple characters, and physical reenactments. The parent’s noted he had inherited Papa’s gift for storytelling, which included never letting the facts get in the way of a good tale.

  Dan and Aila had been a little skeptical of some of the updates they had been getting over the phone. They were now completely sure Ben simply had an acute case of ‘my baby’s a genius’ syndrome. Mimi, who had been the one counted on to keep Papa’s, and now Ben’s, stories somewhat grounded in the possible only nodded a few times and added tidbits of clarifying preposterousness herself.

  The pups had been napping until Ben got rolling and they sat up and watched his entire show from the edge of their box.

  Accuracy aside, the family was enjoying the show and egged him on. They were asking open-ended questions and taking turns interrupting to pester him with, “Sure sure, but what are their names?”

  Ben was not to be rushed. He would hold up a finger and channel the great vet Dr. Herriot himself, saying, “You must appreciate the circumstance and disposition of the canine prior to appellation.”

  This caused his sister to just shake her head and say, “You poor, poor boy.”

  The grandeur was typical Ben, but it was also clear he had thoroughly researched anything even remotely related to caring for puppies. He also understood the intricate details of these two pups’ particular medical needs and feeding. He knew every stat, recipe, weight, temperature, and schedule. That alone was not too surprising as Ben always loved science and math, but what really made them proud was his comfort with conveying the details of the pups’ progress so far. He also rolled with his family’s many questions, and taunts.

  Their son was confident and patient, a side of Ben that Dan and Aila had not seen. They exchanged a mental high five, and Aila shot Dan a nod that said, So pulling him out of school was the right call after all, well done sir.

  After dinner Mimi agreed to leave the table clearing and cleanup for later. Ben herded the family out of the kitchen and into living room to take a seat. He leaned back into the kitchen and whispered, “Stay,” while giving the pups the associated hand sign. He joined the family and dropped down next to Aila who was sitting on a pillow on the floor. She put her arm around him and pulled him close.

  All eyes were on Ben as he raised his hands to call for the anxious crowd to settle down and be patient.

  Ben looked around the room before he said softly, “Come.”

  The tiny pups charged around the corner in perfect sync, and r
an right up to Ben. They stopped and looked from Aila to Dan to Kelcy to Mimi and back to Ben.

  Ben pointed to them and lowered his finger and the pups sat down, together.

  Dan and Aila gaped. Even Mimi raised an eyebrow.

  “Good boy, and good girl,” Ben cooed as he grabbed them by the head and flopped them down on their backs as they wagged and nibbled at his thumbs.

  “They learned that today,” Kelcy said.

  Dan took off his glasses and said, “At two weeks?”

  “Two weeks,” Mimi replied.

  “Two weeks?” Aila repeated, mesmerized.

  Ben tapped on his legs and the pups climbed into his lap, turned around, and stood side by side with their front paws on his knees, looking up at the family.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Ben said, “I give you Spot and Smudge.”

  Everyone stared at the little black puppies balancing proudly and wagging their tails in unison.

  “How do you tell them apart?” Kelcy asked.

  Ben looked at his sister like she had ten heads. “Is that a joke?” Ben asked. “They’re totally different in lots of ways. Just look at them.”

  Kelcy slid off the couch and knelt down in front of Ben. She looked at the two identical all black puppies, and they stared back at her. She shook her head.

  Ben said, “Sis, really? Spot almost always has a more serious look on his face. Just look at him, he’s giving you the hairy eyeball. And Smudge smiles more.”

  Kelcy gave their small black faces one more look. Just as she was about to tell her brother how nuts he was the little brows of the pup on the right creased. It was barely a tiny wrinkle on his small head, but it was unmistakable. She looked at the other pup whose eyes seemed to brighten a bit.