Spot and Smudge - Book One

by Robert Udulutch

  Ben took Mimi’s hand and they ran in front of his dad towards the fence gate.

  Smudge joined Spot near the edge of the fire.

  They looked at what was left of Doug, and were satisfied with the results of Dan’s shooting.

  Doug Dorschstein was sitting with his back against the cages. One leg was straight out in front of him and the other was a zig-zagged, twisted ruin. The fire was starting to burn the shoe of his broken leg. Large globs of the flammable toxic liquid from the shot barrel covered his chest and thighs. His right shoulder was gone and his arm was only attached to the top of his rib cage by a small strip of flesh. Doug had another mouth in the middle of his left cheek. A big flap of skin that contained his left ear was sticking straight out from the side of his head.

  He swiveled his head and looked at the pups.

  Doug opened his mouth to speak but only smoke and blood came out.

  The pups nodded and sped off to join the rest of their family.

  They spread their paws, and ran in perfect sync.

  Chapter 79

  Mimi, Ben, and Dan ran behind the pups as they navigated the narrow path through the scrub brush. A hundred yards from the kennel Spot and Smudge stopped behind their little knoll. They grabbed Ben and Mimi and pulled them down into a huddled pile. Dan took off his jacket and held it open over his head like a cape as he knelt down. He embraced the pile of humans and dogs as he covered them.

  The barrel Dan had put multiple holes in hissed and boiled. Its steaming contents streamed out and covered the cages, and Doug. The liquid immediately ignited when it contacted the fire and a purple flame shot back up the spray, through the hole, and into the barrel. The resulting explosion blew the roof off the kennel. At that instant the thirty-one remaining barrels burst one after the other in a massive chain reaction. The blast flattened the cinderblock walls of the kennel. It tore off Jerry’s skin and liquefied what remained. The gas tanks of the van and the tractor ignited as their exploding carcasses were thrown through the chain link fence. An instant before the burning cages were vaporized the bloated dogs in the kennels split open from the pressure.

  The shock wave radiated out over the clearing. It hammered the family as they crouched behind the knoll, pressing them together and holding them against the ground. A fraction of a second later a huge fireball bloomed and the heat wave flared outwards, incinerating what was left of the dogs, Jerry, Doug, and Liko. It rolled across the clearing, pulling away the oxygen as it scorched the cool night air. It washed over the family and steam rose from Dan’s jacket.

  Chapter 80

  Aila traced the back of Dan’s hand. He still had some redness but she didn’t think there would be any scarring. The hair had even started to grow back on his wrist. She noticed his gooseflesh and felt a chill herself, and pulled her jacket up around her neck. The October winds blew in off the bay and whistled through the tree branches above them, and the tombstones of the cemetery hill.

  She rested her head on Dan’s shoulder and looked up at the gray sky through the bare tree. As she drew closer to her husband the bullet wound on her upper arm throbbed where it pressed against his warm chest.

  Aila closed her eyes and drifted. She thought of her dad, with his ruddy face and permanent smile. She remembered the smell of his pipe on his sweater and the comforting scratch of his beard against her cheek. Then she pictured her mom, and remembered the cinnamon smell in her hair and the warmth of her oven-warmed cheek.

  “We’re done, do you guys want to see it?” Ben called to Dan and Aila as he appeared in the path at the back of the clearing. His parents untangled and slowly stood up from their bench near the Walker family gravesite. They walked hand in hand to the back of the cemetery and followed Ben down the narrow path that cut between the tall piles of tangled stumps and twisted branches. They entered a small clearing. Scattered around in rough arcs were the handmade memorials to past pets. Some were ornately carved wooden statues and some were just rocks with names painted on them in children’s scroll.

  Ben high fived Kelcy and she leaned against her brother as Dan and Aila looked down to review the kid’s handiwork.

  Next to a small concrete square with WALLACE carefully written into it were three wooden plaques laid out in a row. Each plaque was about a foot long. One of the plaques had MAX neatly carved into it, and THANK YOU carved below it. The other plaques each contained a carved paw print, with the same thanks below it. Each plaque also had a delicately woven ring of small branches encircling it.

  “I love it,” Aila said, “You guys did awesome.” She kissed both of her children.

  “Spot said it was okay to just use a paw print for the coyotes,” Ben said, pointing at the back of the clearing where Spot and Smudge were standing with a group of the wild dogs.

  Smudge gave One Ear’s cheek a lick. The big wild female dog turned and bumped Smudge’s chin with her rump as she walked away with a slight limp. The lead female and the smaller females nuzzled Spot and then turned and fell in line behind One Ear. They disappeared into the thick woods.

  The pups followed the kids and parents back through the cemetery. They passed through the iron gates, and climbed into the Wagoneer. A moment later the family pulled out of the small parking circle. It was quiet in the car during the short drive to Mimi’s farm.

  At the farmhouse the Hogans huddled around the kitchen sink to wash up. The long table behind them was set and there were various foil covered steaming bowls and platters running down the middle, including Ben’s mince and tatties and Kelcy’s rumbledethumps.

  Mimi Walker heard them from down the hall and she came out of the pantry carrying napkins.

  She was softly humming and half-singing an old song, “…An stood against him…proud Edward’s army…”

  As she passed the open laundry room door she sang, “You’re getting better, wee girl,” to the crouched black dog hidden in the shadows before she continued, “…an sent him homeward…tae think again…”

  A disappointed but wagging Smudge slipped out of the dark and followed her down the hall and into the kitchen. She joined her brother on their blanket in the corner.

  As Mimi dropped the napkins on the table she took a seat next to Kelcy and inspected her granddaughter’s healing red knuckles. She pulled her in for a hug, kissed her on the cheek, and asked, “So tell me, dear, how was it?”

  “Chilly,” Kelcy said as she passed the steaming bowl of turnip to her dad, “But it was good, Meem. The coyotes were there, which was really cool.”

  “Yeah,” Ben said, “They’re so awesome.” He shoveled in a mouthful of meat and potatoes, and between swallows said, “The one-eared girl is moving good too, Meem, you did an okay job on her backside.”

  Mimi said, “She’s moving well, and thank you dear boy.” She raised her beer towards the back door and added, “Now maybe they’ll be leaving my bloody chickens alone.”

  “They will,” Ben said, “Smudge said they all agreed.”

  Dan laughed and said, “Yeah, and I bet they have enough to eat for a while.”

  The family looked at him

  He said, “I’m just saying, Doctor D’Souza’s hasn’t been found.”

  “Eww Dad, gross,” Kelcy said.

  “Dan, we’re eating,” Aila said.

  Mimi looked at the two pups cuddled up on their blanket. One by one the rest of the family followed her gaze until they were all staring. The pups looked back at them, and then at each other, and then they scooched around so their backsides were facing the family.

  Chapter 81

  “Funny how the newspaper doesn’t seem to have their facts straight,” Aila said to Spot as she slid her feet under him and found the warm spot.

  He growled at her.

  Aila said, “My couch, my blanket. You don’t like it find someplace else,” as she tugged playfully on his ear.

  Smudge came into the living room and helped herself to one of the shortbread cookies from Aila’s plate on the coffee table.r />
  Aila had the paper in her lap and was cradling a cup of tea. “Listen to this, Smudge,” she said as she moved her finger along the paper, “Sources in the Mayor’s office report the recent outbreak of vandalism and teen violence in Pembury has been attributed to the lack of effective afterschool programs and a downturn in the local economy. In a statement released today town officials emphasized they acted swiftly to correct the problem and the resulting drop in reported incidents is proof their new programs are working.”

  She sipped her tea and Smudge raised an eyebrow.

  “I know, right?” Aila said to the dog, “And I suppose the sudden lack of highly addictive and tainted dog-meat Chinese food had nothing to do with it. I just want to go on record as having been right about that crap all along.”

  It was Spot’s turn to raise an eyebrow.

  “Well, I was,” Aila said as she turned back to the paper. She flipped back and forth through a few pages and said, “Nothing, nothing at all about the fires other than three vague little blurbs about vandalism, a gas leak, and a brush fire. Amazing. Those FBI guys are pretty good, I’ll give them that.”

  She put down the paper and pulled the comforter up to her neck.

  Smudge snatched her chicken from the floor and jumped up onto the couch, stepped over Aila, and then plopped herself down into the crack between her and the back of the couch.

  “Well come on in Smudge,” she said, “plenty of room for everyone.”

  Aila rubbed the girl dog’s snout and said, “Hey you two, that Director Barton guy said we need to stay away from the Dorschstein’s and the new development for a while. The fallout was carried out to the bay and the burn they did took care of the rest, but he said we should stay clear until the spring when they come back to retest it. So keep the coyotes out of there.”

  The pups nodded together.

  Aila took a sip of tea and said, “It’s a shame about that family. Barton said the parents didn’t suffer, but those Cooper boys apparently have contracted the same contamination that Mr. Dorschstein and his wife had. Nasty thing that.” She shivered and said to Spot, “And that older Cooper boy never came home.”

  She looked at the pups over her cup, and smiled.

  “Odd, don’t you think?” she added.

  Both pups stared at her, and nodded slowly.

  They sat in silence for a while and listened to the wind whistle through the eaves. Smudge let out a sigh, and ground her ear happily into her chicken.

  Aila smiled and said, “I am so sorry about your friends.” She looked at their new front door as she caressed Smudge’s silky ears and said, “That big one, Max. When he knocked that asshole Liko through the door…shit, you should have seen it.”

  Aila took a sip from her cup and slowly shook her head as she said, “And that poor little girl coyote. She jumped right in front of him. I owe her big time.” Aila rubbed her upper arm, and then said, “We owe all of them. I really like that tough one-eared coyote, she’s a funny thing. Could use a bath, though. They all could.”

  The wind howled again outside and rattled the windows. Aila slid further down the couch and rested her head on the pillow behind her. Spot cuddled up closer to his sister. He put his paws over Aila’s knee and dropped his chin onto her thigh. The pups stared at her with their big brown, intelligent eyes.

  Aila smiled and rubbed both dogs’ neck fur. She said, “We owe you guys, too. You protected your family. I read about you dogs rescuing us dumb humans every day, just never thought we’d be the ones needing to be saved. Certainly not this kind of saving. It’d make a great story, but maybe we should leave this one out of the papers?”

  The pups nodded.

  “I just hope you both know how much we appreciate what you did,” she said.

  Spot reached out, spread open his paw, and took hold of Aila’s hand.

  They sat together for a while with Aila gently rubbing Smudge’s ears, and the scar between Spot’s split paw.

  “One more thing,” Aila said as she picked up the newspaper again and opened it, “Barton was asking a lot of questions about the owner of the Chinese restaurant and that other crook, Larry Davis.”

  Spot and Smudge looked at each other.

  “You two had better take it easy for a while,” Aila said with a smile from behind the paper, “Apparently they’ve both gone missing.”

  CHAPTER 82

  The Barton Memo

  The story continues…

  The Glasgow Gray

  Spot and Smudge - Book 2

  This riveting second installment of the Spot and Smudge novels doesn't disappoint. It’s an amazing story with more of the rich characters, dark humor, and smart plot twists that are a signature of the series.

  Let Slip the Pups of War

  Spot and Smudge - Book 3

  The conclusion of the Spot and Smudge trilogy picks up immediately after Ben and the pups’ adventures in Canada. This face paced, inventive, black-witted tale uncovers the riddle of the pups' secrets and exposes the terrifying forces behind the accelerator compound. It also brings together the richly drawn characters from the first two books and a host of intriguing new players, hurling them into a hunt that spans the globe and poses the ultimate test for this cunning family and their amazing pups.

  Afterwords from your author

  Early fall, just a little south of Boston…

  Thud.

  That was my little framed picture of the real Spot and Smudge getting knocked over, again. The old frame isn’t exactly square and tips over whenever my desk gets bumped. I like the frame too much to swap it, and every time I stand it back up it’s kinda like I’m giving those two furry black heads a pat all over again. The photo is one of my favorites as it caught Spot and Smudge in their natural state; they’re sitting side by side looking really, really guilty. I forget what heinous crime they had committed just before I snapped the pic, but it’s a pretty good bet they had gotten away with whatever it had been. Any stern head shake with tapping foot and finger point I was trying to deliver at the time was likely watered down by my big grin, and their immediate pardon…which is evidenced by the fact that I grabbed the camera instead of yelling at them. It was simply impossible to stay mad at them, mostly because they were never more than a few feet apart so it wasn’t always clear who the culprit had been. I usually just yelled at both of them as the innocent one was likely the instigator.

  I loved those two damn adorable dogs.

  Like the fictional pups they inspired, the real Spot and Smudge did run together through the thick woods of the South Shore of Massachusetts. They were also littermate mutts, and they were indeed all black from snout to tail. They did have a habit of staring at you with their bright, loving eyes, and they sort of wagged in sync (usually when they were getting yelled at). Unlike their conjured counterparts, however, the real Spot and Smudge’s large paws weren’t overly dexterous, and there was certainly a limit to their intelligence. They demonstrated that almost daily.

  Still, you couldn’t not fall for them. They left many wonderful imprints, and more than a few stains, on our lives from the first day their sturdy puppy legs carried them into my lap.

  Smudge, the silly daft brute, died of cancer at age five after a heartbreaking roller-coaster battle that I probably should have called off earlier than I did. His bright and infectiously affable brother Spot carried on well into his teens. Tales of their many antics still get shared at our get-togethers, and more than a few of them have made it into these books.

  As I give the rickety old picture a pat and return it to its place of honor, I shoot our current pair of adopted dogs a dirty look. The wrestling idiots at my feet are the ones who knocked into my desk and caused the picture to fall over, again. These two are black as well, and are littermate mutts rescued from a southern high-kill shelter. Their names are Ty and Z.

  (You may wonder how we went from the (arguably) quirky and creative names Spot and Smudge to the more pedestrian (boring) names Ty and Z?...we
ll let’s just say a pair of very sweet (stubborn) five and a seven year old girls had been added to the mix.)

  After Spot and Smudge left us Ty and Z took over terrorizing the woods of the South Shore, and some of the anecdotes in the books have also come from their crazy lives. They enjoy having a good howl with the local coyotes, and they love cruising the trails with their huge shepherd pal Maximus from up the street. Our precious girl Z really did successfully battle puppyhood parvo as her faithful brother waited patiently in exile for her to fight back from death’s doorstep.

  Thud.

  Okay, so I’m going to wrap this up here. My restless pups are reminding me I promised to take them for a walk in The Bogs before I read them the final few chapters of this book. They seem to be enjoying the story so far, but I’m a little concerned about their happy tail thumping over some of the more twisted parts. Should I be concerned they seemed especially interested in the method of Aaron’s demise?

  Anyway, I really hope you are enjoying the Spot and Smudge series as well.

  If so, please let me know.

  If you aren’t, well, let’s take a walk in the woods and we can chat about it. We can follow the pups out to The Bogs…they have some friends out there they’d like to introduce you to.

  Regards, BU

  You can see pictures of the real Spot and Smudge, including their guilty photo, on our website. There’s also special deals, info about the other Spot and Smudge books, the charities the pups support, and a little bit about your author.