Loose the Dogs

by P. D. Workman

  Frank tried to laugh, but it came out as a sob.

  “A snack,” he repeated. “Just a snack. Heaven help those families. We have to find them, Bill. We just have to.”

  “We will. As soon as I can find out more information, I’ll let you know. We’ll contact the families and warn them before anyone else is killed.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “COME ON, SHEP,” MARY Beamer invited. “Come on, boy!”

  “Shep?” Alexander asked. “Really?”

  Mary grinned. “I like the name! And he’s a herding dog, right, so Shep works, right?”

  “It’s a little cliché,” Alexander pointed out.

  “Well, where do you think the clichés came from? They’re clichés because they work.”

  “So you say.”

  “It’s going to be so great, having him with the kids.” Mary giggled. “He can keep them all rounded up for me.”

  “Has he been taught to herd?”

  “No, it’s in his blood. He doesn’t need to be taught.”

  “Well, I think he needs to be taught to do it on command, or to herd them where you want.”

  Mary shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

  Alexander nodded. He didn’t really care. Maybe she would keep the dog, maybe not. Mary went through new ideas and brilliant plans all the time. That’s just the way she was. This week’s brilliant plan might be next week’s disaster, but things were never boring. They went back into the house.

  “Well, I’m going to go sort the laundry, unless there’s something else you want me to do,” Alexander said.

  Mary cocked an eyebrow. “You really feel like sorting laundry?”

  “I really need a couple of pairs of clean socks this week,” he pointed out. “Preferably matched pairs. Things don’t go so well when I show up at a presentation or a board meeting without socks. Or with one Scooby Doo and one Barbie.”

  Mary laughed loudly. “Okay, you go match. I’ll work on supper for the crew.”

  Alexander left her to her pots and pans. When he pulled the warm laundry out of the dryer, he had to fend off two of the children, who wanted to make a big laundry pile and crawl into it to snuggle.

  “Not today, guys,” he said. “This is my laundry, and I need it now.”

  “But it’s so nice and cuddly,” Peeps complained.

  “I know it is. So put another load in. There’s always lots of laundry to do around here.”

  Peeps looked to Sarah with a big grin. “Let’s do laundry!” she said excitedly.

  Sarah’s face brightened. “Okay,” she agreed. “There’s a whole bunch in my room.”

  They both scampered off to collect a load of laundry, leaving Alexander shaking his head. Would they actually get a load washed and dried, or would they forget about it, instantly distracted by something else they ran across in their room or on the way down to the basement? He lugged his load of laundry up to the master bedroom and dumped it on the unmade bed. There was a yowl and a hiss, and Muffin, a shaggy black cat, slithered out from underneath the blanket and gave him a look of haughty contempt. She stalked off to find another sleeping place.

  “Stay away from the girls,” Alexander told him. “Or you’ll end up dressed like a baby doll.”

  The cat didn’t spare him a glance.

  “Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Alexander called after him.

  “What?” Nicholas asked, poking his head around the corner and pushing up his thick glasses. “What did you say?”

  “I was talking to the cat.”

  “Oh. What did he say?”

  Alexander gazed at the gangly youth. “He said I disturbed his sleep.”

  “Oh,” Nicholas nodded understandingly. “It must be pretty hard to sleep during the day around here. It’s too bad he’s n-n-nocturnal and can’t learn to sleep at night instead when everybody is in bed.”

  “Well, nearly everybody,” Alexander amended.

  Nicholas shrugged. He turned to go back into his room.

  “Okay,” he said absently and disappeared from view. Alexander started to sort and fold the laundry, quickly snatching up the pairs of socks he could spot and tucking them deep into the drawer where the little sock trolls hopefully wouldn’t find them. He’d once tried putting them in a box up on a shelf in the closet, but it had only worked for two weeks before the children had discovered them and started to steal them again. That was the trouble with a house full of kids. There was little privacy, and there was always someone after your clothes if they even remotely fit them.

  He folded the rest of the clothes, which were less likely to be stolen, and took a breath. Maybe he would have five or ten minutes to relax before Mary called everyone down to dinner. But as if the quiet inhalation had woken her up, the baby started to cry. Alexander pushed open the door to the walk-in closet where the crib was tucked away and gazed down at the youngest Beamer.

  “Hello, you,” he said pleasantly.

  Suzie stopped crying immediately and raised her hands to him, smiling a wide, toothless grin. Alexander picked her up.

  “You’re looking very bright and sunshiny today,” he told her quietly. “You must have had a good sleep, did you?”

  She babbled. Alexander adjusted her on his hip and headed downstairs. He walked into the kitchen, warm from the heat of the stove, fragrant with the smells of a soup or stew.

  “Oh, did she wake up already?” Mary asked. “Did you manage to get your laundry sorted?”

  “I did, actually. And then she sensed I had nothing to do and decided she’d better wake up.”

  “Mmm-hmmm,” Mary agreed. She bent over to kiss Suzie’s forehead. “Aren’t you the little munchkin,” she said, and then straightened. “I still have to finish dinner, so can you entertain her for a bit?”

  “I thought maybe I’d give her to the dog and let them entertain each other,” he teased.

  “Don’t even joke about that,” Mary said sharply. “Don’t make me think about that horrible story about the dog that killed the baby in Louisiana. What a horrible, horrible thing. The littles can’t be left alone with Shep under any circumstances. The pound said he was a friendly dog and great with kids, but you can’t trust everything they say. Even nice dogs can turn without warning. I’m not taking any chances!”

  “I’m sorry. I was just messing around. I didn’t even think about that.”

  “It’s okay. Just… just don’t make me think about it. I almost changed my mind and didn’t get Shep when I heard about it. But we’ll be careful… he won’t have run of the house while the baby’s inside and I’m out. What a crazy thing to happen.”

  “Yeah,” Alexander killed. “It was just bad luck. It’s not going to happen again.”

  “It could.”

  He nodded and pulled up a chair to sit down. He pointed out the window and talked to Suzie about everything he could see, turning his attention back to his wife occasionally as she wrangled dinner for them. She was pleasantly overweight, too much cooking and not enough sleeping and getting out of the house. Not that she didn’t get plenty of exercise chasing children all day long, but it didn’t seem to count against the calories she consumed. She was almost always cheerful and upbeat, taking on situations with grace that would have defeated a lesser woman or man. She seemed to always take everything in stride, calm and cool, acting like she enjoyed the whole business of living. He could swear she hadn’t aged a day since they had married.

  “There’s mommy cooking everybody a nice dinner,” he pointed out. “Pretty soon you’ll actually have teeth, and you’ll be able to eat some too.”

  “Well,” Mary amended, “when she gets her belly tube out. Until then, it’s just formula.”

  “Well, there’s that,” Alexander agreed. “Any word from the doctors when that might be?”

  “Nope. They’re still just guessing. Might be a month, might be a year. We’ll just have to see what her body’s able to handle.”

  A
lexander nodded. “Oh well. She’s a pretty happy baby. Not like we haven’t dealt with feeding tubes before.”

  “Around here, you’d think that was the normal way to start out life. Well, I think that’s got it.”

  She reached up and grabbed the cord on the dinner bell, giving it a few good pulls. Suzie started to cry again, but Alexander just bounced her and in a moment she had forgotten all about it and chugged to a stop. All the other children started to arrive at the big dinner table. They each grabbed a plate off of the pile on the counter and lined up by Mary while she dished up their dinner from the pots on the stove. Then they took their seats at the table. Alexander watched them come in, keeping a rough count in his head and looking over everyone’s faces to assess how they were doing.

  “Is that everybody?” he asked. “I think we’re short one.”

  Mary took a quick glance at the faces at the table.

  “Sergei,” she said immediately. “Peeps, would you go see if he’s under his bed?”

  Peeps left her plate at the table and ran up the stairs, calling out to Sergei as she went.

  “Sergei, the dinner bell went, and if you don’t come downstairs right away, you’re not going to get any dinner, and then you’re going to be hungry when it’s bedtime and you haven’t had anything to eat…” as she ran out of hearing, her voice faded, but Alexander knew she was probably still chattering.

  Hard to believe that for the first two years they’d had her, she’d refused to say a word. But she was better now. So much better. You hardly noticed her differences when she was with a group of children around her age. She acted younger than her immediate peers, but not so noticeable anymore. And around the younger children, she fit right in, hardly any quirks at all.

  In half a minute, Peeps was back, pulling Sergei behind her. He didn’t look too upset at this treatment. Most of the kids were pretty good-natured about Peeps. She was just too sweet to get mad at.

  “You come when you hear the bell,” Mary told Sergei sternly. Then she gave him a smothering hug as he brought his plate up to her. “You don’t want to go hungry, do you?”

  He shook his head quickly and watched her dish the stew up. Then he sat down next to Peeps to eat.

  Supper went like it usually did, with a lot of chatter all around, a few messes to be cleaned up, and of course, kids deliberately being gross or bugging their closest siblings. It was sort of an ordered chaos. Near the end of the meal, Mary made her announcement, cutting across the rest of the conversations with her outside voice.

  “We got a dog today.”

  “A dog?”

  There were exclamations all around the table, as everyone abandoned their own topics of conversation to find out about this new development. Some of the youngest children immediately jumped up and ran to the porch doors to look out into the back yard.

  “Look! There he is!”

  “Oh, he’s a big dog!”

  “He’s so pretty!”

  “Can I go out and play?”

  “Will he fetch?”

  “Can I take him for a walk?”

  Mary laughed at their overlapping questions and exclamations.

  “His name is Shep and he’s a border collie.”

  “He doesn’t look like a collie,” Meryl disagreed.

  “Not a collie like Lassie. A different kind of collie. A border collie.”

  “A border collie,” several of the younger children repeated to each other, with excitement. They all strained to see him in the back yard.

  “Everybody sit back down again. After supper is cleaned up, we’ll go for a walk to the park, and we’ll play with him for half an hour in the park.”

  “Yay!”

  “Can we go now?”

  “I’m all done. I’m not hungry.”

  “Everybody sit back down. Finish your dinner and then wash up.”

  Several of the children jumped back up immediately to scrape and wash their plates.

  “Not without saying excuse me!” Mary’s voice rose in warning.

  Each of them sat back down again, and one at a time politely asked to be excused. They washed their dishes and watched out the back window again, full of anticipation.

  “If you’re done with washing and drying and putting away your dishes, then you should go find your shoes and coat,” Mary suggested.

  She and Alexander each began to move down the rows of children on either side of the table, helping the littles or the less able to finish their dinners and wash up. A couple of the older kids helped, and then sat at the table watching as the last dishes were washed up.

  “Are you guys going to come too?” Mary asked.

  Nicholas shook his head. “I don’t like dogs,” he said cautiously.

  “You don’t like dogs? Have you ever had one?” Mary asked.

  “Yes. They poop and pee and chew on all your stuff. And they make a lot of noise.” He glanced out the window at the new dog. “And that one’s big.”

  “Are you afraid of dogs?” Mary suggested.

  “No… I just don’t like them.”

  “Well, I’d like you to at least meet him. He should meet everyone in our family, so he knows who is part of the flock.”

  “The flock?” Nicholas repeated doubtfully.

  Mary looked at Alexander and laughed at the private joke. “Who is part of our family,” she repeated. “At least come out and say hello to him. You don’t have to come on the walk if you don’t want to.”

  Nicholas shrugged. “I guess so,” he agreed. “But only if he’s on a leash. I don’t want him jumping on me.”

  “Deal. You wait inside until I’ve got him on the leash.”

  Nicholas nodded. Mary looked at Kyla. “What about you, princess? You don’t like dogs either?”

  “I’m tired,” she said. “I just want to stay home today. I’ll go another time. If you keep him.”

  “If I keep him?” Mary repeated. “Of course I’m going to keep him! I wouldn’t have gotten him if I wasn’t going to keep him.”

  Kyla looked at Alexander, raising an eyebrow. He laughed.

  Mary looked over the children waiting eagerly. “Dimitri, you need to get a coat on,” she prompted.

  “I don’t want a coat.”

  “Did I ask if you wanted a coat? Get one on.”

  He rolled his eyes. One of the older kids pulled one off of a nearby peg and handed it to him. Dimitri put it on.

  “Who else? Everyone got shoes on?”

  “Peeps has bare feet,” someone tattled.

  “Peeps, you need to get shoes on. You can’t go to the park with bare feet.”

  Peeps looked down at her feet thoughtfully. “They are people feet,” she objected.

  “Not bear feet,” Mary said, making a growling face and claws with her fingers, “bare feet—naked feet! You need to put something on them. What if Shep or another dog poops in the grass?”

  Peeps made a disgusted face and busily looked in the closet for some shoes. She pulled out one rubber boot.

  “I can’t find the other one!”

  The other children helped her look, and eventually, shoes and boots scattered across the entry way, they were all dressed and ready to go. Mary got the stroller ready and left it and the children in the front yard and went around the back to get the dog. She jangled the leash.

  “Come here, Shep. Come on, boy! Walkies!”

  He jumped up and ran over to her. He cavorted around while she tried to put the leash on him.

  “Shep,” she said sharply. “Sit!”

  He stopped bounding and looked at her.

  “Sit!” Mary insisted.

  He slowly lowered himself into a seated position.

  “Now stay!” she ordered.

  This time, he stayed still while she hooked the leash onto the collar.

  “That’s better. Now shall we go for a walk?”

  He whined, thumping his tail happily.

  “Okay. Heel.”

  He heeled reluctantl
y. When he got out to the front and saw the bustle of children, he left his place at her heel and barked, running toward them. Some of the children cried out and drew back. Others ran forward, ready to play. Mary tugged on the leash, keeping him back from the closest children.

  “Whoa there, Shep. Sit.”

  He settled back onto his haunches, though he looked like he was ready to spring back up again.

  “Stay,” Mary ordered. He didn’t move. “Okay, guys. Let’s introduce everyone one at a time. We don’t want everyone to move toward him at once, and we don’t want to get him too excited or scared. Dimitri, do you want to meet him?”

  Dimitri walked up to the dog slowly.

  “Good. Hold the back of your hand out to him so he can smell your hand.”

  Dimitri obeyed. The dog sniffed him with interest.

  “Shep, this is Dimitri. See?”

  Dimitri patted Shep on the head and looked up at Mary for approval.

  “Good job. Okay, you go over to the gate, and we’ll let someone else meet him now.”

  One by one, the children came to meet the dog. Some were scared; some were excited. Shep greeted each one with a doggie grin and a wagging tail. He didn’t seem fazed by the ones who were more energetic or moved too fast.

  “Okay, now we’re going to go for a walk to the park,” Mary said. “Everyone ready?”

  The children followed excitedly. Some ran ahead, but none went ahead too far, so Mary didn’t call them back.

  At the park, most of the children went to play on the equipment. Bud and some of the others stuck around to play fetch with Shep. Mary helped Bud to throw a Frisbee for Shep, who was quick and eager to catch it and bring it back. Bud threw a few times by himself and then Mary tried getting the children to throw to one another and then to the dog. They had a fun game going, but the children couldn’t get much distance on the Frisbee. Mary threw it a couple of times to watch Shep run and let him get some real exercise. But as always, her radar was on, and she noticed Peeps and Dimitri wandering away from the playground hand in hand. She called Shep to her.

  “Come here, boy.”

  The dog raced up to her. Mary pointed to Peeps and Dimitri. “The kids are getting away, Shep, can you bring them back?”

  The dog looked at her face, his intelligent eyes sparkling, head cocked slightly like he was asking her a question. Mary pointed again.