by David Kersey
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
Marlene yelled at Cassie and me as she headed up the basement stairs with a leash in hand. “Come on you two, let’s get some exercise before we begin day two of class time.”
She was disappointed that John’s car had already gone. She had hoped to apologize to him for her emotional loss of control last night, and then scold him for providing too much wine. She said much too much, especially the part about being paid to be here. John was a smart man, he would figure out that the military would not give out that kind of money for visiting a dog.
We were barely into the car park when I heard, “Buck!” It was Oliver perched atop the garage. “I’m not coming down there Buck,” as he pointed his wing to the strange dog having a fit as the Malinois watched Marlene approaching the kennel.
“What’s up Oliver, you’re up early.”
“Been waiting for you for hours and I’m drop dead sleepy, but this is a biggie, I think. Buck, in the wee hours of last night two men parked over on the dirt road and then walked through the corn field. When they had a clear shot of the house they took several pictures. I watched them, Buck. I don’t think they knew I was above them. Anyway, they stayed a few minutes then went back to the car and drove off to the east on the highway.”
“Oh my God, Cassie, did you hear that? Oliver, what do you think it means?”
“It has to be something that is linked with the woman being here in my opinion. To me it is something to get the circle together to talk out, but with the other dog here, I just don’t know. I smell something fishy, Buck.”
“Cassie, I’ve got to let John know about this. Help me try to figure out how to point out DANGER on the keyboard. But back to covert operations, let’s try to figure it out without tipping our hand to Marlene. You agree with me?”
“Absolutely, Buck. And for sure danger is the right word. My mind is a whirlwind right now, but danger and dog sounds like the same first letter, don’t you think?”
“I guess so. We’ve got to figure it out. Let’s see what the others think if we see them.”
“Oliver, can you see how many you can round up right now for a clearing meeting?”
“Ok, but I gotta get some sleep after that.”
It was slow going as we headed east. Guido zigzagged back and forth on the trail doing what all dogs do in a new setting. Sniffing. And marking. Cassie rolled her eyes more than once. When we reached the meadow I could tell Guido was impressed. He sat and took in the beauty of it for a few moments. The meadow had done that same thing to me many times over.
When the four of us reached the clearing it was an amusing sight. Mort and Penny were in their places, but Raspy, Stammer, Methusaleh, and Randall were sitting on the same limb as Oliver. Couldn’t say that I blamed them but both Cassie and I had a good laugh.
“This is Guido, and he’s my new friend. He’s here to learn from us, though we all could learn from him. He is a big shot Army dog that can smell explosives and other things, like drugs. Oliver, tell the rest of us what you told me.” Oliver replied by saying he already had.
“Doesn’t sound good, does it? What do you think? And by the way, Guido and the woman can’t understand what we say to each other, at least not yet. That’s why he’s here, to learn how we do it.”
I looked over at Guido and he was laying on his belly with tongue extended and panting, but very attentive. Marlene was kneeling beside him, stroking his coat, and just as attentive.
Raspy was the first to speak. “That dog is a Belgian Malinois and can be very dangerous. You sure about him Buck?”
“He’s cool, don’t worry. Raspy, how would you spell the word danger?”
“DDDD AAAA NNNN GGGG EEEE RRRR.” Oh my, I should have known Mort would know. I visualized the keyboard and I think Marlene had shown us every one of those letters but I couldn’t quite work it out in my mind.
Cassie said, “Even if we are able to point that out to John he won’t know what it means, Buck.”
“It’s a start. I think we should all keep our eyes open for suspicious activity and if you should see something come find me, or tell Oliver to find me. Ok?”
Penny said, “You’re right, Buck. Even if the men took pictures in the middle of the day it would be suspicious if John didn’t know about it. But in the middle of the night, that’s ominous.”
“Ok, that’s it for now, thanks for being here. And I wanted to also show you that Guido is a good guy.” As we were leaving I saw Guido look over at Mort, and I heard Mort say, “WWWhhhhhaaaaaazzzzzzuuuuuupppppp?”
Instead of going back the way we came, I pulled on Marlene’s cargo pants to show her another way. It involved travelling through the woods to the south of the clearing where there was no path to speak of.
“What are you doing, Buck?”
It only took two minutes of her negotiating branches before she saw what I was doing. “Oh, wow, Marlene said.” The entire pasture lay before us. Completely fenced in, of course, it’s where John used to keep his cattle when he kept them during his years of time off from ACC. He sold the entire herd two years ago. We entered the pasture through the southeast gate and I bit on Guido’s leash. Marlene took my cue and unhooked Guido. He took off in a flash. I ran with him but he wanted to set a land speed record so I stopped and watched him frolic. Cassie caught up with me and I asked, “Can you spell danger?”
“I don’t know, Buck. I’ll have to see the cardboard keyboard. Maybe.”
“While we’re sitting like this, can you put your paws up to your eyes and make a clicking sound, like this?” I put my paws to my eyes but I couldn’t make a sound like a clicking camera, the type of click sound a human would recognize.
Marlene caught up with us so Cassie and I forsook the camera clicking exercise and walked westward toward Guido and the house. While the three of us walked both Marlene and I paused to look at a clicking sound.
“Excuse me,” Cassie said, “the pasture makes me sneeze sometimes.”
The car park was only a few paces north of the northwest gate. “Ok, Buck, I see the lay of the land a little better, but one of these days I’d like to take more time and see the entire place.” She leashed Guido for the short walk to the front door.
We took our positions in the chamber, though Guido situated himself next to Marlene. At her command he lay down and placed his chin on his stretched out legs. “We’ll start with APPLE again. Can you do it?”
It wasn’t hard. I did it with both paws again. BALLOON took more time but it got done. CAT and DOG were a breeze. I was fairly sure that the word danger started with a D, it was the rest that I was trying to figure out while Marlene was being my teacher. EGG was a snap, but still I had no clue.
“Buck, I want you to say the things I say so that Guido can hear them.” She held up a flash card and said, “A”. I repeated it and noticed Guido move his eyes back and forth from Marlene to me. I also noticed the shape of A on the keyboard. The shape I knew, it was the sound of the shape that made it click for me. I knew I had the second letter of what I was looking for.
“P”. I repeated it.
“P”. Ditto
“L”. Each letter I repeated caused Guido to move his ears left and right.
“E”. I said it and realized I had another letter I needed. I made a mental note of where it was on the cardboard. Recognizing the shapes that letters make and then finding that shape on the keyboard was relatively easy work, it was just the sound of the letters that was Greek to me. I had three sounds that I needed and could correlate the sound with the shape.
“Now say the word APPLE.” I repeated it and watched Guido slightly lift his head.
We went through the same exercises with BALLOON, CAT, DOG, and EGG. I needed one more letter to spell danger. I was sure I could point to DANGE when I got the chance to show John.
“Ok, now we’ll move on to some new words with the picture cards.” Marlene held up a picture of a FORK.