“Works out well for both of us. I forget to eat and shower when I’m in the middle of something, and they have an inherent distrust of the world at large. I give them a safe place. Honestly, they do the same for me.”
She falls silent, but she rests her head on my shoulder.
And I could walk like this for days.
Which is another reason I need to abandon my plans and leave.
Zen says they’ve never really fit in anywhere.
I’m not sure I have either.
It would be too easy to fall into the trap of thinking we could fit here.
I don’t know how far we’ve gone when Jitter stops and angles around a bush on the trail.
“Not today, Jitter,” Sabrina says.
Jitter whines and gives her the most pitiful look I’ve ever seen. Between the floppy jowls and the utter despair in his big brown eyes, there’s no question what we’re doing.
We’re letting Jitter lead.
“Hey,” Sabrina says while I turn off the path.
“Have to check it out,” I reply. “Someone could be hurt. Maybe Timmy fell down the well.”
“Timmy? Who’s Timmy?”
“You never watchedLassiereruns as a kid? Even I watchedLassiereruns as a kid.”
“What’sLassie? Hey.Wait. Don’t—”
“Sorry, but when a dog tells me to go somewhere, and it looks urgent, I listen.”
I’m not sorry.
I’m delaying putting her down.
And Jitterisvery insistent that we follow this skinny, snowy path through the pine trees and around larger boulders.
“There’s not a problem,” Sabrina says. “He just wants to go see something that we don’t need to see today. It’s getting dark. Seriously, we need to get back to the parking lot.”
“What does he want to see?”
“Jitter. Back on the trail.”
I tug the leash and retreat. “C’mon, Jitter. Before we both end up in the doghouse.”
He snorts, but he listens and heads back to the main trail.
“I feel you, buddy. I’ll bet it was something good.”
Sabrina sighs. “It’s just my grandparents’ old house and yard. You can kinda see it through the trees.”
I squint into the growing dimness and spot a single light twinkling beyond the trees. “They still live there?”
“No, the family put renters into it after Grandma died and Grandpa moved into a retirement community.”
“Must still love it if you and Jitter go visit often enough that he knows the way.”
