Read Online Finding Midnight by T. Lynne Tolles - Free Book Online Page B

debris from
the floor to the bag as if his eyes could not move independently
from his head. She looked at him watching her quizzically and
showed him a handful of stuffing.
    “Bad boy. Puppies don’t eat the couch,” she
said to him. He cocked his head again, his ears flopping a bit and
then he put his paw out to her as if wanting to shake, but then
pulled a clump of stuffing towards himself.
    “You want to help?” she asked. He cocked his
head again. “Put it in the bag for me.”
    He bent down and picked up a mouthful and
deposited it into the garbage bag.
    She rubbed his ears and praised him, “What a
good boy.” He liked that and gave her a big, sloppy, stinky lick
across the cheek and grabbed another chunk of stuffing and put it
in the bag. She praised him again and his tail wagged out of
control with happiness and his black tongue hung out over his jowls
as he breathed stinky sulpher breath on her.
    She waved her hand in front of her nose and
said, “We’re going to have to do something about that breath,
sheesh! Since you have already had a little breakfast I’ll get
ready for work and we can talk to Dr. Stuart and have him check you
out.”
    He wagged his tail as if answering her and
trotted behind her into the bedroom, sat on his bed and watched her
get dressed.
    *****
    Summer made a leash out of a wide leather
belt and led him outside to the car. He looked curiously at the
furry dog-mobile, tipping his head to the right, and then looked
towards Summer for guidance.
    “I know it’s silly looking, but it’s a good
little vehicle.” She unlocked the door while the pup smelled the
fur on the car, and then Summer spied a note on her windshield. She
grabbed it and led the pup, into the car and onto the passenger
seat. She settled into the driver’s seat.
    She laughed looking at the pup that was the
size of a full grown golden retriever. He was comfortable now, but
if he grew to be the size of his mother, or bigger, it would be a
bit tight. She pictured in her mind the grown pup stuffing himself
into her already silly-looking car. What a sight that will be
for other drivers to see , she thought.
    She opened the note left on the windshield.
Ms. Midnight was requesting an urgent meeting with her this
afternoon and making it very clear that she would not be taking
‘no’ for an answer.
    “Oh boy,” Summer said to the pup. “Looks
like I’m in trouble again. Wonder what I did this time?” The pup
looked back at her with droopy, sad, red and yellow eyes as if he
knew what she was saying to him. She smiled and gave the spiky hair
on top of his head a little rustle, making him wag his tail and
appear to smile again. She started the SUV and headed for the
office.
    *****
    Sully enjoyed his ride to the office,
watching people and cars rush by the window. Some didn’t notice
him, while others took double takes and just about ran off the
road, but it was the children he most enjoyed. They waved and
smiled and when they did, Sully would paw at the window then licked
the glass as if to wave back and blow them a kiss.
    Summer scratched him behind one of his ears
and Sully moaned with enjoyment. Another light and two stop signs
and they were pulling into the parking lot of the veterinarian
office. Though she had him on his makeshift leash, she didn’t need
it; he followed her like a shadow trotting behind her, head held
high and tail in the air wagging back and forth with such force
that it nearly knocked him off balance while he walked.
    The odd pair walked past the reception desk
where Tori was chatting with a delivery boy, her back to Summer and
Sully. It was the boy’s shocked face at seeing the hellhound that
made Tori turn her head and do a double take of her own only seeing
Sully’s posterior.
    “Summer?” Tori said after them as the
delivery boy scurried off in a fright.
    “Yes?” she answered, coming around the
corner, nearly running into a hurried Tori.
    “Hey!” Tori said than turned her