Read Online Rachel Alexander 04 - Lady Vanishes by Carol Lea Benjamin - Free Book Online Page B

doorway, all business now. She tilted her head toward David, who was standing in his usual spot by the sidelight, his head leaning slightly back, the way people do when they want to see something out of the bottom part of their bifocals, his arms stiff, only his fingers moving.
    Maybe there hadn’t been anything wrong. Maybe her tears were because something was right, because Jackson had had a little miracle.
    Or maybe they had to do with something that had happened moments earlier, when she was still in her office.
    As Venus had indicated David to me, with a nod of her head, I did the same with Dashiell. Standing next to her, just outside the dining room, I watched him meander over to David, stand at his side, then slowly sit on the hip closer to David, his legs sprawled straight out in front of him, leaning his weight ever so carefully against David’s leg.
    David’s nervous fingers began to tap at each other more slowly, and in a moment, they were still, the hands relaxed, just swaying at his side, like leaves in a breeze.
    “What happened before?” I whispered.
    “What do you mean?”
    Like Jackson, she had closed the door.
    But this time I wasn’t having any. I made little lines under my eye with my pointer and shrugged.
    “What was it you did there?”
    “Nothing much,” I said. “I admired his work, and Dashiell leaned in for some petting, but he wasn’t responding, so I thought I’d show him some of Dashiell’s work. It’s lively, like his paintings, and it gave me something to do. Then he said he wanted to try it. That’s all.”
    Venus turned away for a moment. When she looked back, her eyes were shining.
    “Rachel, that man hasn’t spoken since he’s been here. Not once. I may never let you go.”
    “It’s not me. It’s Dashiell. He can get to anyone.“
    „Everyone loved Lady. She was a cheerful, calming presence, rushing about all day on her own, making sure everyone was okay. But nothing like this ever happened. Your boy’s good. He gets inside.”
    “He was born for this.”
    Venus nodded, her eyes on David. “No heroics. Just hang out. You okay here?”
    “I’m fine.”
    But I wasn’t. I didn’t feel I’d been told the whole story here either.
    “Good. You know where I am if you need me.”
    She turned and walked back to her office, on the other side of the lobby. I watched her take the keys hanging from her belt and unlock the door. When it closed behind her, I heard the tumbler turn over again—Venus double-locking herself in.
    I decided to stay put for a moment and just watch— David standing there, Dashiell leaning on him, no one saying boo. Then, in this place where everything was odd, something unusual happened. David sat. He lowered himself to the floor, stretched his legs out, and sat on his right hip, leaning against Dashiell as Dashiell leaned against him.
    After a few minutes I joined them, sitting at Dashiell’s side, keeping him between me and David; if a dog could sometimes make a bridge between a visitor and a disabled person, in the middle was exactly where he belonged.
    Then I did something else, something that had always worked for me with dogs. When there was a behavior I couldn’t interpret, if I could, I’d imitate it. Having already imitated a posture, as David himself had, I now listened as carefully as I could to David’s ragged exhalations, then I patterned my breathing after his and stayed that way, on the floor, until I could no longer bear it because if I did it for one more minute, I’d be living here, too.
    No wonder Dashiell was exhausted, lying on his side asleep in the dirt under the tree.
    I sat looking out over the river, thinking about Lady, the dog I’d never met, the dog I might never get the chance to meet. She was a herding dog, light and quick. She made the kids her flock, the same way she would have were she living with any ordinary family. For her, the job was clear—see where all her little lambs were and keep them safe. Of