Just Life by Neil Abramson

Author:Neil Abramson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction / Literary, Fiction / Thrillers / Suspense, Fiction / Urban, Fiction / Medical, Fiction / Political
Publisher: Center Street
Published: 2016-05-10T04:00:00+00:00

15

In the relative quiet of Sam’s exam room, Sid held Louis on his lap while Sam completed her examination. Sid’s hands trembled so badly that she took them in her own. “It’s OK now,” Sam told him, trying to convince herself of the same thing.

A tear rolled down Sid’s cheek and he wiped it away with a meaty paw. “I was so scared. I thought that was going to be it. Thank God for Jim and Andy. I was so stupid leaving Louis tied to the bench with all this going on.”

“Louis is fine.” Sam rubbed the dog’s ears as if that would prove the truth of her statement.

“But for how long? You didn’t see the look on their faces. There’s something else going on here.”

Her father’s words about the inevitability of a QCK campaign echoed in Sam’s ears. “Let’s not panic yet,” she said.

“I just don’t want to sit around waiting for the day they decide to start knocking on doors. But there’s no place to go either. I feel so helpless.” Sid rose from the chair holding Louis to his chest. “What would you do if they ever came for Nick or your other dogs?”

Sam allowed herself to think about the reality behind the question. Could it really happen here? In vet school one of her professors had made her class memorize a quote from William Ralph Inge: “We have enslaved the rest of the animal creation, and have treated our distant cousins in fur and feathers so badly that beyond doubt, if they were able to formulate a religion, they would depict the Devil in human form.”

She fought against Inge’s image of damnation every day, and it really was a fight because complacency was so much easier. How many others were prepared to fight? Certainly not her father. Why would she expect the governor or the mayor to be any different?

And what if they did come through that door?

Sam wore the answer to Sid’s question on her face.

“Just promise me that you’ll take Louis with you,” Sid said.

“If it ever comes to that then Louis will be right beside me, Nick, and all the others.”

She realized it was a silly thing to say even before the words came out of her mouth. As if she really could save these dogs when she didn’t even have the first idea of the cause or the epidemiology of the virus. As if she was going to take on the governor and the Guard with her volunteers and little stethoscope. As if she even mattered.

“I want you to keep Louis here with you,” Sid said.

“But Sid—”

“You can say he’s under your care.”

“I don’t think they’re gonna give a damn what I say.”

“Please. Perhaps it will buy him some time when the knock comes.”

Because Sam knew she had no better answer for him, she nodded. She escorted Sid to reception and left him with a hug and a kiss, after which he looked a bit better.

Back in her office, Sam stared at a favorite photo of her mother, taken during a rare mother-daughter weekend a year before her death.

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