Kindred Souls by Patricia MacLachlan

Author:Patricia MacLachlan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2013-08-17T04:00:00+00:00

10

Angel Dog

Mama brushes her hair. Papa stands by the door, waiting. Lida and Jesse are doing their chores and Papa’s, too. I am going to the hospital to see Billy.

The phone rings. I’m closest to the phone, and Mama nods at me.

“Hello.”

“Jake?”

It’s Dr. Miller.

“Bring Lucy.”

She hangs up.

I stare at the phone for a minute, then I smile.

“What?” says Mama.

“Dr. Miller says bring Lucy.”

“That Billy,” she says.

“Want to go for a ride, Lucy?” she asks.

Lucy’s ears prick up. She runs to the door.

“Take the rope, Jake. I don’t trust Lucy,” says Papa.

Lucy gives Papa a look as if she says, Who, me? Not trustworthy? I’m your best friend.

It’s dusk when we ride to the hospital. I sit in the back with Lucy. She looks out the window eagerly—looking for a man with a bush of white hair, looking for Billy.

When we get to the hospital, Lucy stands up in the backseat and wags her tail. She knows.

I’ve said it out loud because Mama nods.

“She does.”

We get out with Lucy and walk through the front door. It’s a low hospital, only one floor. The hall lights are on.

“Wait!” says the woman at the desk. “That’s a dog. You can’t bring her …”

Lucy pulls loose and runs down the hall—past doctors and nurses and visitors, past a steel cart with medicines—the rope trailing behind her.

“Lucy!” I call, chasing after her.

She turns into a room and we follow.

Billy’s room.

When we get there, Lucy is up on the bed with Billy.

“Well, you found the room without any trouble,” says Dr. Miller, standing next to the bed.

“Lucy did,” says Mama.

Billy smiles. He has oxygen tubes in his nose, and his arm is hooked up to a machine.

He looks tired, but his face isn’t so pale.

Lucy looks up at Dr. Miller.

“No, you can’t stay here tonight,” she says. “Rules,” she adds, and looks at me. “But you can visit tomorrow again. My rules.”

I smile at Dr. Miller.

Before we leave, Lucy visits other rooms—other sick people smiling at her, stroking her head.

“I should hire Lucy,” says Dr. Miller.

“She’s an angel dog,” says Billy. “And don’t you forget that.”

“I’m thinking you’re right,” says Dr. Miller. “I like Angel Dog. She should visit every day.”

“And she will do that, Chickie,” says Billy.

Dr. Miller looks at me.

“He’s better, don’t you think?”

I nod. Billy has called her Chickie.

We watch Billy eat Mama’s chicken soup.

We watch Billy take his medicine.

There’s only one thing left.

It’s night when we drive home again, but the moon is full, lighting our way home. Papa has even forgotten to put on the car’s headlights. Lucy sleeps with her head on my lap, somehow comforted to have seen Billy for a short visit.

When we drive up the dirt road to our house, I see our small tractor in the side field by the slough, its headlights on.

“What’s that?” asks Mama. “Who’s that?”

Papa shakes his head.

“Looks like Lida.”

I smile. I know it’s Lida.

When Papa stops the car, I take Lucy on her rope and run up the hill, past the slough, past the granary.

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