A Man of His Own by Susan Wilson

Author:Susan Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Chapter Thirty-five

His two men confer and now Pax is being taught something new to do for Rick. All of his new accomplishments take place in this space. It’s quite a change from the field work that he and Keller had done, long runs, lots of energy burned off, the flinty scent of danger overhanging every action. In comparison, these new accomplishments are really pretty tame. With Keller, he was part of a hunting pack. Lead dog, his followers flanking the prey and then taking it down for him. Here, he is domestic, nest building without a mate. Pickitup. Pull me. And now a two-part exercise: Take it. Put it. The men use a rubber ball as the training object, so he takes it in his mouth and then moves to a spot that Rick points to with his forefinger. Keller has taught him that Put it means to carefully put the object in the spot that he thinks Rick wants him to. It’s not an easy task. Sometimes it’s really hard to determine where Rick is pointing. He’s dropped the ball on the floor, on the bed, on the table and had to go retrieve it when it bounced away and under the hospital bed. Crawling under the lowered metal frame isn’t an easy thing for the big dog to do and makes him think of his war experience, crawling on his belly beneath rifle fire. Rick gets impatient and says no no no no a lot. Finally, Pax masters the nuances of Rick’s gestures and has a perfect run of placing the object on the table when Rick points to it, on the bed, and, yes, on the floor as directed. Then they try other objects, like the little bottle.

Keller is pleased with him, but Rick keeps asking him to repeat the same exercise long after Keller has left the room. It has gone beyond mere practice and is sliding out of the realm of a game. Rick’s repetition of the series of commands to retrieve an object, give him the object, take the object, and then put it where Rick indicates has taken on the same intensity as those exercises with Keller as the big guns thundered over their heads and the men around them depended on them to secure the way. Rick’s aura suggests life and death even though the object isn’t to locate an enemy hidden in a thicket, but to bring him a glass vial.

Rick’s praise goes beyond a mere touch. Pax doesn’t understand his words, but he knows that the tone of Rick’s voice means that he is extraordinary.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.