Lost & Found - 3. Chapter 3

Lost and Found

Chapter 3

I leaned back into one of the wicker chairs that had come with the house. Its lumpy pillow felt a little damp. I meant to replace those pillows weeks ago, but I hadn’t been able to get up the energy.

The day at work had called for the last bottle of the imported beer Elise always brought for Hanako when they came over. Strong, refreshing, and slightly bitter. An image popped into my mind: square jaws, high cheekbones, dark stubble, short black hair. I caught myself smiling, picturing Beck sitting across from me on faded pink cushions with yellow and white daisies, but quickly pushed the image out of my mind. Still, I might have found my motivation to pay the Home & Garden store a visit.

Maybe dark canvas. Stripes. No flowers.

The scolding alarm of a blackbird startled me out of my thoughts. I watched it chasing a magpie across the yard. Feisty little thing. Danny would have loved it here. ‘We can finally have a dog…’

A few days ago, the vet who volunteered at Elijah’s Way had called me. Missy had had her babies, three girls, and two boys. For the time being, Aaron was now living at Beck’s place. Beck wanted him to do some work on the house. I had to admire the man’s thoughtfulness. By having Aaron working for his stay, the proud man wouldn’t feel bad about accepting help. Beck had found the perfect way for Aaron. Missy and the puppies to be safe.

And I had his private phone number now. If I wanted to see the dogs and choose a puppy, I just had to visit Aaron at Beck’s house.

Not yet, though. First, I had to make some preparations. Going along the fence to make sure there were no puppy-sized holes in it, for example.

The little tyke will probably drink from the birdbath. I’d better buy a new one that sits on a pole.

And I needed to cut the grass. Knee-high as it was, the puppy would have to fight his way through, and I’d probably step in dog poo all the time on my way to the gate at the far end. I was so tired of being alone, but I wouldn’t be for much longer. Soon I could watch my dog scampering about, sniffing at bushes, and hunting butterflies. Danny always wanted a female dog. I wanted a male.

‘Danny is dead.’ I could hear Elise’s calm voice in my head. ‘What do you want?’

A male. And when he was bigger, I could take him running with me in the morning. I couldn’t wait.

Does Beck run?

Why were these ridiculous thoughts always popping up into my mind lately? I had seen him for all of five minutes, if that, and here I was, already picturing us running together and drinking beer on my back porch. For all I knew, him being gay could have been one of Kinney’s crazy stories. The kid was craving attention at all costs. Maybe I should talk to Elise about him.

Beck wasn’t my type anyway. Which was a stupid excuse. Before Danny, I didn’t have a type, and then he had been all I’d ever wanted. Like always, familiar emptiness was creeping up on me. I suddenly couldn’t wait to have the little pup with me. At last I was planning again, only a little bit, but I was moving forward. Somehow, the cold emptiness that had been lingering deep inside me for so long was fading away. Thinking about the warm furry bundle, keeping me on my toes with his shenanigans, made me look forward to the coming weeks. Something was finally going right. I hoped one of Missy’s sons had enough Weimaraner genes to have those mesmerizing puppy blue eyes.

And just like that, another pair of blue eyes was mocking me, daring me since I first saw them. They went with broad shoulders, strong legs resting on the porch railing, bare toes wriggling in the sun. I shook my head to get the disturbing picture out of my mind. This was getting worse. Beck had stirred something in me, something I thought I had forgotten, something I wanted to stay forgotten.

***

I had deliberately chosen to meet Aaron at a time when Beck would be at Elijah’s Way. It wasn’t personal. I just didn’t want to mix business with private matters. Getting a puppy had nothing to do with the charity and didn’t need to involve its boss.

Beck lived only a few streets away from the center, near the piers. It was the part of town where individual people had refurbished warehouses and small factories, not the big firms, and it showed. Each property was unique, which was refreshingly different from the forced ‘used-but-luxurious’ look most architects working for the large developers were going for. I drove slowly down the streets, listening to the irritating voice of my GPS, while at the same time searching for the bright yellow double door Aaron had mentioned. Finally, I spotted something gleaming on a corner house and chuckled. Aaron had been right; it worked like a beacon.

Being this close I saw that the door took up almost the whole front of the first floor, advertising the branch office of an architectural firm. That explained the yellow.

I parked the car in the designated space for visitors and headed for the silver metal staircase leading to a gangway on the second floor. Aaron had said to follow it around the corner until I saw yet another metal door. This one bright blue. Beck sure loves colors. I couldn’t find a bell or a name sign and was just asking myself if I was at the right place, when I heard a dog barking. It sounded as if it came from the roof. I knocked, and the barking became stronger. Then the door opened and Aaron stood in front of me.

“Morgan!” He wiped his hand on his dusty jeans, before stretching it out to me. “Come in. Missy already heard you. She’s waiting for us on the rooftop.”

I took his hand and shook it. “I thought I heard a dog barking somewhere above me.” He stepped aside to let me in. The first thing I noticed was the windows. They were the original, mullioned panes and I could barely refrain from checking to see if they were old enough to be thicker at the base than the top.

“This is a nice place.”

“I’ll be sure to tell Beck you said that. He did much of the work here himself or with the help of friends.”

Following behind Aaron, I looked around some more. Thick pipes ran along the walls and the ceiling, and the polished, blue concrete floor gleamed in the sunlight coming through the large windows. It was as I had always imagined a loft would be.

We rounded a few potted plants, passing the area where the kitchen was. The appliances were old, but well kept. They looked as if they had once belonged in a professional kitchen.

Aaron pointed at the electric teakettle sitting beside a mug on one of the countertops. “I was just making tea. Do you want some?”

“Yes, that would be nice.” I was nervous, and talking over a hot drink was soothing.

“Black, green, or herbal?”

“Do you have chamomile?”

“I believe so.” Aaron searched through the cupboard. “Found it.”

Beck’s place was nothing like I had expected. I had imagined some rough around the edges, no nonsense, thrown together furniture, maybe even wooden crates for shelves, or a metal army case used as a coffee table. Instead, I saw warm wood, worn leather, and carefully sanded reddish brick walls. Everything felt warm and welcoming.

I jumped when Aaron was suddenly beside me, holding out a steaming mug of tea. “Let’s go see Missy now?” He walked to another, smaller metal staircase I hadn’t noticed before. It lead to a gallery, where I assumed Beck’s bedroom was, and at the end was a large roof window.

“Sure.” When we reached the gallery, I saw some graffiti on the brick wall above a large leather couch. Sprayed in glittering neon blue, shone the word ‘Valhalla’ in huge letters.

“Valhalla?” I stepped closer, so I could see it better. It was genuine graffiti; the brick stones under it were rough and dirty. “Does Beck have Nordic ancestors?”

Aaron came over and shrugged. “I don’t know. When he showed me around, he told me it had been here when he bought the house. He liked it and decided to keep it. The others were scrubbed away and the walls sanded. I guess the word means something to him, but Beck didn’t look as if he wanted to explain it further, so I didn’t pry.”

‘So I didn’t pry’…suddenly I felt like an intruder. Does Beck know I am here today? I had no right invading his privacy, analyzing his things. Especially if he wasn’t here. “Let’s go see the puppies.”

The large window I had seen from downstairs was the door to a small vestibule on the rooftop terrace. From here, we had a clear view over building sites, rows of warehouses, and the piers.

Missy barked happily when she saw us; she greeted me like a long lost friend. “She looks good.” It was difficult to find a spot to pat her while she rubbed herself against my legs, wagging her tail. I squatted down and finally she calmed enough that I had a chance to ruffle her ears. “Good girl.” She licked across my face, and I laughed. “Eww, I already washed today.” I could hear the puppies yipping, growling, and scratching at wood. “Show me your pups?” As if she’d understood me, she turned around and skipped over to the wooden box behind her. Its walls were so high the puppies couldn’t get out, which clearly displeased them.

After the vet had called to tell me Missy had had her babies, he’d sent me pictures of a pile of tiny grey-and-black-furred jellybeans, with their eyes still closed. They were a little over four weeks old now. Five mercurial, lively bundles with floppy ears, fuzzy fur, and alert eyes. I carefully held my hand inside the box, and the two boldest immediately came over and sniffed at my fingers.

“That’s ‘A’, a girl, and ‘B’, one of the two boys. You wanted a boy, yes?”

‘A’ was especially curious. She nipped at my nails with her tiny teeth and then playfully grabbed my hand with her paws. Danny would have loved her. “Yes, I definitely want a male.”

“Well, you already know ‘B’. Let’s see, where is—”

“Did you ask Kinney?”

“Not yet.”

“I think he would take one, if you’d ask him. Although… He told me this story about his last dog…”

“What exactly did he tell you?”

“That he had been attacked and beaten up badly. His dog tried to defend him, and they killed her. I was shocked, but then, later at home… I thought maybe he’d made the story up like he did with the warehouse mafia story.”

“No, he didn’t make it up. I saw him afterwards. You could barely recognize him, with the bruises on his face. He also had a broken wrist and two broken ribs. But the worst was Laika’s death. He never got over it. The fuckers killed her with a knife.”

“That is horrible. He’s blaming himself for naming her Laika as homage to the dog that died in the Russian aircraft.”

“I know. He told me the story.”

“Did they catch the attackers?”

“No, of course not. The police aren’t interested in some scuffle between hobos and druggies. And if someone dies…good riddance.”

“Do you think a dog could help him?”

“I already talked about it with Beck. He thinks I’d have to make it look like an emergency. Something like she’s the last one, and I have to give her to the shelter because Henry wants to leave soon. Seeing he’s my ride, there is nothing I can do about it. Something like that.”

“That’s a good idea.” But then I thought of what a large dog like this would eat. “I just wonder…”

“About what?”

“Do you think he has the means to feed himself and the dog properly?”

“Well, he works small jobs washing the dishes at a restaurant, stocking shelves, helping Beck out in the garden, things like that. Laika wasn’t a small dog either.” Aaron looked at me as if he wanted to say more, but he didn’t.

“That’s good.” Then I suddenly understood. “Do you think Kinney would mind helping me around the house a little, mending the fence of my backyard for example. I detected at least one hole the puppy could easily escape through. He could mow the lawn too, things like that.”

“Just be careful when you suggest it.”

“I won’t make it obvious we talked about this – and I really do need help.”

“Anyway, I promised you you’d have first dibs. Take a look at my boys ‘B’ and ‘D’.”

How could I decide which one I wanted to take home? They were both so cute. I was overwhelmed. I needed to take a closer look. ‘B’ was the one who play-attacked me together with his sister. Just when I looked at him, he jumped another sister and wrestled her down. The other two girls were lying side-by-side, one chewing on the ear of the other. Then there was ‘D’. He was a little fluffier than his siblings and sat in the back, watching the racket. At first I thought he was just shy, but then I noticed he was guarding them. When the scuffle was too much, he separated them. When the puppy who got her ear chewed on whined because she had had enough, he squeezed himself between them. Then he looked at me with Weimaraner puppy blue eyes and I was a goner.

“What about that one over there, with the blue eyes?”

Aaron smiled. “That’s ‘D’. He is our guardian. He watches over all of his siblings, soothes them when they have small mishaps, even mediates disputes, or so it seems. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

Right on cue, one of D’s sisters rolled up beside him and went to sleep. I wanted him. But did he want me? I carefully held my finger out at him and after he stared at it for a short moment, he sniffed it. When one of his brothers tried to chew on my pinky, he butted him away. Then he pushed his head into my hand and I felt as if I were chosen. “I want him.”

“D?”

“Sentinel.”

“Sentinel. I try to not give them names, because then it will be harder to let them go.”

“It has been my job for years to observe, to see potential. How he watches over his siblings? I like that a lot. Maybe one day he will watch like that over me.”

“But Sentinel is a mouthful. I can already see you in the park: Sen-ti-neeeeel!” Aaron grinned.

“I guess it will be shortened to Senti eventually.” I laughed. “I’ll only call him by his full name if he’s bad.”

Aaron reached into the box, picked Senti up and placed him in my lap. “Here, let him get to know you.”

I patted him awkwardly, but when he didn’t try to get away, I became more confident. “When do you leave?”

“Henry has a job lined up in about seven weeks. He said we need four to five days to get there, but he wants a few days more, just in case something comes up.”

“That means you don’t have much time to find them a home.”

“Yeah, but I don’t think it will be a problem. Now that you know which one you want,” he nodded at Senti who had curled up in my lap, “and it seems he wants you too, I can tell the others.”

I didn’t want to give him back, but I knew he was too small to take him home yet. “Do you think I can come over again some time, so that Senti and I can get to know each other some more?”

“Sure. I’ll talk with Beck, but I don’t think it will be a problem.”

Beck…that reminded me I had better go if I didn’t want to run into him. “I better go now. I have another appointment later today.” I lifted the sleeping dog and buried my face into his fur for a moment, before I put him carefully back into the box. “Goodbye, sweetie.”

Aaron grinned when he heard that, but I didn’t care. I was in love. “How do you know Henry?”

“Henry is a drifter. He lives out of his truck, but he knew Elijah, and he’s friends with Beck. He agreed to take Missy and me south. I’m getting old, Morgan. It’s hard to sleep outside when it’s freezing. I could find a place in a shelter most of the time, but I can’t be in a building for too long. The walls are closing in on me. I need the sky above me.”

“I can see that.” I had already wondered why Beck had a tent on his rooftop terrace.

“Even though Beck allowed me to put up my tent here, I don’t really use it. I prefer to watch the sky until I fall asleep. He is a very understanding man.”

“Well, the puppies will be ten weeks when you leave, a good age to separate them from Missy.”

“I think so.” Aaron looked at his watch. “Beck should be here soon. You can wait for him and ask him yourself. Although, knowing him, you can come over whenever you want.”

“As I said, I have another appointment this afternoon which I can’t miss.” A blatant lie. I didn’t want to see Beck. I had made up my mind. He had distracted me enough in the last few weeks. I didn’t need that. I had Senti now.

I patted the puppies and Missy one last time and then headed for the stairs. Aaron followed me. “Just call when you want to visit again. So, should I mark ‘D’ as yours?”

“Absolutely. Sentinel is mine. Next time I come I’ll bring a collar.”

Aaron laughed at that. “I won’t give him away, Morgan. He’s yours.”

On the way out, my gaze fell on two white architectural models sitting on an unusual chest of drawers. Each drawer had a different color, with its paint faded. What made me look twice was the shrine-like layout. Two houses framed by candlesticks, one holding a blue the other a red candle. A matching blueprint hung above on the wall.

I would have to ask Aaron about it the next time I visited.