by DC Alexander
That took a while, she examined my tattoos closer and decided I was a novice and needed help. I had to find a tree close to my home I knew well. The best thing I could come up with was the hedge bushes in my back yard, I liked them, they were familiar, they protected me; she thought that was fine. Now I had to find a tree that was connected to them, or maybe knew them was a better description.
Any tree would do. I was traveling to a known destination. If I were traveling to an area I would have to test trees until I found one that ‘knew’ the area I wanted and had a connection. Great! Now what?
She had me touch the tree, hold her hand, and she touched the tree as well. Then she told me “go deep, think slow, make place like where you want to be, make same.”
I thought of the back yard, the hedge bushes. I closed my eyes to avoid distractions. I ignored the thousand things tickling, bugs, lights, wind, smells…and imagined home; the way the steps looked; The fireflies in the back yard this time of the year; the hedge bushes against the night sky; Dirt, the feel of those alien thoughts appearing in my mind; the way it smelled there,
I was touching one of the main trunks of my hedge, I was surrounded by the smaller limbs and leaves touched me from my head to my toes, comforting and welcoming. It was bright daylight. I had made it. Magyuo still had my hand, she squeezed, “You good now! I go.”
“Hang on, wait, let me show you my house and let’s rest, I have food and water, ok?”
“Yes, thanks.”
We shrugged on out of the hedge into the back yard and I took her up the steps.
Magyuo as a dog was friendly and happy. As a person it doubled up, she was a toucher, and she would lick in a heartbeat, unselfconsciously. She was fascinated with the back of the house. As she examined the steps a car passed on the street and I thought she was going have a fit at the noise. It wasn’t loud, but it startled her. We walked through the back door into the house and I started the coffee. When I turned the faucet on and the water ran out I thought she would pass out. She’d never seen running water come out of a pipe on demand. She worked it the faucet back and forth, I explained the pipes and told her there was a big tank up high that fed the water to the faucet through the pipes and the faucet was a valve. She might not have understood, she thought it was magic.
When she accepted it was all magic it went better, except I wasn’t supposed to do major magic like that. The lights impressed her and she shook her head ruefully at how far I had strayed.
She had a fit when I explained a page of newspaper. My books totally blew her away. She’d never imagined such perfect little square mechanical letters, all in perfect rows and so neat. She couldn't read it, we didn't communicate well at all but our pidgin improved fast. I took her down to the basement and showed her where I could touch the earth. She was stunned with the seamless concrete floor and tried to determine what sort of rock it was. She stood on the bare spot and sank a couple of inches. I assume she was communing with dirt. We spent the rest of the day discovering door knobs, latches, hinges, board flooring, sheetrock, coasters, a gas stove, pots and pans. The star of the show was toilet paper. I couldn’t imagine how she never had seen any of this before. I was getting a suspicion though. I asked how long she had been trapped in the dog form. She had no idea; she’d hunted a lot.
Artemis showed up about dark in the kitchen, and spoke in a conversational tone, “What have you done with Magyuo?” Mag stuck her head in the door, she was enjoying the window AC unit. “Are either of you interested in doing some hunting?”
I answered “no”.
“Magyuo, would you like to go hunting? A nice stag, a good run would be a lot of fun.”
Magyuo was indecisive, she clearly liked Artemis a lot, but she was interested in what I was showing her. I said “Artemis, she’s been a dog for a long time. She wants to go home, see the world, be a human for a while.”
Magyuo looked at me, then back at Artemis and nodded and spewed a bunch of stuff like nothing I ever heard before. Artemis understood it just fine, she laughed and faded and was gone.
I’d asked her if I could call her Mag and she was ok with that. She’d bedded down on the couch, she was happy just to curl up on it, she was ecstatic when I offered her a blanket and a pillow. She tried to tell me something about the lack of bugs, lice, fleas and various other pests. She didn’t have any, she got rid of them, but it was amazing that everything outside stayed outside and inside stuff stayed inside. She was still overwhelmed by supper, and that had been a wonderful experience, watching her enjoyment and wonder at the variety and freshness and quality of the food. I was buying organic, she wouldn’t have been as happy if it was the chemical soaked standard stuff.
Carl came over the next morning. He was royally pissed but acting as a gentleman, awaiting an explanation, huffy, and full of drama. I opened the door. Magyuo had gotten up right at daylight and was exploring the house. I couldn’t sleep with that going on so I had been up a while. I let Carl in and we sat down at the kitchen table, he was stiff and reserved, highly offended. Me, it was early, I hadn’t had coffee, and I wasn’t feeling particularly guilty. It crossed my mind that he should pull up his big girl panties and just move the hell on with life. I wasn’t going to cater to any such lifestyle as he seemed to have in mind.
We sat and drank coffee, Mag joined us. Carl refused to ask anything about her. Mag was amazed at the coffee. Carl had to be wondering who she was and where she was from but he didn’t say a word about it.
Mag was intensely curious and full of questions. She leaned over and examined Carl’s arm, pointed at her arm, and asked “Where this land?” Carl caught on first; she wanted to know what country she was in. She managed to convey questions about who Carl was, our relationship, was he an apprentice, who was my teacher, what was the status of the religion, what year it was.
I told Carl she had been trapped for a long time, we didn’t know how long, and she didn’t know where she was from. Relented and filled him in on the last day and he got off his high horse and relaxed.
It was hard to answer her questions, the pidgin and no knowledge of her background or origin or how she counted the date gave us no common ground to work from. Carl got caught up in trying to answer her questions and I got a free ride, he could take the lead for a change.
Carl asked her about religion; what people did where she lived. She told us her people traveled the land and worked with the people as judges, healers, executioners, and helped them grow food, she referred to me several times for help as though I should know this. Most people worshipped in the old ways. Some people paid to have someone else intercede on their behalf. There were temples where people gathered for shows and entertainment.
Her country was an island separated from the mainland by salt water. People traveled back and forth when they needed to. There were raids both ways, some intermarriage, slave taking, fishing, hunger and famine.
There were gatherings where laws were created and judgments passed on important matters. Peace was strictly enforced at the gatherings and they occurred on a rigid schedule dictated by the stars.
Carl said “That’s Ireland, we got to get a map but I’m sure that’s what it is. The stuff about what she did and how it was sounds like druids. Can she go there with that travel stuff? That would be the easiest way to find out, just go there and ask somebody.”
She listened intently, thought hard, then clapped her hands “Travel, yes, go there.” She got up to leave. We managed to talk her into slowing her down to make some preparations, like clothes; she was wearing the blanket I’d given her draped around her and that was it.
She couldn’t wear my clothes, they were way too small. Carl went home and brought over some pants and a shirt and we got her dressed and took her to Wal-Mart. She was thrilled with the trip, stunned by the car, the road, red lights, other cars, motorcycles, the parking lot at Wal-Mart fascinated her, such a broad, hard, flat area, she had a hard time accepting it. We spent a lot of time looking, she marve
led at everything. The day was getting on, I wanted to get back to the house and get something to eat, I didn’t want to try fast food, it wouldn’t go down well with her.
She relaxed in the store. It was a huge market and she was familiar with the concept. She ran down after a few minutes though, got slower to respond to questions. We got her a couple pairs of jeans, I figured that would excite her all over again. It didn’t. We got a couple shirts and underwear and she was so listless and run down she quit responding to questions. She got slower to move until she finally stopped and leaned up on a display with her eyes closed, head hanging.
I had Carl take her to the car while I checked out, I went through the self serve line and hurried to the car, the change in her was dramatic.
She was lying in the back seat of the car with her eyes closed, she had vomited out the door, and she was running a fever. If she was from a different time and place, maybe she’d caught something that they didn’t have there. We took her home, debating all the way taking her to the hospital. They might accidentally kill her if we took her there, we had no records on her, no id, she didn’t speak the language; I worried that DNS might grab her as an alien.
I took her around back and sat her down and scanned her. There wasn’t anything unusual about her body. No foreign bacteria, no infection, no salmonella. She slumped over sideways, I picked her up and took her inside and put her in my bed. There was nothing wrong with her body, it had to be something else.
Carl came to the door of the bedroom and said “She’s havin a panic attack. She’s been through a lot of change in the last day or so. I seen this before, I just didn’t think what it was.”
“What can we do to fix it? I can’t change her to a dog, that might help but she has to do it. I might be able to take her back where she was, I don’t know.”
“Can we get something familiar here, something that makes her feel at home? That might help, don’t let her see anything new for a little while and get her something she feels at home with.”
“Like what? We can build a fire in the back yard; that might help. Maybe get her to cook something over a fire? I aint got nothing older than me, pretty much, if it’s the time thing getting her.”
“A fire might be a good idea. She liked the blanket a lot. I can get a rabbit, a man raises them down by the creek, maybe we could camp out, cook on the fire, that might help her adjust a little.”
“Might be just letting time go by would do it. Let’s get some wood up, at the least we should take her outside, she knows about Dirt. That might help.”
We got her back out in the yard wrapped in the blanket. Carl went off to get wood and maybe a rabbit. I wasn’t sure about the rabbit part but it couldn’t hurt. She shivered and scrootched around on the ground and wrapped up in the blanket with her eyes tight closed. I asked Dirt for advice. It communicated that her mind was chaotic. She was talking with herself fast, not finished thoughts, jumbled impressions that looped and left her off balance. It seemed we were on the right track.
I sat with her and Carl came around the house with an armload of firewood. I gathered some dry twigs to help start it with while he brought another armload, he had a lot of wood.
Mag roused when she smelled the wood smoke. She opened her eyes and looked at what we were doing. With a grimace, she sat up and rearranged the wood, took the twig from me and lit the fire. It caught a little, she leaned over and blew on it gently and with had a little roar it caught. She fed a few more twigs in, concentrating furiously, and got it burning to her satisfaction.
Carl came around the house with the rabbit. She watched him as he walked up and held it out to her, and then she took it and snuggled it up, pressing her face to it and making cooing sounds. It didn’t look like we were fixing to cook rabbit and I was totally ok with that; the rabbit was helping though, she was aware, her breathing calmed down and she straightened up.
“Good, thanks.” She indicated the fire and the rabbit and smiled shakily. “OK? Ok now. Better. Thanks.”
We spent the next little while reassuring her that she didn’t have to do anything. She could stay outside or come inside, use the fire or put it out, no pressure, we were taking care of her, she wasn’t alone. She visibly relaxed and made an effort to show she was ok now and back to normal, she was a little embarrassed.
She was tired. Carl was tired of sitting on the ground or the steps, he was miserable but not letting on. The third time she yawned, I asked her if she wanted to sleep outside, she didn’t.
I said “Let’s go on in, looks like bedtime.” We got up, I led the way.
Carl said “I’m gonna call it a night, call if you need me, otherwise I’ll see yall in the morning.” He kicked the fire apart and stomped on it some, then give it up and sprayed it with the water hose. Mag put the rabbit down and walked up the steps into the house. The rabbit could fend for itself.
Confident he had the fire under control, I closed the door behind us and went to the bathroom.
When I came out I didn’t see Mag; I looked discretely around for her and found her in my bed wrapped in her blanket. She asked ‘Is Ok?” She wanted to sleep with me.
“Ok, yes, that’s fine, I hope you don’t snore, and if I do you just pay it no mind.” It wasn’t a big deal, I just wasn’t expecting it. We could have a sleepover. I’d never had one. I guess it was about time.
I got in the bed wearing an old housedress that draped me with yards of excess material, I usually slept naked but it didn’t seem right with a guest.
I could have saved my concern. She latched onto me and wrapped me up in arms and legs, scooted around till she was comfortable, gave a sigh of relief and went to sleep.
I was scared to move and spook her but I had to get comfortable, I finally got myself into a position where I could sleep with her spooned up to my back. The new wore off pretty quickly and I discovered I loved it, it felt great to have someone scrootched up to me holding me tight. I drifted off, I guess I was pretty tired too.
I woke up a few times in the night; I was surprised every time to find someone else in bed with me hugging me up, but I made my peace with it and slept really well.
The final time I woke up, I had my face buried in her furry neck, she was back in dog form, and it threw me for a loop. I bounced out of the bed so quick it startled her awake, she bounced up and barked, I backed up, she backed up, I ran out of the room and she chased me.
There wasn’t much house to run through and I wasn’t scared, I don’t know why I ran out. I stopped and faced her, she came on and leaped up to put her paws on me, I gave her head a rough rub and she leaned into it.
She got down and went to the door, turned and whined at me, I opened the door and let her out before I thought it through. She wasn’t used to town, I didn’t want her to get in trouble, I ran out the back door to catch her and ran into Carl.
He was watching her and didn’t see me coming. We went down in a tangle trying to catch each other and wound up wrapped up together lying in the yard, we’d missed the steps by inches.
His arms were around me, I had him the same way, he leaned in a kissed me naturally without thinking about it and I responded the same way.
Mag licked me on the back of my leg and I screamed, it was totally unexpected, I tore loose from Carl and stood up quick. He stood up and faced me defiantly “I’m sorry if I scared you, but I aint sorry I kissed you. I won’t do anything you don’t want me to but I want you to know I got feelings.”
I said “Carl, the dog licked my leg. It was a shock, I never got licked like that, I wasn’t lookin for it.”
He said “Oh. Shit. Well, I meant it. I’m glad I didn’t scare you, what’s up with the dog?”
“That’s Mag, she changed back sometime in the night, I woke up and she was like this, we got out of bed and she wanted out and I didn’t think about cars and so on.”
“Yall slept together last night?” He was carefully casual with the question but I caught it.
“She want
ed some comfort, it wasn’t bad at all.” Hey, that didn’t sound right. Damn if I was going to explain and correct though. I didn’t know how I ever got in a situation like this, having to explain, walking on eggshells. This worrying about someone else stuff, it was for the birds. It kept me busy just taking care of myself.
Chapter Eighteen
M ag seemed ok, she was running from point to point sniffing and doing her business. She came back to the house, morphed into her human form, and asked “Coffee?” I guess I had ruined that girl, I had to grin.
“Yeah, let’s get some coffee. Carl went in first, I pushed him ahead of me. He didn’t need to come up the steps behind Mag. She didn’t care if he was examining her naked ass, but somehow I did. What was that, jealousy? No way. Was it? I think I was just looking out for a fellow woman. I was lost in thought as I arranged the pot. Mag was in the bedroom putting clothes on. The first cup dripped in the pot, I got the cups out and ready. I shouldn’t take that first cup while it was making, that wouldn’t be polite.
I shoved cereal at the table, Carl got a jug of milk out and breakfast was on.
“You know, this feels natural, sitting together eating, no trouble, and no worries. I could get used to it.” I made gestures to help get the idea across. Mag seemed to understand well enough. She smiled and made a motion with her fingers toward me, the outer two fingers sticking out and the middle two folded in to make a pair of horns. She said ‘Bad to say all….good? ask for trouble.” She looked at me mock sternly.
Dirt took that opportunity to make itself known ‘Trouble, pain, confusion, assistance!’ in a way I had never experienced. It was clear even there at the table in the house.
“What? Where?”
Mag was out the back door kneeling with her hands on the ground intent on the messages. I was right behind her.
A light I hadn’t known was there went out. I experienced total silence in a place where there had been sound before. Dirt was gone.
