by B Anders
"Just me, I'm the only one who cared enough to come back," Harper said with a tear streaking down her face.
"And, you are far more than enough." The old priest took her face in both her hands, “It's good to finally meet you in person and say thank you for saving my life."
***
December 6
Harper could see Courtney standing in the hotel lobby speaking to their server as she hurried back to the car. With a conservation of motion usually reserved for the bomb squad, Harper gingerly opened the car door and eased herself inside. The side window was fixed by the time they finished their lunch at the hotel's small tacky restaurant and Harper had left Courtney to settle the lunch bill herself with a vague excuse of needing to stretch her legs. Now sitting waiting in a car warmed by sweet Georgia sunshine with her jacket zippered up to her chin and shoulders hunched forward, Harper was starting to sweat.
"Come on, Courtney. Stop dawdling. He isn’t that great looking." Harper wiped her forehead with the palm of her hand. "I'm melting here while you’re playing twenty questions with Guido."
Courtney stepped toward the lobby doors and waved to the server. He waved back, and they appeared to be engaging in another round of banter.
"Now's the time she picks to be friendly?" Harper grumbled. “She has worse taste in guys than me.”
Blowing a goodbye kiss to the laughing man Courtney left the hotel looking extremely pleased. Even Harper could see how relaxed Courtney was as she walked towards the car with an extra spring in her step that made Harper’s eyes linger longer than they should on the sway of the other woman’s hips.
"Could you turn the air conditioning on?" Harper hissed as Courtney opened the door and dropped into the driver’s seat with a girlish giggle. "Like now, right now. I’m fuckin’ melting while you’re making small talk with the Italian Stallion."
A glance in Harper’s direction and Courtney had all the explanations she needed. She turned the key, and the engine purred to life. A burst of cool air quickly followed, and Harper breathed a sigh of relief. Courtney backed out of the car park without uttering a word, her eyes pinpoints of icy blue. The on ramp was only half a mile down the road. Courtney waited until she was well on the highway and putting miles between them and their last stop before she spoke.
"I was hoping you needing to steal towels would have stopped after meeting that priest. I mean, it felt kind of full circle, didn't it? We even stayed the night, attended morning service, and said ‘hello’ to all the nice people. It’s like finding the Holy Grail, right?"
Harper shrugged and unzipped her coat. The towel fell into her lap. Reverently, she caressed the soft material.
"This one is special. It has the old style green strip down the middle. It's a classic. You don’t find these anymore."
"Is that why you took it? Because it's rare or did you take it because you had to satisfy this compulsion of yours?"
"Compulsion.”
"So," Courtney sucked in a deep breath, "when does this end for you?"
Harper looked at the towel and felt momentary calm. "I don't know."
“What the fuck, Harper. You got to stop this. I’ve told you I’m not going to get locked up because of you.”
“Too late, you already did.”
“Is that supposed to be a joke, Harper? Ha Ha Ha. You kill me, you really do.”
“Look Courtney, I don’t make rude remarks about you when you started throwing yourself at that greasy server so quit with the value judgments already.”
“Don’t make this about me, Harper. This is about you and this Goddamn compulsion of yours and I didn’t throw myself at him. He was throwing himself at me.”
“Whatever gets you off.” Harper snapped as she flipped Courtney the bird and turned away to stare out the window.
***
Harper wasn't sure when it happened, but sometime after the argument with Courtney she fell asleep. She woke with a gasp that startled her.
"Jesus!"
"You okay?"
Harper took a moment to gather herself together before glancing up at Courtney. There was the unmistakable look of concern in the other woman’s brilliant blue eyes.
“Harper, you okay?”
"I nodded off I think."
Courtney laughed. "You think? You've been out cold for hours."
"Where are we now? When did it start raining?" Harper asked as she slowly stretched her stiff limbs.
"Downpour started just as we crossed into Florida. So much for the sunshine state, and here I was thinking we could spend some time lounging next to a pool with those fancy pineapple drinks. You know those with the tiny paper umbrellas?"
"Why are we off the highway? Never leave the highway. Northern Florida has lots of fucked up shit going on. It isn’t safe. We need to get going.”
“Harper calm down, it’s okay.” Courtney replied carefully in response to the other woman’s growing panic.
“Courtney, this is serious. We need to get back on the highway now."
"I know," Courtney sighed as she reached out and gently squeezed Harper’s left knee. "I got fooled by one of the signs. It said there was a gas station on this exit, and now we're on some kind of snipe hunt through Winter Carnival Land."
"Really? Carnivals?" Harper asked as her body relaxed into the feel of Courtney’s warm hand softly stroking her thigh. There was something about Courtney that was beginning to confuse Harper.
"Yah, there was a sign welcoming circus people to their winter escape a few miles back. Look, I'm just gonna turn around at the next available road, field, or orange grove and try to get us back on the highway. We can get off and stop for gas at the next exit. This place is beginning to creep me out."
"Good plan." Harper replied as she took a good look out the car window. The scenery could not have been much even if it wasn't raining. Overgrown fields and untended groves lining either side of the snake like road made it difficult to navigate. Harper understood Courtney's reluctance to execute a turn.
"That dirt road should do," Courtney said and hit her left turn signal. There was an immediate splash as Courtney gunned the car forward. Harper kept her fingers crossed they won’t get stuck. Pushing a pricey car out of the mud in the pouring rain was not something Harper would enjoy, but knocking on the door of the dilapidated farmhouse set back from the road for help was even less desirable.
Harper was nervous when she saw a wall of a man standing in what he probably considered his front yard. Over six feet tall and wearing nothing, but dirty overalls with the bib hanging loose, Harper got more of a view of his naked chest and beer gut than she wanted. However, it was his steel tipped construction boots that captured her attention more than the skin he was showing. The boot was delivering a firm kick to what appeared to be a dog with a plastic jug over its head. The dog was helpless to move away because it was tied by a short plastic cord to a pole in the ground.
"Muthafucker!" Courtney shouted. “Did you see that? He kicked that dog.”
Harper put her hand on Courtney's shoulder to keep her from shifting down and stopping the car. "Do Not Stop!"
"Didn’t you see that? We have to stop! He’s going to kick that dog to death."
"Keep driving! Be smart!" Harper could see Courtney was ready to argue and quickly explained, "He’s going to use that dog as a bait dog.”
“What?’
“Don’t you watch anything other than Bloomberg News? Dog fighters use bait dogs to let their game dogs practice mauling another dog. It makes them more aggressive. They will either use duct tape to bind the bait dog’s mouth shut, or break their teeth, so they can’t fight back, or throw them in a pit or tie them to a tree or pole so they can’t get away. The guy would shoot us and feed our bodies to his dogs without a second thought if he caught us messing in his business!"
"So, we're gonna just drive off and leave that pup to be brutalized by that monster?" Courtney was furious. “I don’t understand you, Harper.”
"No, you d
on’t," Harper shook her head. "If we are going to save that dog, we are going to have to be smart. If you learned anything on this trip, it should be have your escape route ready before you take what isn't yours."
Courtney nodded. "Okay then step one would be to turn the car around, but we’re not leaving without that dog."
The pair stayed silent while Courtney performed what became an eight-point turn. Once they were headed in the right direction, Courtney slowly drove back toward the farm.
"Don't go passed it. We don’t want him to see us rolling back by his house. Stop at a place with an obstructed view of the building, but a clear shot at the field." Harper added, "Try to get us to as dry a patch of road as you can. We are going to have to hit the gas once we grab the dog. Don’t want to get stuck in the mud."
"Is that the plan? Run out and grab the dog?" Courtney asked as she put the car in park.
"Got a better one? Oh, let me grab the knife from the cooler. It's not much, but it's the only sharp thing we have."
"Okay," Courtney answered but kept her eyes on the dog.
"Leave the engine running and put the windows down in case we need to dive back in. And Courtney, first sign of farm boy we are running, dog or no dog, got it?"
"Got it. Let's roll."
The farm was so over grown the women were able to stay out of sight until the last three hundred feet. They could hear the dog softly whimpering as it huddled in the grass trying to escape the rain. The droplets were now so huge they were almost painful when they hit Harper's skin.
"This is going to turn to hail soon. We need to hurry," Harper hushed as she put an arm protectively over Courtney.
“Harper, I’m sorry.”
“What?”
“Back at that restaurant. You were right I was flirting with the server. I…I wanted…I want…Its sometimes really difficult being with you, you always seem so preoccupied.”
“I thought you wanted me to give you and that grease ball space to make goo-goo eyes at each other. He was hitting on you from the moment we walked in.”
“I know. I’m sorry I should have told him to pack it in instead of encouraging him.”
“You got that right. You even blew him a kiss. He probably thinks he’s God’s gift to women.”
“Shit. I have terrible taste in men”
“Shit’s the word.” Harper smiled as she brushed a wet lock of hair away from Courtney’s face. “You do have terrible taste in men.”
"You stay here.”
“What? No, Courtney, No.”
"Look Harper, I’m the one with the pen knife in her pocket. If this goes bad, I need you to get back to the car and go get help." Harper started to argue, and Courtney countered, "You said we need to be smart, so be smart. I did track in college. I’m fast. I can get to that field and out of it in less than a minute. Once I get the dog, I need you to drive us out of here. Can you do it?"
Harper nodded, but was not entirely sure she could complete the task without crashing the car into a tree. Any chance to argue was lost when Courtney suddenly dashed across the field. She stayed low running like a maniac. The dog never budged as she slid down next to it. It was only seconds, but for Harper it felt like an eternity waiting for Courtney to saw through the plastic cord with the small knife. The final cut was a combined effort of the knife's edge and brute strength. Courtney took a quick look over her shoulder at the farmhouse before scooping up the dog. Then she was on her feet and dashing across the field in a straight line for Harper. Harper realized she needed to start running for the car too, or Courtney would soon pass her. Both women were safely back in the car before they heard the man yell at them.
"Hang on!" Harper said as she floored the accelerator. The man was barely off the steps of his house before Harper was off the dirt road and zipping back up the winding country road they had just travelled. She was pushing her driving skills with a high performance car on a wet road, but to her a car crash would be better than falling into the clutches of a dog fighting syndicate. She didn't cut back her speed until she saw the sign for I-95, and then she only cut back down to seventy.
Harper took a side-glance at Courtney. She had managed to get the plastic jug off the dog's head, and it was obvious the dog wasn't just small. It was a pup, less than a year old, thin, and in poor condition. Courtney had wrapped the dog in the most recently stolen towel with the classic green stripe and was cuddling it. Courtney smiled back at Harper and Harper couldn’t think of a better use for the towel.
***
Harper hurried back to the parking lot. The rain had let up, but the day was still gray and miserable with a humidity that clawed at the skin. Doubling her steps Harper quickly reached the car discreetly parked at the far end of the parking lot out of sight of the security cameras. Tugging the door open just enough to get in, Harper slipped behind the wheel.
"How did it go?" Courtney asked never once taking her eyes off the small dog snoozing in her lap.
"He gave me the room at the end of the block. I told him I had company, and I want peace and quiet. Had to slip the grease ball twenty bucks to make it worth his while.” Harper said as she pointed to the door marked number thirty on the ground floor of the motel."
"Good to know I’m your official squeeze for tonight. What's their dog policy?"
Harper grinned and started the car, pulling up to the parking space directly in front of the door. "You know, it's kind of funny. He didn't ask if we had a pet, so I assumed it didn't matter."
"Don't you think it would make more sense to offer to pay extra up front?"
"Look, they have like four cars parked in the entire lot. As long as we don't get in anybody's face with the dog, it'll be fine. Now, let's get him inside. We need to get him cleaned up tonight before any infection sets in. It’s too late to be looking for a vet.”
Courtney sounded unconvinced, but agreed. "Okay, I'm not certain this is the best approach."
"Duly noted and quit worrying. If anyone asks I’ll pass him off as my service animal."
“Her.”
“Huh?”
“He’s a she. The dog is a she.”
“Oh...Okay. So we have a princess. Let’s get a move on with her highness.”
It was easier to get the dog into the room than Harper expected. Courtney cradled the wounded animal in the towel and held it close like a baby, while Harper grabbed the shopping bags out of the back seat and hurried to unlock the room door. Their suitcases could wait until they finished caring for their injured friend.
"I'll start the tub," Harper announced as she headed for the bathroom. “You just hold her for a while.”
"Not too hot, okay?" Courtney countered as she closed the door. “She’s pretty cut up, and those wounds look nasty.”
Glancing back, Harper noticed the ease with which Courtney held her precious cargo while sliding the deadbolt into place. "You're like an old pro with that trick. Were you a juggler at some point in your career?"
"Naw, never juggled anything in my life except for numbers," Courtney answered as she sat on the edge of the bed holding the dog. "But after hundreds of nights of dragging my sister out of some really seedy hotel rooms, you get pretty good at juggling a dead weight under one arm and opening and closing doors with the other. I’ve found it to be a very useful survival skill in the corporate jungle."
Harper heard the mocking grief in Courtney's voice, but had no words to comfort her. Instead, she went to run the bath and prepare the supplies they would need later. Harper noticed that for a small highway motel in the middle of nowhere, housekeeping was generous with the towels. There were enough towels for four, but instead of grabbing one for her suitcase, Harper took the fluffiest one she could find and placed it on the closed toilet lid so it would be ready when it was time to towel off the dog.
Next, she carefully unpacked the items she had picked up from the pet store at the strip mall. Soon there was a bottle of dog shampoo, flee bath, a flea comb, and a brush all neatly lined up al
ong the floor next to the tub. Harper paused a moment to check the water temperature. Wincing she quickly adjusted the knob towards cold, then took the plastic bag with the items she hoped not to need and placed them along the toilet tank, antiseptic, bandages, nail clippers, and a styptic pencil. Harper said a silent prayer that most of the items would stay untouched.
"Ready?" Courtney asked with a hint of anxiety from the doorway. “She’s getting restless.”
Harper turned and saw the worry in Courtney's eyes. "Should be. Let me shut the faucets off, and we'll ease her in."
"Okay, baby," Courtney hushed in the dog's ear. "This is going to be good for you in the long run. You have to trust us."
"Pretty sure she won't be trusting a person for a long time," Harper was bitter with the remark. "Why don't you let me put her in? That way she won't think you are the mean one."
“Nope. Here hold her for me a minute.”
“Huh, okay. God, she’s all skin and bones.” Harper said as she struggled with the wiggling dog.
“It’s okay baby, Harper here is going to hold you for a minute while I take off my clothes.”
“WHAT!”
“My jeans are Dolce & Gabbana. I don’t need to ruin them any more than necessary.”
“What the shit? Why can’t you wear Levis like everyone else?”
“Because these make my butt look good, that answer okay enough for you, Harper?” Courtney replied as she sat down on the toilet seat, pulled off her jeans, and started unbuttoning her shirt.
“Hey, what’s with the shirt? You never said anything about taking off your shirt.”
“Harper, grow a pair. It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before.”
“Look I said I was sorry this morning, you don’t have to bring it up. I didn’t know you were in the shower, and I really needed to pee.”
