Bad Bella

by Ali Standish

  Alice had finally let her see the nursery, which was covered in fluffy toys and soft blankets and bright colors. It was the most beautiful room Bella had ever seen, which made her feel very sad, because none of it was for her.

  Andy and Alice had signed up for parenting classes, which meant Bella had to stay alone in the apartment every Thursday evening. Even though she did not like being left by herself, she remained on her best behavior. She did not eat the snacks the Roses left out on the counter or go exploring in the trash can.

  It was very important for Bella to be on her best behavior.

  Then maybe, just maybe, Andy and Alice will still want me when the baby comes.

  Andy was gone all afternoon. Bella tried her best to take care of Alice while he was away. She wished that Alice would lie down and rest, but her human spent the whole day cleaning instead. First she scrubbed the dishes and wiped the counters. Then she moved the sofa and chairs and swept underneath them.

  Alice did not usually like to clean. In fact, Bella had never seen her clean so much.

  She followed Alice from room to room and corner to corner, keeping an eye on her, until finally Alice plopped down on the sofa.

  “Do you want to come sit on the couch?” she asked Bella.

  Bella much preferred to lie underneath the coffee table, where she could see Alice without disturbing her.

  Alice gave a long sigh. Then she picked up the phone.

  Keeping an eye on someone was very hard work, and Bella had begun to feel sleepy.

  She allowed herself to close her eyes for just a few seconds.

  When she opened them again, Alice was still lying on the couch, deep in conversation.

  “I just don’t think she’s happy here,” she said.

  She paused to listen to something on the other end.

  Bella shut her eyes again so that Alice would think she was still asleep.

  “All she does is mope around and hide under the furniture. She’s not the dog we know anymore.”

  Bella’s toenails dug into the carpet. Alice is talking about me!

  “You’re right,” Alice said. “I don’t think we can avoid it any longer. We’re going to have to take her in.”

  In? In where? Bella thought frantically.

  “No, not today. But soon. Before the little one comes. I know it’s her least favorite place in the world, but it’s best for her in the long run.”

  Another pause.

  “I hope so, too. It breaks my heart.”

  Bella heard a jangling at the door.

  “Leslie? Andy is home. Yes, with the tree.”

  The tree? Andy is bringing home a tree?

  “Thanks for the advice. Yes, Bella will see you soon.”

  Alice’s words buzzed like bees. And each one stung.

  Leslie will see me soon? Before the little one comes? They’re taking me to my least favorite place in the world?

  But that must mean . . .

  They were taking her back to the pound.

  Everything was just as it had been a year ago.

  Bella watched helplessly as Andy put the tree up in the middle of the living room. A spindly, prickly, seasick-green tree that stank of squirrels. Alice, who seemed not to notice the smell or mind the prickles, waddled around it, stringing it with lights.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” Alice asked Bella. “Isn’t this just going to be the most wonderful Christmas ever?”

  But Bella was not fooled.

  When she had spied the McBrides’ decorated tree for the first time, Bella had thought Christmas was when someone realized they hadn’t paid enough attention to someone else and arranged for a special surprise to make it up to them.

  But now Bella knew what Christmas meant. It meant she was once again unwanted.

  She lay against the cold kitchen floor while the Roses decorated the tree and hummed cheerful songs. Was it really so easy for them to be happy, knowing they were going to abandon her?

  Suddenly a memory came to her. Lying on a different cold floor, listening to Leo tell his story.

  I lived with the same humans for four years. I was like you. I thought they really loved me. Then one night I heard them talking. About how they were moving and they couldn’t keep me anymore. They were going to take me to live with someone else, but I didn’t want to go.

  Bella didn’t want to go, either.

  I realized then that the only thing humans are good for is changing their minds and disappointing you. Why would I want to live with more of them? So when they took me for a walk, I ran away. And not long after that, I found my pack.

  Bella hadn’t wanted to believe Leo then, but maybe he was right after all. She couldn’t face the idea of returning to the pound, only to go home with a different set of humans who would make her love them only to leave her again. She just couldn’t. She wouldn’t.

  Packs aren’t like people. They’re always there for each other. Trust me, we dogs would be a lot happier if we just kept to ourselves.

  Bella had made up her mind.

  She would run away and find Leo’s pack. Maybe they wouldn’t have vanilla ice cream and tennis balls and National Geographic, but they also wouldn’t abandon her. They would be loyal.

  She started to think up a plan.

  I’ll go back to the corner of the park where I saw Leo in the summer, Bella thought. Maybe he comes there a lot, and I can pick up his scent and follow it. Or maybe I can wait until he comes back.

  And then Leo would take her to his pack, and they would surely want her. They would be her family forever.

  Bella would run away the first chance she got.

  Fourteen

  The Escape

  Bella’s chance came sooner than she expected. Much, much sooner, in fact.

  When Alice and Andy had finished decorating the tree, Andy swept up all the loose pine needles into a garbage bag.

  “I’m just going to take this down to the trash,” he said.

  When Andy took the trash out, he usually took Bella with him. And he didn’t put her on her leash, because she waited inside the lobby door while he swung the trash into the dumpster. She wasn’t allowed outside without her leash. That was the rule.

  Bella felt like her heart was a rope toy in a tug-of-war contest at the park. I wish I could have just one more night with Andy and Alice. For even now, she still loved them. But who knew when they might try to take her to the pound? Maybe even tomorrow. This might be my only chance to run.

  Making up her mind, Bella scrambled to her feet and stood by the door while Andy slid his shoes on.

  “Of course you can come,” he told her.

  A not so very small part of Bella had hoped that Andy would decide to go without her.

  She glanced around her apartment. One last look at her round checkered bed, at her soft teddy bear, at her basket of tennis balls and her perfect blue leash.

  One last look at Alice, who was staring up at the tree with a smile on her face. The twinkling lights made her smile shimmer and her cheeks glow. She was even more beautiful than the golden angel that looked down from atop the tree.

  Bella had never felt so sorry in her entire life.

  “Are you coming?” Andy asked.

  Bella forced her gaze away from Alice. Andy was already holding the door open. Reluctantly she followed him out and into the hallway.

  For the last time, she followed him past Mrs. Suarez’s apartment, down the stairs, and into the little lobby where she usually waited. For the last time, she watched as Andy opened the door with the strong, gentle hands that had petted her and scooped her up and held her leash.

  She would miss those hands.

  She would miss everything about her humans.

  But the moment had come.

  It’s now or never.

  As soon as Andy opened the door wide enough, Bella darted past him and skidded out into the darkness.

  She heard him call after her, heard his shoes slapping against the pavement, but it w
as too late.

  Bella had already sped away into the night.

  Bella tore down the street to the park, which was empty. She followed the chain-link fence to the place where she had met Leo.

  It was a shivery-cold night, and a dark one, too. Bella could smell something wet and familiar hanging in the air, but she didn’t have time to consider what it was.

  When she reached the corner where she had seen Leo, she stopped and lowered her nose to the dry grass. She sniffed with all her might and hoped with all her heart. But neither worked. She couldn’t smell Leo anywhere.

  She circled the spot, over and again. She tried big circles and small circles, and even figure-eight circles. But there was no trace of Leo.

  She began to shake.

  Perhaps if she howled her mightiest howl, he would hear it and come save her.

  Then again, if she howled her mightiest howl, Andy would definitely hear her. He would come find her, put her in the car, and perhaps even take her straight to the pound.

  Something cold and wet landed on Bella’s nose. She licked it.

  Snow. That’s what she had smelled in the air.

  Snow was great fun when Bella had her humans to play with. But what would happen if it kept snowing and snowing until the ground was covered? My paws will be cold, and there will be no Andy to carry me inside.

  What did Leo and his pack do when it snowed? Where did they go?

  Only then did Bella remember what Leo had said about the dogcatchers. My pack has to keep moving. Otherwise, the dogcatchers will find us and take us to the pound.

  That meant Leo and his pack would be long gone by now. She would never be able to follow their trail from here.

  Bella had run away to find Leo, but now she had no way of tracing him. Either Andy would find her and take her to the pound or the dogcatchers would.

  It was hopeless.

  Just then, she heard her name being called out.

  “Bella!” yelled Andy.

  “Bella!” cried Alice.

  She whipped her head toward the busy street. Andy was running down the sidewalk, Alice following behind him.

  “Stay there, Bella!” Alice demanded.

  Panic welled up in Bella’s heart like a bathtub filling with water. She wanted nothing more than to run straight into Alice’s arms.

  But I can’t go back to the pound.

  She did the only thing she could think to do.

  She took off toward the busy street, just as the cars were all coming to a stop. She leaped across the sidewalk in one bound.

  “Stop, Bella!” she heard Andy yell.

  And then she heard his and Alice’s voices together. “BAD BELLA!” they shouted.

  The words hurt much worse than any vet’s needles, but Bella did not stop. She did not stop when she heard car horns honking at her, either. She galloped across the street and reached the other side just as the cars began moving again, preventing Alice and Andy from following her. She sped down a block, then two, three, four. Past Alice’s favorite Indian restaurant and Mr. John’s pizza shop. Past the brightly lit shops and the groups of people with their shopping bags. She ran until she lost count of the blocks, until she wasn’t sure what direction she was running in anymore.

  As she ran, her heart-shaped collar jingle-jangled. It sounded like the voice of someone laughing at her. And no matter how fast she galloped, she couldn’t outrun it.

  Foolish Bella, laughed the voice, thinking the Roses would keep you forever. You’re just a silly, unwanted dog.

  Finally Bella stopped when she saw something familiar up ahead. It was the bookstore Alice liked, the one whose nice owner had let Bella come inside on her first morning with the Roses.

  Will he let me come inside now?

  But the lights were all off in the store.

  It did, however, have a dark, covered doorstep that would shelter Bella from the snow and hide her from the dogcatchers. The snow was falling faster now, and Bella’s coat was wet and heavy.

  She stepped up onto the doorstep and circled around and around, trying to find the softest spot on the concrete.

  Except there was no soft spot. No teddy bear to use as a pillow.

  Finally Bella slumped onto the hard step and curled in the tightest ball she could, tucking her nose neatly into her tail.

  Though she was sure that Alice and Andy weren’t following her anymore, Bella heard their voices over and over again. “BAD BELLA!” they shouted.

  She had tried her very hardest to be a good dog. To be good enough for a human family to love. And she had failed.

  A group of girls broke into song across the street. A man on the next block whistled for a cab. Somewhere in the distance, a siren began to blare.

  Bella squeezed her eyes shut.

  If I can’t be a good dog, she thought, I’ll just have to try to be an invisible one.

  Fifteen

  The Park at Night

  Although it was already morning when Bella awoke, everything was silent and still.

  Snow covered the ground, like the world had been tucked underneath a fluffy white blanket.

  It would have been beautiful if it hadn’t been so cold. And if she had someone to play snowballs with her and to carry her home when her paws began to ache.

  But Bella was all alone.

  The dogcatchers would surely be looking for her soon. Alice and Andy would have called them by now.

  Her stomach gave a loud rumble. She had not eaten dinner the night before. How was she supposed to find food, now that she was on her own?

  I wish Leo was here, she thought. He would know.

  She couldn’t stay in the bookshop doorway. The owner would probably arrive soon to open the shop, and he might recognize her. Bella stood up and stretched her cold muscles. She looked left. She looked right. She was so used to the gentle tug of her leash showing her the way, but now she did not know which direction to go.

  Right, she thought, would take her back toward the Roses’ apartment, so finally she chose left. Away down the sidewalk she trotted, keeping close to the buildings. She wished she didn’t have so many splotches of black and brown. They stood out in the bright snow, making her easy to see.

  But luckily for Bella, there weren’t many people to hide from. The streets were oddly empty of cars and buses, and there were very few footprints in the snow. People were bundled up in their warm houses with their happy families.

  The thought made Bella ache with loneliness.

  She walked on for a long time—to where, she didn’t know. She kept her nose to the ground, sniffing for any sign of Leo. But all she smelled were indoor dogs—a poodle who had just come back from the groomer, and a golden retriever who had been for a swim somewhere stinky. Dogs who were wanted.

  Just as she was starting to feel weak with hunger, a new smell made her nose twitch.

  It wasn’t a dog smell. It was a food smell. Not a very good one, but still . . . Bella followed its trail to a garbage bag that someone had left on the curb.

  Without opening it, she knew that inside there was a banana peel, an empty potato chip bag, candy bar wrappers, and a bunch of broccoli that had gone bad. There was something else, too. Something cheesy. The crust of a grilled cheese sandwich, perhaps?

  Whatever it is, Bella thought, it’ll have to do.

  Glancing over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching, she tore the bag open with her teeth. Its contents spilled out onto the street, and she began to nose through them until she found a few mouthfuls of macaroni and cheese that had stuck together. She ate them quickly, partly because she was so hungry, and partly because macaroni and cheese does not taste good when it is cold.

  Just as she swallowed down the last bite, she heard a voice.

  “Hey! Look at that dog!”

  Bella’s head whipped around to see a girl standing in the open doorway of the house behind her.

  “It’s eating from the trash!”

  A woman appeared beside the girl
and frowned. “Is it by itself? Here, doggy!”

  The woman had a plate in her hands, and now she held it out in Bella’s direction. The smell of turkey and cheese—warm and melted this time—floated toward Bella.

  She took a step toward the house. In the back of her mind, she knew she should be careful, but all she could think about was how empty her stomach was. How good the sandwich would taste on her tongue.

  “That’s right,” the woman coaxed. “Here, doggy.”

  The woman came slowly down the stairs, the smell of the sandwich growing stronger with every step she took, until finally she stood in front of Bella on the sidewalk. Bella’s stomach rumbled again. One more step, and she could reach the sandwich.

  She lifted a front paw—

  —and suddenly the woman’s free hand shot out, gripping Bella’s collar.

  It was a trap!

  Bella tugged and twisted, causing the woman to lose her balance. The plate went crashing to the ground as Bella finally shook free. Taking one last look at the turkey and cheese sandwich, as if just the sight of it might be enough to fill her belly, Bella turned away and broke into a gallop. The woman and the girl were both shouting behind her—“Wait! Come here, doggy!”—but Bella did not so much as cast them a backward glance.

  She ran and ran until she came to a part of the city she didn’t know, which was just as well, because no one here would know her, either. When she couldn’t run anymore, she walked and walked, ducking out of sight whenever she passed a human. But the city was filled with humans. And when the snow melted, they would fill the sidewalks and streets again. She had already almost been caught once. How long could she last on her own before one of them trapped her again?

  It was as daylight was starting to fade that Bella saw a big park across the street, and, for the first time in many hours, her ears perked up. Parks were full of places to hide.

  Then, as she was looking both ways before she crossed, she caught sight of a flyer on the nearest lamppost.

  Bella froze midstride, one paw hovering in the air as she stared. Her heart began to thump as she considered what was on the paper.

  It was a picture. Of her! On the lamppost! With lots of big, bold letters underneath.