by Laura Del
“Ye sure?”
I nodded. “I’m sure. Now go before you turn into ash.”
He gave me a smile, kissed me on the forehead, and left in a blur.
I sighed, reaching over the pup to get my phone out of my bag. After I called information, I had them patch me through to Doc Miller. She answered on the second ring. “Doctor Miller’s office, Doc Miller speaking, how may I help you?”
“Doc,” I said, happy and relieved to hear her voice. “Patricia Wyatt here.”
“Pat,” her voice was happily surprised, “how’s everything going over there with your father’s wedding?”
Small town life. Everyone knew everything about everyone. “So far so good,” I answered, trying to keep the conversation on track. “What are you doing there so early?”
“Changed my hours. I open an hour earlier and close an hour later. Now I know this isn’t a social call, so what’s up?” That was Doc Miller for you, always straight to the point.
“I found a puppy on Pops doorstep this morning. He’s got a pretty bad gash on his right leg. I wrapped it as best I could, but,” I paused, looking down at the gauze to see he had bled through it a little, “it looks like it needs stitches. And I’m sure he needs a full workup.”
“No problem,” she said, and I heard pen scratching on paper. “You bring him over right away, and I’ll have a look-see.”
“Thanks, Doc. I’ll be there in twenty minutes or so.”
“See you then,” she happily replied. “Bye, Pat.”
“Bye, Doc.”
Then I remembered there was a problem. “I’m not allowed to drive.”
There was only one thing I could do, ask Cindy for a ride to the vet because if I woke Tina, I would never hear the end of it. She was not a morning person, and when it was her time off—forget it. You woke her up at your own peril.
Getting out of bed, I told the puppy to stay while I got dressed in a hurry. Then I walked across the landing and down the hall to my father’s room. I knocked as gently as I could, as to not wake anyone else, and when Cindy said, “Come in.” I was thankful that she was already up.
Opening the door, I saw that the once creamy white room was now as bright an orange as anyone could get without calling it neon, but I had to take into account that it was Cindy’s room now, and she could do with it what she liked. I just couldn’t believe she got Pops to go along with that color.
Once I blinked the brightness away, I smiled at her. She was sitting on the edge of the bed, putting on her slippers. It looked like she was going to the North Pole with her oversized sweater and black sweat pants. “What’s wrong?” she asked, bringing me back to reality.
“I need a ride to Doc Miller’s,” I explained.
Her brow furrowed. “Are you all right?”
I laughed a little. I forgot that not everyone knew everybody else, and Cindy was still fairly new to Danville. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I eased her troubled mind. “Doctor Miller is a vet. I found a puppy last night on the doorstep, and he looks like he may need a couple of stitches. Plus, he’s in desperate need of a check up.”
Her eyes widened. “A puppy?” she asked, and I nodded. “We have to go right away.”
I shook my head. “No rush. Please, get dressed and—”
“Nonsense,” she interrupted, sliding off her slippers and getting up to get her boots by the closet door. “We have to go now. You get your boots and the puppy. I’ll meet you downstairs.”
“Sounds good,” I replied and did what I was told. As I placed my boots on, the little one was being playful, even with his bad leg. He was pulling on the laces and every time I would tie one, I’d have to tie the other. At last, I was done, and when I went downstairs, puppy in arms, Cindy was waiting for me. She helped me on with my coat and out we went to Doc Miller’s.
I showed Cindy how to get there, but there was something off about it. Every time I would tell her to go left or right, she was already turning that way. She had acted as if she didn’t know there was a vet in town, and yet she knew where to go almost by instinct.
When we pulled up outside of the office, all of those thoughts were replaced by getting the little one well. As I hopped out of the car, carrying him, Cindy said that she was going to get some doughnuts for breakfast, explaining that she’d be back to me in five minutes. I knew that it would take at least twenty to get the puppy all settled and the stitches done, so I wasn’t worried.
Walking into Doc Miller’s office, I had a small memory of taking Annabelle, my cat, here to get checkups and then finally putting her to sleep my senior year of high school. I remembered that I had insisted on doing it myself. She was about eighteen, and one morning she just wasn’t eating and the next she was barely breathing. I remembered the heartbreak of losing her, but I remembered Doc Miller being as kind as humanly possible. And her husband giving me a hug and telling me that I had done the right thing. But this time it was different. This time she would be helping a life instead of ending it.
Making my way to the counter, it wasn’t quite seven-thirty yet, so Mr. Miller took us back right away. After all, there was no one in the waiting room. I had almost forgotten that Mr. Miller was his wife’s receptionist and had been for the twenty some-odd years she’d been in practice as a veterinarian in Danville. He was a short, balding man with a smile that would make anyone’s day, and he always wore variations of the same thing. A plaid shirt, jeans, and work boots.
Doctor Miller, on the other hand, was tall with short dark hair and always wore a dress with heels. She was almost sixty, and the woman never looked a day over thirty-five in her life. Except for a little gray at the temples, she still had a youthfulness about her. She took the puppy from my arms and weighed him.
As she had suspected, he was severely underweight. Then she scanned him for a chip, and there was nothing. Finally, she looked at his bandaged leg and said, “He’s definitely going to need some stitches. Not many. But a few. Could you hold him while I give him something to numb it and sew it up?”
“Sure, no problem.”
He looked up at me as I gently placed my good hand over him. But he was so good that holding him down was unnecessary. He actually welcomed the help. The only part he was even remotely jumpy on was when she shaved his leg and took some blood to test for infections and such. But as the doc finally bandaged the wound and gave him an antibiotic shot, he licked her in the face as if to say “thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” she replied, patting him on the head. Then she turned to me. “He might be a little bit drowsy for the rest of the day, but that’s normal. And I’ll give you some antibiotics. He has to take them once a day with food. I’m also going to set you up with some wet and dry puppy food, just to see what he likes. So,” she paused from writing in her chart to smile up at me, “what’re you going to name him?”
I looked down at him and smiled. “Fang,” I told her, and he yipped in approval.
“Fang?” Doc Miller asked.
“Like the book White Fang. It seems appropriate.”
“Fang,” she called him, and he barked at her. “Well, he likes it.”
“He seems to,” I replied, then after a minute more of her writing in her notes, I asked, “How much do I owe you, Doc?”
She waved me off. “This one’s on the house. You just bring me some wedding cake and we’ll call it even, okay?”
I smiled at her. “You got it.” When we left, Mr. Miller helped get everything we needed into the car, and all of us waved goodbye, including Fang.
Cindy took us home, and when we got there, she insisted that she be the one to take everything in. Luckily, Andrew was up, and after the initial reaction of, “Puppy,” he helped Cindy get everything out of the car. It took them about five minutes to get everything, and as they walked back in to set it all up, I asked Andrew if Tina was still sleeping.
&nbs
p; “Yeah,” he answered, “why?”
“Have puppy, will travel,” I said, winking.
He smiled as I walked up stairs, Fang in my arms. I could tell he was getting a little tired, but I was sure Tina would have wanted to see him anyway.
Walking across the landing to my sister’s old room, I used my good hand to open the door while my bad arm started to twinge with pain from the weight of Fang. It was definitely time for more meds, but I told myself that would have to wait. Tina needed to be woken gently, and a puppy was the way to do it.
I tiptoed inside, seeing that she was lying on her back spread eagle. Thankfully, she was fully dressed in her pink sweater from Victoria’s Secret, and the sweats that matched so I didn’t have to cover my eyes. Tina never liked when people saw her naked. When I asked her why, she replied it was because she had green, scaly skin. But I just thought she was self-conscious about her figure. There was no need for her to be, but I respected her shyness.
As I sat gently on the bed, she stirred a little, but didn’t fully wake. “Tina,” I called her softly. “Tina.”
“Mmmmm,” she grumbled, turning onto her side toward me.
“Tina,” I called a little louder, placing Fang on the bed beside her.
“What?” she whined.
“Time to wake up.”
“Five more minutes,” she breathed.
“Okay, but there’s someone here who wants to met you.”
As if on cue, Fang licked her nose, and her eyes shot open. “Puppy,” she said slowly, scooping him up into her arms, snuggling with him. “Where’d you get ‘em?”
“Found him on the doorstep this morning. His leg is pretty beat up, but other than that, and being underweight, he’s looking good.”
She nuzzled her face in his fur. “He’s so soft and warm. What’s his name?”
“Fang,” I replied, and he yipped.
“I like it,” she yawned.
“Me too.”
She closed her eyes again. “Do I have to get up?”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “Sorry about that. But God knows what Cindy has in store for today, and it’s best if we’re both there to help her.”
Her eyes opened as she pulled the covers off with one hand while still holding Fang with the other. “I’m up,” she yawned again, swinging her legs over to sit next to me. “It’s freezing.”
“It’s January,” I pointed out.
“Can I carry Fang down?”
I nodded. “Please. My arm is killing me.”
Tina slid on her slippers, and we made our way downstairs. Fang’s eyes were beginning to close, so I suggested to Tina that she put him on the couch. She did, and I placed the throw blanket over him to keep him warm. Then we made our way out to the kitchen where Tina took one look at the doughnut box and grimaced. “Hell no. Patty, you know how much I hate doughnuts.”
“Okay. Then go take Andrew to the diner. You know where it is.”
She kissed my cheek. “Good idea. I’m gonna go get my shoes so we can go.” Tina was not shy about going out in her pajamas, especially when they matched. “You good goin’ like that?” she asked Andrew, pointing at him.
He looked down at his sweatshirt and striped lounge pants and nodded. “Yup, just let me get my boots.”
When they went back upstairs, Cindy laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked her with a smile.
She shook her head. “Who doesn’t like doughnuts?”
“Tina. She hates them,” I explained.
She raised her brows at me. “Did she always hate them?”
I shook my head. “No, but when she was little, she would go over to her grandmother’s on the weekend. They always had doughnuts for breakfast. One day when she was twelve, she noticed that her grandmother was getting a little senile, and when she went to have her doughnut, there were ants crawling all over it. It’s kind of put her off them ever since.”
Cindy shivered. “It would have put me off them too.”
“Bye,” Tina said from the door, grabbing her and Andrew’s coats.
I waved. “See you later.”
“Why don’t you go in the other room and relax with the puppy,” Cindy suggested. “I’ll get your meds, and some doughnuts, and bring them out to you.”
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Positive.”
I resisted the urge to tell her that only fools were positive and did what she had recommended. When I walked into the living room, I saw that Cindy’s purse had fallen onto the floor and the contents had spilled all over.
“Cindy,” I called.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Your purse fell. Do you want me to get it?” I asked, afraid to touch her belongings without her permission.
“Please.”
I bent over, trying to be careful with my cast as I put everything back in her purse. As I picked up her wallet, something clattered on the floor and when I bent down to see what had fallen out, my hand froze. My mind couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing, so I picked it up to see if it was real, and it was. My mother’s wedding ring gleamed in the light from the hall, and I could feel my blood boil. This was something my mother had promised to me before she died. It had been in her family for generations. I mean, it wasn’t anything lavish, just a thin gold ring with diamond chips in the center, but the sentimental value was priceless.
As I stood up just staring at it, I heard a clatter and looked up to see that Cindy had dropped the tray with the doughnuts on it. “What is this?” I yelled at her, and her eyes widened. “Answer me!”
“That is my personal property.” She became defensive, and she had no right to be.
“This was my mother’s! It doesn’t belong to you! You had no right to take it! Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“Patricia Anne Wyatt, don’t you dare use that kind of language with me,” my mother’s voice came out of Cindy’s body.
I froze, feeling all of the color, what little there was, drain from my face. My heart thudded in my ears, and I could feel my head begin to spin. “Moms?” was all I could say.
Cindy nodded. “Yes, darling. It’s me.”
My vision became blurry, my knees buckled and then everything faded to black.
chapter
SEVENTEEN
Someone called to me in the darkness, and it sounded like my mother. But when I opened my eyes, I looked up into Cindy’s face. I bolted to my feet from the floor, and the living room spun in front of me. I steadied myself by holding onto the back of the couch as Cindy reached for my arm. I jerked away from her, finally looking into her eyes.
“Patricia,” my mother’s voice came from Cindy mouth. It was unnerving.
“Stay where you are,” I warned as she moved closer. “You are not my mother.”
“Calm down, Patricia,” she hushed me the way my mother used to. “You don’t need to have another fainting spell, sweetheart.”
“I’m hungry,” I hissed. “I get—”
“Dizzy when you’re hungry,” she finished, nodding. “I almost forgot. I’m sorry, darling.”
“Don’t call me that,” I screamed, covering my eyes with my good hand. “You are not my mother, you can’t be. My mother is dead, I saw her—”
“In limbo,” she interrupted me, and my hand fell away from my eyes. “I was there, darling. That was me.”
“If it was you, what did you tell me?”
“I told you that the baby wasn’t meant to be and to stop shutting down, which I see you did. I’m so proud of you, Patricia. Although, I could kill that ex-husband of yours for doing that to your poor hand. It took all my strength not to throttle—”
I flung my arms around her and started to cry. “Moms, it really is you.”
“There, there, Patricia,” she soothed, patting me on th
e back. “It’s all right, darling.”
Pulling back from her, I wiped my eyes on my sleeve. “But how, Moms? I just saw you a couple of days ago and you were clearly not…” I paused, sniffing. “You know, alive.”
She grimaced. “Funny story.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Moms, what did you do?”
“Nothing,” she answered defensively.
“Moms,” I said slowly, “you didn’t.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“How did you get into Cindy’s body?” I asked, folding my arms. “Are you possessing her or did you kill her?”
Her mouth dropped open. “Patricia, how dare you think that I would…” her voice trailed away when I cocked an eyebrow. “I didn’t kill her,” she clarified. “She just had an accident before you arrived. That’s all. And I just happened to be in the neighborhood, so I took over her body.”
My head was pounding. “Okay, start from the beginning and use small words, Moms.” I sat down on Pops chair as Moms, in Cindy’s body, stood in front of me. She must have picked the doughnuts up off the floor before she woke me because they were now on the coffee table, and my stomach growled just looking at them. But I had to focus on her story and how the hell she’d come to be in Cindy’s body.
“Well, it all started when I was watching over your father, as usual. I would pop in from time to time, just as I had with you and your sister. Finally, one night he decided to go out, which I wholeheartedly agreed with. After all, he was getting quite lonely, and I felt it would do him some good to get laid.”
I shuttered. “Ew. Let’s skip over that part, please.”
“Of course,” she obliged. “Anyhow, he met Cindy, and I knew that she would be a good,” she paused, “distraction for him. I thought it was just going to be a onetime thing until she kept coming round, and he eventually convinced himself that he was in love with her.
“All she was interested in was his money. He would buy her things, and she would try to manipulate him into buying bigger and better for her. I didn’t like her one bit, and there was nothing I could do about it except watch Richard go into debt. He was so blind to her that he never even noticed when she was cheating on him, and she did that quite a lot.
