“Hi there, I see you’ve met the pack,” a voice called and she looked up into the grey eyes of a lumberjack.
She smiled in return. “Hello, I’m Amy,” she held out her hand to be shaken.
“I thought I heard a southern accent,” he commented as he shook it. “I’m Stephan.”
“Yes, I just moved here,” she said in reply not giving out any further information.
“Well these are the troops,” he said putting his hands out wide at the mass of doghood. “They were unexpected but they are a happy bunch,” he told her.
She smiled as she knelt to their level only to be immediately overwhelmed by the pups. The adults were much better as they enthusiastically greeted her again and she tried to pet them.
“Careful there, if they get you down you’re gonna be licked to death,” he laughed.
Amy quickly stood up again getting her face out of range as she tried and failed to pet the many dogs having to satisfy herself and them with a pet across each of the noble heads. Her eyes kept going back to the nearly white pup with the unusual blue eyes. “Is that one a male?” she asked pointing to it.
“That’s Toby and yes he is,” Stephan answered as he looked at the lone dog.
Amy went over to him where he stood apart from his over active siblings, he greeted her gratefully and enthusiastically, but the other pups had followed and were soon swarming him and her as she tried to pet the lone pup. She watched as they easily fell into rough dog play and soon were rolling and mock growling, Toby included. She smiled at their puppy antics. It didn’t take her long to decide and she wrote out a check to Stephan for the pup. He gave her a leash and a collar for the pup, told her they had already been house trained, and gave her a bagful of food for the night when she confessed she didn’t have any.
“Well I raised them on Iams like I would have any of our pure-bred litters, but you will have to decide what to feed him,” he informed her as he helped her get the gangly pup into the SUV. “They’ve had their first shots and I’ve got a certificate here I can give you,” he said as he fished out a sheaf of papers. Toby wasn’t sure he liked going somewhere without his siblings who were looking and trying to climb into the front seat with him. “Get down there,” Stephan told them as he kneed them off the step and quickly closed the door after handing her Toby’s shot certificate.
“Thank you so much,” Amy told him as she waited for him to walk away with the others before backing carefully out of the driveway.
Toby looked around but the idea of car ride must have appealed to him and he didn’t realize yet that he was leaving his parents and siblings.
Amy drove back towards the cabin and spent the evening getting to know her pup. He was house trained and told her a couple of times he had to go out. She thought it was more to smell around the cabin than because he wanted to pee. At the rate he was going though every tree in the yard would soon be marked by his scent and she laughed at him as he dashed after leaves and anything that blew in the yard. She could tell he was looking for something and she felt bad realizing it was probably his littermates.
He finally settled down after she fed him a bowl full of kibble and she left the water dish down beside it. As she powered up her laptop he tried to join her on the couch but she had seen how big his mother and the other adult labs had been and she pushed him to the floor beside her repeatedly until he gave up.
He whimpered when she attempted to close the bedroom door on his sorrowful face so she let him sleep on the floor next to her bed. He tried to climb into it a few times, but again, like the couch that was going to be a no go. Finally, exhausted, he fell into an uneasy sleep next to the bed with her hand dangling down to pet him.
The first order of business the next morning was to get him set up and she took him with her after he pooped and peed in the yard. She headed south to the largest pet food store she knew of after Googling it. She got him a bed for the living room, one for the bedroom, a stainless steel set of bowls, chew toys, and a large bag of puppy kibble as he was still a growing boy. She also got a soft brush and comb set, labs didn’t need the same type of grooming that other breeds did so she knew she would be brushing to remove hair that would cling everywhere but she didn’t mind, she had counted on that in her new housemate.
It wasn’t soon enough for the chew toys as she found one of her shoes chewed up and yelled at the pup with the now mangled shoe dangling from her hand and the pup cowering in abject apology over it. She hoped that would be the extent of the necessary discipline as she felt terrible for yelling at him. He had to learn that her shoes were out of bounds as were the towels, socks, and other things he attempted to turn into chew toys. He learned slowly but surely as she took them away from him. Her encouragement of the designated dog toys taught him right from wrong but still he tried her patience as any fur kid would.
* * * * *
The appliances and other furniture she had ordered arrived and were soon installed. She took Toby with her and kept him in the back of the SUV by a clever bar system that didn’t allow the gangly ‘teenager’ to climb over the back seat but forced him to stay in the very back. She gave him a doggie blanket and a chew to keep him occupied as she ran into the store to shop for human groceries for the cabin. She felt this need to stock up and planned to take a trip to Green Bay soon to the nearest Sam’s Club as they didn’t have a Costco in this state. He did pretty well in the car by himself but she could tell he didn’t like it despite the coolness with the windows rolled slightly down. He simply didn’t like to be alone. She didn’t know how she was going to break him of that as there would be times and places he couldn’t go.
She met with a couple of contractors that Abby had recommended and then had Abby watch amused as she explained what she wanted for the store. She had drawn it out but her sketches either didn’t make sense to these people or she was a really poor designer. She hoped it wasn’t going to be a problem but she was getting frustrated until a third contractor actually caught onto the ‘theme’ she was working with and agreed to give her a quote.
Amy spent a lot of time on her laptop sending for catalogs and quotes for supplies for the store. The contract she had with Abby began officially the beginning of the next month which she was assured was a slow month for tourists after the fall leaves had all fallen and before they got snow or snowmobilers. The thought of snow that deep worried her.
“I don’t know how I’m going to plow out my driveway,” she confided to Abby as she watched the contractor measuring things for the displays that she was having him build.
“Maybe you could hire someone to come plow you out or maybe buy yourself a plow for your SUV?” she teased.
Amy laughed as she was expected to but the idea did have merit and she began checking out the ads in the newspaper. She decided against putting an after-market plow on her SUV as what she read up on-line indicated it could do more damage to the truck than it was worth. She did get another idea that she looked into on one of her many trips around the various towns and cities in Door County to check out her ‘competition.’ She saw an ATV dealer and she went in to inquire about a used ATV but few if any dealers took trade-ins, she was advised to check the paper in spring if she really wanted a used one. They did however have ‘end of year’ deals on the new ATV’s and she bought herself a Yamaha Grizzly with a big basket on the front in front of the windshield, two packs on the back, and an extra seat that she could already envision Toby sitting in as she plowed. They showed her how to attach and reattach the plow and after she mastered that she paid for it all and they registered the machine for her. They showed her how to drive it as she practiced around and around in the parking lot of the dealer. They also talked her into a small trailer to pull it behind her SUV and until it was ensconced in her garage she didn’t feel like it was truly hers.
She was truly on a waiting game as she waited for the contract on the store to start so she used it wisely as she decorated and made the cabin even homier. The floor in th
e kitchen she taught herself to replace the damaged wood. Then she took it a step further and put down a ‘floating’ floor of laminate wood which looked just as nice as the real thing. The slight ‘up’ level from the living room she put a riser between the two rooms and it flowed beautifully. She put a new ring in the floor for the basement where she stored the extra supplies she was accumulating for winter.
In the time she waited to take possession of her new store and before the contractor would begin she went through endless catalogs using post-it notes to mark the pages of merchandise she didn’t see her competitors having and equipment she wanted to order. She had budgeted exactly how much she was willing to spend on each item as well as if she purchased the store, even the cabin, and was pleased with how things were coming together.
It wasn’t until Abby actually handed her the keys, locked the door between the store and her house and she dead bolted it, that Amy really felt it was her place. She began to box up the remaining merchandise in the store. She had help in the form of Abby, her daughter Heather, Bonnie, and even Bailey, Abby’s son she had finally met. They willingly helped her which surprised and delighted her but she sensed part of the appeal was the pup she brought with her everywhere.
Abby had been surprised to see the pup glued to Amy’s side as she walked it through town. She had been a witness to Lenora finding out but had been impressed when Amy pointed out to the snooty woman that nothing in the contract for the cabin stated that pets weren’t allowed. Lenora had been left gasping like a fish out of water at Amy’s ‘audacity’ and firmly put in her place in regards to their ‘business’ relationship.
The pup was well behaved for the most part, mischievous occasionally; as they packed up the store it soon had a ‘bed’ in the store of its own. After packing away all the goods, the contractor came in and tore the store apart and still managed to retain the ‘flavor’ of Abby’s grandparents old store. In fact they enhanced the old store, revived it as things got repainted, sanded, and brought up to code. Abby saw Amy occasionally as she was at ‘her’ store every day. The boardwalk and dock around the store all got sanded and coated to restore it and preserve it, any dry rot was fixed and dealt with. Occasionally Amy had questions for Abby or Bonnie about their past suppliers but all business had been halted while the store was restored. Amy had the outside done first since time was limited with winter coming on. The place was taped off to discourage tourists and townies alike from getting on the newly restored boardwalk or using the dockage as she wasn’t up to selling gasoline. She had the tanks inspected and a certificate issued that showed the viability so she could sell gasoline at the dock when spring came or in winter with the snowmobilers.
As she watched the store come together she checked out all the local utilities, sometimes traveling to other towns and villages to find their offices as she had when she had her electricity and other things turned on to check out ‘franchise’ opportunities. Her store would be able to accept payments or make arrangements to have things such as that turned on instead of people having to travel all over as she had. From Cable to Electric, Gas, to Phone, and even Cell Phones she asked about putting a small ‘franchise’ office into the store, making it a good old fashioned full-service general merchandise store. She was thrilled and amazed as they were at her asking and while it took some time with some of them to actually get a ‘yes’ she slowly but surely got her replies. The only one that gave her a hard time was the U.S. Postal Service but she knew that they wanted these small ‘satellite’ franchises and her putting in a bank of postal boxes in her store wall meant they would do that for her after she attended classes and was properly ‘trained’ as had the other utilities. She even hooked up with UPS and FedEX who had contracts with the postal service. She would personally be authorized to accept all that and she even applied to be a notary. All of this training would take weeks, months even, for some of the services. If she stuck with it the store would be a great help to those, especially newcomers or elderly customers who didn’t want to travel all over for these services.
“Oh look at that,” she said delighted as the contractor put the finishing touches on the counter on one side of the store. She was thrilled with the colors she had chosen with him. It was all so warm and homey and nostalgic.
“You have an intruder,” he told her as he finished up that day and she swept up after him trying to help out and keep her puppy out of his way.
“What do you mean?” she asked alarmed.
“Look here,” he showed her one of the backrooms that contained his contractor supplies and they found small footprints in the sawdust that coated nearly everything in the store. They seemingly disappeared though and that confused them both.
“What the heck?” she drawled out and scratched her head. “How often have you seen this?” she asked concerned.
“Nearly every day, but today I had proof they are playing around with my stuff and I wanted you to know,” he showed her where whoever it was had touched some of the tools.
This really concerned her as anyone who got hurt might fall under her insurance and she didn’t want her rates raised. Furthermore, the size of the prints indicated a child. The only children she knew of were Abby’s and she didn’t want to upset her new friend who had been so supportive. Still, the only one who had ever had keys to the store had been Abby and her family. The next day she changed all the locks, including the one on the door between the store and house next door where Abby lived with her mother-in-law and children. She had never seen a husband nor had she ever asked about him. She felt her own secrets were safe from not inquiring too much.
“Hey Abby?” she called a few days later after she had changed the locks. She had also installed a chain across the connecting door and still they found the prints in the sawdust. She had seen Abby getting out of her car, she assumed after work. She was carrying a black sports bag that looked heavy but her muscular arms seemed to carry it no problem.
“Hi, how goes the remodel?” she smiled in response, shading her eyes from the glare off the water from the setting sun.
“It’s going good, um,” now, confronting Abby and telling her about the prints made her feel uncomfortable.
“Something wrong? Terry unable to handle the job?” she asked concerned.
“No, no, Terry is doing a terrific job, right on schedule. In fact we are ahead of schedule, just waiting on a few people and the equipment we ordered,” she told her. “It’s just that…”
“What?” Abby asked, getting a little bit impatient.
“There seems to be a daily intruder in the place,” Amy blurted out.
“An intruder?” Abby asked in concern. A brunette eyebrow, perfectly and naturally sculptured, rose in question.
Amy nodded as she looked into the velvety brown eyes of her friend. “Yes, we keep finding things touched and played with and the shoes prints in the sawdust indicate it’s a child.” She waited.
At the word ‘child’ Abby cocked her head in dejection. “Do you know which one?” she asked
Amy shook her head but indicated that Abby could come into the store and see for herself. She placed her bag inside the door and hitched up her slacks and followed Amy back to the storeroom where not one but two sets of shoes were now visible. “What the heck?” Amy said in alarm. These two sets appeared out of nowhere and disappeared the same way but she didn’t understand where they had come from in the first place.
“I thought you said ‘a child?’” Abby asked as she examined the evidence.
Amy nodded. “I did but this second set I hadn’t seen before today.”
“That’s an adult shoe,” Abby pointed out.
“But it’s a sports shoe, all the guys, myself included wear work boots,” Amy said showing off her foot with it stylish female work boot. Just then the puppy started yapping and scrambling towards the other storage room where the supplies for the store were stored. The two women followed instantly and found Heather fending off the tongue of Toby.
The young girl looked terrified, not only to be caught by her mother, but the new owner of the store. She had been over a few times to watch as the men remodeling the store had brought in machinery and other things as they worked. Amy had asked her to stay out, but she had been so curious she had been coming over daily to see what new surprises the store held for her. Even Bailey had joined her earlier but she had forgotten a doll she had left and come back for it when she thought Amy had left for the day.
“Heather, Miss Adams asked you a question,” Abby said to her daughter. “Aren’t you going to answer her?”
“I came in through the secret panel,” the little girl lisped, she was shaking in her shoes and just then a panel moved as Bailey hissed, “Heather, hurry up, Mom’s home!”
Abby swooped down and pulled the panel aside and grabbed her son by the hair pulling him through the hole the panel created.
“Ow, Ow, OW!” the boy yelled.
“What are you two doing in this store?” Abby stormed angrily. “Don’t you know that’s trespassing?” Then she thought for a moment as her son stood upright and began to rub his head where the hair pulling had occurred. “Where does this panel open up to?” she asked, but neither of the children answered her as they were too afraid of her anger. She knelt down and poked her head through and looked around into her own house. This was in her back room that butted up to the store but down a hall from the doorway they had locked. “For crying out loud,” she said exasperatedly as she pulled the panel shut, effectively blocking the children from escaping back into the house. She stood up and turned to an amused Amy who was looking on and shaking her head.
Small Town Angel Page 5
