by Ho, Jo
“What day is it?” I asked.
Sully frowned. “Why?”
“Cos if it’s Tuesday, kids eat free as long as they’re accompanied by one paying adult,” I said, pointing at an offer stuck to the window.
“It’s Wednesday,” he replied.
“Figures,” I grumbled. I slid lower into my seat as Red came back with a bowl of water for Bandit, and also something else: a big plate. On it, was a juicy red bone with lots of meat still clinging to it. Smelling it, Bandit shot up and begged, one paw raised. A whine escaped from the back of his throat as a long glob of drool dripped from his mouth. Red laughed.
“Here you go pooch. Swiped this from our chef. He’d just throw it away.”
Sully finally looked at her and gave her a genuine smile of thanks. “Thank you.”
She winked at him. “Pleasure. Now, what about you? Know what you’d like yet?’
She pouted those red lips suggestively. I would’ve slid further down my seat if I could have. This was painful to watch. Sully, on the other hand, seemed oblivious to her mad flirting.
“You know when you’ve run into one bad thing after another?”
Red nodded, though she obviously didn’t know where he was heading with this. Come to think of it, neither did I.
“I only get my kid one week out of the month. Planned on taking her for a nice meal, maybe a movie after, but damn machine ate my card and the bank can’t get it back to me until tomorrow. I’ve only a twenty to last us until then.”
“How unlucky,” she said, totally buying his story.
I was amazed, Sully had some skills! Red glanced at the near empty diner, where only a few old age pensioners sat, sipping soup, including the ones who had gotten off the bus with us. Then she must have made up her mind as she looked at us, conspiratorially.
“You know, Cook made up a batch of chilli earlier, but he’d left it on the stove too long. The bottom almost burned right through the pan. We can’t sell it, but I could probably give that to you for free? It’s gonna be hella smokey, I ain’t gonna lie, but the offer’s there if you want it?”
Sully reached across and squeezed her hand, causing her cheeks to flush bright pink. “You are an angel.”
Reluctantly, she removed her hand and went to get us our freebie food. I looked at Sully, unable to hide my utter amazement. He stared back at me, a knowing glint in his eye.
“Still think I’m useless?” he asked. I snapped my mouth shut. What, he was a mind reader now?
Red came back with two giant bowls of chilli moments later. She’d also added some warm bread rolls, fresh out of the oven. I don’t feel much affection for people in general, but I could’ve kissed her. She set the bowls in front of us. The smell of them caused my toes to curl. There were actual pieces of meat in there! Without waiting to see if I should, I shoved a heaped spoonful into my mouth. It was so good, I almost fainted. Red seemed pleased by my enthusiasm.
“Nice to see a girl who likes to eat,” she said.
“Food is highly underrated,” I replied. “This is so good, I could eat an entire pot of it.”
Red laughed. “Well there’s plenty more, so just let me know if you want seconds.”
I didn’t even mind when she reached out and ruffled my hair. I make exceptions for anyone who feeds me.
Sully had better manners than me, so he actually waited for Red to leave before eating. We dunked the rolls into the chilli, mopping up the sauce. Under the table, Bandit too, was in ecstasy. He was licking and chewing that bone like it was the best thing he’d ever tasted.
When I finished my bowl, I leaned back and sighed happily. My belly, not accustomed to so much food, was distended and straining against the belt. Sully was still eating, so I took a second to examine the diner.
Red was serving the old couple from the bus. Sully’s flirtation must have cheered her right up, as she was now friendly to all her customers. She chatted and flitted around the place, keeping everyone happy. I looked away from her, to a bookcase loaded with leaflets.
“I’ll be back,” I said to Sully. Bandit looked up at me in question but never stopped chewing his bone. I felt his eyes follow me however, as I made my way to the bookcase.
As I’d thought, there were timetables of all the buses from the terminal. I scanned the destinations. Some of the names I recognized: Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Syracuse. None of them seemed interesting until my eyes landed on the one destination and I felt excitement brewing in me. Grabbing the timetable, I headed back to our booth, where I found two new bowls of chilli and rolls had been set onto the table. God bless that woman!
“What’ve you got there?” Sully looked at the leaflet clutched in my hand. I slid it across the table to him.
“Where we’re going next.”
Sully read the words on the paper. “Atlantic City?” he enquired.
“The whole reason I let you join us is because you had money, except now you don’t. Can you think of a better place to make money?” I replied.
“Gambling’s an art form, and one I’m not particularly good at.”
“Well it’s lucky we’ve a secret weapon here.” I glanced down at Bandit and Sully suddenly got my drift.
“Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
And that was it. End of discussion.
CHAPTER 45
CHASE
I cleaned up in the bathroom, while Sully settled the bill. Well, there wasn’t really a bill. We’d only drank tap water so Red hadn’t charged us, but Sully gave her a tip any way. I told him he shouldn’t have as we needed every cent, but Sully said it wasn’t right not to. Whatever. This is why I’d last longer on the streets than he would alone. He was clueless what it really took to survive.
Red seemed sad to see us go. I got the feeling she was a lonely girl. There wasn’t a wedding ring on her finger, and judging by the clientele, didn’t seem like there were many eligible bachelors in this town. At least, none who were travelling by bus anyway. I suppose anyone who was remotely successful would’ve been driving their own car, not using uncomfortable and tardy public transport like us losers.
Bandit — still chewing his bone — followed me outside. I found bus stop D and waited there for the bus to arrive. It wouldn’t get here for another hour though, so I thought it was a good time to start Bandit’s education. I fished out the book I’d decided on earlier. BRADLEY THE BUMBLE BEE it announced in bright red letters. There was a drawing of a giant bee flitting from different things on the cover. Already, I had a pretty good inkling of how this story would go.
I found a seat on a wooden bench, and Bandit hopped up next to me. I looked across at the diner to see Sully had finally extracted himself from Red. I was amused to see him carrying a tub of what could only be more of the chilli. He sat down next to Bandit and quietly watched as I began to teach the dog how to read.
The first page had a picture of the Bee standing on a red apple. I spelled out each of the letters of “apple” to Bandit. He seemed to understand, but I wouldn’t really be able to test him until we were alone.
Suddenly I noticed we had an audience. A man waiting by the next bus stop tossed us an interested look. A battered suitcase covered with travel stickers sat by his feet. He wore a shirt tucked into suit pants, and had the air of a travelling salesman. I forced a heavy Russian accent into my voice and pointed at the picture book.
“Aaaa,” I asked Sully hopefully, while flicking my eyes in the direction of our spectator.
“Good, now try the next letter. Paaaaa,” he encouraged. He sure caught on fast. Dutifully, I copied his voice, exaggerating my pronunciation. Our act worked, as the salesman lost interest pretty soon after I reached “e”, which I was thankful for. My mouth felt like it’d had a workout, and though we hadn’t long finished eating, I found myself wanting a drink. I suddenly developed a newfound respect for actors. It wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
I felt a wet nose on the side of my neck. It was Bandit’s way of let
ting me know he was done with this word. It was pretty amazing how much he conveyed without a sound, but then, I guess that’s what happens when you have a genius IQ dog. I turned the page. Bradley the Bumble Bee was now balancing precariously on a colorful beach ball. Three guesses on the word.
“Ball,” I said quietly. “B…a…l…l.” My finger moved along each letter as I pronounced them. Bandit’s eyes followed closely. A bubble of excitement rose within me. This was really happening! Bandit was learning how to read! I could feel Sully all tensed up beside me. He was still struggling to believe that Bandit was special, even though to me it was pretty damn obvious. Something else was becoming apparent too however; we were being hunted, and to stay one step ahead of them, we needed answers soon. And we would get them, once we weren’t quite so out in the open.
We sped through the book. We couldn’t know for sure Bandit’s reading age, but he was picking this up scarily fast. By the time we reached “S”, our bus pulled up. The doors pinged open and our driver, a jolly man with a face lined with wrinkles from many summers spent behind the wheel, beamed at us.
“Howdy. Hop on up, folks. We’ll be on our way in fifteen minutes” he said, gesturing into the vehicle. As Bandit climbed on, still carrying his bone, the driver reached down and gave him a giant scratch behind the ears. Bandit almost toppled over from happiness.
“Beautiful Collie you got there. I’ve a German Shepherd myself. Best thing I ever did, getting a dog. Loyal to the bone and always happy to see you.”
Bandit surprised us all next. He jumped up, placed a paw on either side of the driver’s shoulders and vigorously sniffed at his neck. It wasn’t a display of affection, as I first thought but something else entirely. Sully was mortified and pulled Bandit down.
“No boy. We don’t do that.”
Bandit strained against Sully, scrabbling to get to the driver. For his part, the driver didn’t seem concerned. He was quite liking all the attention, but Sully and I were worried. What was he doing?
Sully tugged — hard. I flinched, thinking of the pain this must be causing. Finally, Bandit whimpered and allowed Sully to drag him to the seats. Once more we sat at the back where we could have some privacy.
Sully bent his head close to Bandit’s, his expression troubled.
“Why did you do that to the driver?”
Bandit dropped his bone, looked up at him, and licked his hand to reassure him that he was well. Still, there was something really bothering him. He circled the floor, agitated. An idea came to me. I fished out his learning book and asked if Bandit could show us anything in them that might help explain his concern. Bandit woofed. Using his paw, he began turning the pages of the book. When he got to “D” he stopped, and placed his paw very deliberately on the center of the page.
We examined the picture. Bradley had been blown by a gust of strong wind, and had hurt his wing. Luckily, a passing Doctor spotted him and helped bandage it up. In no time at all, Bradley was off flying again to “E”.
I traded looks with Sully. He glanced over at the driver, who was now chatting to another passenger as she ascended the steps.
“Is it the bee?” I asked.
Bandit chuffed twice softly.
“If it’s not him, then, the doctor? Is that it?”
Bandit chuffed once, but his whole body trembled. Whatever Doctor he had known had left him with some very bad memories. I rubbed his chin to reassure him.
“He’s a driver not a doctor, so why would you…” Sully trailed off suddenly. I looked at them both, no idea what was going on with them.
Bandit whined and shifted his paw slightly, so that the tip of one claw was now resting on top of Bradley’s injured wing, like he was pointing to it.
Sully gave a sharp intake of breath and stared back at the driver.
“No way.”
I couldn’t take any more. “What? Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”
Concern marred Sully’s look of wonder. He continued staring at our driver as he explained. “We don’t know how they do it, but some dogs can tell when a person is very sick. It’s something to do with their extraordinary sense of smell. They’re particularly good at spotting cancer.”
I swallowed hard. Whatever I had expected, that wasn’t it at all. “The driver has cancer? He’s sick?”
“I think so.”
And just to confirm what we’d already said, Bandit barked once. We turned back to our cheerful driver, welcoming more travellers onto the bus.
“Someone needs to tell him,” came Sully’s gentle reply.
CHAPTER 46
SULLY
We drove leisurely along route 476. Our driver didn’t seem in any real hurry to reach our destination, and the passengers too, seemed to be enjoying the ride. I, however, was dreading the moment we would arrive at Atlantic City. After so many years working as a vet, I was used to giving bad news to a pet’s owner, but telling a person he was sick with a potentially life threatening disease? This was something new entirely.
Maybe the dog was wrong? The hopeful thought flitted through my mind but disappeared just as quickly. I’d read countless studies on canine cancer detection. The dogs are able to do this by detecting the very low concentrations of the alkanes and aromatic compounds generated by tumors. It was a remarkable but well documented fact. Torn up inside, I squeezed my eyes closed and lay back against the head rest.
Now that Bandit’s message had been conveyed, the restlessness had disappeared, but he kept his eyes focused on the driver at all times. I could feel the concern radiating from him. For the first time, the truth was sinking in… Chase had been right all along. Somehow, Bandit had an intelligence level far exceeding any dog of his species, and that virus warning was just a story manufactured to cover up HPA’s true intentions. I looked down at Bandit, cradling his bone between two paws but seemingly without an appetite any longer, and marvelled at his ability to empathize. Intelligent or not, this was an ability some humans had not managed to master, so it was astonishing coming from a dog.
Just another thing to add to Bandit’s list of talents.
We crossed into the heart of Philadelphia, the birthplace of the United States Marine Corps. I knew this little fact as I had considered running away to join it at twenty, when the difficulties at home had seemed unbearable. Staring at Chase, I felt ashamed now, realizing how good I had had it compared to her. Even during turbulent times, I had never known hunger, had never worried where I would be sleeping that night, or indeed, if I would ever wake again.
Oblivious to my musings, Chase sighed longingly at the many cheesesteak houses that passed by, drooling at the giant pictures of glistening, melted, yellow bites of heaven. Despite my dark thoughts, I couldn’t stop my admiration; the kid could really eat.
The bus rolled past the eateries, down streets decorated with cheerful outdoor sculptures and murals, where small children played as their parents watched, chatting with friends and neighbors. In a moment of whimsy, I thought I might have liked to live here in another life. It was a sunny day, with the city blossoming under blue skies. We rode past several business blocks of polished black glass until a large green space came into view. Bandit tore his eyes from the driver to gape outside. We had reached Fairmont Park, a sign outside the park entrance announced. Seeing it, Chase’s eyes lit up.
“That’s the world’s largest landscaped urban park.”
“You learn that at school?” I asked.
“No. I read it somewhere once.”
“Just once?” I raised my eyebrows, impressed. “And you’ve remembered it?”
Chase’s thin shoulders lifted into a shrug. “I’ve got a photographic memory. Once something goes in, I can always find it again.”
“That must come in useful,” I said.
“Yeah. I usually ace my exams.” She said it nonchalantly, like it was no big deal. While we were speaking, Bandit had pushed his nose as far out of the window as he could, gulping in big mouthfuls of air. It o
ccurred to me that Bandit had probably never seen much of a natural environment before. I stroked Bandit’s head.
“When all this is over, how about we take you to the countryside. There’ll be rivers to swim in, mountains to climb, and animals to chase. First we’ll make some money, then we’ll go on a trip.”
Bandit grinned, pawing the ground. Liking the plan.
CHAPTER 47
CHASE
The bus finally reached its last stop. As the doors popped open, I could smell the salt in the air and see shimmering waves stretching out to the horizon. Gulls screeched overhead, soaring into the cloudless sky. Though we were officially here on business, I couldn’t help but feel excited — this was only the second time I’d been to the sea! When I was young, and before Tubs had entered our lives, my mom had taken me on a day trip to Provincetown in Cape Cod. I don’t remember too much of that day. Just the red balloon a sidewalk performer had given me and the freedom I’d felt running barefoot along the beach. It was one of the only happy moments I had ever had with her. Not long after, Tubs had come along, and life had taken a downhill spiral to crappytown.
This place reminded me of Provincetown, though it was way louder, like someone had ratcheted up the tacky counter to ten. Along the long boardwalk, brightly striped canopies shielded terraces packed with restaurant diners. Tourists took snapshot after snapshot, posing with cheesy smiles and peace signs5.
Beside me, filled with excitement and desperate to leave, Bandit was darting up and down the length of the bus, bone still in his mouth, but first there was that conversation that needed to be had.
Sully waited until everyone else was off of the bus before approaching the driver.
