The Right Time

Kodi and Dusty padded along the beach at day’s end, the warm, rich colors of the sunset flaring the sky and dying the ocean waves deep russet tones. Neither of the dogs noticed much, though. They were too busy talking and laughing about everything and nothing at the same time.

“I still can’t believe Kirby made that bet with you,” Dusty was saying. She kicked up a clot of wet sand, shaking her head. “Does he really think he has any chance of becoming lead dog?”

“He must,” Kodi replied with a sly grin, “Or he wouldn’t have betted his whole bone collection on it. Even if I lose and he gets my bones, I still knows where he hides all of them. Then it’ll just be choosing between bones, and my moral values about whether to take them or not. Decisions, decisions. Bones, values. Bones, values. Bones, doing what’s right. Hm…”

“Bones, right?” Dusty said, and they both laughed a little.

The two splashed through the shallows and rested on a sandbar, and sat to watch the sunset. Color drained to somewhere below as the golden sun surrendered itself to sleep behind the shadowed horizon. Black night started to descend as a thin stripe from above, and even a small silver eyelash of moon could be glimpsed amid the sparse darkness.

Dusty suddenly stopped talking, and Kodi was at a loss for words, too. He turned to look at Dusty, who was staring fiercely into the blood-colored sky. ‘Probably thinking about the team’s route tomorrow,’ Kodi thought, and remembered how when they had both been chosen to be on the mail team, they had become friends almost instantly. Dusty was his best friend, but he couldn’t help thinking their relationship could evolve into something more…

“Uh, Dusty?” Kodi muttered, half-hoping she didn’t hear him.

“Uh, yeah?” Dusty mimicked, raising her eyebrows with a teasing grin.

Kodi paused for a second to take in her form, which was slowly washing from its daytime gray into a moonlit silver. She stared at him with her warm blue eyes glittering mischievously, and she cocked her head to the side. “Hello? What?”

Kodi opened his mouth to ask…and lost his nerve. “Nothing!” he said quickly, “Nothing. C’mon, we’d better start heading back. Mom might get worried we’ll get caught in a blizzard or something.” He rolled his eyes. “You know how she is sometimes.”

A bolt of wistfulness flickered across Dusty’s face. “Idiot! Show some appreciation! Your mom’s great. Sometimes I wish my mother was more like Jenna. You ought to be grateful that she cares enough about you to worry. All my mom cared about was getting all of us out of the house before we drove her insane. I think she was a little too late, though.”

Kodi wasn’t sure how to reply, so he mustered up a crooked grin and hoped that was okay.

Dusty shook her head and looked up at him. “Anyway. What were you going to say? Before you said ‘nothing.’”

Kodi squirmed, and suddenly he had the urge to run. He didn’t resist, kicking up snow as he sprinted towards Nome and away from Dusty and his dumb mistake of leaving her guessing. He knew she wouldn’t stop until she had some answers.

“Kodi!”

He groaned softly as he skidded to a stop at the edge of town. Dusty was right behind him, and she padded up to his side with the determined, yet concerned look on her face he knew so well.

“Kodi, c’mon! What’s wrong? And don’t you dare say ‘nothing’, because I know it’s something when you won’t even talk to me,” Dusty said.

Kodi looked down at his paws and gritted his teeth. How could he have been stupid enough to try and ask Dusty out? Now it had come to this, and it would be so embarrassing if he told her the truth now. Was there any way out of this?

“You know you can tell me anything,” Dusty murmured.

Kodi took a deep breath, and let it out. ‘Here goes nothing.’ “Well, there’s this girl…”

Dusty’s ears shot up, and a grin lit up her face like sunbeams. “Hey, you’ve finally got a girl! Anything is impossible!” she joked, “…I’m kidding. So, who is it?”

“That’s for me to know.” Kodi grinned wickedly. “Just a little piece of info to torture you with.” He really hoped she kept falling for this.

“Thanks a lot, Kodi,” Dusty sighed, “Well, why’d you bring her up?”

“Well, actually, uh…I need some advice,” Kodi said, thinking quickly, “We’re really good friends, and we’ve met in places just to talk and stuff. But how do I make it official that we’re more than just friends?” He waited, holding his breath. Whatever she said could be his ticket out of an awkward scene.

Dusty snorted. “That’s all? Geez, I thought it would be a little more urgent- no offence. Just say, ‘I really like you, insert name here. Do you want to go out with me?’ It’s simple, easy to remember. Is that all you need to know? Because I have to go.”

Kodi looked up. Without knowing it, his feet had carried him to Dusty’s house. He would have to say goodbye until tomorrow morning, when they set out on the mail route. He smiled gratefully at Dusty. Lantern light from her house sheathed her silvery fur in a golden glow, and it made her face shine like an angel’s. Kodi forced himself not to gawk. “Yeah, that’s it. Thanks, Dusty.”

“Anytime. And you know, to show your gratitude and everything, you could tell me one thing.”

“What?”

“WHO IS IT?” she cried, pushing her face into Kodi’s.

Kodi laughed. “Sorry. No more freebies on my inside life, okay? Besides, it’ll give you something to think about while we’re running the team tomorrow.”

Dusty looked at him with a half annoyed, half amused expression. “Kodiak, sometimes you are so evil.”

He shrugged sheepishly, and suddenly Dusty smiled and hugged him.

Thousands of thoughts exploded inside his head and buzzed around in a frenzy, some making his face burn. Kodi was thankful for the shadows then.

Dusty pulled away and jumped up the steps, slipping through her doggy door with a “See you tomorrow, Kodi.”

“Bye,” Kodi murmured. He shook himself and loped down the street, heading for home. He wished he could turn his brain off, but too many new and strange thoughts were spinning around inside his head. He had to think about this. He really liked Dusty. And she had practically given him the words to say to her to ask her out. But what if she didn’t like him the way he liked her? What if he destroyed their comfortable relationship by asking?

Kodi slid into his warm house and curled up at the foot of his young master’s bed. But he was too worried to go to sleep. Kodi stared out the window from the bed, out onto the empty streets and up into the bleak sky that had faded of all color. Not a shred of sunset was left.

‘Too many questions,’ he thought, ‘And not enough answers.’

That night, Dusty heard an urgent scratching at the window. She wearily lifted her head, and used her tail to swipe sleep from her eyes before looking past the glass. Out in the cold stood a red-gold and white husky. He stared anxiously at her, then motioned for her to come outside. Dusty immediately leaped off her young master’s bed and ran to the door, jumping out her doggy door to meet the visitor’s serious gaze.

“Danni!” she cried, “I haven’t seen you in ages!…Why the heck are you visiting at 3 AM?”

“It’s Mom,” Danni murmured with a frown, “Her owner got tired of her having…all those pups, so he’s locked her outside the house! She doesn’t look good at all.” He sprang to his right and galloped down the street. Dusty sprinted after him, wondering how bad off her mother was, and thinking rather guiltily that it was about time her mother had gotten a punishment for running off with all those guys, and basically being such a party animal. It was due to one of her mother’s decisions that Dusty had more brothers and sisters than she could count on all four paws. Danni was one of her half siblings; he had the same mother as her, but a different father.

Family was a complicated matter in Dusty’s world.

Dusty followed Danni through the dark streets, and she noticed they had entered the poorer part of town. Danni charged towards a small, run-down old shack and braked next to something lying beneath the steps.

Dusty stopped on the street in shock. This wasn’t how she remembered this place at all. It had never looked this rickety or worn…but then, she hadn’t been here since she was a pup.

Danni looked up at his half sister mournfully as she padded over to the front steps and gawked at the creature lying dejectedly beneath them.

“Mom?” Dusty whispered, sinking to her stomach as if her mother could hear her better that way.

The sickly gray husky stared at her daughter through cloudy, pus-tinged eyes. “Dusty. I do declare you look just like your mother.” She finished this with a weak cackle.

Danni shook his head and whispered softly to Dusty, “Too much breeding’s made her sick. I guess it gives her a weird sense of humor.” His voice choked off on the last bit.

Dusty had no clue what to do, and it didn’t look like Danni did either. They couldn’t get their mother medicine; they