moment. “Well, yeah. Kodi, you have a terribly time with girls.”
“I do not.” Kodi growled.
Ralph stepped in between Kirby and Kodi. “Kodi, you do. I can talk to girls easier than you can. Remember when we just started running the mail, and that one red and black German Shepard named Shanene from White Mountain. She was beautiful. But Kodi, do you remember what you did when she began talking to you?”
“Well, er … I was younger then.”
Kirby stepped up next to Ralph. “Kodi, you barfed on her.”
“I had had some bad fish that morning and I wasn’t feeling well.” Kodi lied.
“Kodi, she asked you five questions in a minute, and you weren’t able to answer a single one. You kept muttering and laughing under your breath.” Kirby said with the voice of accusation.
“So!” Kodi raised his voice. “Maybe I just didn’t like her and wanted her to get away from me.”
“So you vomited on her paws?” Kirby said
“Yes! I mean no, I mean I did, but, it was an accident.” The frustration rose in Kodi like a stream flooding over the banks of a small creek. At any moment Kodi knew his frustration would flood the old farmhouse in the field, and he would hardly be responsible for what he said.
“Yeah an accident caused because of your lack of courage when facing the opposite sex.” Kirby growled sarcastically and Ralph grinned remembering the face of pure horror Kodi made after vomiting on Shanene.
It was at that moment that the door’s into the farmhouse basement flooded through with frustration and anger. Kodi could feel it rushing into his veins. It was like a bloodlust a wild animal would feel when penned in with hundreds of defenseless sheep. It was a need to attack and lash out for no apparent reason on no apparent target. But Kodi had a target and a reason to lash out and drain his veins of the toxin that held him. He just didn’t realize at the time that his temper might get him in some hot flooded water.
“Okay. You want to know what I think about Dusty.”
Both Kirby and Ralph shook their heads yes and looked at Kodi for what was to continue.
“Well I’ll tell you about her right after I tell you about yourselves. You two are the most childish friends I could have. All you two ever do is giggle about stupid stuff and meddle in things you shouldn’t: Like what I think of others. Kirby, you’re a lousy leader and so blinded by your own self indulgence that you can’t see the tree for the forest.” Kirby lowered his brow to Kodi and Ralph laughed. “And Ralph, you are so stupid, so low on brains all you’re running on is fumes. I personally think Kip, has more brain power than you do at times.” Ralph lowered his head in shame and anger as a groan echoed through the room. “Now you want me to tell you what I think about Dusty to get both of you off my back. I think Dusty is one of the ugliest females I have ever seen. When she joined the team I couldn’t even tell she was a female. And if you two think you want to get me and Dusty together, forget it. I would never be caught dead with someone as repulsive to my eyes, as her.”
Kodi let his breath return to his lungs as he stared into Ralph and Kirby’s eyes. The anger in his veins had settled and the imaginary creek had returned to it’s banks. It was then that Kodi noticed the look on Ralph and Kirby’s faces. Both of their eyes were full of shock and awe, as were their drooping jaws, at the words that had just come out of their leader’s mouth. They new he had pushed to far. It was then that Kodi realized a presence stood behind him, a shadow across the room, a very real cold running up his spine and consuming his back legs. Kodi rolled his eyes and turned around. “Dus-”
Kodi heard the sound of feet scampering away with sobs and tears flooding the owners face. In the door Fell and Kip stood set apart looking straight in at Kodi. Dusty had been standing in between them when she heard Kodi say all the bad things about her that weren’t true. Kip grinned stupidly and smiled. “Ugly.” he laughed at himself. Kodi’s eyes moved over to Fell. Fell’s accusing eyes made Kodi feel like an ant under a magnifying glass. “Not a proper thing to verbalize.” Fell shook his head
Kodi lowered his eyes from his teammates; he felt lower than mud and twice as ugly. With his tale tucked between his legs he turned to the back corner of the room. He passed by Kirby and Ralph, not a bit of energy or hope left in him to seek answers in the ones he had just insulted so horribly. With a sigh he laid himself down in the corner far away from his friends. That was if they still considered him a friend.
Kirby and Ralph both looked at each other gravely. In a way they both felt that it had somehow been their fault. They had egged Kodi on until he snapped at them. Thought they didn’t expect him to do what he did. So the blame for what happened couldn’t rest fully on Kodi’s shoulders, could it?
Dusty ran. She had no idea where she was running to or to what purpose it would have. All she knew was that she needed to get far away from Kodi and his words that hurt her so much. Her face was stained with tears that flowed freely and began to freeze on the fur of her muzzle. Her eyes stung bitterly in the wind that battered her face as she ran.
Why had he said such things about me? Does he do this behind my back often? There was an actual physical pain in her chest where her heart rested. She knew it to be her heart breaking and cutting her insides. So long she had held the same heart, and now like a window that a baseball had gone through, she felt broken.Jenna, a beautiful red and cream colored husky, much like her son Kodi, stepped easily through the hard packed streets, her fur bristled against the cold. Yet all the fur on her body couldn’t alleviate the cold that came up through her paws. She had only been out of the house for three minutes to take a stroll down to Dixie’s house and see how her first litter of pups were doing, and her paws hurt like she had walked across a field of glass. How her mate, Balto, or her son Kodi, were able to put up with all the hard snow and ice for long periods of time was a mystery to her.
A sudden silver flash came out of the alley in front of Jenna, and bolted into another one just across the way. The creature had been sobbing and crying at the top of her voice and lung capacity.
At first Jenna stood still, a shock to the senses coming slowly through her. Was that Dusty? Jenna turned and looked down the alley the silver flash had vanished into from the other side of the street near the alley she had come out of. A ten foot tall fence blocked the end of the alley and garbage, and boxes, and pieces of a bicycle, and metal lined the sides of the street, so unless the silver flash had gone over the fence, she was hiding somewhere back there.
Jenna padded easily to the edge of the alley. “Dusty?” She called. “Is that you Dusty?” No answer returned, only silence. Jenna gulped and stepped into the dark alley. On her right wood boxes that said things like: ’DYNAMITE,’ ’FRAGILE,’ ‘HANDLE WITH CARE ’and’ CANNED PRUNES’ stood out. They stood ten or twelve high, two deep, and five long. All of them stacked in perfect order and neatness. On Jenna’s left the rusty metal of an abandoned bicycle leaned against the gray siding of another building. Under the bicycle, where the tires should have been, a snow covered pile of jagged metal stuck out with pricks and points and smooth rounded pieces. Further into the alley Jenna pushed, her eyes scanning left and right across garbage that had been ripped from a paper bag. It looked as though it had been thrown there recently by the lack of snow across it. Then Jenna heard the sobbing. It came low; a sound of sudden pain, followed by a repercussion of the same sounds gradually growing fainter. “Dusty?”
There was a gasp of shock and horror from the back far corner behind a lidless garbage can next to the fence. Jenna’s eyes picked up the twitch of an ear moving just over the top edge of the lidless garbage. “Dusty?”
“Go away.” Dusty sobbed.
Jenna padded yet closer until she was just on the other side of the garbage. She sat and looked over at Dusty’s ears that twitched as she sobbed. Jenna spoke. “What’s wrong Dusty?”
“Nothing.” Dusty sucked air through his nose producing a loud gurgling of flem in her throat. “Nothing, that you … you, would understand.” She sobbed.
Jenna thought. “Well … maybe I won’t understand, yet maybe I can help point you in the right direction, or give you some consoles.”
Dusty turned her head and peeked her red eyes over the garbage can. As soon as Jenna looked at them Dusty turned away so only her ears were visible again. “No, I, I don’t want … no.” She sobbed. “I just need some time, to myself, to think things through.”
Jenna sighed deeply and looked up at the edge of the roof on the building across the alley from her. She looked with the look of hope that said the answers to everything might be there. “Dusty. You’re a strong girl. One of the strongest I’ve ever met.” Dusty peered over the edge of the can at Jenna. Jenna knew she was looking at her, but didn’t mover her eyes off the edge of roof. “I mean, when you were young your mother and me would get together with all our pups so we could have some girl time, and you kids could have friends to play with. I remember you. Whenever the boys found something that looked a little to scary for them to try, you were right there walking along the edge of that banister, talking to the pit-bulls on the street, or crawling into the hole under the house after a skunk.” A sound came from Dusty. Jenna thought it might have been a chuckle. “I knew you were going to be doing something I would never have dreamed of. You were never quite comfortable playing with the girls. They always wanted to groom each other, and look good, and talk about boys. You wanted adventure and lots of it.” Jenna sighed and looked at Dusty. Dusty had already lowered her head behind the can and out of sight. “But Dusty, that
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