Steele's Surprise

The big, shining black-and-white husky knew the stares at his back were directed coldly at him as he left the boiler room.  He was no longer welcome there.  Sitting outside the creaky wooden door, he glanced down at his thick, polished leather collar and sighed.  If only that wolfdog hadn't tried to steal the show.  He rolled over on his side in the whirling snow at the doorstep.  Or maybe he should've.  After all, things can't get any worse now.  I've lost my fame, glory, prestige...and my love.  He shook his great head.  Now is not the time to be thinking of Jenna.  Not now, not ever.  A miniature snowdrift had formed on his back, so he stood up abruptly.  It flew off in a flurry that made his bright blue eyes tear up.  Blinking, he strode off to shelter.  

The dense snow shower was thickening and worsening.  Soon it was a full-fledged blizzard.  Hunching down so that he seemed almost a part of the storm itself, he wandered aimlessly.  There was no home to go to anymore.  Disgusted with his lacking performance in the antitoxin run a month before, his harsh owner/musher had left for another town.  He, Steele, was homeless.

It seemed that he was on the outskirts of town, but he couldn't tell for sure.  Then he saw a shimmer ahead, bright, inviting, and golden.  As Steele crawled forward, shafts of beautiful light struck him.  Even though he could not feel their warmth, he imagined he could. 

Then he realized whose house this was.  Rosy's.  Jenna's.  With a snort he turned away.  But the door was opening!  Quickly he leaped behind an empty crate, rattling beside the house.  Beneath his tumultous feelings of embarassment and shame, Steele wondered who could be out on such a night.

It was Balto, he noted with disgust.  He was with someone.  Jenna.  She was Balto's love now.  And he realized with a jolt that Balto was her love, too.  She licked him affectionately on the nose, and he said something to her.  Then they started off, Balto shielding her from the gale, to Balto's dilapidated boathouse.  Steele guessed they wanted an evening of quiet and peace with that stupid goose.  He turned to leave.

Morning came, and with it a blinding whiteness from the previous night's snowfall.  From inside his trash can, Steele looked around cautiously before hauling himself to his feet.

"Excuse me?"  Steele jumped forward in astonishment and ended up inches from the face of a female dog.  She looked to be about his age, and beautiful.  There was something about her elongated muzzle and paws that rang a bell in his mind.  But before he could recall what it was, she flicked her tail and asked, "Well?  What were you doing in there?"

"I...uh...was...just sleeping," he admitted sheepishly.

"Uh-huh."  She looked amused.  Her muzzle lifted briefly to reveal a show of white teeth.  Her red-brown eyes crinkled at the corners.

Steele cleared his throat.  "Are you new around here?"

"Who wants to know?"

Yeesh, he thought.  She's tricky to get to.  "Well, if you are new, then I could show you the sights."

"I'd like that."  She winked, softening a little.

"Well, there isn't much to see..."  The tour began starting at the boiler room (it was too early for other dogs to be around) and Nome's general store, stopped briefly for lunch, moved on to the totem pole and the boat yard, and ended at sundown with a beautiful sunset.

"So," said she as they watched, "you haven't told me much about yourself."

"Um, well...it's kind of a long story."

"You're not that old, are you?"  She laughed, and it sounded like windchimes.

"No, no," he chuckled.  "But...some of the dogs around here don't like me.  Because...well, I didn't save some kids from dying.  Someone else did, and now everyone else likes him instead of me."  He hung his head, leaving out the part about his rather rude behavior towards Balto.

"Well, I like you."  The look in her eyes made his heart thrum.  She turned to leave, but he called out, "What's your name?"

"What's yours?"  Her high voice came back faintly to him, and then she was gone.

It took them a week to find out each other's names.  But once they got together, they were practically inseparable.  Dogs around town began to notice, and soon it was a general thing to see them deep in conversation as they walked along the snow-laden streets of Nome.  "See you later, Treble," Steele would call out regretfully at the end of the day.

"See yourself, Steele," she would call back from a distance.

By and by Steele asked her if she enjoyed his company.  She answered with a resounding yes.  Watching them one day from a building across the street, Balto and Jenna were amazed at the way Steele changed when he was around her.  He wasn't a show-off, as was his tendency, and he was responsible and concerned for her.

"If there ever was any girl who should be his mate, it's her," Balto stated.

"Too true.  Too true," Jenna murmured.

"But there's something odd about her...I just can't put my paw on it."

"Your paw's so big that you could put anything on it," she joked, but soon realized Balto was serious.  She waited tensely for his response.

"I've got it!" he cried suddenly, digging a paw into the thick snow.

"What?  Balto, what's the matter with her?"

"There's nothing the matter with her, but..."  Balto whispered with his mate for a minute, then Jenna's face turned somber.  "Should we tell him?"

"No.  He'll figure it out soon enough, and maybe it'll teach him a good lesson."

Balto, Jenna, Steele (c) Universal

Treble (c) Iditarod