Dog Daze (3 page)

“Let’s refocus, please,” Vee reminded the group. She used a lot of Mom words.

“It’s not like you’re in charge,” Esther shot back. “If you weren’t so bossy, we’d have our own idea by now.”

“If you’d skip the drama—” Vee’s pen carved a hole in the paper. She snapped her lips together.

Sunny started laughing. Aneta wanted to crawl under the table.

Staggering to his feet like he carried a heavy load, Frank made a time-out sign. “That’s it. You guys are outta here,” he said, jerking his thumb toward the door.

Relief flooded through Aneta while the other three protested. It was finally over. She was halfway to the door when Frank’s voice stopped her.

“Hold on, Aneta.” His voice turned stern. “I want the four of you to take a break—down to the lake and back—and figure out how to solve this teamwork issue.” He raised his eyes toward the ceiling. “I get three drama queens and one nontalker.” He shook his head. “The things I do to pay the bills.”

The first one through the door toward freedom, Aneta could have told Frank she’d already figured out the answer. A group of
three
Melissa types—as in
not
including her—would come up with a great Founders’ Day fund-raiser.

Even though the late-afternoon sun popped sweat on Aneta’s forehead and made her squint, the ever-present pine scent helped lower her shoulders from her ears. So did being out of that room. She picked up her pace to a near jog, anticipating the peaceful blue of Trail Lake. She and Aunt Jardine often rode their bikes on the path around it.

Once the girls met up with her, she would say she was quit ting. She made a face. The Fam were not quitters. They talked about that a lot. But this was a special reason. It wasn’t quitting if you couldn’t do something, was it?

She was nearly to a run by the time she glimpsed the lake through the trees. She could hear the
thud, thud
of the three behind her, with a breathless Sunny shouting pleas for Vee and Esther to stop blaming each other that the group wasn’t “cohesive”—Esther’s word, whatever it meant.

“Aneta! Wait up!”

Aneta slowed but didn’t stop.

Sunny ran in front of her and began to spin in a slow circle. “I give up,” she said breathlessly, arms out as she spun. “Those two are on some control trip, and I don’t have a ticket.” She staggered to a halt, her smile wobbling. “This is not really your thing, is it?”

Aneta met Sunny’s eyes, started to shake her head, and then stared over Sunny’s shoulder. A woman, barely noticeable through the trees, was walking toward the shore. A white garbage bag hung from her arm.

Sunny turned toward the lake. “What are you looking at?

Hey, who is that? She looks like my little brother does when he’s sneaking around.”

“That bag…it is moving. Something sticks out—” Barely had the words left Aneta’s lips when Sunny grabbed her arm and yanked her behind the nearest pine tree, so big Aneta could not have put her arms around it.

“Don’t let her see us!” Sunny hissed.

Moments later the other two joined them.

“What are you doing?” Esther’s voice sounded impatient.

“Shh!” Sunny’s freckled face looked like she’d just found a million dollars. “We’re doing a Nancy Drew, stalking a potential criminal. See the bag? It’s got holes, and there’s something sticking out.” Pressing her face against the tree then drawing away with a disgusted sound, she picked at her face. “Eww. Pine pitch.”

A snort from Vee. “Nancy Drew is
so
fourth grade.” But she kept her voice low and peered through the branches.

The woman began to swing the bag.

“Okay,” Aneta whispered suddenly, feeling Vee was being unfair to Sunny. “I like Nancy Drew.”

The other three girls drew back, looking at Aneta like she’d just said she had a purple head.

“You talk?” Vee and Esther spoke at the same time, looked at each other, and laughed.

Well, even if she wasn’t going to remain part of the group, at least she’d made them smile. She grinned back. Sunny, who had turned back to watch the woman, smothered a shriek. “Some thing long and skinny is sticking out! Gotta be snakes!”

“Could be toxic waste.” That was Esther.

“I sure wouldn’t want to be swimming there after she throws it in,” Sunny said.

Aneta shuddered. She wasn’t afraid of snakes on the ground, but the idea of one touching her in the water…

The woman stood back a bit from the water’s edge and whirled the bag like a slingshot. On the second revolution, she let it fly.

“Good-bye, snakes,” Esther murmured.

As the bag hung suspended, a very unsnakelike sound split the shimmering heat. The woman sprinted away from the shore line and disappeared down a side trail. For a breathless second, the girls froze, then:

“It yelped!”

“It can’t be!”

“She’s murdering a
dog
!”

“Run, run!”

Pelting down to the shoreline, Aneta watched the white garbage bag hit the water, eliciting another series of horrifying howls and yelps before it sank beneath the surface.

Help! Murder!
Frank!

A
t the sound of the girls’ screams, the woman jerked, turned toward them, and then shielded her face with her arm and took off at a dead run toward the line of trees. At the same time as the four of them left the paved road and pounded down the gravel boat-launch ramp, she had nearly reached the stand of evergreens that closely circled the lake.

Esther and Aneta stared at each other, unbelieving. Sunny took off running. “She—she—” spluttered the redheaded girl, changing direction toward the retreating woman. “Hey, you! Stop!” Her curly hair floated out from the sides of her face like wisps of cloud. Before Aneta’s brain told her, “
Go!
“, Aneta’s body had jerked into action. The long legs, so accustomed to churning up pool water with the endless laps, sprinted toward the water’s edge and the wooden dock. She kept her eyes on the ever-widening circles of tiny waves. She pumped her arms forward, putting more force on the toes of her Teva sandals.
Go, go, go
.

“Save it! Save it!” shrieked Esther from behind.

Behind her, Aneta heard Vee holler she was going for help.

Her swim instructor, who worked as a lifeguard, told her you never take your eyes off where you saw the person go down. Only the last bit of white garbage bag broke the ripples surrounding it. At the end of the dock, she slowed long enough to grab each sandal and fling it from her then braced herself to push off the end of the dock. She knew from picnics with Gram at the lake that it dropped off quickly into deeper water. Once the bag sank beneath…

“Ow!” Her right foot slipped on an uneven board. Her arms flailed to regain an upright position. In she tumbled. Lake filled her nose and eyes. As she blinked to see underwater, she heard a dull
clunk
.

She could only think,
I took my eyes off the victim
. She fought to regain the surface and not think about the puppy struggling to breathe. How long had it been since they’d seen the woman’s arm arc forward, sending the bag and its contents into the lake?

The ripples were wide now. Was there any hope? Her arms sliced the water while her legs propelled her forward. Right toward the middle of the ripples.

How far out was she now? She didn’t know. Then she saw it, the blob of white just under the surface. She gasped, choked on some water, and switched to the breaststroke. Every second counted.

Ignoring the bursting in her lungs and the burning in her legs, she kicked once more and barreled toward the bag, right arm outstretched, left arm pushing through the water like a steering wheel. She grabbed the bag.

Treading frantically, she raised the bag out of the water. A chubby arm reached in front of her and yanked the bag away. Shaking water from her eyes, she found the rough wooden side of the rowboat inches from her face. Limply, she reached up to hang on. A pair of hands wrapped themselves around her arm and began to pull.

“I’ve got the dog. Are you all right?” It was Esther’s high, nasal voice.

Still gulping air, Aneta let Esther pull her until it began to hurt. “Ow!”

“I’m trying to pull you into the boat.”

“Help—dog.” She gasped, trying to catch her breath. “I float.” She wrenched her arm from Esther’s and floated onto her back toward shore, letting each muscle unclench as one of her cousins had taught her.

It had been The Fam’s first July Fourth picnic after she’d been adopted. “Breathe in, breathe out, and relax,” he’d said. That day the sky had been a bright blue and not a cloud to be seen. Aneta had been bursting with happiness with her new life. Today the sun skipped in and out, and its glare smacked her eyes painfully. Still, she knew where the shore was and headed there with strong sculling, feeling the swish of her shirt and the flare of her capris against her skin. Had she made it in time for the dog? At the memory of the high-pitched yelps, she gasped and inhaled a nose of cold water, which made her choke—again. Then her thoughts turned to Gram and the soaking clothes. Would she be angry that Aneta got her clothes wet? For a second, she tensed and began to thrash in the water. She could hear voices behind her on the shore, hear the banging of oars and Esther with the puppy headed for shore. Her throat clogged.

The puppy would not have a chance.

She knew that. She’d had that thought even while swimming with all her might. Even with Esther rowing hard, there would not be time to save him. Would anyone even know how to save him? How much could girls do? The orphanage supervisor was fond of saying as much.
“There is only so much one person can do about anything, Aneta.”

When her heels hit the mud, Aneta rolled to her side and stood up awkwardly, wiping the tears from her eyes. She’d done her best. What if it wasn’t good enough?

Soggy Puppy

E
sther met her as she walked out of the lake, wringing water out of her hair.

“You were amazing, Aneta.” Esther pulled her toward the group kneeling in a small circle. “They’ve got the puppy over here,” she continued, keeping a strong grip on Aneta’s arm. “I was praying my guts out that you wouldn’t drown
and
you’d save the puppy.”