Far Country (49 page)

           
Steve scratched her head. “Well, go get your leash!” He commanded her, walking
toward the back door.  The pup raced ahead of him bursting through the new
electronically activated dog door before he could reach the steps.  She
was back again moments later, bearing the new green leash in her teeth.

           
Steve snapped on the leash, petting her head in admiration. “You are a smart
girl, aren’t you?” He told her.  He took a deep breath. “It’s show time,
girl. Let’s go meet Gracie.” He opened the gate in the fence and the pup shot
through, nearly yanking the leash from Steve’s hand. 

           
Two minutes later, Steve pulled up in front of campsite 3, nearly as excited as
the dog, who sat quivering and erect on the bench seat beside Steve.  He
shifted into park, rolled the window down a few inches to keep the puppy cool,
and turned off the motor. He scratched her ears for a moment in apology. 
“You wait here a minute. I’ll bring Gracie right back,” he promised her. 
Ignoring the dog’s disappointed eyes, he shut the door on her and headed to the
huge motor coach that the Graham’s had used last summer when they had been the
park’s host and hostess.

           
Before he could reach the front steps, the woods exploded with a flash of color
and shrieks of happiness.  “
Dadddddyyyyyyyy
!”
Gracie practically leapt into his arms. Steve wrapped his arms around her small
body to hold her tight against his chest, and inhaled the little girl smell of
her as she hugged him just as tightly.

           
“I have
sooooo
missed you!” He exclaimed, planting a
half dozen kisses on the top of her dark hair.

           
“Me too!” Gracie replied, planting her own series of sticky kisses on Steve’s
cheek and neck.  A moment later, Pastor Graham appeared on the site from
the same path that Gracie had erupted from moments before. Steve managed to
loosen one hand and shook Robert Graham’s hand heartily.

           
“You’ve made good time!” Steve commented. “Did the munchkin behave herself?”

           
Hester Graham stepped out of the motor coach, a familiar box of tablecloths and
string lights under her arm.  “A perfect angel,” she told Steve, a warm
smile of welcome on her face.

           
Plaintive whines and yelps of misery from Steve’s truck caught Gracie’s
attention.  “Whose dog is that?” She asked, eyeing the nearly grown Irish
setter uncertainly.

           
“Well,” Steve began slowly, carrying his daughter to the truck.  “She’s a
gift from a friend of mine, who thought that you might like a girlfriend to
hang out with whenever you come here to visit me.”

           
“A girl dog?” Gracie asked, instantly warming to the idea.  “She‘s ours?”

           
“Only if you like her: Steve replied quickly. It suddenly occurred to him that
he did not even know if she liked dogs.  What if she was allergic to them?
Or was frightened by animals?

           
Gracie tentatively reached her hand up to the window and the pup stuck her
snout out as far as she could, her warm red tongue licking Gracie’s
fingers.  Gracie giggled. “Can we let her out?” she asked Steve.

           
“Sure, but she’s kind of big, even though she is still mostly a puppy. Will you
be scared if she jumps around?” By now Gracie’s hand was through the window and
stroking the mahogany fur. “Course not” Gracie answered firmly.

           
Steve set Gracie on the ground and opened the door just enough to wrap his hand
around the dog’s collar.  The pup leapt to the ground, her body wriggling
with happiness as Steve led her to stand in front of Gracie.

           
Totally unafraid, Gracie ran her hands over the dog’s head.  She dropped
to her knees and wrapped her arms around the dog’s neck.  “She’s
beautiful,” she breathed, burying her nose in the soft puppy fur. “What’s her
name?”

           
“She hasn’t got a name yet,” Steve told her. “I’ve been waiting for you to come
visit to see if you would like her. Do you want to pick a name for her?”

           
Gracie sat back on her heels and took the dog’s head between her small hands.
She cocked her head to one side, studying the puppy’s face.  Dog and girl
seemed to smile at each other.  “Her name is Fiona,” Gracie announced.

           
“Fiona?” Steve repeated the name aloud, thoroughly puzzled. But the dog turned
her head toward Steve and wagged her tail, as if she already recognized and
approved of the name. Steve was baffled. “Why Fiona?” He asked her.

           
“From Shrek,” Gracie replied in a tone that told Steve that the answer should
have been perfectly obvious to him. “After the princess. She has red hair too.”

           
“Fiona?” Steve repeated again, uncertainly. Again the pup wagged her tail in
answer to the word.  “All right,” he conceded. “Fiona it is.” Fiona
thumped her tail on the ground in agreement.

           
Steve knelt beside Gracie and rubbed the red coat “Hello, Fiona,” he told the
dog. “Welcome to the family.”

           
The week flew by faster than Steve could have imagined.  Gracie and he
spent hours together. When he was off duty, they went shopping, hiking,
canoeing, or spent hours just lazing around in the warm afternoon sunshine by
the lake.  When he was at work, Gracie suddenly acquired an entourage of
aunts and uncles, who escorted her all over the park, as well as roller skating
and out to the movies.  Aunt Debbie and Aunt Jill, Uncle Pete and Uncle
Chuck all took turns keeping the little girl occupied.  Soon she was
racing around the nearly empty park campgrounds with Fiona close on her heels,
completely at home with staff and campers alike.

           
On Friday afternoon, a minivan pulled into one of the sites, and Steve and
Gracie drove over to register the new campers.  Gracie had accompanied her
dad several times now when he had gone to register a new camper, and she saw
instantly that there was something different about this one. To begin with, her
dad started acting weird as soon as he saw the minivan pull around the circle.
He got kind of fidgety and combed his fingers through his wavy black hair three
times before they ever got to the site. As soon as he saw the lady getting out
of the van, he got a goofy sort of smile on his face that made Gracie giggle a
little. Steve glanced at his daughter and flushed, but the silly smile
remained.

           
They got out of the truck and walked toward a lady, who had long hair pulled
back in a pony tail. Gracie noticed that her hair was the same color as Fiona’s
mahogany fur. Usually when they stopped to register a camper, her dad shook
hands with the people, took some money and filled out a card for them to post
at their campsite.  Today was different.  As the lady walked toward
them with a smile on her face, her dad stopped in his tracks and just smiled
his goofy smile. Suddenly, Gracie realized that the lady had also stopped and
had the same goofy smile on her face.

           
Gracie frowned.  For the first time at Hanging Rock, she felt out of
place.  She stopped at the edge of the campsite and considered turning
around and running back to the Graham’s trailer, but Fiona was acting funny
too.  She dashed past Gracie with a happy little yelp of greeting and
planted her two front paws on the woman’s shoulders. The woman stumbled back a
few steps and her dad had to grab the lady’s arm to keep her from losing her
balance.

           
“Fiona! Bad dog!  Get down!”  Steve barked angrily. But the lady only
laughed and scratched the sweet spot behind the pup’s right ear.  Fiona
closed her eyes in doggie bliss. 

           
“Hello, Fiona! Did you miss me?”  The red haired lady said to the dog.

           
Gracie’s dad rolled his eyes. “I’ve been trying to break her of that habit,
Kelly, and here you are rewarding her for it!”

           
“I suppose,” she replied, “but she always had such a sweet disposition, I never
could get mad at her for it.”  Gently, she dislodged Fiona’s front paws
from her shoulders and brushed off her t-shirt. “How are she and Gracie getting
along?”

           
Gracie looked up in surprise! How did this lady know her name, and her dog’s?

Her dad laughed happily and
waved for Gracie to come closer, which she did reluctantly.

           
“See for yourself!” He commented.  “Wherever Gracie is, Fiona is right
there with her.” He placed his strong hands on her shoulders and made
introductions.

           
“Sarah Grace Williams, may I introduce Miss Kelly McGuire, the lady who helped to
train Fiona, and convinced me that you would love to have her for your own
dog.”

           
Gracie smiled shyly, not really sure what to say.  The lady, though, was
not shy at all. She dropped down to Gracie’s height and held out a hand. 
Gracie took the hand and shook it solemnly.  “Please! Call me Kelly, or
Miss Kelly, if you would like. Your dad was so excited to have you visit him
this week. Have you had a good time so far?”

           
Almost against her will, Gracie found herself smiling back into Miss Kelly’s
green eyes.  “Yes,” she replied with a shy smile.

           
“And Fiona, you like her too?”  Gracie nodded vigorously.

           
Miss Kelly smiled. “Good, she was in need of somebody to love her. I’m glad she
has you.”

           
Gracie was ready to go. She ground her toe into the dirt, wondering how long
she needed to be on nice behavior, as her grandmother called it. She cast
around in her head for something to say. “Are you going to stay very long?” She
asked at last.

           
Kelly shook her head.  “Just tonight I think,” she replied.  I
understand there’s going to be a sing-a-long at the amphitheater.”

           
Gracie grinned, excited again.  “Uncle Chuck plays a guitar and Uncle Pete
plays a banjo! They’re really good!”

           
“Why don’t you go find Miss Hester, and tell her to set an extra plate for
dinner tonight?” Her dad suggested.  “Then come back and we will all walk
down to the cascades together, okay?”

           
Gracie nodded.  “Sure, but where are you going?” She asked curiously.

Her dad got that silly grin
on his face again.  “Nowhere, sweetie.  I’m just going to help Miss
Kelly get her tent set up. It’s become something of a tradition.”

           
Grace was happy for a reason to escape. Miss Kelly seemed nice enough, but she
wasn’t quite comfortable with the silly way her dad acted around her. “Come on,
Fiona!” She called to the dog, who immediately rose to her feet, stretched
luxuriously, and bounded after her little girl.

           
As Gracie and Fiona disappeared down the road, Kelly took Steve’s hand and
exhaled in relief. “
Wheww
! I’m glad we’re past that
moment. She didn’t seem hate me, at least.”

           
Steve pulled her into a hug and sighed with contentment. “Don’t be silly,” he
told her, kissing her on the forehead. “Who could hate you?”

           
“No fraternizing with the guests while you’re on duty!” Kelly scolded him
playfully. Steve sighed. “But you’re so darn cute, how can I resist?” He kissed
her on the neck.

           
“Incorrigible,” she declared, turning and standing on tiptoe to kiss his lips.
“Come on, you told Gracie that you were going to help me set up the tent, and
I’m going to hold you to that promise,” she told him dragging him by the hand
to the back of her van. Then she paused uncertainly. “Unless you still have
some duties to attend to before the end of your shift?” She questioned him.

           
“Actually,” he confessed, “I was off work an hour ago.  I was just hanging
around waiting for you to get here.”

           
Kelly smiled. “Good! Now I don’t feel the least bit guilty for having you help
set up my tent.”

           
Steve pulled her back into his arms. “Then it stands to reason that you won’t
mind giving me another kiss?” He asked.  

           
But Kelly sidestepped him and shook her head. “Not while you’re still in
uniform, what would the neighbors think?”

           
Steve held up his hands and looked around. “What neighbors? The park is two
thirds empty!”

           
Kelly hefted the tent bag and shoved it into Steve’s hands.  “Sorry, but I
don’t think Gracie should see us kissing until she decides if she likes me. She
strikes me as being a little jealous of her dad’s company, and I don’t blame
her!”

           
Steve looked at the tent bag in his arms and felt slightly deflated. 
“Right,” he sighed, knowing that Kelly had a point. They set to work.

           
They soon had the tent set up and Kelly’s sleeping bag and gear stowed safely
inside. Steve checked his watch and then stood near the road to scan the circle
for signs of his daughter, thinking that she should have been back by now.

           
Finally he headed for the truck. “Come on,” he said. “Let's drive over to the
Graham's campsite. She’s probably eating ice cream with Hester and Robert. They
spoil her like she was their own granddaughter.”