CHAPTER 19

Half an hour after the storm had passed over Riverhill, Kanesha finished with Benjy. Dickce was waiting for him in the hallway when he came out of the library.

“Ready to go to town?” she asked. He nodded, and she gestured toward the front door. “I’ve got the car out on the drive.”

She waited until they were settled and seat-belted in the late-model white Lexus before she asked him how the interview with Kanesha had gone.

“Okay, I guess. I really didn’t know anything about what happened to my mom, but she asked a lot of questions about how my mom got along with the Wart and his family. Fine with the Wart, but not too good with the others, that’s what I told her,” Benjy said as Dickce shifted into drive and hit the accelerator.

The car jumped forward, and Dickce glanced over to see Benjy gripping the straps of his seat belt. “It’s not far into town. We’ll be there in a few minutes.” She accelerated, and the car sped down the drive toward the highway. An’gel had had the driveway resurfaced back in the spring, and Dickce liked the smoothness of it. She wished the highway into Athena were as nice as this.

Dickce slowed the car when they reached the highway and flipped the signal for a left turn. She glanced both ways to determine there was nothing coming and hit the gas again. She noticed Benjy was still holding on to his seat belt, and he looked a little pale. The poor boy must not ride in cars very often, she decided. She wondered if he knew how to drive.

“I’ve got quite a list from Clementine.” Dickce decided to keep the conversation away from what was going on back at Riverhill. “She’s a wonderful cook, good old-fashioned Southern food. It’s a wonder An’gel and I don’t weigh three hundred pounds apiece, the way she feeds us.”

She was about to launch into a description of the desserts Clementine often prepared when Benjy said, “Miss Dickce, stop the car. Please.”

Dickce immediately complied, slowing the car until she could safely pull to the side of the road and stop. He looked upset. “What’s wrong? Are you sick?” She hit the button to lower his window. “Just stick your head out the window.”

Benjy shook his head as he unbuckled his seat belt. “No, I’m not sick. I saw something back there. It looked like a dog. It might be hurt.” He opened the door and hopped out of the car before Dickce had time to respond.

She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw him walking fast back down the road the way they had come. She killed the engine and looked both ways before opening her door and getting out of the car. She started to follow Benjy slowly. If he had seen a dog, she hoped it hadn’t been hit by a car. She wasn’t sure she could handle seeing a badly injured animal.

About a hundred feet back she watched as Benjy slowed and then sank down on his knees in the grass verge. He held out a hand, and she heard him calling out in a gentle tone, “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. Miss Dickce, don’t come any closer, okay?” He repeated his assurances to the dog, and Dickce stood rooted to the spot as Benjy requested.

Benjy kept talking, and as Dickce watched, she could see the dog slowly coming closer. It wasn’t very big, perhaps about twenty-five pounds, she thought. Its coat was a warm cream color, and the hair looked soft and fleecy, but wet from the recent storm. It didn’t look much like any dog she remembered seeing around the area.

Dickce wasn’t sure how long she had been standing there when the dog finally came close enough for Benjy to touch it on the head. She held her breath. Would the dog bite? Or turn and run away?

“What a good puppy you are,” Benjy crooned to the dog. “See, Benjy isn’t going to hurt you. Benjy only wants to be your friend and get you warm and dry, with some food to eat. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

The dog sat in front of the boy and allowed Benjy to rub its head. “He doesn’t have a collar,” Benjy said in the same singsong voice. “I’m going to see if he’ll let me pick him up and put him in the car. Is that okay with you?”

“Of course,” Dickce said as she started to back away slowly. She was thankful there was no traffic on the road just now. She couldn’t bear the thought of the dog getting excited or upset and dashing out into the road in the path of an oncoming vehicle.

Benjy put his arms around the dog, and Dickce saw the dog lick the boy’s ear. She smiled and turned toward the car.

She opened the back hatch and moved out of the way so Benjy could get the dog inside. The rear seats were already down, in anticipation of the large number of groceries she planned to purchase.

The dog barked several times as Benjy neared the car. It didn’t seem reluctant to get into the car, but there was a certain urgency in the tone of the barking, Dickce thought. She glanced back in the direction from where Benjy first approached the dog. Was there perhaps another dog out there?

She saw a sudden flash of reddish brown moving in the undergrowth a few feet from the grass verge. Maybe a puppy?

The dog barked again, and suddenly a small creature streaked out of the undergrowth to jump into the back of the car beside the dog.

Benjy spoke in singsong again. “Well, hello there, kitty. Where did you come from? Are you and Mr. Dog here buddies?”

Dickce stayed where she was, afraid that any movement might spook the animals into jumping out of the car. She held her breath again as Benjy talked to the animals while he slowly climbed into the back with them. When he was settled, his arm around the dog and the cat in his lap, he called out to Dickce. “Can you close the door now? I think they’ll be okay until we can get them to a vet.”

Dickce hit the button on her remote to close the hatch. She waited to be sure nothing jumped out before she got back in the car and started it up. She pulled out onto the highway after checking for traffic, but now she drove a bit more slowly. Her foot, however, itched to mash down on the accelerator. She hated driving at a snail’s pace.

“I’m sorry to cause all this trouble,” Benjy said, “but when I saw the dog out there, I just couldn’t go by and not try to do something. I didn’t see the cat at all.”

“Don’t you worry about it,” Dickce said. “I’m glad you spotted the poor dog. I wonder if someone just dumped them by the side of the road. People who do that to animals ought to be flogged. I can’t stand cruelty to the poor things.”

“I agree with you,” Benjy said. “There are so many animals out there without good homes. If people would only get their pets spayed or neutered, but they’re so irresponsible sometimes.”

Dickce heard the passion in the boy’s voice, and it made her warm to him all the more. A boy who cared for animals as much as Benjy did was obviously a good person, one who deserved better treatment from his stepfather and his family.

“There’s a wonderful vet in Athena, Dr. Devon Romano,” Dickce said. “Our friend Charlie Harris takes Diesel to her, and that’s where we’ll take our two new friends. Dr. Romano might know whom they belong to.”

“Whoever it is shouldn’t get them back,” Benjy said heatedly. “I bet they were abandoned on the road.”

Dickce thought he was probably right. This cat and dog weren’t the only animals she and An’gel had picked up from the side of the road over the years. They had rescued a number of animals and taken them to the vet’s office, and the veterinarian usually found good homes for them. She and An’gel hadn’t ever had pets, but having Diesel with them made her aware of how nice it was to have one around the house.

While Dickce drove, Benjy continued to talk in a reassuring tone to the two animals. She glanced in the rearview mirror a few times, and each time she saw that the animals appeared content. She was afraid they might be frightened and try to get out, but evidently Benjy knew how to keep them calm. She was grateful he was with her, because she doubted she could have managed on her own. She would have had to find someone to help, and who knows what could have happened to the poor things in the meantime.

A few minutes later she pulled up in front of Dr. Romano’s clinic, Athena Veterinary Hospital. “Here we are,” she announced.

“Great,” Benjy said. “Miss Dickce, do you think you could see if the kitty will let you hold her? I don’t think I can get them both inside on my own.”

“Surely,” Dickce said. She got out and shut her door, stuck the keys in her jacket pocket, then opened the back passenger door. Benjy held tight to the dog and the cat while Dickce reached in to stroke the cat. “Hello, kitty. You sure are a pretty thing. I’ve never seen a kitty your color before.”

The cat seemed docile and allowed her to stroke its head. Taking this as a good sign, Dickce slipped one hand beneath the cat’s small body and lifted it. The cat didn’t protest. So far so good. Dickce brought the cat to her chest, surprised at how little it weighed—five pounds at the most, she judged. Compared to Diesel, this little girl was a Lilliputian.

The cat purred when it was completely in her arms, and Dickce looked down into a small, sweet face. “How could anyone ever abandon you? You are the cutest little thing.” Dickce felt her heart melt at the trust the cat displayed. Someone had loved it, she realized. What had happened to that person?

Dickce moved away to allow Benjy to crawl out and then bring the dog with him. He bumped the door with his body to shut it, then followed Dickce into the clinic.

The waiting room was empty, and Dickce was glad of that. The last thing they needed was to expose these two rescues to strange animals. Dickce approached the reception desk, the cat nestled contentedly in her arms.

“Good morning, Wendy,” she said to the young woman behind the desk. “How are you today?”

“Just fine, Miss Dickce. What are you doing out on a day like this?” Wendy smiled. “And where did you get that beautiful Abyssinian?”

“Is that what it is?” Dickce glanced at the cat. “I’ve never seen an Abyssinian before or even a cat this particular color.” She stepped aside to let Benjy come closer. “This is my friend Benjy. We just found these two by the side of the road out near Riverhill.”

“Hi, Benjy,” Wendy said. “Your friend looks kind of like a labradoodle. They were together, you say?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Benjy said. “I saw the dog and asked Miss Dickce to stop. When I got him in the car, the cat came streaking out of the woods and jumped in the car with us.” He shifted the dog in his arms slightly. “They seem to be friends.”

“So sweet,” Wendy said. Then her tone turned brisk. “Y’all have a seat in the waiting room there, and I’ll check with Dr. Romano. I’m sure she can see you in a few minutes.”

“Thank you, Wendy,” Dickce said. She found a seat and put the cat in her lap. She stroked its head, and the cat purred. “I can’t get over how calm she is.”

Benjy sat next to her with the dog. “I guess she knows that good people found her and are going to take care of her. Same thing with this guy here.” The dog licked the side of Benjy’s face, and the boy smiled.

They sat in silence for a moment. Benjy turned to her, his expression now worried. “I wish I knew what was going to happen to them. If they belong to someone awful, surely the vet won’t let them go back to a bad person.”

Dickce smiled. “Don’t you worry about that. I’m not about to let that happen.” She had already made up her mind who was going to take these poor animals.

And if An’gel didn’t like it, well, that was just too bad.

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