White Fur Flying Read online

  Mama looked tired. I knew that rescuing dogs was hard work. She had driven across the state and back to pick up the dogs from another driver, who had picked up the dogs from another state. The rescue association didn’t always have much money, so drivers from every state volunteered. Callie and Jack had come all the way from Georgia.

  Jack, in a sudden burst of energy, jumped up and ran down the yard.

  Phillip stood at the fence, watching. He opened the gate and came in, walking down the yard to sit in the grass under the big tree. Kodi went down the yard, Callie following. They ran along the fence together.

  Jack walked up and sat in front of Phillip.

  Phillip didn’t reach out and try to pet Jack. He just sat quietly. After a moment Jack went to sit next to Phillip. Still Phillip didn’t touch Jack.

  “Look at that,” said Mama softly. “What a pair.”

  Phillip and Jack sat quietly, watching the cows move in the green grass of the meadow, under a blue cloudless sky.

  It is dark, with only a slice of moon. Kodi and Callie sleep together on the living-room rug. They don’t move when I get a drink of water and pad back to my bedroom. The house is quiet. Alice is sleeping. Mama and Daddy are sleeping. The cover is over Lena’s cage. Callie and Jack will meet Lena tomorrow.

  When I pull back the covers on my bed, there is Jack, curled up on my sheets with the red poppies on them.

  “You,” I whisper. Jack lifts his head as if to say, “Yes, it’s me.”

  Then he turns over, and when I lie down next to him, all through the night, I feel the soft rise and fall of his breaths.

  chapter 9

  “Kodi is happier with new dogs here,” I said to Mama in the morning.

  Mama nodded. “He’s a pack animal. He likes the order of it.”

  “I guess I’m part of Jack’s pack,” I said. “He slept with me.”

  “I saw that when I came in to check on you in the night,” said Daddy. “Jack goes quite well with red poppy sheets.”

  If Kodi loved having more dogs around, Phyllis next door didn’t.

  “More dogs?” she said, raising her eyebrows.

  She and Mama stood at the fence, on opposite sides.

  Daddy came down the yard, his white vet jacket over his shoulder.

  “Good morning, Phyllis,” he said politely.

  Phyllis nodded.

  “The dogs need homes,” said Mama. Her voice sounded tight to me. It wasn’t the way Mama usually sounded. “It’s what I’ve chosen to do. I save them. I take care of them. I know you understand. You do the very same thing with Phillip, you know.”

  Phyllis took a little step backward. She was very quiet.

  Alice and I were pretending not to listen. But there was no more to hear. Mama moved away, leaving Phyllis looking after her.

  “Claire works hard at it,” said Daddy.

  He put on his jacket. It said DR. CASSIDY on the pocket.

  “As do you, Phyllis,” said Daddy.

  He walked down the yard to say goodbye to Mama, leaving Phyllis just like Mama had.

  After a moment Phyllis turned and walked back through the grass, and over the narrow place in the brook, to her house. She walked up the porch steps, standing there to look back at all of us.

  “Poor Phyllis,” I said in a soft voice.

  “What do you mean?” asked Alice.

  “I don’t know. Poor Phyllis doesn’t understand much of our world.”

  Alice nodded.

  “Almost as if she missed too many days of school,” said Alice.

  I smiled.

  “That’s a nice way to say it,” I said.

  “I’m a writer,” said Alice. “I put words to things. But you know all those things, Zoe.”

  I stared at Alice, surprised.

  In the yard the dogs, all of them, tumbled and ran and played as if they understood all there was to know.

  And maybe they did.

  It was the next day that life changed for all of us.

  It was the day that it happened.

  It would be a rainy day.

  The cows would graze in the meadow.

  Far off the horses would run when the wind came up.

  But the next day would be the day that it happened.

  chapter 10

  It was dark when I heard the phone ring. Then there were voices. Loud voices. I looked at my clock. It was ten. Next to me Callie slept.

  Callie? Where was Jack?

  When I got out of bed, I saw that the outside house lights were on, even the spotlights that lit up the fenced-in yard.

  Kodi was staring out the windows of the kitchen. He ran to the door asking to go out.

  Daddy came in the door, wearing a wet slicker.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked.

  I rubbed my eyes.

  “Jack got out,” said Daddy. “Mama’s going after him.”

  “How?”

  “The gate was open. He ran off.”

  Daddy grabbed a plastic bag of dog snacks and the big flashlight.

  “Are you going too?” I asked.

  Daddy shook his head. “I have an emergency. Mama will have to handle it. She’ll be all right. She’s been through this before.”

  Mama came into the kitchen, and I could hear heavy rain in the darkness outside.

  “I’m going to take Kodi,” she said. “He’ll help find Jack. Zoe, you’ll have to keep Callie calm. She might be scared that the other dogs are gone.”

  “She’s sleeping on my bed,” I said.

  “Well, good. Give her snacks, play with her. Anything to keep her happy.”

  Mama slipped the leash over Kodi’s head. He wagged his tail and pranced, ready to go out.

  “Don’t worry, Zoe. We’ll be back sometime. And I have my cell phone, if it works in this weather.”

  Mama and Kodi were gone.

  I looked through the window and saw wind and rain in the lit backyard.

  “I’ll be at the clinic, but you can call if you need me,” said Daddy.

  And then Daddy was gone too.

  It was quiet in the kitchen. Alice was sleeping. Callie was sleeping.

  I sat at the kitchen table.

  I thought about Jack out in the rain and dark.

  At least Mama and Kodi had each other while they searched.

  But Jack was alone.

  A clap of thunder made me jump. I heard Callie whimper in my bedroom.

  I went in and lay down next to her. I put my arm around her and felt her shaking.

  “It’s all right, Callie,” I whispered. “The thunder will be gone soon. The rain will be gone soon. Everything will be all right.”

  She stopped shaking. She slept.

  I slept some, but the rain and wind kept waking me.

  But in the morning, at first light, the rain had not gone.

  And everything was not all right.

  chapter 11

  I woke hearing rain. And pounding at the kitchen door.

  I got up and saw Phyllis Croft at the door. She wore a raincoat, but her hair was wild and wet. She looked like a child.

  I opened the door and she rushed in.

  “Is Phillip here?” she demanded. “Where are your mother and father?”

  I took her coat and shook the rain off of it. I hung it on a hook by the door.

  “Jack got out last night. He ran off, and my mother went after him,” I said. “Daddy had an emergency.”

  “Where’s Phillip?” she said.

  Alice came into the kitchen in her pajamas.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “I can’t find Phillip,” said Mrs. Croft.

  She sat in a kitchen chair and began to cry.

  “His bed h
asn’t been slept in,” she said.

  Tears came down her face.

  “It’s my fault,” she said. “His parents called and he heard me talking to them. They’ve been having trouble. I screamed at Phillip to talk to me! I needed to know what he was thinking! And now he’s gone.”

  Alice looked quickly at me.

  “We were the only relatives able to take him,” said Phyllis. “I don’t know anything about children. I don’t know anything about Phillip!”

  “They’ve been having trouble?” I repeated. It was half a question, half me talking to me. Telling myself something.

  “Does Phillip know about their trouble?” I asked.

  “I think so,” she said. “But he doesn’t speak!”

  “Did he see the lights on last night?” I asked. “The lights in the yard?”

  Mrs. Croft nodded. “We all saw them. But where would he go in the pouring rain? Maybe he wanted to get away from me! It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have screamed at him.”

  Alice sat next to Mrs. Croft and took her hand.

  “It’s not your fault,” she said. “It’s no one’s fault.”

  Suddenly, I knew why Phillip wouldn’t talk. Couldn’t talk. And I knew where Phillip had gone.

  I ran to my bedroom and pulled on my jeans and sweater. Callie turned over and looked at me from the bed.

  I ran back into the kitchen and pulled on my boots.

  “Phillip went to save Jack,” I said.

  “Out in this rain? For a dog?” said Mrs. Croft.

  “For a dog who loves Phillip,” I said.

  I put dog snacks into a plastic bag. I picked up a rolled-up dog blanket.

  “Alice, get me two bottles of water. Daddy will be home soon from the clinic. Mama will call on her cell phone.”

  “What? What are you doing?” asked Mrs. Croft.

  I put on my slicker.

  “Alice, take care of Callie. She doesn’t like the rain. She might miss me. She might miss the dogs.”

  I stopped then.

  “Are you all right alone?” I asked Alice.

  Alice nodded.

  “I’ll stay with her,” said Mrs. Croft. She started to cry again.

  “We’ll stay with each other,” said Alice.

  I put some breakfast biscuits in my pockets, and some lumps of sugar.

  We could hear the sound of pellets hitting the windows. Hail.

  “I’m going to find Phillip,” I said.

  I opened the door and went out of the warm kitchen into the cold.

  I put up my slicker hood and hurried down to the meadow. The rain and hail pellets sounded loud against my slicker. My pant legs were already wet. The rain came down harder, and there was thunder.

  I passed the cows, who stood under the big tree in the meadow. They stood in a comforting group, like a cow family.

  I thought of Jack, lost in a place he didn’t know. I thought of Phillip, who couldn’t call for help. Phillip, who wouldn’t talk because he thought his mother and father’s problems might be his fault—something he’d said, perhaps. His silence might keep them all safer.

  And, like Phyllis, I began to cry.

  chapter 12

  I hurried down to the meadow. My wet pant legs were cold.

  I ran to the nearest barn to get out of the rain. Mama had been out all night looking for Jack. She hadn’t called because she knew Alice and I were sleeping. She had Kodi. Jack had no one. Phillip had no one.

  Inside the barn the horses in their stalls peered at me.

  “Phillip? Jack?” I called. “It’s Zoe.”

  I knew Mama and Kodi had been here. They would have come here first.

  There was silence except for the snorting of horses.

  I put my hood back up and ran outside again, across the dirt road, to the next meadow.

  The sky grew even darker and the rain came harder.

  I ducked between the rails of the gate and ran through the mud to a yellow barn.

  It was suddenly quiet in the barn, and strangely peaceful. The horses rolled their eyes at me.

  Who are you?

  Do you have a carrot?

  A lump of sugar?

  I did have some lumps of sugar that I’d stashed in my pockets along with some breakfast biscuits, dog treats, and two bottles of water. I couldn’t remember why I had put the sugar in my pockets, but now I was glad.

  The horses were glad too. The four of them crowded around, and I fed them all sugar lumps.

  “Phillip? Phillip, are you here?” I called. “Jack! Mama!?”

  No answer from Mama.

  Of course Phillip wouldn’t answer. I would have to search every stall.

  The horses had stepped back when I raised my voice. I went from stall to stall, looking in each one for a dog or two and a boy.

  In one stall was a pile of hay. There was a small scooped-out place where someone or something had rested. I leaned down and saw it—a clump of dog hair. I picked it up. It wasn’t Kodi’s pure white hair that I knew so well. It was mottled, black and white.

  Jack’s hair.

  But where were they? And where was Mama?

  Suddenly, I heard a new sound. It was bigger hail hitting the barn roof. It started light at first, then grew heavier.

  The horses were restless with the new sound. I looked out the door and saw hail hitting the ground, collecting in places like little bits of glass. The sky was even darker now.

  I had to go now before the hail got larger and the wind grew stronger. I put my hood up and ran across the paddock and across the road, looking for another hiding place. I thought Phillip would hide from this weather. I didn’t know about Jack. He might still be running somewhere. I ducked in a lean-to shed filled with garden tools and a lawn mower.

  But then, Phillip might still be running after Jack too.

  Mama wouldn’t take Kodi out in hail. Rain maybe, but not hail.

  I ran across a meadow until I got to a large tree. I joined more cows there. The tree was large enough to keep us all safe from hail. The cows looked at me, then went back to eating grass.

  I could see a hay barn across the paddock, a barn I’d never seen before. The door was open. As the hail came down faster and harder, I ran across the mud to the open door and went inside.

  It was a barn with only a few windows, and I could smell the sweet smell of the bales of hay stored there for the cows and horses.

  I walked in the path between the neat bales that were bound with twine. The farmer was neat too. The old wood floors were smooth and clean, as if the farmer had swept them.

  I walked on without calling out. The hail had grown heavier or bigger, I couldn’t tell. But the noise filled the barn.

  And then, when I passed the last neat bales, in the very back of the barn, when I was about to give up, I found them.

  Phillip and Jack.

  Phillip was asleep in a loose pile of hay, Jack sleeping next to him, curled close to Phillip. I didn’t say anything. I sat down next to Jack. He raised his head and looked at me the way he had when he slept on my red poppy sheets, and then put his head back down in the hay and went back to sleep. I stroked his body and he didn’t move. He was warm.

  My throat felt tight. I could feel tears at the edges of my eyes. Suddenly, I felt so tired. The noise of hail and wind was steady, and Jack and Phillip slept on.

  I pulled my rain jacket around me and lay back in the hay. I turned on my side so I could see them. I watched them for a long time.

  And then I slept.

  chapter 13

  It was the quiet that woke me. There were no sounds of wind and rain and hail. I opened my eyes, and light was coming in one of the windows.

  Phillip and Jack were sitting up in the hay, looking at me.

  “Jack saved m
e,” said Phillip right away. “He ran ahead of me, but when I got lost, he came back and led me to a barn. But when we were hidden in the hay, the farmer came in, so we ran out. We ran and ran. It started to hail and we found this place. We were both very tired.”

  I sat up.

  “Are you all right, Zoe?” he asked suddenly.

  I didn’t say “Phillip, you’re talking!” because I didn’t want him to stop and I was afraid he’d be shy and silent again.

  I smiled at him.

  “I know,” he said, as if he’d read my thoughts. “I’m talking. I know.”

  He stroked Jack, who leaned into him and fell over in a heap so Phillip could rub his stomach.

  “I’m glad,” I said. “And I’m glad you’re safe. Both of you. I looked everywhere.”

  “I knew you would,” he said. “And I knew your mama would.”

  “And I did,” said Mama, standing in front of us with Kodi. Kodi’s tail wagged when he saw Phillip.

  “Mama!”

  I jumped up and put my arms around her. She was wet. Her hair was plastered down around her face. Kodi was wet too.

  “I knew,” said Phillip.

  Mama hugged Phillip. She didn’t say anything about his talking either.

  “Let’s go,” said Mama.

  She put the leash on Jack, and we followed her outside. It was clearing now, and the air was fresh and sharp. Everything looked new.

  Mama dialed her phone. She waited a moment.

  “Hello,” she said. “We’re on our way.”

  She listened.

  “Yes. All of us,” she said.

  She snapped her cell phone shut and smiled at us. “Let’s go home.”

  chapter 14

  We walked back home together, three people and two dogs, one person talking all the way.

  “Jack was a hero,” said Phillip. “A true hero. He found me and led me where it was safe.”

  I took off my rain slicker and put it around Mama.

  “And he was never scared or scatty. ‘Scatty’ is what my aunt Phyllis says sometimes. That’s funny, don’t you think?” said Phillip. “Coming from her?”