Baby feels her legs twitch,

her hands reach for things not there.

Baby listens as she moans and mutters in her sleep.

Baby has heard her do this before and yet

everything was fine.

The sun came up.

Jewel awoke.

The world was new.

But the great, shuddering cough,

the dark rattle when she breathes,

these things fill Baby with worry.

Baby sniffs Jewel’s breath.

It is wrong. It is bitter

rather than sweet.

Baby licks her face, paws her chest.

Nothing.

Panic fills the little dog’s body.

His Jewel,

the Jewel who holds him and

whispers in his soft ears

that he is a good, good boy,

is not there.

She has gone somewhere far away

inside herself.

Baby barks and barks and barks and barks

not his usual barks that celebrate the day,

the barks that say, “Let’s go!”

These are barks of fear,

yips of panic,

howls of despair.

Footsteps come. Voices say, “What’s wrong?”

“Everything!” Baby barks. “Everything is wrong!”

Ree lifts the little dog from Jewel’s chest.

She shakes Jewel by the shoulders.

“Wake up, Jewel,” she says.

“Let’s go!” Baby pleads.

Jewel doesn’t.

More footsteps. More voices.

Soon

flashing lights,

a wailing into the just-beginning dawn.

Baby wails and howls too as men lift

Baby’s Jewel

into the big car with flashing lights.

“Baby!” Jewel cries. “Where’s my Baby?”

Baby hurls himself toward

his name.

A man kicks the little dog away.

Baby yelps in pain and frustration.

Jewel pulls herself up.

Her blue eyes lock onto the dog’s,

on to his heart.

“Baby,” she calls. “You stay, you hear me?”

Baby shivers with fear, lays his ears flat against his

sleek head.

“You stay and be a good boy,” Jewel says as they slide

her into

the mouth of the big car

with the flashing lights.

“I’ll be back, Baby.”

Baby stays, shaking

from the effort of being a good boy even though

every muscle and nerve in his little body says

Go! Follow!

Baby stays even when

Ree and Ajax try to coax him away

from where Jewel told him to stay

even though he is hungry, so hungry!

Baby stays even as

the snow comes down and the wind blows

and the day passes from morning

to night

without Jewel.

Baby stays,

curled tight

on top of Jewel’s bag, a bag that holds

her scent that has been his whole world

forever.

Ree and Ajax bring the little dog food but

hunger has passed.

Linda and Duke bring him an extra blanket but

it does not smell like Jewel and Baby together.

Instead, he curls up inside the bag with Jewel’s smell,

listens to his own steadfast heart, not hers,

and waits.

16

Ree and Ajax

The weather is crazy here. For two days, it snowed and blew like a hurricane and was so cold we had to wear our hats to bed.