Mack doesn’t know how long he’s been here with Alice and Ed. He doesn’t know how long it’s been since Justine disappeared. Time is nothing to him, measured out in meals and walks but never adding up. Mack has adapted to the rhythms of this household, knowing that she rises first, that he goes to bed last. Breakfast is eaten in silence. The routine is more obvious to him now than it was at first. Like Justine, Alice has a set pattern that includes food, exercise, and baby talk. Ed has a less predictable pattern, but he seems to be the one with the car keys.

Alice takes him for walks. Although sometimes when they go, she talks to him in a serious, sad way. When she does that, Mack has learned that a joke is a good way to change that tone. So he’ll grab her sleeve gently in his teeth, or fake nip at her heels as if to say, This is about fun. Keep moving. Sometimes he just barks until she breaks out of her mood with a laugh and halfhearted warning to stop it.

There has been a change in the air. Not only are the days a bit cooler, but the people in the house are treating him in a new way. At first, being shy, they treated him with courtesy and a little distance, which was appropriate. He was a stranger in their home. But now, now they are more casual with him, easy. Ed keeps bringing him new toys. Today it was a stuffie. Mack loves stuffies, and, unlike his terrier brethren, he doesn’t gut them to extract the squeaker, but gently bites the fuzzy bone-shaped toy to get it to emit the irresistible noise, then uses it as a pillow.

There’s lots to like about being a guest here, but he still wants Justine to come and get him.

Every time they offer Mack go-for-a-ride, he thinks that Justine will be there. Every time they pass the cemetery gates, he asks them to let him out to see if there’s a hint of her scent on the ground, to see if Justine has come to get him. But they never do.

Chapter 24

24

“He should have a name.” Alice says this around a mouthful of spaghetti, as if slipping the concept of naming the dog around food disguises the larger concept of keeping him. The dog, for his part, sits at a distance, but his eagle eyes are alert to her right hand with the upraised fork. He isn’t begging per se, but he is certainly interested in their mealtime.