The Saddest Song

Chapter 20

Rainey

I woke up Saturday morning to a text from Rylee telling me to wear clothes that I wouldn’t mind getting dirty. Saturdays with Sophie and Rylee usually meant shopping, lunch and maybe mani-pedi’s. I had assumed today would be more of the same. Curious, I did as she asked, choosing a well worn red and white striped sweater and my oldest, most comfortable jeans. I vacillated between boots and tennis shoes, finally opting for my black converse.

Max knew nothing about the girls’ plans when he picked me up. He had received no texts, and he looked cute in yet another new plaid shirt his mom had bought for him. Obviously the boys wouldn’t be joining us in whatever was happening this morning. This was probably for the best since all Max could talk about was playing with his new guitar. His parents had done a great thing buying it for him. He was happier than I had ever seen him. His happiness was infectious and I felt myself smiling at him while he talked.

When we arrived at Colin’s house everyone was outside.

“Hurry Rainey, we’re going to be late!” Rylee said, as Sophie climbed behind the wheel of her baby blue VW bug. She started the engine while Rylee climbed into the back, letting me have the front seat. We waved to the guys who stood there waving back, and we were off.

“Okay, now can I know what we are doing, please?”

Sophie laughed, “Well, Kara helps run a dog rescue and they are having an event at a street fair today and she needs our help.”

“Yeah, everyone cancelled on her at the last minute,” Rylee said.

“And she didn’t have a psychic moment a couple of days before letting her know this would happen?”

“Apparently not,” Sophie said, laughing.

“Well, what will we be doing?”

“Helping her show the dogs to people and hoping they get adopted. It’s Christmas time, it should help.”

“You like dogs, right Rainey?” Rylee asked.

“I love them. It sounds fun.”

“I’m not a huge dog person, but only because I have never spent much time around them. I like Colin’s parent’s dog a lot. He is great. Kara has been trying to get Ethan and I to adopt forever.”

We got there in minutes and saw Kara standing in the parking lot directing a couple men holding crates.

“Hi girls! Thanks so much for helping us out.” She introduced us to the men and we grabbed crates and followed behind them to their space. I peeked in my crate and saw four little terrier looking puppies staring out at me. They were adorable. There was a wire fence enclosing a space between a pet supply booth and one that sold silver handmade jewelry, and we set the crates down gently inside as Kara began to free an assortment of dogs and puppies, all happy to be out of their cages.

There were a total of eighteen, and the majority of them looked to be Chihuahua mixes. There was a small skinny German shepherd and two lab mixes. People started to swarm our booth before we even had our instructions but soon we were organized. We had people use antibacterial lotion on their hands before they held the dogs and assisted them in filling out paper work if they were interested in adopting.

In the four hours we were there I didn’t have a moment to pay attention to anything except puppies and trading them from one prospective owner’s arms to the next. I did hear Kara say at the beginning that the small German shepherd was only two and she had been badly abused. When they rescued her she had been severely underweight. Despite that, Kara said she was the gentlest soul she had ever encountered and would make the perfect companion. Surprisingly, at the end of the day the beautiful dog was one of six who had not found homes. She stayed close to Sophie and Kara watched them with a smile.

“Sophie, I think you have made a friend,” Kara said.

“She’s so sweet. I can’t believe that nobody chose her today,” Sophie said, as she pet the dog.

“Yeah, she really took to Sophie as soon as we got here,” Rylee said.

“Actually several people asked about her today but I had to tell them she has already found her forever home.”

“What?” Rylee said. Sophie looked up, confused. I started to be suspicious of Kara.

“Kara, are you match making here? Ethan hasn’t even met her.” Sophie said. I noticed that she didn’t say that she didn’t want to adopt her.

“Well Sophie, I sort of introduced Ethan to her yesterday. I had to make sure he would be okay with it. He was. She’s yours.”

“Oh my god Kara! You are so sneaky!” She hugged the dog, laughing when it licked her face.

“I couldn’t help it. When she came into the shelter six weeks ago she was emaciated and sick but I flashed on a vision of you and Ethan walking her at the beach and I knew it was inevitable.”

“Can’t fight fate, Soph.” Rylee said, meaning it.

“I wouldn’t dream of it. I love her already.” She kissed the shepherds head. “So what will Ethan and I be naming her?” She asked, smiling.

“Oh no you don’t. I am not going to deprive you of the fun you two will have choosing it. But it’s a great name for her.”

We all laughed at Kara’s crazy way of making her psychic ability seem normal when it was anything but. While we secured the five remaining dogs in their crates with a reward of chicken basted rawhide to chew on, Kara asked me casually how things were going.

“Oh no, Kara! Tell me. What do you see?”

“No Rainey, I was just asking, I don’t see anything in particular.”

“Forgive me if I panic when you speak to me.” We all laughed.

“I seem to bring that out in everyone. I need to learn to keep my mouth shut, but I just have to jump in if I think it’s going to help.”

“And we love you for it, Kara. Don’t stop,” Rylee said.

She hugged each of us and asked if we would like to help her again with the rescue. All of us assured her that we would. We asked her if she wanted to come back to the house with us and she said she would follow us over. We piled into Sophie’s little bug, but this time Rylee and I both sat in the back so Sophie’s new dog could sit next to her.





Max

After the girls pulled away, Ethan asked Colin and I if we would go with him to Petco before we started to play songs.

“Petco?” Colin and I questioned simultaneously. None of us owned a dog, unless you counted Colin’s moms dog that was an occasional visitor.

“Yesterday Kara had me come over to the shelter at lunch so she could introduce me to a German shepherd that is supposed to steal Sophie’s heart today. We are going to be rescuing her and I need to grab some supplies.” He pulled a list from his pocket. “Kara wrote it all down but I couldn’t get away from Sophie until now to go and buy it all.”

So the three of us went shopping and got everything Kara had written down plus several types of dog toys.

“What if Sophie decides she doesn’t want the dog after all?” I asked as I carried a large dog bed across the parking lot.

“Impossible,” Colin laughed.

“It might happen,” I said.

“Not if Kara says it’s going to happen,” Ethan said, taking the bed from me and putting it in the truck bed.

“Yeah, she’s always right, Max. If she tells you something you have to just believe it will happen”, Colin said. “She told Rylee about me before we ever met.”

“Can she answer questions about the future? I mean, if someone were to ask her?”

They both stared at me, then Ethan answered, “Just be sure you are ready for the answer.”

Colin put his arm around my shoulder, “Max, she is scary accurate, be really sure.”

Maybe I needed to know some things whether I liked her answers or not. A little help from the future sounded pretty good.

Later that afternoon we heard the girls enter the house and stopped playing, all of us curious to see the new dog. Sure enough, in walked Sophie with a small shepherd glued to her side. She was a beautiful dog and I wondered how she had ever ended up in a shelter. The pup wasn’t the only new face, a woman was with them. Tall, blonde, pretty, she made a bee line straight for me.

“Max, I’m Kara. It’s so nice to meet you!” She put her hand out to shake mine and held on tightly.

“Kara, I see you were right once again!” Ethan said, hugging her. Colin hugged her next and then we all spent time petting the dog who still wouldn’t leave Sophie’s side.

“Hurry and give this poor baby a name, Soph,” Rylee said.

Sophie looked at Ethan. “What do you think we should call her?”

“That’s up to you, babe.” He kissed her and bent down to pet the dog.

“I want to give her a perfect name. Kara, just tell me what you see me calling her.”

“You will come up with it, don’t worry,” Kara said confidently.

“Just give me a hint, Kara. I want to name her right now.” We all looked at Kara.

“Alright, a hint. But you do know this is cheating, right?” Sophie nodded and smiled.

“Okay, you are going to name her something from your favorite movie.”

“Twilight? She doesn’t look like a Bella. Besides there are a million little girls with the name Bella.”

“Wrong movie. This is the one you and your mom love.”

“Oh! The Sound of Music!” Sophie laughed, “Okay, Liesel, Marta, Brigietta, and Gretel. Gretel! That’s it! It’s perfect!”

“Here, Gretel,” Rylee called, and the dog licked her.

Rainey hadn’t said anything throughout this exchange but she had a happy smile on her face. I leaned down and whispered, “Did you have fun today?”

Her eyes sparkled as she answered, “It was so much fun. So many dogs found homes. There were so many sweet ones. I am going to ask my parents to adopt one.”

“I would love to have your help at the Shelter when you have time, Rainey,” Kara said.

“I should have a lot of time over my Christmas break, if you need me. Max, you should come too. You would love it.”

That was the only encouragement I needed. “I’d like that,” I said.

“Well that’s settled then! I will see you two in a couple weeks!” Kara hugged us all again and she was off. Rainey’s smile stayed put the rest of the day making me actually like the fact I had just offered to volunteer my Christmas break away.