Without warning, Axel packed up his cart and we trudged across town to a park. We moved into his house, but it was very odd: a place with a roof and no walls, with several tables but no food. The yard was huge and there were several slides, but I did not show Axel I knew how to climb them because I was always on the leash.
Sometimes other dogs came to the park and I whined, longing to run with them. Axel did not mind when they trotted over to me but I was not allowed to follow when they dashed off after balls and children.
“They’re tagged, Bella. They’ve all got chips in them,” he told me. I heard a finality in the way he said my name and knew I would not be allowed to play.
Other people came to see us. They all carried sacks and bags, and often they drank from sharp-smelling Sylvia bottles, passing them around and talking and laughing. The fireplace was a metal box on a pole; it reminded me of the time when I found a big slab of meat set out for me in a park and a baby watched me take it. They burned wood in the box, standing in front of it and holding their hands out to the heat.
“Damn it’s getting cold,” a man named Riley liked to say. I liked Riley, he had very gentle hands and his breath smelled like Mother Cat’s. “Gotta get south before I’m on the wrong side of winter.”
People—there were three men besides Axel—nodded and murmured affirmatively.
“Not leaving,” Axel replied tersely.
They all glanced at each other.
“You can’t stay here, Axel. Starting December it never gets above freezing. Lotta days it’s below zero,” Riley said.
“Not leaving. Not again. I’m safe here.”
“No, you’re not,” another man stated definitively. He had just arrived and I did not know his name but people had been calling him Don’t Drink All of It Dammit. “Your dog and you are gonna freeze to death.”
Often the people passed around something small and thin like a pencil. They would point the tip of the pencil at their arms and then everyone would laugh and then they’d nap. I felt a deep peace come over Axel at such times, but for some reason was very anxious at how solidly he would sleep regardless of the temperature. I would arrange myself to keep him warm, waiting for him to wake up.
Lucas had pencils, too, but I did not remember him ever poking his arm with one.
When the people left it was as a group, carrying their bags the way Taylor did when he would depart for several days.
“You’re not going to make it, man. Please come with us,” Riley said urgently.
Axel petted me. “Staying.”
“You’re a stupid bastard and you deserve to die,” laughed Don’t Drink All of It Dammit. Axel made a quick gesture with his hand and the man laughed again, an ugly sound that caused the hair to rise on the back of my neck.
The house with no walls felt lonely with just the two of us. I was glad whenever we went to the town and sat on our blankets on the sidewalk. Many people would stop to speak to us. Some gave me treats and sometimes they would give Axel bags of dog food.
One man sat on the blankets and spoke to Axel for a long time. “It’s going to go into the single digits tonight, Axel. Won’t you come to the church? You could shower. For the dog, if nothing else.”
“It is not a true church. The word does not travel beyond its doors,” Axel replied.
“What can I do for you then?”
“I do not need the help of someone like you,” Axel told him coldly. He stood and began shoving things into his cart and I knew we were going back to the park.
When we arrived, four cars were in the parking lot and there were people in the house with no walls, but I could smell none of them were Riley. One of them broke away from the group and walked over to us. It was the friendly police, Tom. “Hi, Axel. Hello, Bella.” He rubbed my chest and I wagged.
“I’ve done nothing wrong,” Axel replied.
“I know. It’s okay. Can you come here to the pavilion a minute? It’s okay. Axel, come on, I promise. Nothing bad’s going to happen.”
Stiffly, Axel followed Tom over to where the people stood. There was a little cloth house lying on some pads under the roof of the home with no walls, some plastic chests, and a flat metal box. Tom waved at the people and they backed away, so it was just Axel and the police standing with me. “Okay, look here, Axel.” Tom held the flap door open on the cloth house. “See? The tent’s designed for the arctic. That’s a propane stove in there. You’ve got a mountaineering sleeping bag. Coolers got food, and the cookstove has an electric lighter.”
I sniffed curiously at the interior of the cloth house.
“What’s this all about?” Axel demanded harshly.
Tom pressed his lips together. “Look, when you left for Afghanistan, your father spoke to us and—”
“Us?” Axel interrupted. “Who is us?”
Tom blinked. “Just people, Axel. Your family’s been in Gunnison for a long time. He just wanted to make sure that when he died you would have folks to look after you.”
“I have no family.”
“I understand why you say that, but you’re wrong. We are your family. All of us, Axel.”
I did not know why Axel was so upset, but I felt the people standing and watching him talk to Tom must be part of the reason. I stared at them, but they made no move to do anything threatening or hostile. Eventually, everyone left, and we were alone.
“Let’s check out this tent, Bella,” Axel said.
We had the warmest night in a long time, sleeping inside what I came to learn was the tent. Axel twitched and cried out, his dreams swirling, reminding me of Mack. I licked his face and he awoke and calmed, his hand on my fur.
“They want something from me, Bella,” he murmured. I wagged at my name.
*
Every few days, Tom came to visit and brought food he put into the plastic boxes. Sometimes Axel would feel happy and the two men would talk a little, and sometimes he would feel hostile and angry and Tom would just give me a small treat and leave.
I did like Tom, but understood Axel wasn’t always glad to see him.
We still went to town. Sometimes we would sit on the blanket for a while, people pausing to put things in a can, and then Axel would cross the street and bring back a bottle that smelled like Sylvia. And sometimes he would leave me tied to the fence for what seemed forever, finally returning and taking us immediately back to the tent. He would hold a plastic pencil over his arm and then he would climb into the tent and we would sleep for a long, long time.