I couldn’t help myself, I was yipping, not doing No Barks, dancing in circles. I was Go Home at last, Go Home with my person, with Lucas. Mom came over and knelt next to him. “She just showed up here tonight.”
“It’s amazing. I can’t believe it. Bella, I missed you so much!” Lucas seized my face with both hands. “God, look how thin she is. Bella, you are so skinny!”
I loved hearing Lucas say my name. He fell flat on his back and I dove on him, straddling him and licking his face while he laughed and laughed. “Okay! Enough!” He struggled back to a sitting position.
“Do you think it’s truly possible that she made her way here through the mountains? How far would that be?” Mom wanted to know.
Lucas shook his head. “It’s almost four hundred miles driving, but I have no idea what it would be like on foot. You certainly couldn’t walk a straight line here.”
I lay on my side, letting him rub my tummy. This was all I ever wanted, to have my person love me.
Mom stroked my side. “Animal control was here. That guy. But the sheriff told him to leave Bella alone.” She was no longer afraid or tense, and she was smiling.
“Really? That’s amazing!”
“I wouldn’t ever let her off leash, though.”
“That’s okay.”
“Hi.” It was Olivia. I wagged at her, and a moment later her hands were on me, too. I had never felt so loved.
Mom stood up. “I need to get back to my meeting.” She gave me a last pat before going up and into the building, trailing after all my other friends.
“Can you believe it?” Olivia asked.
“Honestly, no.” Lucas kissed me on the nose. “God, I’ve felt so guilty, so sure she died never understanding why I didn’t come for her.”
“Doesn’t matter. You see how she forgives you? Dogs are amazing like that.”
“Yeah. Forgiveness. About that topic.” Lucas stood.
“There’s nothing to forgive, Lucas.”
“No, I mean I forgive you.”
“Oh.” Olivia laughed. “Sure, that’s right.”
“I was a little out of line this morning.”
“I get it. Med school’s not supposed to be easy.”
“Oh, no, I wasn’t crabby about med school, it was your scrambled eggs.”
They kissed, doing love. I jumped up to join them, putting my paws on Lucas’s back. They both laughed and I wagged.
“You probably have to get back,” Olivia said.
“No, you know what? Let’s just go home. Be with Bella.”
I heard Go Home and wagged.
“Wait, what have you done with the real Lucas? You’ve never done anything irresponsible in your life.”
“Bella made her way home. If we don’t celebrate that, I feel like we’ll never celebrate anything. It’s a miracle! Look at how overjoyed she is. I can’t be serious right now, I need to lie on the bed with my dog and give her a tiny piece of cheese.”
I whipped my head up. Tiny Piece of Cheese? Really?
*
We all went back into the building. Ty came over to see me. “Can you bring Bella for a minute? It’s about Mack,” he asked Lucas.
“Mack?”
“He’s under lockdown for observation. You know he’s had a tough year.”
“Sure,” Lucas said slowly. He looked to Olivia.
“You go on. I’m going off shift soon anyway,” she told him.
Olivia kissed Lucas and I wagged. Then Ty and Lucas and I went down the hall to the place with the metal doors that swept open with a pinging sound. We stepped into the shaking room and when the doors creaked shut and then open we were someplace in the building I had never been to before, though it smelled pretty much the same as everywhere else. Ty went to a window and picked up a phone and held it to his ear. “Got someone here to see Mack,” he stated. Then he waited. “Hello, doctor. Yes, I know the protocols but this is important. No. No, I know what Mack needs.” Ty slapped his palm against the glass and Lucas and I both jumped. “Dammit, Theresa, open the door!” He sounded angry.
There was a buzz and with a loud click a door opened. Ty, Lucas, and I walked through it. A woman met us in the hallway, staring at me. “What on earth, Ty? Dr. Gann—”
“Dr. Gann just approved this dog,” Ty interrupted. “Which one is Mack in?”
She looked unhappy. “Last one on the left.”
Lucas was looking around. “I’ve never been here before.”
“Yeah, well, I have,” Ty muttered.
We went down the hall and I started to wag when I smelled who was on the other side of the door: my friend Mack! With another buzz, the door opened and I bounded in. Mack was sitting in a chair and I jumped right into his lap.
“Bella! Hey!” he greeted. I licked his face. He seemed very tense—tense and afraid. “I thought you were lost for good, girl.”
“We all did. But she found her way back. All through the mountains, hundreds of miles. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Ty said.
“Sure is.” Mack scratched my ears and I groaned.
“Think how tough it must have been for her,” Ty continued. “But she never gave up. She knew we were all counting on her, that she really mattered.”
“Yeah. I do get the point, Ty. I’m not stupid.”
Ty came up to pet me. “You’re one of us, Mack. We need you.”
We stayed in that little room for a long time. As I pressed up against Mack, his hands on my fur, I could feel the sadness in him break a little, become a little less tinged with fear. I was providing comfort. I was doing my job. I was happy.
*
When we left Go to Work, we both smelled like Olivia. Lucas had his own car! I sat in the front seat. We did car ride to a completely new place, getting out and climbing some stairs. I could smell Lucas in the air and knew he had been here before. He opened a door and Olivia was sitting in a chair. Of course! I trotted over to see her.
“It is so, so nice to come home and find you here,” Lucas told her.
“I stopped and got some dog food and a collar for Miss Bella. And look what I found in the closet!” Olivia picked up a folded cloth and the scent hit me instantly—my Lucas blanket! “I’ll put it on the bed.”
Lucas came over and felt the blanket. “I forgot all about it.” He kissed her and I wagged. “So nice to live in a building that allows dogs, even giant ones.”
Olivia nodded. “A dog-friendly building in pit bull–friendly Golden, Colorado.”
The three of us cuddled together in a small bed. I had on a new, stiff collar. My Lucas blanket was draped over the foot of the bed, but I ignored it and lay right up between them. I stared at Lucas, who started to laugh.
“Almost forgot,” he said. He went into the kitchen and I remained with Olivia, groaning under the touch of her hand. When he came back, I smelled what he had and went on high alert, waiting rigidly.
“This is what she does.” Lucas chuckled.
“It’s such an itty bitty piece of cheese!”
Yes! Tiny Piece of Cheese!
“Right, the point is the ritual, I think. Watch her stare at it.”