A New Calling
As soon as I wrapped my arms around him, my sixth sense detected something was amiss. I knew he had something to tell me, but he wasn’t sure about how to go about bringing it up. That is never a good combination.
“Might as well just say it,” I whispered, nuzzling my face into the familiar little dip in the center of his broad muscular chest.
“Whatever it is.” I swallowed—dryly, and with some difficulty. It felt like I just choked down a cactus. I was certain I was about to be served with heart-wrenchingly awful, terrible news of the first degree.
Brad scooped me up in his arms and kissed me. “Sunshine? What’s going on?”
“You know I can feel things. You know I have special witch senses.”
“Oh, you don’t really believe in that kind of stuff, do you?”
“Of course I do. You of all people should know. Take, for example, the time I knew you were about to fall down the stairs. I said, ‘Watch your step, Brad. You’re about to trip and fall down the stairs’. You fell all the way from the top to the bottom, bouncing your head off of every tread.”
“Well…sure. After all, you let those baby dragons run up the stairs while I was carrying those boxes into the attic. I actually think those little demons tripped me on purpose.”
“Maybe, then how about the time I knew Randy was about to fall? I said to him, ‘Watch out, boy, you’re going to fall from that ladder’, and then sure enough, he fell twenty feet. Broke his clavicle and bruised his scrotum.”
Brad winced at the painful thought of it. “Oooh, yeah. That was ugly. But, Sunshine, anyone with eyeballs could see that he was about to fall. He was too lazy to move the ladder, so he tried hanging on the side of it to paint the rest of that window frame. Randy’s an accident waiting to happen anyway.”
“Still, I was right about those things. You can’t argue with the facts. And now I can tell you have something to say to me, but you don’t want to. I want you to get it over with. So just say it.”
I forced my eyes shut, like I awaited a firing squad to carry out their order to execute me. “Okay, I’m ready. Fire!”
Brad cleared his throat, a sure sign of bad news, or maybe even worse, a confession. “Remember when I told you about all of the search and rescue training I’ve completed? Turns out I’m now the most qualified search and rescue team leader in the Parish, possibly in the entire state of Louisiana.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a good thing then. You can search and rescue me anytime. Do you get to wear a special patch or something?”
“No, well…maybe, but what it means is that I’ve been asked to set up an emergency global response team of volunteers. The goal is to have a team who can respond to disasters, anywhere in the world, at a moment’s notice. Think how important it could be to have something like that, especially with all these earthquakes lately. We could really save some people, Gertie.”
Brad’s eyes sparkled, like a little boy who had just dreamed up a tree house adventure. His smile was absolutely contagious. “I don’t believe I’ve ever seen anyone so happy about anticipating a cataclysmic disaster!”
“Oh. Sorry. It’s not the disasters, it’s the excitement of being able to help out. Of course, there’s some work to be done first. We don’t even have a properly trained search and rescue dog. I was thinking that would be something you could help me out with, Sunshine.”
“A dog? Now we’re talking! But why stop with just a dog? I mean, the possibilities are endless. Just look around.” Olaf bellowed his best dragon’s roar from the front yard, Kate and Wills howled their Sasquatch calls in agreement. “See? Seems like they’re all volunteering for search and rescue.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We might be used to having paranormal pets around, but that doesn’t mean Peruvian villagers hanging on the side of a mountain aren’t going to completely wig out at the sight of flying monkeys or guitar-strumming Sasquatches riding in on galloping unicorns—”
“Banjo, you mean banjo strumming.”
“Oh, yeah. Excuse me. Banjo-strumming Sasquatches. In any case, I think you know what I mean, Gertie. I would like to stay away from mythical beasts. Isn’t there some magic you could use on a regular, everyday dog? Something to make it a super search and rescue animal?”
“Oh sure! Still, I think you should seriously consider a search and rescue cat. Nothing says ‘I’m here to help’ like a nice pussy.”
Brad made a choking sound. “Words to live by, Sunshine. How about this? Let’s see what you come up with and we’ll do a trial of sorts. You know, test out a couple different ones and see what service animal would be most useful.”
“Good idea. I’ll get right on that this week. Randy and I will be finishing the last of the painting, too. Do you have any preference for colors in the kitchen?”
“None whatsoever.”
Now, I knew he didn’t necessarily have a preference, I just wanted to see if he brought up an aversion to any colors in particular. I had a color in mind, something pinkish—shockingly pinkish.
So it goes without saying, I wasn’t about to bring up my color specifically. After that, I happily went about my morning, smiling as I imagined how bright and pink my kitchen would soon be.
I was also quite excited about training a new magical search and rescue animal.
“Meow.” Darcy rubbed against my leg, letting me know she’d listened in on my conversation with Brad.
“Sorry, Darcy. Your duties are much too important already. Who’d take care of my messages? Or help me with magic spells?”
“Meow, meow.”
“Randy? No way could he fill your paws. But you can help by finding some volunteer candidates for the rescue animal position.”
“Meow.”
Darcy didn’t seem happy with my answer. As any cat person will tell you, cats are sometimes very vengeful creatures. I hoped this wouldn’t become a problem.