I woke hearing rain. And pounding at the kitchen door.
I got up and saw Phyllis Croft at the door. She wore a raincoat, but her hair was wild and wet. She looked like a child.
I opened the door and she rushed in.
“Is Phillip here?” she demanded. “Where are your mother and father?”
I took her coat and shook the rain off of it. I hung it on a hook by the door.
“Jack got out last night. He ran off, and my mother went after him,” I said. “Daddy had an emergency.”
“Where’s Phillip?” she said.
Alice came into the kitchen in her pajamas.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“I can’t find Phillip,” said Mrs. Croft.
She sat in a kitchen chair and began to cry.
“His bed hasn’t been slept in,” she said.
Tears came down her face.
“It’s my fault,” she said. “His parents called and he heard me talking to them. They’ve been having trouble. I screamed at Phillip to talk to me! I needed to know what he was thinking! And now he’s gone.”
Alice looked quickly at me.
“We were the only relatives able to take him,” said Phyllis. “I don’t know anything about children. I don’t know anything about Phillip!”
“They’ve been having trouble?” I repeated. It was half a question, half me talking to me. Telling myself something.
“Does Phillip know about their trouble?” I asked.
“I think so,” she said. “But he doesn’t speak!”
“Did he see the lights on last night?” I asked. “The lights in the yard?”
Mrs. Croft nodded. “We all saw them. But where would he go in the pouring rain? Maybe he wanted to get away from me! It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have screamed at him.”
Alice sat next to Mrs. Croft and took her hand.
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “It’s no one’s fault.”
Suddenly, I knew why Phillip wouldn’t talk. Couldn’t talk. And I knew where Phillip had gone.
I ran to my bedroom and pulled on my jeans and sweater. Callie turned over and looked at me from the bed.
I ran back into the kitchen and pulled on my boots.
“Phillip went to save Jack,” I said.
“Out in this rain? For a dog?” said Mrs. Croft.
“For a dog who loves Phillip,” I said.
I put dog snacks into a plastic bag. I picked up a rolled-up dog blanket.
“Alice, get me two bottles of water. Daddy will be home soon from the clinic. Mama will call on her cell phone.”
“What? What are you doing?” asked Mrs. Croft.
I put on my slicker.
“Alice, take care of Callie. She doesn’t like the rain. She might miss me. She might miss the dogs.”
I stopped then.
“Are you all right alone?” I asked Alice.
Alice nodded.
“I’ll stay with her,” said Mrs. Croft. She started to cry again.
“We’ll stay with each other,” said Alice.
I put some breakfast biscuits in my pockets, and some lumps of sugar.
We could hear the sound of pellets hitting the windows. Hail.
“I’m going to find Phillip,” I said.
I opened the door and went out of the warm kitchen into the cold.
I put up my slicker hood and hurried down to the meadow. The rain and hail pellets sounded loud against my slicker. My pant legs were already wet. The rain came down harder, and there was thunder.
I passed the cows, who stood under the big tree in the meadow. They stood in a comforting group, like a cow family.
I thought of Jack, lost in a place he didn’t know. I thought of Phillip, who couldn’t call for help. Phillip, who wouldn’t talk because he thought his mother and father’s problems might be his fault—something he’d said, perhaps. His silence might keep them all safer.
And, like Phyllis, I began to cry.