Awakening

 

WHEN ODETTE WOKE, it was to a world without Grandma Sissy.

How, she wondered, could life go on after wonderful people leave it? Then Georgie licked Odette’s nose, and dug her sharp little paws into Odette’s chest, and wagged her tail. And life did indeed go on.

Odette walked Georgie around the village. It was raining, a soft misty rain as if some of the ocean had been caught in a wind current and was now drifting slowly back down.

The village felt quiet, shuttered, as if everyone was still in bed. Perhaps they were. If she hadn’t needed to walk Georgie, Odette would have stayed in bed too. How much of life is that, she wondered—getting up because someone else needs you to, doing a task because it has to be done?

Walking suddenly didn’t feel like a strong enough statement, so Odette began to jog, and then she ran. The dog ran too, keeping pace in spite of her short little legs. Georgie looked up at her as if to ask, Is this good? Are we happy? and Odette answered, “Good girl.”

When finally Odette and Georgie circled back to the house, she saw that no one had come to open the bakery; the CLOSED sign stayed turned outward in the window.

Upstairs, the rooms were all quiet—her parents’ room, the room she shared with Rex, and Grandma Sissy’s room, most of all.