Maggie was sobbing, her chest rising and falling so hard that she clutched at her ribs to steady them. The sounds that came from her made the others go silent.
After several long minutes, Shana spoke. “Is he dead, Maggie?”
“Yeah, Shana. He’s gone,” she bawled.
Shana was crying openly. “Do you think he was in a lot of pain?”
“No, Shana. He didn’t know what was happening. He couldn’t feel anything,” Maggie lied, wanting to give the others some comfort.
“Cali?” Maggie called.
“Yeah, Mags?” Cali responded through chest-thumping sobs.
“Are you OK? He knew that we all loved him, and he loved all of us too,” Maggie offered. They were all hurting. Each of them had lost a brother. All they had was each other, and now, one of them was gone.
“I know, Mags. I know,” Cali confirmed, allowing herself to mourn openly.
“Aggie?” Seth called out from his kennel.
“Yeah, Seth?” she asked, wondering how he would be able to handle this loss.
“Is Max gonna come back?” he asked hopefully.
“No, Max died, honey. He’s in heaven now, with God,” Maggie explained.
“Are you going to die too?” Seth asked in a quivering voice, horrified at the thought of losing her too.
“No, Seth. I’m not going to die. I’m staying right here with you,” she stated, wishing she had some control over keeping the promise she’d just made to him.
“Aggie, when I grow up, will I go hunting with my dad like Max did?” Seth asked, having felt like he was a part of the story Maggie told.
“I don’t know, Seth. Maybe. Or, maybe you’ll have different stories that make you feel good. Something that’s all yours and that makes you feel special the way Max’s story made him feel special,” she explained, trying to sound optimistic despite her deep despair.
“OK, I like that too. Aggie, do you love me as much as you love Max?” Seth asked, feeling vulnerable and alone in his kennel.
“Of course I do, Seth. I love you even more,” she added, hoping to relieve some of his anguish.
It wasn’t long after Max died that John William’s feet were banging down the wooden stairs. He stood at the door of Max’s kennel and looked at Maggie, lying next to the boy with her arm and leg covering him. “Let’s go. Time for you to go back to your own kennel, you filthy little animal,” he grunted at Maggie.
Maggie jolted upright. “Max is dead!” she screamed. “You killed him, John William. You killed Max, and I hate your guts! I hope you die!”
If John William weren’t so shocked to learn that Max had died, he would have beaten the hell out of her for the way she was yelling at him. Instead, he stood dumbfounded, wondering how the little wimp had died from a beating. Returning to his senses, he opened the locked door. “Come on. Back to your own space,” he stated.
Once Maggie was back in her kennel, she rushed over to the side where Cali was sitting, and the two girls locked fingers through the chain link fence. They both leaned their heads against the fence, trying their best to have as much human contact as possible.
John William went back to Max’s kennel, lifted Max’s feet, and humped the dead teen across the dirt floor. He stopped, still hunched over, to give Cali and Maggie a sinister smile. He dragged Max over to the far corner of the basement. From under the wooden stairs, John William pulled out a shovel and began to dig Max’s grave. When he was finished, he rolled Max’s body into the hole. The corpse hit the bottom with a thud. John William slowly covered the body with dirt, threw down the shovel, and started toward the stairs. “We have clients coming soon. You bitches better get your shit together,” he yelled.
That night, after Dr. Barnes was finished with her, Maggie looked him square in the face. “Dr. Barnes, I need some more books. I want more books on medical stuff. You know, how to fix people,” she said carefully.
“Of course, of course. Oh, I just love it when little ones want to learn. I’ll bring them to you next week,” he sang.
Maggie was on a mission. She wanted to know as much about the human body as possible. “Oh, and one other thing,” she asked the good doctor. “Can you bring me the book, Harold and the Purple Crayon?” Maggie wanted to help Seth use his imagination to begin to make his own wonderful memories.