Chapter 4

A few days later, several cars and trucks came and parked in an open field next to the cemetery. All the people went into the church. The people were well-dressed, and though Remy didn’t quite understand the subtleties of fashion, he knew the difference between men in jeans versus suits and women in shorts versus dresses.

Remy’s mother had told him that on Sundays the family, except for the Old Man, would go to church. She didn’t really know what church was, but she guessed it was an important place. She said it was a spiritual place, but Remy didn’t quite know what that meant. He could see that people got washed and put on their best clothes to go to church. Remy remembered how the Old Man’s wife dressed when she took her sons to church. And he remembered how the sons slicked back their hair, and how tall and important they seemed.

After an hour, the people came out of the church. They were all smiling, Remy noticed. He watched as most got into their cars and drove off. But a young couple walked to the creek. They were holding hands and talking and laughing and didn’t seem to be paying close attention to anything except each other. Somehow, they spotted the puppies. They started calling them, but there was no anger in their voices, in fact, they were laughing and smiling. They seemed excited to see the puppies.

Still, Remy told his siblings to hide but two of them liked the voices they heard. Slowly and cautiously they made their way closer to the couple.

The couple was well dressed. They looked so much different from the Old Man, and they had such soothing voices. The puppies had never heard such laughter; it sounded so sweet.

The couple didn’t chase the puppies. Instead, they held their ground and were bending over and holding out their hands like they had treats. Their eyes seemed good; they even seemed to twinkle. The two puppies crept closer. Before Remy could even see it, the couple scooped up the puppies. Remy felt like running out to get his siblings back. But he didn’t.

“Oh, look, honey,” the woman said. “This one’s a girl. And she has some blue in one of her eyes. Isn’t she pretty?”

“This one’s a boy,” the man said. He thought about their small house and how they still needed to fence the yard. “Should we just keep the girl?”

“Don’t be silly. We’re keeping them both. They’re a perfect couple.”

Remy remembered what his mother had said about the puppies going as couples. He smiled.

Baux looked at Remy. “Should we go with them?”

“No,” Remy said it quickly and assertively, but truth be told, he wasn’t certain what the right thing to do was. He doubted if the couple would take all four puppies, but they had seemed awfully nice. Maybe they would. Maybe… But before Remy could do or say anything else, the couple drove off with their brother and last sister.

Remy had a feeling that his two siblings were going to a good family. Oddly, he felt glad for his siblings … but he also felt sad because he knew he’d never see them again.

Now … it was just Remy and Baux.