Chapter Seventy-six

Keller is gone and Pax knows deep in his heart that he won’t be working with him again. There was something so different about this leave-taking. Not just the packing but the heavy aura of completion, too. Something was finished, over.

Pax waited for his praise: good dog. The scratch on the chest to indicate he had performed well. “Stay with them. They need you.” Pax understood the stay as an order. The other words just brushed his ears, along with Keller’s two hands, his forehead pressing against the dog’s big skull. But it was an order and the dog will perform it to the best of his ability for the rest of his life. He has a purpose, a job. And two people who love him very much. A good life for a lucky dog.

Keller will fade, cast into Pax’s dreams as the touch of a hand, the sound of a voice. The memory of war. A time of peace.