He stops in front of a large supply closet in the back of the grooming area.
“In here,” he whispers. “Hurry. You don’t want to be seen out on the floor. They have spies everywhere.”
“Who are they?” I ask.
He checks that we’re not being watched, then he unlocks the door and urges me to follow him inside, bolting the door behind us.
“Is it really you?” Myron asks.
“Can you understand me?”
Myron points to his ear.
“I think you’re trying to talk to me,” he says, “but I only hear barking. I don’t have the device for my ear.”
What kind of device is this guy talking about?
I whine in frustration, a thousand questions going through my mind, none of which I can ask him.
“I’ve been your groomer for a while,” he says. “When I last saw you, you were with a little redheaded girl and a security guard. Super wealthy. She called you Honey.”
Honey?
I get a flash of memory. The redheaded girl in pink shoes runs toward me in a beautifully decorated living room.
“You have a burn scar on the back of your neck. It looks like it’s nearly healed.”
Healed? It was raw and oozing just yesterday. How could my body have healed the wound so quickly? I look down at my legs and notice the scratches from jumping through the window at the warehouse are also gone.
My body seems to be healing at a superfast rate.
“I’m guessing that scar comes from one of the zapper weapons you told me about. Probably zapped your memory.”
What’s a zapper?
“I thought there was something strange going on with some of the dogs we were seeing, but I didn’t believe it until you told me your secret.”
Wait… This guy knows who I am!
“What did I tell you, Myron? Why did I trust you?”
He points to his ear again and shakes his head.
“I think I know why you’re here,” he says. “You came for this.”
He reaches behind a shelf and pulls out a bright yellow briefcase, which he puts on the ground in front of me.
I sniff at it, unsure of what I’m looking at.
“It’s your case,” Myron says. “You asked me to hold it for you. You said some day you might get into trouble, and you’d come for it. I guess today is that day.”
I look at the case, and a light flashes in my eye, startling me. A lock whirs and the case pops open.
What the—
Inside the case is a brown-and-white dog collar with a pattern similar to my coat.
“That’s the translator!” Myron says, looking over my shoulder. “You were wearing a collar like that the last time I saw you. It translates your voice to an earbud. Do you want me to put it on?”
“A translator? Let’s do this!”
I nudge the case in his direction and lower my head.
Here goes nothing.
Myron puts the collar around my neck. It suddenly snaps into place and tightens without his doing anything.
He gasps and steps back.
“It’s like it fastened itself on its own,” he says.
“How is that possible?” I ask.
He doesn’t respond.
“Can you understand me now?”
He points to his ear and shakes his head.
“You need the other device,” he says. “The bud for my ear. You let me borrow one before.”
Translator, earbud… I have no idea what he’s talking about.
“Maybe it’s in the case?” Myron asks.
I look inside the case and Myron joins me, searching the corners and even turning it upside down.
But there’s nothing.
Myron looks at me, frustrated. “I’m sorry. I thought you’d know where to find it.”
There’s pounding on the stockroom door, followed by the sound of someone trying to open it from the outside. I react instantly, pushing the case under a shelf and slipping into the shadows.
A woman shouts from the other side of the door. “Myron! Are you hiding back there? It’s not your break time.”
“That’s my supervisor, Dolores,” he whispers. “She’s very suspicious.” He puts his finger to his lips, warning me to keep quiet.
“Be there in a minute!” he calls out.
“How many times have I—”
“You’re not my mother!” he shouts through the door.
“If your mother had taught you better, I wouldn’t have to yell at you all the time. Be out in two minutes or I’ll have security pull you out!”
I can hear the woman backing away from the door, and I come out from hiding.
Myron says, “I have to get out there before she has a hemorrhage.”
Myron puts the case in the trash, covering it with boxes.
“Before we go, there’s one other thing. Maelstrom.”
“Maelstrom?”
The word doesn’t ring any bells.
“You told me to say that word to you. Do you know what it means?”
I shake my head.
“I’m sorry I can’t help more than that,” Myron says.
He unbolts the door and leads me back through the grooming grotto. Before we leave, he pulls a bow off a station and clips it to my hair.
“So it looks like I groomed you.”
I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, a muscular dog with a new collar and frilly purple bow in her hair.
“I don’t think purple is my color, Myron.”
I follow Myron outside. When we get back to the main floor, I see Chance looking panic-stricken, pacing as he waits for me near Mar del Mutt.
“I thought I lost you!” he says urgently, rushing forward.
“It took us a little longer than expected,” Myron says. “But look how pretty she is.”
Chance stares at the bow in my hair, then at the collar around my neck.
“Where’d she get the collar?” he asks.
“Free gift with purchase,” Myron says.
“But I didn’t purchase anything.”
Dolores comes stomping around the corner in loud shoes, heading straight for us.
“It’s my boss!” Myron says. “Get Wild out of here.”
“Time to go.” I nudge Chance’s leg, and we head for the front entrance, hurrying past the security guard and through the sliding doors to the parking lot. I glance back to see Dolores close on our heels.
“Why are we running from that woman?” Chance asks.
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to stick around to find out.”
Chance senses my distress, and he doesn’t hesitate when I start down Lincoln Boulevard, leaving Dolores and PetStar behind us.
I cross the street and keep going, pausing only long enough to scrape the purple bow out of my hair.
“You hated it, right?” Chance asks.
“More than anything,” I say. “Now let’s go home and try to figure out this collar.”
“I swear it feels like you’re trying to talk to me sometimes,” he says. Then he laughs at himself like it’s an absurd thought.