I couldn’t wait to meet Jelly. As far as I could see, Jelly and the golf cart were the only good things about this whole awful trip. I started to unpack, keeping one ear open for the front door and the jingling of dog tags.
“I can’t believe Mom took my phone,” I said to Stephanie as we put our things in the low chest of drawers against the wall.
Stephanie’s dark hair swung forward as she leaned over the drawer, arranging her shirts. She straightened and put her hair behind her ear, but she didn’t answer me.
I couldn’t stand thinking about the hospital. The smells and sounds in there drove me crazy. And all those sick people! Sick and weak. I thought about the way Grammy looked, and I shoved the image out of my mind. She’d been nice to me on the cruise, but I couldn’t think about that. I just wanted to get away. If only Dad had let me come down to Florida. Somehow, tomorrow, when they went back to the hospital, I was going to have to get out of it. Maybe they’d let me stay home and take care of Jelly since Grammy asked me to.
“That’s pretty weird that Grammy asked me to take care of Jelly,” I said to Stephanie while I was waiting to shove my jeans into one of the drawers.
Still no answer. Just careful folding and arranging her pink girly things. Well, fine, don’t talk. I don’t care.
The front door shut. Jelly must be here! I dumped the rest of my jeans and sweatshirts on my bed and ran out into the living room.
And there, with Norm, was a fat, little brown dog. He had the sweetest eyes, shiny and brown, in a Chihuahua face that looked like a seal’s. And a long, low Dachshund body. As I skidded to a stop and knelt to pet him, he let out a growl.
“Watch it, Diana!” Norm started.
Before I could draw back, Jelly nipped at my hand with his sharp little teeth.
“Whoa!” I backed away, but Jelly still sat there with one paw up, his ears laid back, and his lip curled. The canine tooth showing was curved and yellow.
Mom was right behind me. “Be careful, Diana. He doesn’t like you.”
Doesn’t like me? Since when did a dog not like me? I sat down Indian style on the floor in front of him.
“Hey, what’s the matter? I won’t hurt you. I love dogs. See? I’m okay.” I held my hand out a few inches in front of his snout for him to sniff. He made a noise between a growl and a whine and snapped again, this time grazing the tip of my finger.
I yanked my hand back, rubbing my finger, tears springing to my eyes.
What was this all about? I didn’t get it. Animals always liked me. That was what I lived for, animals gathering around me and giving me their unconditional love. What was going on?
“I tried to warn you about him,” Norm said. “He likes things on his own terms.”
“Goodness, Diana,” said Mom. “Get away and give him a chance to adjust. Maybe you came on too strong.”
And then I heard Stephanie’s voice behind me. “I just got a text from Mama. Matt woke up.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful news!” Mom said. “What a relief! Did she say anything else about how he’s doing?”
“Just that he’s awake and in a lot of pain.”
“Poor boy,” Mom said.
“Yeah,” Stephanie said. I glanced at her, wondering if she was glad Matt was in pain.
Stephanie came and stood beside me and Jelly. “So Jelly doesn’t like you, huh? He only likes Grammy. He adores Grammy.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “He just has to get used to me, that’s all.”
With a dry chuckle, Norm hung the leash on its hook by the front door. “Good luck with that.”
I stood up, keeping my eye on Jelly. He watched me warily and gave another low warning growl. Then he wandered back to Grammy’s bedroom and stood in the doorway, looking at her bed, which had Norm and Mom’s suitcases on it, before turning to look at me. He waddled to the guest room and looked at Stephanie’s and my stuff on the beds and floor, then looked at me again.
He wandered out into the hall, looked again at both doorways, and lay down.
“He can’t figure out where Grammy is,” Stephanie said. She used a high voice to talk to him. “Poor Jelly. Grammy’s in the hospital, Jelly. You have to be patient. We hope she’ll be back soon, Jelly-belly.”
Jelly put his chin on his paws with a sigh, angling his brown eyes up at us in puzzlement.
“I wonder what it would be like to be an animal,” Mom said. “He doesn’t know why Grammy is gone or if she will ever be back. All he knows is that he can’t find her now.”
“I bet he understands more than we think,” I said. It made me feel depressed that Jelly didn’t like me. But I wasn’t going to give up on him. I would make him like me.
“Hey, can I take Jelly for a walk?” I asked Mom.
“I walked him on my way home from the neighbor’s,” Norm said. “He’s fine for now. Maybe you can take him tomorrow.”
“It’s late. Let’s get ready for bed, girls,” Mom said.
Stephanie quickly put on her pj’s, crawled into the bed, and turned toward the wall with the covers practically over her head.
“What’s wrong with you?” I said as I got out the old Heineken T-shirt of Dad’s that I always slept in.
Stephanie didn’t answer me. She just lay in bed.
“Fine,” I said. “Don’t say anything. I didn’t do anything to you.” Her silent treatment was really annoying me.
Suddenly Stephanie sat up in bed, the covers bunched in her fists and tears streaking her cheeks. “What do you think is wrong? Grammy is sick, okay? And I love her! You act like you don’t even care!”
I could feel the heat surging to my face. “What do you mean? What am I supposed to do?”
“Act like a human being!” she shouted.
Her words hung in the air. I felt a painful lump rise in my throat and the corners of my eyes burned.
“Girls, girls!” Mom came to the doorway of our room. “The last couple of days have been really stressful.” Mom sat on Stephanie’s bed and rubbed her foot through the covers. “We’re so worried about Grammy and about Matt. We could say things that we regret. Let’s try to calm down.”
“I didn’t do anything! She’s just mad at me because I’m not crying!” I said. Stephanie was the one who had yelled at me, and Mom was comforting her. Not to mention the fact that I’d been snapped at twice by that stupid dog. Sometimes I felt like the whole world was against me.
“Diana, Stephanie has had a really tough couple of days. Have some compassion for her,” Mom said. “Are you all right, honey?” she asked Stephanie.
Stephanie lay back down and pulled the covers over her shoulder, using the sheet to wipe her face. “I’ll be okay,” she said.
Mom stroked her arm for a minute or two, and then kissed us both and went back into Grammy’s bedroom. Her voice and Norm’s hummed softly behind the closed door. I took my pill, turned out the light, and crawled into bed. On the other side of the room, Stephanie was silent. My mind raced from one thought to another. What did a human being do that I wasn’t doing? I hadn’t done anything wrong. I turned my pillow over and lay my cheek on the cool side.
Outside our room in the hall, Jelly was snoring.