{ TWENTY }

Burke called me to Assist and Steady so he could get into his chair. It felt so nice to be doing good dog work! He wheeled over to Wenling. He didn’t say anything, just stared at her.

She cleared her throat. “You are my best friend, Burke. In the whole world. You know that, right?”

He took in a long, deep breath, and then let it out. “Who is it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Stop. You know what I mean. The guy.”

Wenling looked away. “The guy. You were the one who said we were seeing other people.”

Burke coughed out a harsh laugh, and I glanced at him, concerned. “Well, since my operation I haven’t exactly had much of a social life.”

“That’s your choice, Burke.”

“I told everyone I was going to walk again. I don’t want to go on a date in a wheelchair. I don’t want to do anything in a wheelchair!”

I cringed from his shout. I slunk to my bed and curled up in it, making myself as small as possible.

“I’m so sorry, Burke.”

He brooded for a moment. “So do you love him? You must be in love with him, the look on your face right now.”

“No, that’s not it. I mean yes, we’re in love, but you have to understand. Neither one of us wanted this. Neither one of us planned it.”

Burke’s hands tightened on his chair. “Wait a minute. It’s Grant? My brother?”

“I’m so sorry, Burke.”

I eased up out of my bed, shrinking away from Burke and his anger, feeling like a bad dog.

Burke clenched his teeth. “Time for you to go.”

“No, can’t we talk, Burke? Please?”

Burke wheeled out of the room. I followed but he shut his door with a slam, so I turned around. Wenling was running to her bicycle, and I didn’t follow her. She rode down the driveway and away.

Grandma came home, but Burke was still in his room. It was much later in the day when I heard his bedroom door open. He glided into the living room and I followed, but he didn’t speak to me. Grandma was lying down in her room. I saw Grant and Chase Dad walking toward us. Chase Dad turned to the barn and Grant stomped up the ramp and through the front door. He stopped, his shoulders slumping, when he saw Burke sitting there. “Burke. God, I don’t know what to say.”

Burke began wheeling across the floor, moving faster and faster, and when he reached Grant, Grant said “Hey!” and Burke launched himself out of the chair and onto Grant’s chest and both boys crashed to the floor. Burke lay on top of Grant and raised his fist and hit Grant in the face. Grant twisted, trying to get away, but Burke held on to his shoulder with one hand and punched him again with the other, and then again. Then Grant slugged Burke and I couldn’t help it, I started barking. The rage was boiling off both of them. I smelled blood and didn’t understand and kept barking even when I heard Grandma come out of her room.

“Boys! Stop it!” she screamed, anguished. “Chase! Hurry!” She clenched her fists over her chest. Grant finally managed to roll on top of Burke, but then Burke hit him in the lips and I heard Grant’s teeth click together.

“Hey!” Chase Dad burst in the door and ran to Grant and yanked him off. Blood was coming from Grant’s split lip. Both boys were panting.

“Cooper. Assist!” Burke commanded.

But I was afraid. I lowered my head.

“Stop!” Chase Dad pushed Grant so hard, Grant stumbled and fell against the wall. “What are you doing?”

“You always take his side!” Grant shouted. “Always!”

Chase Dad looked bewildered. “No, I just…”

Grant made an inarticulate sound. He put his hand up to catch the blood from his face. Grandma handed him a towel.

“Tell him, Grant,” Burke said in a hard voice.

“Tell me what?” Chase Dad wanted to know. “Grant?”

There was a long silence. Grant looked away. I felt the anger leaving the room, but no one seemed happy.

This time, when Burke told me to Assist, I helped him into his chair.

“I’ve seen you two fight before,” Grandma observed, “but not in a long time, and never like this. Whatever has come between you, this is not how to settle it. You are brothers.”

“Not anymore,” Burke snapped.

“Do not speak to your grandmother like that,” Chase Dad thundered. “Explain yourself, Burke. Now.”

“Wenling isn’t my girlfriend anymore.”

It seemed as if everyone in the room took in a breath. I trembled anxiously. Something very bad was occurring and I did not know what.

“Didn’t that happen a long time ago?” Grandma asked softly.

“No. She dumped me for another guy.” Burke pointed a finger. “Him.”

Grandma gasped. Chase Dad whirled on Grant. “Is this true?”

Grant, still holding the towel to his mouth, closed his eyes. “Not exactly. Yes, we’re together, Wenling and me, but she and Burke broke up.”

“But Burke is your own brother,” Chase Dad responded sternly. “How could you do something like that?”

Grant opened his eyes and pulled the towel away from his bloody lips. “I don’t know how it happened,” he whispered helplessly.

“Well, I’ll tell you what you’re going to do,” Chase Dad began, his voice tight.

“Chase,” Grandma warned.

He looked at her and she shook her head. After a moment, Chase Dad nodded, his body sagging.

“I hate you, Grant,” Burke declared quietly. “I’ve always hated you and I always will hate you.”

“Enough, Burke,” Chase Dad pleaded wearily.

“You understand me, Grant?”

“Like I care.”

“All right,” Chase Dad said, “I’ve had it with both of you. Go to your rooms. I’ll tell you when to come out.”

Grant laughed harshly. “Go to my room? I’m eighteen years old!”

“Are you either paying rent or obeying my rules? Your choice,” Chase Dad snapped.

Burke did not call me or look at me. I started to follow him, unsure, but he shut the door on me again. I slunk back to the living room and approached Grandma. She knelt and held my head. “Oh Cooper, that was upsetting, wasn’t it? I am so sorry. But you’re a good dog.” She looked at Chase Dad, who had collapsed on the couch. “Sometimes I think Cooper has a secret. If only he could tell us.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.”

“I think I’d like a drink; would you mind making it?”

Chase Dad went into the kitchen and soon the room was filled with pungent odors. He and Grandma raised glasses to their lips with a tinkling sound.

“Grant should ice that lip, Chase. Can you take it up to him? My hips are not up to those stairs today.”

“In a minute.”

“You’re still angry at him.”

Chase Dad scowled. “Of course I’m angry.”

“Chase. They’re boys. She’s a young girl. Don’t you remember being that age?”

“It’s her I’m most angry with. I told Burke to stay away from the Zhangs, that they’re a bunch of robo-farmers, so what does he do? And then she leads him on and breaks his heart. And takes up with his brother. Who does that sort of thing?”

Grandma took a sip of her drink. “Fidelity is very, very important to you,” she observed carefully.

“God, Mom, give it a rest. I know what you’re going to say, but I’d feel the same way even if Patty and I were still married.”

“And you think that Burke has a life claim on Wenling? Like she’s some sort of, of, cow?” I stared at Grandma because I had never heard her voice so harsh.

Chase blinked at her. “I didn’t say anything like that.”

“As I see it, you’ve raised two fine sons, two young men who know Wenling better than anyone else. Of course she loves both of them. This isn’t something she is trying to do to either of them. And Burke’s got a lot of rage in him right now, or haven’t you noticed? Don’t you think his reaction might have a lot more to do with something else than a girl he stopped dating half a year ago?” She stood. “I’ll get that ice.”

Everything after that appeared normal, but it wasn’t—far from it. We all still ate and still went to bed, but it was as if I lived with a completely different family, and it took me a long time to figure out why. Grant and Burke were never alone together, and at dinner they barely spoke, not to Chase Dad and Grandma and certainly not to each other.

Also, Burke started dragging himself by his arms everywhere, which upset me. He told me to Sit and Stay, but I couldn’t remain still when I saw him trying to make his way across the floor. I went to him to do Assist, but he pushed me away. Why? I was right there, a good dog who could help him to his chair. I didn’t understand what he was doing. I tried everything to put things back the way they were. I brought him toys, I whined, I even barked.

“No!” Burke told me sternly.

No? I was just trying to do my job, to be my boy’s dog, and he wasn’t letting me. Didn’t he love me anymore?

“Do you need anything at the store?” Grandma asked him.

“Actually, could you take Cooper with you? He’s jumping on me and crying. I think he’s bored.”

“Sure. Come on, Cooper.”

Grandma took me for a car ride! It felt so good to be out of that unhappy house, with my boy painfully creeping along the carpet. I stuck my nose out the window and barked when we passed the wonderful goat farm; when I thrust my face directly into the wind, the air rushing up my nostrils made me sneeze. Grandma laughed.

Then, among all the exotic smells being forced up my nose, I picked up an intoxicating scent: Lacey. It grew stronger and stronger and then we passed a farm and it faded. Lacey was there, right back there!

We drove farther, and then Grandma stopped the car and rolled down all the windows. “All right, I know you are good dog, Cooper. You stay,” she told me.

I sat, doing Stay. There were nothing but parked cars all around me. Grandma’s scent slowly dissipated as she walked into a big building, but it wasn’t her I was fixated upon. I now knew where to find Lacey.

Stay. But Grandma had not even slowed as we passed the farmhouse where Lacey’s presence was most powerfully felt. Grandma clearly didn’t know what I knew!

I whined. Sometimes a dog will be told to do something but will know it isn’t right. At that moment, I knew Stay was the wrong thing to do. I stared in the direction Grandma had gone, indecisive.

Stay.

Lacey.

The side of the car was cool on my feet when I climbed out. I landed lightly, shook, and went to go find Lacey, my mate.

Before long I had her on the wind, and I trotted confidently in her direction. I started running when I reached the driveway of a place with a house and a barn and some other big buildings. The whole area smelled like horses.

Lacey gave a yip when she saw me. She was in a small, open-topped pen. We could press our noses through the fence. We bowed and wagged, and I was so happy I spun in a circle. I had found Lacey!

Lacey’s doghouse was in the back of her kennel. I tracked her as she went to it and sprang nimbly on its roof. I didn’t know what she was doing until she put her paws on the top of the fence and then, glancing over her shoulder at the house, she leapt, her back legs scrambling. There was a ringing sound as the fence rattled, and then she landed and I joyfully climbed on her.

We rolled and played. I was as happy as I had ever been and had no thoughts of anything else but being with her. Then she shook, nosed me, and set off toward some woods. I followed her, trying to play, but she merely started running—she had a destination in mind, I could tell. I figured we were headed to the farm; where else would we be going?

I was wrong. After some time, Lacey led me up to a house in a row of houses, and I knew where we were. She trotted up to the front door, scratched, and sat and barked. I meandered into the yard to lift my leg on some bushes.

The door opened, smells wafting out. The girl in the doorway was, of course, Wenling. “Lulu? What in the world are you doing here?” She looked out in the yard, her expression bewildered when she caught sight of me. “Cooper?”

She led us through a wooden gate, closing it behind her. We were in the flat backyard of mostly grass. She set out bowls of water and we drank thirstily. Then we played and played, tearing around the yard, wrestling, tugging on the opposite ends of a stick. This must be where Lacey lived, because Wenling was here!

When Wenling’s father came out, we ran to him joyously. “Down,” he said.

“I called. Lulu’s owner is on her way, but I want to take Cooper back to his house myself. Can you drive me over to the Trevinos’, Dad?”

Lacey and I resumed our play. Not long after that, the back gate opened and a woman came in. She smelled like spices and cheese. “Lulu,” she scolded, “how did you get out?”

Lacey ran to her. I lifted my leg on a fence post, unsure.

“They just showed up here,” Wenling told New Woman. “It’s funny, I know them both. Cooper belongs to my, to a friend, and he and I were the ones who found Lulu after she had her litter. They were Cooper’s puppies. And I was the person who called Hope’s Rescue to come get them.”

“That’s where I adopted Lulu,” New Woman replied. “So she followed Cooper here, then.”

“I suppose,” Wenling replied dubiously. “It’s weird, though. Why would they come to my house instead of Cooper’s?”

I heard a snap as New Woman put a leash on Lacey. I figured we were going for one of those walks where we would be restrained from running, probably because of squirrels. I trotted up to Wenling expectantly, but she just petted me.

I was alarmed when New Woman led Lacey to the fence. “Come on, Lulu.” Lacey stared at me, resisting the leash. I ran to her and as the New Woman dragged her through the opening, I tried to nose my way to follow, but the woman blocked me with a leg and then the gate banged shut. I whined and scratched anxiously at the wood slats—I needed to be with Lacey!

For some time I paced and circled in the backyard, smelling Lacey, listening for her return. Then Wenling took me for a car ride, with her father driving and me sitting in the backseat. When we passed the goat ranch I realized we were headed back to the farm.

I felt Wenling’s tension as we pulled up the driveway. The car stopped and she put a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God,” she breathed.

Burke was watching us from the doorway.

He was standing.