Two weeks later, Pap had cabinets to deliver to a doctor in Concord, New Hampshire. He said I could skip school and come along.
“Bring the dog, too, Tate,” Pap said, loading cabinets into the truck.
“Sable’s coming?” I asked. Sable never rode in Pap’s truck.
“Yup,” Pap said.
When I unchained her from the shop, Sable ran in giant figure eights, all around the yard. I had some work getting her into the cab. I had to grab her by her braided collar and sort of haul her on in. That square knot I had tied held tighter than a stuck lid.
* * *
It was April and large patches of snow still dotted our property, but the dirt roads were thawing and that meant mud.
Sable panted in the sun-steeped truck. I opened my window a bit and she pushed her nose out, sniffing the spicy air. Sable sat beside me in the cab, her two front paws pressing into my legs. She sure wasn’t skinny anymore.
“Ouch, Sable,” I said, pushing her off of me.
Sable brought her head back inside the truck. Her tongue wiped across my cheek, leaving a sloppy wet streak. She snuffled the inside of my ear.
“Good dog,” I said, stroking the soft white blaze on her chest.
* * *
Pap installed the new cabinets for Doc Winston while Sable and I chased chipmunks and frogs on the doctor’s property. It might have been mud season in Vermont, but at Doc Winston’s, the forsythia bloomed and the green grass made a soft mat under my boots.
A stone wall, taller than I was, wrapped around Doc Winston’s land. He had a pond stocked with goldfish, and gardens, and a forest of pine trees. Our place and most of Mr. Cobb’s would fit inside Doc Winston’s walls. He even had a scrolly gate at the end of his driveway.
Sable and I didn’t have enough time to explore half of it before Pap had finished.
“That’s a fine dog you have,” Doc Winston said, admiring Sable as he walked out with Pap toward the truck. Sable shot across the grass, smooth and sleek, chasing a rabbit.
“She’s good company, all right,” Pap answered, squinting after her. “It’s a shame we can’t keep her.”
“Oh?” Doc Winston asked.
“She wanders sometimes,” Pap said.
Pap whistled and Sable stopped chasing the rabbit. She turned and thundered over, coming to sit on the grass between me and Pap, panting.
“Wanders?” Doc Winston asked. “Couldn’t you put in a fence?”
I looked at Pap.
Pap shook his head. “A fence big enough for this dog? Yours would do fine, but you’ve seen her run, Doc. It wouldn’t be fair, shutting a dog like this up in anything smaller…” Pap’s voice trailed off. I’d watched Pap play cards with Mr. Cobb and all. Something about the way Pap talked to Doc Winston felt like cardplaying.
“I can see she’d work wonders keeping down the rabbit population. She any good as a watchdog?” Doc Winston asked.
“Sure is,” Pap answered. “She knows how to keep her eye on things, doesn’t she, Tate?”
I had a real uneasy feeling about what was happening here.
“Look, if you’re really thinking about giving her up,” Doc Winston said, “I might take her.”
Something twisted inside me.
“Would you?” Pap asked.
“Pap!”
“Listen, Tate,” Pap said. “We couldn’t find a better home for her than here.”
“I’ve been thinking about getting another dog. It’s been years since we lost Damon,” Doc Winston said.
Pap nodded.
“You wouldn’t need to worry about her, Tate,” Doc Winston told me. “And you could come back to visit her anytime.”
Black specks floated in front of my eyes. Come back to visit her! She was my dog!
“What do you think, Sable?” Doc Winston asked, stooping down. “You want to stay? You’d have a good home here. Plenty room to run.”
I turned and glared at Pap.
Sable sat panting softly in the green grass, surrounded by Doc Winston’s land. She held her sleek brown head high, gazing into the distance.
“Good dog,” Doc Winston said, running an admiring hand down her.
I couldn’t watch anymore. I ran to Pap’s truck and slammed myself inside.
Pap had planned on leaving Sable here all along.
Pap poked his head inside the truck cab. “Come say good-bye to her, Tate.”
I bit my lip and swallowed. “No, sir,” I said.
As we backed out of the driveway, Sable trotted along beside us. Her head tilted to one side as Doc Winston closed the gate, locking her in. When we disappeared around the corner, Sable started barking like crazy.
I squeezed against my side of the truck cab, digging my fingernails into my palms.
The muscles worked up and down in Pap’s jaw, but he kept on driving.