Two Souls Collide

When we got home I instantly went into the kitchen and filled a bowl with water for the dog. I sit it down and watch as she laps up. Lacey starts cleaning my burn.
"Eeeeek…burns, it burns!" I bite my bottom lip.
"It'll be over soon big baby." She wipes it away. We're quiet for a few minutes at the kitchen table as my sister cleans it thoroughly. The stinging dulls to a small throb when she puts a square band aid on it. Lacey clears the table and I sink to the floor near the dog.
"It wont scar…unlike your baking burn." She calls out to the horizontal scar about an inch long on my right wrist. It happened two Thanksgivings ago, when I tried to be a big girl and pull out the turkey all by myself…big mistake.
"You were thirsty." I pat her head softly. "We should get you something to eat…at least until your owner comes." I add the last part as Lacey eyes me. She was drinking orange juice from the carton near the fridge. I shrug off my coat and set it on the kitchen table.
"We should call pa and have him bring home some wet dog food." I offer.
"Let's just give her some sausage."
"But she needs healthy dog food!"
"Alice, a little bit of sausage won't hurt her." I pucker out my bottom lip giving her the best puppy dog look I could muster up.
"No!" She raises her hands looking away. "I will not be defeated by two dogs!" Her eyes squeeze shut. "No means no!"
"Waceyyyyy." I speak in my perfect baby voice.
"No! Grow up!" She backs away slowly, but with her eyes closed she bumps into the doorway leading into the living room. Her eyes open and she glances at me. I'm sitting on my knees near the dog still composing my baby face with my hands clenched in my lap. Her hands drop, and she glares at me.
"Ugh!" She rolls her eyes. "Fine, I'll call pops." She leaves the kitchen into the living room.
"Thank you!" I look down at the dog as she finishes drinking.
"We need to take some pictures of you." I rinse out the bowl and lead her upstairs to my bedroom. She follows me with such ease; she must be a trained dog.
I open my curtains and turn on all my lights. She sits near my bed watching me, with her little tail wagging. I pull out my Nikon D90 camera. It was a Christmas present from my grandparents who want me to succeed in my photography passion.
Putting my hair up into a high bun, and some clips to keep my layers out of my eyes.
"Alright…where should we take a picture of you?" I ask her. She turns her head a little, and I quickly snap a picture of that. I look at the screen, seeing a cute little dachshund mix dog with her head tilting against my bed. "Maybe near the window." I walk her towards it, she seems to understand, at least somewhat where I want her, smart dog. I get her to stand in front of the window and start taking pictures.
Twenty pictures later, I hook up the camera to my lab top. She sits at the end of my feet under my computer desk. I rub her back with my orange painted toes. I spend the next hour choosing 5 pictures out of the twenty. I create a small poster with those five pictures, at the top saying; LOST YOUR DOG? in German.
I describe her looks and the place where I found her plus our address and phone number. I print out 10 copies in color...how many of these do people normally make? I shrug that away and show one to the dog.
"Is this okay?" She sniffs it a little before sneezing. "I thought so too." I smile.
After I show Lacey, she offers put them up around the neighborhood, and the park where I found her.
While Lacey is gone I rummage around two boxes with random objects I never unpacked. In one I found a bright pink rubber ball, small enough to fit in the dog's mouth, but not small enough for her to choke on. I take her out into my backyard.
It's fenced in, with trees on the left from our neighbor, and the garage blocking out half the other neighbor's yard on the right. We have a nice size backyard. She walks around sniffing everything and running around for awhile. I sit on the steps and watch her, until she seems content and comes back to me.
"Let's play fetch!" I stand up excited; she feels my excitement and wags her tail barking. I show her the ball, let her sniff it, and then I throw. She turns and watches the ball go, then looks back at me still wagging her tail.
"Uh…this might take awhile."

"Bill calm down!"
"Don't tell me to calm down! Bella is out there! Who knows what kind of freak will find her. What if she gets ran over? Starves? Freezes to death?!" Bill runs his hands through his messy hair once again.
"It's only March." Tom mutters. They've been arguing for thirty minutes on whether or not to go get Bella, his precious dog. Usually Bill wins with these kinds of arguments, but he can't this time.
"We have to go find her." Bill makes his way towards the door, determined to get his little dog back. Tom reaches out and grabs his arm firmly.
"We'll find Bella soon, but right now we to get to our interview."
"Bella is more important than some interview." Bill dramatically jerks his arm away.
"I know, I know she is. I miss her too, but she's a smart dog. Let's get some of our crew to go out and look for her while we go to our interview. When we're done we'll join them, ok?" Tom licks his lips hoping Bill will change his mind.
Bill feels like crying, but he understands his position. He gave his word he would be at that interview. He regrets going out with all four dogs to get coffee. How could he not have noticed Bella didn't get back in the car? His heart tears as he sighs and nods at Tom.
"We'll find her, Bill." Tom says. Bill nods gulping down the knot in his throat.
"I promise."

"We have to go school shopping tomorrow; I suggest you two go to bed soon." Papa looks up from his work. Lacey and I sit on the couch watching German MTV, trying to grasp what they were talking about. It was a 'reality' TV show, and a brunette was about to beat up a fake blonde. We assume it's because the brunette flirted with the blonde's boyfriend earlier. The lights were dim and we're sharing a blanket with the dog in the middle.
"Wait, I think we're getting it." Lacey waves him off.
"You can perfect your German tomorrow. It's almost twelve." Lacey and I look at one another. Usually we could stay up until four.
"I am a little sleepy." I shrug yawning. I look down at the dog. "Ready for your first night here?" I smile at her. "I'm teaching her fetch." I add patting her head.
"Whatever helps you pass the time." Lacey says to me. "I set a blanket in the laundry room for her."
"…Her?" I ask pointing to the dog.
"Yea."
"Not any of our good ones?" Papa confirms.
"Nah, just an old one." She nods.
"She's sleeping with me tonight." I state. Lacey and Papa look at me.
"Honey, I don't think that's a good idea." Papa says gently. "She isn't ours."
"So? Doesn't mean she should be alone all night."
"What he's trying to say Liss, is that you sleeping with the dog won't make him yours. Don't let it hypnotize you with so-called cuteness." Lacey speaks softly to me. I look at Lacey, and then Papa.
"I know this, but I don't want her to be alone, this is a strange place for her… and me…" I add the last part lower than the rest.
"I'm sure she'll be fine in the laundry room."
I decide not to go to bed then. I wait until Papa goes to bed. Lacey and I end up going to bed around three. I sadly depart the little dog in our laundry room. I can hear her whine as I walk upstairs. My heart feels heavy as I close the door on her. I lay in bed for twenty minutes watching my star nightlights glow. My curtain is open a crack, letting the city lights come in. After I'm certain Lacey has fallen asleep, I tip toe outside my room. I skip the creaking steps, and walk to the laundry room opening the door.
The little dog comes out jumping on me.
"Shhh." I whisper picking her up and sneaking back upstairs to my bedroom.

A week passes with the dog, who've I've gotten to calling mon cheri (my dear). After hours of dedication, she learns to fetch. I persuade Papa to buy her can dog food. Nor Lacey or Papa says anything about her sleeping with me at night. I soon learn that she 'dances' to music. If by dancing you count wagging her tail, barking to certain beats, and spinning in circles. She also can stand on her hind legs, and jump in a circle for a treat, and 'high five'. Nothing of that I taught her.
During that week, we gather school supplies and new clothes. I also throw away my old reading glasses and get two new ones, exactly the same plastic design, but one black and one purple. Lacey and I study our German and slowly get better. We can understand people much better, but our accents are still pretty bad. This brings dread when I think of school.

I sit on the hardwood living room floor, my purple glasses on and my hair up. I'm trying to balance three hardcover books on my head while doing yoga. I can hear Lacey's music playing through her walkman; she didn't believe in iPods…or cute robot dogs. She claims they're both brainwashing civilization. I can see her point of view, but if I were to ever be brainwashed, she promises she would protect me. Just like she promised she will when zombies invade, which they will someday in our lives.
I close my eyes tilting back a little as I feel the books shake. Mon cheri is laying in front of me chewing on my Pikachu plushie. She's had it since last night. I was outraged when she dug into my closet and pulled him out. I tried getting him back, but she whined just enough for me to give it back. It's been two days since the Pikachu incident, and she hasn't let him go since. I guess if she really likes him she can keep him.
I lean forward, the books are shaking and my back is hurting from staying in this position for so long. I start swaying, as I make a desperate attempt to lean back and catch the books I fall on my back.
"Ow…" Mon cheri looks up and we share a awkward stare before she goes back to chewing.
"Hey…" I look up and see Lacey in Joe Boxers and a black '100% Loser' tee shirt. She holds out a box of chocolate ice cream with a spoonful near it. "Smell this." I raise an eyebrow and sit up leaning towards it taking a whiff.
"Yea…?" I ask…can anyone actually smell frozen ice cream?
"Do you think it's still good?" She asks interrogating it with her eyes her left snake bite flashing madly as she plays with it.
"Didn't pa tell us to throw that out?"
"It only expired three weeks ago…" She sniffs the spoon.
"Didn't we leave it out for two hours before putting it back in the freezer?"
"Yea, so? It's frozen again."
"There are ice crystals on it…" I say slowly, she blinks at me. The doorbell rings. As I walk away from her I yell,
"Don't eat the ice cream!" I hear her grumble and the ice cream drop in the trash. I open the door and, two strangers are standing.
They're both tall, with big sunglasses and sweat suits on. One has dirty blonde dreadlocks, and his clothes baggier than the other. The other, which I'm think is a guy, has black hair with white smaller dreads, with black clothes. The one in black holds up my missing dog sign.
"You have my dog." The feminine one says bluntly. My heart races as I think of losing mon cheri.
"Um…" I gulp.