We Dream of Mountains

He avoided her for almost a month after their encounter. To say that he was embarrassed was an understatement. Every time he thought about that day in her kitchen, he got red, and felt slightly sick. He made up for this by doting on his wife. She welcomed the change, and never commented on it, but he felt that she knew anyway.

It was after that month that he grew confident in his jogging again, allowing his path to meander all over the neighborhood without fear that he would stumble upon the dark-haired girl. And that was when he finally saw her again.

He went out for his jog late, after playfully attempting to drag his wife out with him. It was maybe 6:30 when he left, and the sun was already mostly up. He felt invigorated as the sun peeked up over the clouds, knowing that it was going to be a good day. All sunny days were.

He heard the clicking of nails on the sidewalk before he decided to turn around, hoping it was another stray dog, but cursed under his breath when he saw the retriever mix panting happily behind him.

"Hewwo, Tink," he said, using the baby-voice Nana liked so much. In response, the dog wagged her tail harder, and trotted up to him.

"Aww, did you miss me?" he asked, and she licked his face as he planted kisses on her little forehead. "Have you been good?" Tink yawned, letting out a little whine. "You must be sleepy, let's get you home."

At the word home, her ears perked up, and she began trotting happily towards where her house was.
"I should get you a leash, Tink," he said as he followed behind her.

To his surprise, she wasn't outside this time, sitting on her stoop. He rang the small doorbell, hoping she was in, and hadn't gone off to look for Tink.

A little girl answered the door. She was maybe about six or seven, and her blonde hair was separated into two long plaits with ribbons at the end. She was wearing pink pajamas and with kittens on them, and little blue slippers that he barely recalled seeing around the house. They were comically too big for her.

"Erm," he said. "Sorry, but I think I have the wrong house."

The little girl looked behind him, and gasped in surprise at Tink.

"You found her! You found her!" she cried, running up to the dog and wrapping her arms around her neck. The dog panted, then licked the girl's shoulder.

"Erm," he began, trying to think of a way to leave the situation. Tink still stood happily in the little girl's arms, looking very satisfied with the day as a whole, despite how tightly the little girl was probably squeezing her.

"I'm gonna go tell Mac," she said, releasing the dog and running back into the house. Tink followed, and he looked around before following behind both of them.

Mac was in the kitchen, making eggs. Another little girl was sitting at the table, eating cereal slowly. She must have been about four or five, and had giant eyes that looked about the size of her spoon. She was also clad in all pink.

"Mac, this man found Tink!" the first girl shouted, clattering into the cabinets on her way to hug Mac's leg.

"Did he?" Mac replied, looking up at him with a grin. When her eyes settled upon his expression, her grin faltered a bit, but returned when she looked down at Tink.

"Why do you always run off?" she asked the dog, who merely looked at her. "Thank you," she said to him, looking up at him with her soft brown eyes.

"It was no problem," he said. "I just sort of found her."

"She probably followed you," Mac said. "She likes to do that."

"I'll call Daddy," the older girl said, running off into the living room.

"She's got a lot of energy," he said, standing awkwardly in the kitchen. The younger girl looked up to stare at him while eating her cereal.

"Maisie, do you want more food?" Mac asked, looking at the young girl, who just continued to stare at him.

"Do you think he took Tink?" the little girl said.

"No, Maisie, he didn't take Tink, she just ran off."

The girl stared at him, then looked down at her bowl. Satisfied, she got up and ran from the table.

"Sorry," Mac said with a chuckle. "She doesn't like strangers."

"Right," he said.

They stood there in silence as she finished cooking the eggs, then put them on a plate.
"Do you want something to eat?" she asked, breaking the silence.

"No," he said. "I'm alright."

"Are you sure? I was just about to eat. I figured since I'm up, you know?" She shrugged. "Then with Tink running off -"

"So are we not gonna talk about it?" he blurted out, speaking before he could think about the words he was saying. He cursed under his breath, and brought his hand up to his forehead, his optimism at the day already slipping through his fingers.

"What's there to talk about then?" He turned around to see a tall man looking back at him, panting. The man was classically handsome, with brown hair that was immaculately placed on his head. And even though he was panting, there wasn't any hint of the sweat that currently covered Steven's body. He slipped past Steven and into the kitchen, where he greeted Mac with a kiss on the cheek.

"Peter, this is Steven. He found Tink."

"Hiya," Peter said, clapping Steven on the shoulder. He felt suddenly very small just standing next to this enormous man. "I went out looking for her. Glad she wasn't gone. I was thinking we'd have to get a new dog."

"Stop it!" Mac said, throwing a sponge at him. She set the plate of eggs onto the table, giving the hulking man a fork and a glass of water.

"Steven, you sure you don't want anything?" she asked, and he remembered that he was in the room with them, and not intruding on a personal moment.

"No, I'm gonna go," he said hastily. "Have a good one."

He dashed out the door and down the steps, not stopping until he reached home, a half hour later, having decided to do his run all over again, in the hopes that it would dispel the nasty feeling tucked behind his shoulder blades.