Busted

Beck POV She told the doctor about the sound behind her, and the eyes at the tree line, and how she had gone down on the cardboard. She told him how it had come out of the woods at a dead run, straight for her. "It scared me half to death. I thought that was it. I really did." I had known that. It was different, hearing her say it. "And what did this dog look like?" I turned around and picked up a clean glass and started polishing it. "Huge," Lainey said. "I mean it. I've seen mastiffs. I've seen a Great Dane that had to duck to get through our door. This one was bigger. I'm not tall, but his shoulders practically came up to my chest." I put that glass down and picked up another clean one. "He was black, all over. A really thick coat, like he'd never had a bad winter in his life. And these pale gold eyes. They practically glowed." Somewhere behind me, Opal choked on her ice water. That was my wolf. Every person in that room had known him since he was the size of a boot. They had run behind him. They had bared their throats to him. They would have known him from half of that description. "And you're sure it was a dog?" the doctor asked, very mildly. "Well, I wondered. I did. Right up until I told him to sit." "You told him to sit?" "I yelled it. 'Sit, stay.' It just came out." She laughed. "And he did. He dropped like a rock. He actually skidded." The bar was silent, apart from the jukebox. I never looked up. "After that he was a big baby," she went on, warming up now. "He tried to sneak over to me on his belly." She was smiling. I could hear it. "I checked him for a collar, and didn't see one. So I gave him some leftover chicken, and he ate it off a paper plate." A chair creaked. Somebody coughed, and it was not a real cough. "And in the morning, the plate was stacked in the bowl by my back door. Have you ever heard of a dog doing that?" "I have not," the doctor said. His voice was perfectly steady. He is a professional. I polished my fourth clean glass. "Does he belong to anybody?" "Oh, I think he's a stray," the doctor said. "I'd say he more or less belongs to himself. He's harmless." He closed up his bag. "Now. When was your last tetanus shot?" "Um." She thought about it. "High school?" "That's what I figured. You opened this up on dead wood, so you're getting a booster. I keep them in a cooler in my car." He slid out of the booth. "Come on out with me. I'm not giving anybody a shot in a bar booth with the mayor watching." "I'm not watching," Gene said. Lainey laughed and got up. She looked over at me on her way to the door. "Two minutes?" "Take your time." The door swung shut behind them. I set the glass down. I finally turned around. Every one of them was staring at me. Gene. Opal. Matthew's father, Donald. Twenty wolves had turned around on their stools and their chairs, and not one of them was even trying to keep a straight face. Nobody said anything for a long moment. "You sat," Walt said. I didn't answer him. "For a human." "Don't," I said. "I don't want to hear one more word." I didn't hear a word. I heard sniggering. It started at Gene's table and went around the room like a leak. Donald had his face in his sleeve. The man from the hardware store was studying the ceiling with his lips pressed shut and his shoulders shaking. "Off a paper plate," somebody whispered. "I think it's sweet," Opal said. She said it kindly. She was sitting very straight on her stool with both hands around her ice water, smiling at me the way she used to when I returned my books on time. "Thank you," I said. "Are you going to eat that boyfriend of hers?" The whole room came apart. Walt laughed so hard he had to put his beer down. I opened my mouth. The door swung in, and every one of them turned back to their drinks so fast that I heard necks crack. Lainey came through it rubbing her upper arm, with a round bandage stuck to it and fresh gauze on the other one. The doctor was behind her. He gave me a nod and went back to his rum and Coke. She came straight around the bar. "Everything okay?" I asked. "Yeah. Sorry about that." "No. It's okay." She smiled at me. It was a real one, quick and a little shy, and my heart skipped like I was fifteen years old. Then she picked up a bar towel and went back to work. I never did get to answer Opal. I wasn't sure what I would have said.