“Music is such a personal choice, I can’t really recommend anything,” he said, not looking at me now.
“Okay, I’ll just take these then.” I pulled money out of my wallet and passed it over once he’d added up my total. But when I tried to leave, Satan defiantly planted himself down and wouldn’t budge. I pulled at the leash. But it was like pulling a brick wall. Immovable.
“Come, boy! Come!” He just looked at me.
“For heaven’s sake!” I hissed. “Five minutes ago you were raring to go! What happened?”
At that, he rolled over onto his back, put his legs in the air and his belly on display.
I huffed. “You can’t be serious.”
Video Store Guy walked over to him and gave him a belly scratch. Satan’s legs wiggled around, as if he was running. And then, just like that, he rolled over, jumped back onto his feet and shook his head.
“He just wanted a belly scratch,” the guy said.
“Come, Satan!” I called and started walking again. He still didn’t move. I sighed.
“Come, Cujo!” At that, he turned all the way around and trotted after me, out the shop.
“I told you that was a better name,” Video Store Guy shouted, sounding amused.
CHAPTER 14
I arrived at my hotel after a hot and sticky walk from the DVD store. I was carrying a heavy bag and pulling a huge dog along, who didn’t seem to want to go. This just made the whole experience that much sweatier and I was really looking forward to the cool shade of my room. I opened the door and Sata—Cujo—slipped in, just as I saw the manager of the hotel walk up to me.
“Hello!” She waved at me.
“Hi,” I replied with a smile.
“How’s your stay going?” she asked cheerfully. Everyone around here seemed very cheerful.
“Good,” I said.
“I’m so sorry to have to ask this, I don’t want to sound like I’m prying or being nosy or anything like that.”
“What?”
“It’s just, we have a strict no-animal policy here, and one of the other guests said they saw a big black dog hanging outside your room?” She looked me in the eye and I subtly dropped the leash from my hand and threw it into the room. I gently pulled the door closed with my toe.
“Oh my God, I think I saw that dog too,” I said, trying to tap into some nonexistent acting skills I hoped I had. I needed Cujo firmly in my sights, what with that thing firmly lodged inside him. “Do you think he’s dangerous?” I asked, in my most sincerely concerned voice.
“So he’s not yours?”
I shook my head. “No. God. Have you seen him? He’s terrifying. One eye!”
“Really?” Now she also sounded concerned.
“I hope he doesn’t have any diseases or anything,” I added to my embellishment.
“Me too,” she half whispered under her breath.
“In fact,” I continued—perhaps I was having too much fun with this—“now that I think about it, I’m not so sure it was a dog. Could be anything, what with the desert here and all.”
She looked at me uneasily. “The other guest did say it was abnormally big.”
“Could be a coyote?” I offered up.
“We don’t have coyotes here.”
