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Dad took me to be checked. Mom came. There were questions and more questions, and none of the answers I gave explained the hole.

I didn’t tell them I had heard Chief calling from underneath the ground more than once.

Once had been enough.

By the time we got home, my jaw hurt from holding myself together.

I wanted my bed. I didn’t want to be in my room.

Sunshine sat with me on the couch while Dad made another call from the kitchen.

“You checked yourself?” Dad asked. He listened for a moment.

“All right. Call me if anything changes.”

My phone lit up. Chief.

Home?

I stared at his name before answering.

Yes.

His reply came almost immediately.

Okay.

Nothing else.

He didn’t ask me to describe it again. He didn’t tell me it was fine.

I was grateful enough that I had to put the phone down.

The next morning, he was waiting outside our house.

Not in the car.

On the path between the two houses, with his hands in his pockets, watching our front door.

Dad came out with me. He and Chief exchanged a few quiet words while I went to the Suburban.

Clayton was driving. Sadie was already in the back with Ruckus.

I took the other side.

Chief got in last.

He looked back before Clayton had even started the engine.

I was there.

He could see that.

Apparently seeing it once wasn’t enough.

At school, I stopped at my locker. Chief stopped too.

I waited for him to remember where he was going.