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Sinbad’s here. But thank you for calling! I need to find out how he keeps escaping.
So he’d gone back to Pittie Place. Delaney mulled that over while she geared up for the ride to Semper Fit. Poor guy didn’t know where to be, just kept going back and forth between the two places, settling nowhere and trusting no one. She wondered how many times the dog had come by in the months since Delaney had met him, only to return to Pittie Place when nobody was here to let him inside. Sunny might not have even been aware of his comings and goings. Now that she was, Delaney figured Sunny would probably fix whatever hole was in her fence and she’d never see him again. She closed up the storeroom, shutting out the view of the empty dog bed. The urge to text Dad was the strongest yet.
Chunk’s brother keeps showing up to my shop on Three Rebels Street. He’s just like you, can’t sit still. He was here last night but now he’s gone.
Sure, she could text Boom, but she couldn’t text Boomthosewords. Only Dad would understandthosewords. Delaney swiped beneath her eyes and grabbed her helmet.Suck it up, Pippie, Dad would say.No use crying over a spilled motorcycle. Dad always made morbid jokes like that, and if he could’ve joked about his own death he would’ve. Either way, he was right.
Better get going so she wasn’t late.
“You’re going to be late.”
Tabitha glanced at her watch. “It’s not even eight thirty.” Auntie El didn’t know what time the class was, but saying she was going to be late had been Auntie’s way of motivating Tabitha since she was a kid. “I have plenty of time.”
“You can never be too early.” Auntie El shook a bent, arthritic finger. “Or too careful.”
“I know that, Auntie El.”Couldn’t you, though?Tabitha thought. You really could betooearly. Let’s talk about those people who camped out overnight in front of retail stores so they could be the first to buy the next best thing. That was surelytooearly, but there was no point arguing with her auntie, which would be taken as sass. Auntie El didn’t do sass.
“Don’t go thinking you’ll have that same nice detective at the gym to help you if you have another panic attack.” Auntie El sat at the kitchen table, pencil poised over her morning crossword puzzle, yellow mug of coffee on the place mat next to her. She glanced down at the paper. “Eleven-letter word forhappy coincidence.”
“I don’t think that.” Tabitha thought about that cop from back in March while she got Trinity’s vest fastened. She’d looked Detective Callahan up online immediately after the incident at the supermarket. Everyone in that scenario had meant well, from the store clerks who’d called 9-1-1 to the firefighters who’d rushed to the scene. But only the cop had truly seemed to understand what was going on, and to know exactly what to do. He was older than Tabitha, strong, both in physical appearance and in spirit, and seemed like the kind of guy who needed to protect the world from all the bad stuff. Tabitha had written him a thank-you note and planned to send it to the county police station where he worked. She’d put a stamp on the envelope and everything, but had lost her courage and never mailed it.
“The gym knows about Trinity?” Auntie El shifted in her chair and regarded the dog over the rims of her glasses. She’d been skeptical from the start about a dog being able to help with PTSD and panic attacks, and even though Auntie El had been around for the year of training that Tabitha had put in with the dog, it was like she had to be convinced anew every day.
“She’s a service dog, Auntie El. She can go anywhere I can go.” Tabitha laced up her sneakers and took a deep breath. She hadn’t been to a real gym in years. She couldn’t help but wonder what would cause more harm: persistent thoughts of a random panic attack happening again, like it had at the supermarket, or trying to push away persistent thoughts of a random attack. “But, yes. This is the gym Pete told me about. They’re doing a big fundraiser for Canine Warriors in July. I called Semper Fit and talked to the owner and there is absolutely no problem with bringing Trinity. In fact, he said he has a dog of his own that hangs out there.”
Auntie El’s eyebrows rose. “Alright, then. You be strong, Tabby.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Tabitha attached Trinity’s leash and paused in the doorway.“Serendipity,”she said.
“How’s that?” Auntie El peered up from her crossword.
“Eleven-letter word forhappy coincidence,” Tabitha said.“Serendipity.”
