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13
Even in a new room, with fresh sheets, Sydney had a rough night and Mike finally accepted he couldn’t do this alone. Doc promised she’d clear away everything when he was ready to have her seen, but he couldn’t balance the what ifs and worry about the topic. This was trauma, months and months of it and the last thing he could bring himself to do was force her into a situation to face it. Tell him he’s going to be tortured for seven days and he’d ask what time do they start. His daughter, he could barely cut her nails as a baby because she squirmed and made a face as if he’d severed the tip of her finger, not barely clipped a ragged edge.
“Hey Syd,” he said. “We need to go into town.”
“I thought this was the town,” she said with a sweet simpleness that gave him hope.
“You did?” he questioned as she poured a bowl of cereal.
“I guess it was kinda silly,” she realized laughing a bit. “You said we were going to a small town.”
“I’m not sure how far it is, but I bet it’s a pretty hike,” Mike said. “Can’t be too far with Red being the only doctor in the area.”
“You think we could bring Creature with us?” Sydney asked and Mike could see this was more than a puppy going along for a walk ask.
“Well, if you get tired I can put you on my back, not sure about Creature.”
“I could carry her,” Sydney offered.
“I think she weighs more than you,” Mike pointed out as he poured the milk.
“Yeah, probably.”
With the breakfast dishes washed, Mike locked up the trailer and headed into town with Sydney. The hike may take half a day or twenty minutes. The one from the interstate had included a bit of stealth and crossing the open fields unlike following the bending road until they found a town. Part of him wanted to do some catch up with Sydney, learn about her life since the last few months had been lies.
An old farm house across the road about a half mile up had quite a bit of traffic veering off into open land. Construction equipment was loud as a back hoe was digging out an area while the sound of saws buzzing through pieces of wood made to him see the lumber being taken to parts of the shell of a massive home. A curly tailed dog bounded over toward them with the man from the other day, Bounty, chasing after him.
“Bailey, Bailey you son of a bitch, get back here,” the man said causing the dog to spin unsure if he should come for the strangers or stay with his master. “Bailey, I have all the treats.”
A whimper came from the pup as his tail tucked between his legs. His head judging the situation right as the click of a leash was attached to his collar.
“I’m sorry about him, no one’s usually around and he was found at a construction site,” Bounty said, wiping at a bit of sweat from his forehead. “Don’t worry, he just wanted to say hi.”
“Is he like Creature?” Sydney asked.
“He wishes he was.” Bounty approached and let the dog sniff at Sydney before giving her the nod that was all clear for her to pet him. “He was found by a construction project and tends to roll with me if I’m haulin’ stuff in my truck and not on my bike.”
“He’s cute,” Sydney said followed by giggles as Bailey attacked her with kisses all over her face.
“Y’all out for a little walk?” the man asked, a bit of a twang surfacing in his voice.
“Heading into town,” Mike said. “Probably should have asked how far it was.”
Bounty tucked his head a bit to fight back a smirk. “Yeah, probably, it’s close to ten miles.”
“Damn,” Mike breathed the word lowly. Ten miles was nothing for him, but Syd would be exhausted.
“Whatcha needin’ in town?” Bounty asked. “I could make a few calls and have it run out here.”
“Um.” Mike glanced to his daughter then back at the man. “Help, she needs to be checked out and start talking to Doc.”
“Oh, yeah, she’s a good woman, helps when Cream cycles back and starts sleeping outside on the porch.” Bounty turned to take in the construction site. “Demons man, they creep up on you.”
With a sharp whistle and wave, Baldy gave a single handwave toward Bounty and said his goodbyes to the man he was chatting with before driving his truck over.
“Hey Mike, you want a ride?”
“Yeah, we need to go to the clinic. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about wheels. Hack said you would be the guy to talk about getting a vehicle, maybe even a bike at some point.”
