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The card has a photo of a tough-looking German shepherd wearing a pink-sequined bow tie.
He scowls down at it for a long time. Really scowls.
I’m imagining that he’s thinking of all the things he’d do if somebody tried to put a bow tie dog collar on him. And I’m guessing none of his scenarios end with the bow tie dog collar being in any way recognizable as a bow tie dog collar.
“She wants to know Smuckers has a home and—”
“I comprehend the meaning of care for Smuckers,” he says. “We’ll send Smuckers in a car.”
A car. That’s how Mrs. Locke would always say it. Send a car. I thought she meant an Uber or a cab all this time.
But it comes to me, standing there, that Bernadette Locke belongs in an entirely different world than I belong to, and that in her world a car is probably a limo.
Chapter Two
Vicky
Two Weeks Later
I almost don’t answer the buzzer. I’m not expecting anyone. And who just shows up and buzzes? A drunk or a freak, that’s who.
My sister, Carly, is busy fulfilling her duty as a sixteen-year-old girl to make us late due to hair styling operations that are more complex than a Space-X mission.
The buzzer sounds again and again. Smuckers barks.
I pick him up. “Shhh!” We’re not technically supposed to have dogs in the building.
Carly answers it. “For you,” she says.
I go and push the intercom button. “This is Vicky.”
“Certified letter for Smuckers care of Vicky Nelson.”
“A letter for Smuckers?”
“Yes. Care of Vicky Nelson.”
A Venn diagram forms in my mind.
The circle that contains people I know who would think of such a moronic joke does not touch the circle that contains friends who would be up this early. “No, thanks,” I say.
Buzzzzz.
“Reading the envelope,” comes the voice. “Smuckers care of Vicky Nelson. From the law offices of Malcomb, Malcomb, and Miller.”
It occurs to me then that maybe Bernadette remembered her promise to help pay for Smuckers’s upkeep, after all.
She’d mentioned it when she was asking me to care for him, once the diagnosis was in. Take care of my baby. I’ll see you’re compensated, she’d said.
I never thought she’d actually follow through. Bernadette made a lot of promises and vows in her life. She liked making promises way more than following through on them.
To be clear, I didn’t offer to care for Smuckers to earn any kind of allowance—I would happily do it for free. The little dog had grown on Carly and me over the years and no way would I let him go to a home that wouldn’t love his fuzzy little face as much as we did.
But what if? What if she’d made arrangements to defray his food and vet costs? It would be a godsend!
“Coming down,” I say.
I spin and eye Carly. She’s not ready yet. “I’ll take Smuckers down and we’ll handle this and wait. Five minutes.” I look over at the corner where Buddy the parrot eyes me. “And feed Buddy!”
