Brookline exchange, a point in her favor.
He was still panting, so she took the bowl from the trunk and gave him some water. As he lapped, she inspected his haunch, pouring the rest of the bottle over it. She rinsed most of the blood off but there wasn’t enough light to see where it was coming from.
“I know it hurts, Edgar,” she said, drying him with an old towel, but he didn’t seem to mind. He stood still for her as if he was getting a bath. Maybe he was senile, or maybe he was just good-natured.
He looked good enough. She laid a trash bag and another towel across the backseat for him and drove straight home. It took only five minutes this time of night, but in the lot, when she opened the back door, his rear was matted again and the towel was bloody.
Later she realized this was where she should have cut him loose, but she’d already made her decision, and the possibility never crossed her mind. She thought she’d saved him. He had the tag, the tag had the number. That was the game. The only thing she was worried about was her father.
She couldn’t lie to him. The dog didn’t want to go in the cage, and there was blood on her shirt, blood on her arms. She gave him his cigarettes first.
“I don’t believe you,” he said. “What do I tell you, and you do this.”
“I’m going to call them,” she said, but when she did, there was no answer.
Edgar was bleeding in the cage, and she had to make dinner.
“Get it out of here,” her father said. “What are you waiting for?”
She called the Friedmans again while he was eating. She thought it was wrong. She should at least be getting a machine.
She coaxed Edgar out of the cage and lifted him into the bathtub the way she did her father, using the flexible hose to wash his haunch. As she scrubbed him, something sharp cut her palm.
She looked at the hole in her rubber glove as if it couldn’t have happened, but the blood was already welling up.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” her father called.
“Nothing.”
She held Edgar still and gingerly parted his fur. Poking from a lipped gash in his gray skin was the broken blade of a steak knife.
She needed the pliers to ease it out. He didn’t growl as she cleaned and dressed the wound. She used extra butterflies and checked on him every few minutes to make sure he wasn’t digging at it. He didn’t like the cage, so she’d put down a blanket in a corner and given him a few toys. He lay with a stuffed Tigger between his crossed paws, licking the head as if it were a pup.
“I don’t know why anyone would do that to you,” she said, stroking him. “You’re a good boy.”
“Call them again,” her father said.
She had the number right, they just weren’t home. She had their address. Tomorrow she’d swing by and see if they’d put up posters. She wondered how long it had been.
In the middle of the night she woke to her father calling for her and the dog barking. Edgar must have nosed the door open, because he was in the middle of her father’s room, his front legs braced, his fangs bared. It was like the two of them were arguing.
“Go!” Boupha shouted, clapping, and Edgar slunk away.
“Keep him away from me!” her father screamed, wild-eyed. “He tried to bite me!”
“I’ll close your door. That way you’ll be safe.”
“Don’t leave me alone!”
“I’m right here, Pa,” she said, patting his arm. “I’m not going anywhere.”
In the morning he was calmer, but he wanted the dog gone. Now, today.
Edgar’s bleeding had stopped, the blood crusted darkly around the butterflies. The way the game worked, the longer you held on to them, the greater your reward, but her father made that impossible. She called the Friedmans, and when no one answered, she clipped Edgar to his leash and took him to Brookline.
The address on his tag belonged to a leafy side street. It was the kind of neighborhood she could never afford, with neat lawns and hedges and gardens. As she slowed, searching for the number, Edgar sat up in the backseat as if he knew where they were going.
The Friedmans’ was a white frame house with baskets of geraniums hanging from the porch. Behind her, Edgar huffed and scratched at the window.
“Let me stop the car first.”
When she opened the door, he shot across the yard and up the steps, trailing his leash, a burst of energy that made her think he was feeling better. He waited, facing the doorknob, as if she had the key.
She took the leash in hand and rang the bell, then stepped back, standing straight, her chin held high. Americans liked you to look them in the eye so they knew you were telling the truth. In this case Boupha was, but out of habit she prepared the details of her story, like an actor about to take the stage. As proof, she would show the Friedmans the Band-Aid on her palm. She wouldn’t ask for a reward, would turn it down at first. Only when they insisted would she accept it, thanking them in turn for their generosity, and everyone would be happy.
After standing there a minute, Boupha pressed the doorbell again and heard it chime inside-
“They’re probably all out looking for you,” she said, scratching Edgar’s head.
She was about to knock when a voice called, “Can I help you?”
It came from the porch next door, from an older lady with puffy white hair and red lipstick. She wore a flowered apron over a powder-blue sweat suit. In one gloved hand, drawn like a weapon, she held a spade.
“I’m looking for the Friedmans,” Boupha said.
“I’m sorry, the Friedmans aren’t here. They’re both gone.”
“I think I found their dog.”
“Is that Edgar?” the woman said, craning as if she couldn’t see him. “I thought the police took him.”
Just the mention of them made Boupha want to excuse herself.
“Wait right there.” The woman tottered down the stairs and across the yard. “Oh God, it
Boupha went right into her story. When she described finding the blade, the woman covered her mouth with both hands.
“Oh dear, you don’t know, do you? You didn’t hear what happened to them?”
“No.”
“I thought everyone knew. It was all over the TV. There were reporters tromping all over my yard. I refused to talk to them. I told them they could go dig up their dirt somewhere else. It was a tragedy, that’s all. God forgives everything, I have to believe that. The people I feel sorry for are the children.”
“What happened?”
She really didn’t want to talk about it. The woman would just give Boupha the basics-she could get them from the paper anyway.
Last Wednesday, in the middle of the night, Mr. Friedman, who was having serious health problems, took a kitchen knife and stabbed Mrs. Friedman-who was having even more serious health problems-many times. Then Mr. Friedman stabbed himself, once, in the neck (the woman gestured with the spade). He survived, she died, which the woman guessed was better than the other way around, but it was still horrible. They were both such nice people. Mrs. Friedman had been president of the Hadassah.
“I’m sorry,” Boupha said.
“It’s no mystery. He couldn’t take care of her anymore, that was all. He was afraid.”
“You said there are children.” She petted Edgar as if to show how good he was.
“They’re long gone. They wanted to get as far away as possible from this mess, and I don’t blame them. I don’t have the slightest idea how to get ahold of them. You might try the police. It’s a shame. He always had such a sweet disposition for a shepherd. I’d take him in a second if I wasn’t allergic.”
“Is there anyone around here who could?”
The woman shrugged and shook her head as if there was nothing anyone could do.
Boupha knew what her father would do. He’d leave the dog sitting on the porch and drive away. Boupha
