The Family Man. Melinda Curtis

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СКАЧАТЬ wiggle their way into the narrow opening between the trash bin and the wall. Thea gripped the cool, rusted metal and tugged.

      Nothing budged. Hannah set her feet against the wall and pushed the trash container.

      The bin groaned forward, maybe an inch. The dog’s pleas for help became louder.

      “What are you doing?” Tess had come over from the car, and stood with her arms crossed in familiar, obvious disapproval.

      “We’re saving a puppy.” Hannah grunted with the effort of pushing and talking at the same time.

      “We’ll be done that much faster if you help, Tess.” Thea stepped back and looked at the imprint of the metal bin on her hands. It figured that the trash bin was full and as heavy as an elephant.

      Tess rolled her eyes and seemed about to refuse when the dog whimpered again. Then she, too, was pushing on the bin.

      In the end, the gas-station cashier, a reed-thin teenage boy, came out to help them push, pull and tug the bin away from the wall enough so that Tess could slip back and pick up the bundle of rags.

      “Be careful. It might not realize you’re rescuing it,” Thea cautioned. All she needed was for the dog to bite one of the twins to cap their string of bad luck.

      Tess backed out of the gap and handed the bundle to Thea. It either had to be a puppy or a small dog, as it seemed no larger than a cat.

      “Someone’s wrapped it like a mummy,” Thea noted as she knelt and carefully peeled away the rags from the dog in her lap. The more she unwrapped, the stronger the unpleasant smell of urine.

      The dog was crooning to them now, a constant, weak complaint. He didn’t snarl or move to escape when the final layer was lifted. He just blinked up at them in the bright March sunlight.

      “That’s harsh.” The gas-station cashier turned up his nose in disdain before returning to his duties.

      Thea agreed, angling her head to the side in an effort to avoid the stench. Whoever had done this to the little dog had been unspeakably cruel.

      Hannah reached down to pet him.

      “Don’t,” Thea warned. “We don’t know if he’s going to bite.” Or if he had rabies. Plus, he was covered in a layer of pungent yellow pee, not all of it dry.

      “What are we going to do?” Hannah asked.

      Thea gazed down at the defeated little dog in her lap. “We’ll have the cashier call animal control or whoever takes abandoned animals around here. They’ll clean him up and find him a home.”

      “No! It’s an orphan. Like us.” Hannah’s face crumpled as she began to cry.

      And that’s how Thea found herself driving into Silver Bend with no place to go, a car full of her possessions, two abandoned girls and a clean, small white terrier with brown spots.

      “STOP! STOP!” Hannah cried as they drove through town. “If Uncle Logan’s not at home, he’s at the Painted Pony.”

      The little dog in her lap perked his ears. He was cute, once they’d washed him, and seemed to have the sweetest disposition, which made Thea wonder why anyone would have treated him so horribly.

      Thea parked in the lot next to the Painted Pony restaurant. A life-size plastic painted horse waited for them on the wooden porch. But Hannah didn’t head to the front door. The little girl ran around to the back, dragging the terrier behind her with the braided leash Thea had made with scraps of material. The little dog kept his nose to the ground and frequently lifted his leg to try to mark his territory before being yanked farther along by Hannah.

      “Hannah, where are you going?” Thea asked, hefting her straw purse onto her shoulder.

      “Rufus has a dog run in the back,” Tess explained.

      Thea tore her gaze away from Hannah, who was disappearing through a back gate, to look at Tess. “You know who runs this place?”

      “Heidi’s grandma.” Tess leaned back against the dusty car and crossed her arms over her chest, jutting out her chin.

      “Who’s Heidi?”

      “A friend from school. When we lived here.” She shrugged.

      “And she’s got a dog?”

      “Yeah.”

      Hannah returned, panting for breath. “Hurry, let’s see if they’re inside.”

      “No one’s here, Han. None of their cars are here,” Tess said, and followed her sister.

      “Whose cars?” Suddenly, Thea wondered if the twins had put something over on her. They seemed to be speaking in code. What were they talking about?

      “The Hot Shots,” Hannah said over her shoulder, as if that explained everything.

      “The hot who?”

      Tess shot Thea a scornful look. “Hot Shots. They eat at the Painted Pony before they leave and when they get back.” Noting Thea’s blank stare, she added, “Uncle Logan is a Hot Shot. He fights forest fires.”

      “Hurry.” Hannah jogged ahead in an ungainly way that Thea found endearing.

      “So someone inside should know where your uncle is?”

      “Yeah.” Tess’s steps slowed.

      Thea didn’t understand why Tess didn’t seem happy at the thought that they were close to finding her uncle.

      As soon as Thea stepped inside the Painted Pony, she felt oddly at ease. Most of the place was taken up with black-and-white linoleum tiles, faded Formica tables and booths with worn green bench seats. There was a sturdy-looking bar, a jukebox on the far wall near a pool table and a small, scuffed dance floor.

      Even the elderly woman with short gray hair, a weathered face and kind eyes who was hugging Hannah seemed graciously welcoming. Tess hesitated when the woman called her over, but finally submitted and received her embrace with much the same suffering expression as she did when Thea hugged her.

      “I’m Mary Socrath. I own the Pony.” The woman extended her hand as she came toward Thea, her expression curious. “We haven’t seen these two angels in quite some time.”

      Before Thea could shake her hand, Hannah asked in her soft, polite voice, “Where’s Uncle Logan?”

      “I thought I saw you two dart in,” observed a tall, slender woman coming in the door behind Thea with a gait as stilted as a pigeon’s.

      “Birdie, come in and meet…” Mary looked expectantly at Thea.

      “Thea. Have you seen—”

      “Where’s Uncle Logan?” Hannah interrupted Thea.

      Ignoring both Thea and Hannah, the thin woman stepped closer. “What brings you to Silver Bend, Thea?”

      “Introduce СКАЧАТЬ