been turned into a dog.
“Listen here, I’ve learned my lesson. Man as dog. Dog as man. Poetic justice. I get it. Now put me back in my body.”
Not that he replied. Just like that, he was gone.
“Hey,” I called out.
A second later I heard someone in the kitchen.
I scurried down the stairs and found him whipping up dinner. “Oh, thank you. I’m starved.”
He scowled at me. “This isn’t for you. It’s for Emily. I’m worried about her.”
Had I still been a Homo sapiens with better jaw capabilities, my mouth would have fallen open. “You’re concerned about Emily when I’m the one mucking around as a canine, a half-dead one, at that? One who nearly got euthanized?”
He muttered something that sounded like a curse.
“No question about it,” he said, “I completely underestimated you. It never occurred to me that you would find a way to ruin being adopted. You could have proved you were worthy by helping that family. But no, you had to go and growl at the little girl.”
“You set that up?”
“Of course.”
My neural pathways were firing so fast I felt dizzy. “Then how did Emily end up bringing me home if you had some other plan?”
He hesitated, looked a little peckish. “I don’t really know. When things went awry, I was wracking my brain for how to get you out of that muddle. I even started to step in, but then she burst through the door. Saved your hide. Saved both our hides, truth be told.” He sighed, almost dreamily, his pale gray eyes starting to shine like glitter. “What never ceases to amaze me is how it always works out, despite what I plan. Emily’s the one who needs help. I should have realized that. And how better to prove you’re worthy than for you to help the very woman you hurt?”
Some sort of emotion of an uncomfortable nature flared inside me. Since I wasn’t one to muck about in feelings, I disregarded it. “Fine, as I said, just put me back in my body. Then I can take care of everything.”
“Alexander, this is the deal you made. Before anything else happens, you have to help Emily and prove you’re not completely selfish, not to mention, worthy. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t change that. You’ve got to see this through.”
I braced my legs against the floor, my little body shaking with anger. “And if I don’t?”
His eyes narrowed and his jaw set. He gave the bottom edge of the chain mail a sharp tug. “Then you’ll fade away. To nothing. That’s how it works.”
I was outraged, incensed, and would have told him so, but suddenly his head tilted as if he heard something. “She’s up.” He debated the meal on the counter, seemed to think better of it, and made it disappear. “Time to go to work, Alexander.”
He was gone before I could question him, and only then did I hear the commotion.
emily
My mother didn’t believe in anything you couldn’t see, touch, taste, hear, or smell. She was all about the five quantifiable senses. When I was little she read to me like a good mother, but she read from things like No More Miss America! or The Crime of Housework. She hated fairy tales, refused to believe in magic. I wonder if she ever thought about what kind of daughter she’d end up with when she stubbornly refused to believe in miracles.
— EXCERPT FROM My Mother’s Daughter
chapter eleven
I came out of my stupor surrounded by proof of a husband I hadn’t really known. I staggered up, slipping on glossy photos of Sandy in Paris, Sandy with his parents, Sandy with an assortment of women. Despair and rage ripped through me, and I banged into furniture in an attempt to make it to the door. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t cry. I had to get out of there. I couldn’t think beyond that.
Einstein stood at the bottom of the stairs, his little eyes bugging out when I tripped down the last two steps, barely catching myself.
“Agh,” I whispered, fighting back the tears that I still refused to give in to.
I crashed out the front
“Listen here, I’ve learned my lesson. Man as dog. Dog as man. Poetic justice. I get it. Now put me back in my body.”
Not that he replied. Just like that, he was gone.
“Hey,” I called out.
A second later I heard someone in the kitchen.
I scurried down the stairs and found him whipping up dinner. “Oh, thank you. I’m starved.”
He scowled at me. “This isn’t for you. It’s for Emily. I’m worried about her.”
Had I still been a Homo sapiens with better jaw capabilities, my mouth would have fallen open. “You’re concerned about Emily when I’m the one mucking around as a canine, a half-dead one, at that? One who nearly got euthanized?”
He muttered something that sounded like a curse.
“No question about it,” he said, “I completely underestimated you. It never occurred to me that you would find a way to ruin being adopted. You could have proved you were worthy by helping that family. But no, you had to go and growl at the little girl.”
“You set that up?”
“Of course.”
My neural pathways were firing so fast I felt dizzy. “Then how did Emily end up bringing me home if you had some other plan?”
He hesitated, looked a little peckish. “I don’t really know. When things went awry, I was wracking my brain for how to get you out of that muddle. I even started to step in, but then she burst through the door. Saved your hide. Saved both our hides, truth be told.” He sighed, almost dreamily, his pale gray eyes starting to shine like glitter. “What never ceases to amaze me is how it always works out, despite what I plan. Emily’s the one who needs help. I should have realized that. And how better to prove you’re worthy than for you to help the very woman you hurt?”
Some sort of emotion of an uncomfortable nature flared inside me. Since I wasn’t one to muck about in feelings, I disregarded it. “Fine, as I said, just put me back in my body. Then I can take care of everything.”
“Alexander, this is the deal you made. Before anything else happens, you have to help Emily and prove you’re not completely selfish, not to mention, worthy. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t change that. You’ve got to see this through.”
I braced my legs against the floor, my little body shaking with anger. “And if I don’t?”
His eyes narrowed and his jaw set. He gave the bottom edge of the chain mail a sharp tug. “Then you’ll fade away. To nothing. That’s how it works.”
I was outraged, incensed, and would have told him so, but suddenly his head tilted as if he heard something. “She’s up.” He debated the meal on the counter, seemed to think better of it, and made it disappear. “Time to go to work, Alexander.”
He was gone before I could question him, and only then did I hear the commotion.
emily
My mother didn’t believe in anything you couldn’t see, touch, taste, hear, or smell. She was all about the five quantifiable senses. When I was little she read to me like a good mother, but she read from things like No More Miss America! or The Crime of Housework. She hated fairy tales, refused to believe in magic. I wonder if she ever thought about what kind of daughter she’d end up with when she stubbornly refused to believe in miracles.
— EXCERPT FROM My Mother’s Daughter
chapter eleven
I came out of my stupor surrounded by proof of a husband I hadn’t really known. I staggered up, slipping on glossy photos of Sandy in Paris, Sandy with his parents, Sandy with an assortment of women. Despair and rage ripped through me, and I banged into furniture in an attempt to make it to the door. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t cry. I had to get out of there. I couldn’t think beyond that.
Einstein stood at the bottom of the stairs, his little eyes bugging out when I tripped down the last two steps, barely catching myself.
“Agh,” I whispered, fighting back the tears that I still refused to give in to.
I crashed out the front
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