Leoti by Sienna Mynx Page A

wronged her,” he confessed.
    Po dropped his head on his paws and stared. Elu could do nothing but sigh. He went in the kitchen and reached above the cabinets. Drawing down the dreaded journal that threatened everything, he considered dropping it in the trash. Po rose from his corner and walked over. The dog sniffed the journal. He knew the animal detected her scent.
    “Yes, it’s hers.”
    Po stared at him with those ghostly blue eyes.
    “I know friend, but I love her. I couldn’t bring myself to let her go so I kept it,” he said holding the journal to his chest. Elu ventured out onto the cool front porch of the cabin and sat on the porch swing. What was he to do? Should he wake her and hand it over. Should he toss it and let her memory come back after they’ve spent enough time to solidify their love. Was he insane for trying to control their fate? Yes he was. Still he hated the truth and how it threatened them both. He untied the ribbon and started to open pages when Po barked.
    He frowned to see his dog barking at him. “I just want to know who she is.”
    Po lurched forward and snatched the journal from his hands before he committed the grave sin of reading it. “Po stop!” The dog raced off the porch across the front lawn. Elu rose in shock. Po stopped and looked back at him with the journal in his mouth.
    “Po! Damn it, bring it back!” he cried out in a loud whisper.
    “Elu?”
    He whirled. She stood behind the screen door in another of his robes that swallowed her. She stared at him curiously.
    “Leoti?”
    “What’s going on? Why are you out here?” she pushed open the screen door and walked out. Po stood there in the night watching them in the distance, her journal in his mouth. “What is that? What does Po have in his mouth?”
    Elu looked at what was supposed to be man’s best friend. He sighed, caught. No escaping the truth. Leoti walked out.
    “Po! Come here baby.”
    Po hesitated then started walking toward them.
    “It’s something I found that belongs to you,” Elu confessed.
    Josie looked down. A pink leather journal was in the dog’s mouth. She stooped and he turned it over. “This belongs to me?”
    “I’m sorry, I should have given it to you when I found it.”
    Josie rose. She studied the journal then opened it. “You kept this from me?”
    “I can explain.”
    “How long have you had this?” The hurt in her voice cut through him. The shame in his heart made it hard to look into those eyes he loved so much.
    “How long, Elu?”
    “Just today, when we were at the cabin, I picked it up.”
    “What was Po doing with it?” her eyes stretched in horror. “Did you read it?”
    “No! I didn’t.”
    “Then why did you keep it from me?”
    “Fear, I guess.”
    “Fear?”
    “Fear of losing you, to those memories,” he said looking down at it.
    Josie blinked away her tears of hurt and stepped over to the porch swing taking a seat. “How could you betray me like that? I trusted you,” she said. “What was all that talk about accepting my memory back. That we could get through it. Just talk? And you had this when we... when we—.”
    “I love you, Leoti. Look at me. I’m human. I want you to be mine and I got scared at the thought of losing you. I’m human.”
    She sat back in the swing. Her hand went over the journal several times. She looked up at him with glistening pupils. “I’m scared too,” she held it out to him. “Get rid of it!”
    “What?”
    “Put it someplace safe. I can’t look at it now. I can’t look at you now.” She rose from the swing, forced the journal on him, and went back inside. Elu winced when the porch door smacked shut. He looked down at the journal then Po. “You were trying to keep me from making a bigger mistake, weren’t you friend?”
    Po just stared. She didn’t want to read the journal. What did that mean? It was a start, a very good one. Maybe she wanted a life with him after all.
     
    Josie climbed into bed, her chest