Page 4 of Resilience

“Um ... not exactly,” he answered as he went to the cupboard to put the plates away. When Jacinda’s squint got even narrower, he explained, “We got a tow job at the station for an abandoned car. There were two dogs inside. It looked like they’d been left with the car and died of heat. Like three or four weeks ago. Monty and I had to deal with the mess.”

“Oh my god. Oh honey. Are you okay?”

She knew that animals’ pain hit him a lot harder than humans’. Possibly another defect in his programming. But it was why he couldn’t manage the ride all the way home before he got some good feeling back in his life.

“It sucked, but yeah. I’m okay. Can I take a shower here?”

“You know you can. I’m sure we’ve got some of your clothes around, too. Probably upstairs in Athena’s room. After you shower and change, bring these clothes down and I’ll toss ‘em in the wash.” As he took another stack of plates from her, she cocked her head. “You cut off all your hair! And your beard!”

“Yeah.” After he put the plates away, he rubbed a hand over his short hair. “Lark wanted to practice. Does it look bad?”

“No, it looks good. Just different for you. You let your girlfriend cut all that hair off so she could practice? You’re such a good guy, Sam.”

Lark would no doubt have an extensive rebuttal to that claim. Sam only shrugged. “Is Athena upstairs?”

“Yep. She and Blanche had a big training day. They’re chilling upstairs. We’re ordering from Thai Blossom tonight, since Apollo’s on the run—you want in?”

Blanche DuBark was Athena’s new service dog. They’d been training together for a few months and were just about ready to graduate from the program. “Yeah, sure. That’d be great.”

“Your regular order?”

Sam grinned. This was home, too. He had at least two places in the world where he was loved exactly as he was, where he belonged, no matter what. “That’s perfect.”

He grabbed a couple apples from the fruit bowl on the island and headed upstairs to his best friend’s room.

CHAPTER TWO

Athena sat in her favorite spot in her bedroom, the LoveSac tucked in the corner by her closet. She was knitting, working on a Christmas present for her parents, a sofa blanket in a red ombre pattern. She did lots of needlecrafts—crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery as well as knitting—but knitting was her favorite.

She’d started when she was pretty young, like eleven, when her therapist had suggested she take up a hobby that could focus and calm her mind.

Those years, through middle school and the beginning of upper school, had been rough. She was severely deaf—one of several issues arising from her very premature birth—but, for whatever reason, maybe because she’d always gone to a Deaf school, she hadn’t really thought of herself as different or limited until just before she hit her teens. When that realization had hit, the blow had been delivered with a freight train. Hence therapy, and the suggestion of a therapeutic hobby.

Knitting was amazingly therapeutic. It calmed her right down and let her think things through rationally. The other needlecrafts were good for that as well, but she liked the things she could make with her knitting needles. Also, she could do it just about anywhere. As a bonus: knitting needles were weapons, should she need one. And in this family, one never knew.

Her hearing dog, Blanche, lay beside the LoveSac, head on forepaws, alert but relaxed. They’d just had their last training session earlier in the day; there was a ‘graduation’ ceremony planned, but Athena would probably skip it. Mom wanted her to go and was on her back about it, but Athena thought ‘ceremonies’ like that were pretty dumb. But maybe Blanche would like seeing her doggo buds again.

---