Page 50 of Shattered Sanctuary

THIRTY-FOUR

Thankfully, a few minutes later they were back in their car and on their way to the cabin. Erin couldn’t wait. She was worn out. All she wanted to do was get inside, lock the door, grab a package of Mallomars, and relax. Kaely had mentioned that they had things to talk about tonight. She was nervous about it, but she also knew it was time. She’d failed to make progress with the therapists she’d seen. Kaely might be her last chance. She was confused about what to do next. She knew the way she was living now wasn’t healthy. Should she tell Kaely about her gun? She was afraid of her reaction. Afraid Kaely might think badly of her. Afraid she’d try to make her do something she didn’t want to do. But she was also afraid that if she didn’t talk to someone, she might do something she couldn’t take back.

As they got out of the car and carried the groceries inside, the first snowflakes began to fall.

“Boy, we made it just in time,” Kaely said as she locked the door behind them.

They’d just started putting the groceries away when they heard a strange noise.

“I think it’s coming from the front door,” Kaely said.

Erin followed her to the living room. Kaely looked through the peephole. “No one’s there,” she said.

As soon as she’d said that, they heard scratching and a faint whine. Erin pulled back the drapes next to the door. Sitting on their front porch was a dog. Black and white. She could see it shivering in the cold as the flakes flew around it. Erin turned to look at Kaely.

“It’s a dog,” she said.

The sound they’d heard before started again, and Erin turned her attention back to the dog. It was pawing at the door.

Kaely stepped up next to Erin and looked through the glass.

“Poor thing,” she said. She turned and hurried into the kitchen, coming back with some towels.

“You’re going to let it inside?” Erin asked.

Kaely frowned at her. “Sure. It needs help.”

“What if it’s vicious?”

Kaely stopped and stared at her for a moment. “Are you afraid of dogs? You like Adrian’s dog.”

“Well, Adrian was with him, so I wasn’t worried. But we don’t know this dog.”

“This poor thing has come to us for help,” Kaely said, her voice soothing. “We need to get him out of the cold.”

She opened the door, and the dog came inside, wagging its tail.

“Why, hello there,” Kaely said, immediately kneeling down and stroking the shivering dog. She began drying him off. “What’s your name?”

“If he answers you, I’m out of here,” Erin said.

Although Erin knew that bringing the dog in was the right thing to do, she couldn’t help but flash back to the night she and Scott had been called to the scene of a domestic disturbance. They were inside, trying to calm a man and a woman who’d been screaming at each other. The man had a gun and was threatening to kill the woman he lived with. Her two children were cowering in a corner, afraid and crying. While Scott tried to calm the man down and get his weapon, Erin went toward the children. She wanted to get them out of the room and to safety. As she approached them, a dog that looked just like this one sprang from the shadows and attacked her. He was obviously trying to protect the kids, but he bit her on the arm. She drew her gun, not wanting to use it, but not seeing any other way. The oldest child grabbed the dog and put himself between her and the frightened animal.

Although she should have called animal control, Erin was afraid the dog would be put down, and the children clearly loved him. After all the trauma they’d been through, Erin just couldn’t let that happen. She used their first aid kit to bind her arm and then she checked the dog’s collar. The name of the veterinarian was on her tag, so Erin called them. Thankfully, the dog was up to date on her shots.

The funny thing was, once the dog knew the children were safe from her, she calmed down and became very friendly with Erin. She had the strangest feeling the dog was sorry for biting her. She tried to lick her wound, and she put her paw in Erin’s lap. At first the children were terrified she was going to have the dog taken away, but once they realized it wasn’t going to happen, they quieted down.

Scott wasn’t in agreement with not reporting the bite, butin the end, he gave in. Getting a good report of the dog’s health sealed the deal.

The man was the only one removed from the home that night and, because of having an illegal weapon, threatening to kill his girlfriend, and already having two strikes against him, he went away for a long time.

Erin had checked in on the kids from time to time until their mother decided to take them to Colorado Springs where her own mother lived. She seemed to be a stabilizing influence, so the situation had a happy ending. The dog, whose name, surprisingly, was Angel, went with them, and as far as Erin knew, all of their lives changed for the better.

As she stared down at the dog which so closely resembled Angel standing at her feet, she took a deep breath. He wasn’t responsible for Angel’s actions. This situation was totally different. She bent down to look at the leg he was favoring.

“He’s got a cut,” she told Kaely. “It doesn’t look too bad, but we need to clean it out and bandage it before it gets infected.”

“There’s a first aid kit under the sink. I’ll get it.”

---