Comet's Tale by Steven Wolf Read Free Book Online Page B

the soles of shoes.
    Familiar signs told me that life had been unfolding for several weeks. Green-winged teal bobbed on a small pond next to the road, and Canada geese had returned to the lake. On a sandbar I spotted two bald eagles snipping at each other over a mutually claimed fish corpse. And when I wrested myself from the SUV, the funk of dead fish and algae freed from a long winter under ice still lingered, mixing with a hint of oily gas smells from boats just placed on their lifts.
    I had no sooner shut the SUV’s door when a bumping, stumbling mass rounded the corner of the house from the direction of the lake. Cody and Sandoz knew only one greeting— Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! The two dripping wet balls of wheat-colored fur hurled straight at me as I tried to pull my shoes loose from the cottonwood resin. I heard Freddie’s door slam and she leaped into their path, yelling, “Cody! Stop!”
    Cody’s butt slid, then stuck to the resiny driveway. Sandoz’s brain, always two steps behind her body, got the message a little late. She streaked past Cody, braking and spinning her rear end around my legs like a car sliding on ice, finally coming to a belly flop behind me. Freddie glared and nobody moved.
    â€œCome on, Freddie. No harm, no foul?” I was secretly delighted that the goldens still seemed to think I was Whitey Ford— early in his career, when he remained capable of throwing a baseball a country mile.
    â€œSteve, this isn’t funny. You’ve got to teach them to stop running when they get within ten feet of you. We didn’t drive all this way just for you to get knocked down and hurt by your own dogs.” I nodded as Freddie opened the back hatch to let Comet out.
    Comet had observed the manic greeting through the SUV’s windows. She now stood in rigid profile, not daring to leave the safety of her sanctuary. Her ears were flattened against her head, and her eyes, stretched wide, darted back and forth as if she were watching a rubber bullet bounce off me, Freddie, and the goldens.
    Our Sedona days had consisted of a quiet and uncluttered routine. Most activities involved just the two of us and the neighbors we encountered on our frequent walks. In this unhurried atmosphere, Comet’s initial timid reluctance had blossomed into a shy curiosity punctuated with bursts of happy excitement. She developed a quiet confidence as a new world was presented to her in bits and pieces she could easily digest. That genteel pace was a far cry from this frenzied welcome. Comet’s stare pleaded with me to provide some relief, some quiet space apart from the merry meltdown.
    Freddie turned to the still-unmoving Cody and Sandoz. “Why don’t you two go on? Go fetch your ball.” Both dogs hesitated. “It’s okay. Go on now,” she urged them. Two heads tilted and two tongues lolled. Then, as if summoned by Poseidon, father and daughter sped to the lake.
    I sat on the back bumper scratching the underside of Comet’s belly. “I’ll bet you just can’t wait to meet the rest of the family.”
    FREDDIE AND I had married when the girls were ages ten, seven, and four, and for the next ten years we had scrambled to keep up with the shifting moods, alliances, and quirks of three very different daughters. Kylie was my firstborn, blessed with the blond hair and blue eyes of her mother, my ex-wife. Being my precious first child and the family’s first grandchild, she was our clan’s pampered princess. As the oldest daughter, Kylie took it upon herself to bring a sense of (sometimes unwanted) order to chaotic sisterly activities.
    Lindsey, three years younger than Kylie, also had blue eyes and blond hair, which was cut short and gleamed a shade lighter than her sister’s. Her long legs put her a good five inches taller than Kylie. Lindsey and I were so close that whenever the clucking members of the flock wanted something,