The Bestiary by Nicholas Christopher Read Free Book Online Page B

father woke me with the news that I would be enrolling in a boarding school in Maine. “There’s no alternative,” he said flatly, stalking from my room with his heavy gait, meaning there would be no discussion, either.
    It also meant that Re needed a new home. He and I had become closer than ever. At fourteen, two years my senior, he was ancient for a German shepherd. His strength was ebbing, his vision dimmed, his hind legs stiff with arthritis. That day, he tugged at his leash, for he knew the way to the Morettis’ house and enjoyed visiting the other animals. The fact Re was so happy there was the only thing that offset my despair at having to give him up. I had been sick over it for weeks. The Morettis’ home was full of strays, and now Re would join them. They were taking him in unquestioningly, just as they had taken me in. As always, Re sensed what was coming: the previous night he had crouched on my bed and watched me pack. When I slipped under the covers, he laid his forepaws across my ankle and wouldn’t lift them until morning.
    Now, as I rang the Morettis’ doorbell, at least his spirits seemed to have improved, even if mine had not.
    Lena let us in. By that time, more than the family comforts and the menageries, my primary delight in visiting the Moretti household was her presence. I brushed the snow from my coat and she gave me a towel to dry Re.
    “Here’s his bowl,” I said, removing it from the knapsack. “And he likes to sleep on this blanket.”
    “He’ll sleep in my room. By the radiator. Can I hang up your coat, Xeno?”
    “I can’t stay long. I’ll just say goodbye to Bruno,” I said, starting up the stairs.
    I only had a few hours before my father and I were to go to Grand Central and board the train for Boston. At our apartment, my bags were lined up in the hallway and the furniture was covered with sheets.
    I found Bruno hunched over his terrarium, feeding the lizards live roaches. In the ultraviolet light he appeared even paler than usual. While my physical capacities were growing as I entered puberty, Bruno’s were diminishing. To the list of his afflictions could be added the fact he was going deaf in one ear. I wished that I could lend him some of my own strength.
    At that moment, I was overwhelmed by all the things I wanted to tell him. “I’m not just going away, Bruno. I’m losing my home, and Re along with it.”
    “Re will always be your dog. And Mom told you you can stay with us anytime, not just Thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean, if you’re not going to be with your father.”
    At the Morettis’, if nowhere else, I had ceased to be embarrassed by the instability of my life with my father.
    “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of him,” Bruno said as we headed for the stairs.
    Passing Lena’s room, I felt a tap on my shoulder.
    “I’ll be right with you,” I said to Bruno, who was already descending.
    Lena pulled me into her room and closed the door.
    Her eyes twinkled in the half-light. “I wanted to say goodbye, too,” she said.
    I had been in her room many times, but never in such an intimate way. In the silence I could hear the clock ticking on her bureau. Her bed was neatly made, her white curtains open to the falling snow. There was a brass statuette of the Egyptian sphinx on the bureau, a gift from her maiden aunt who had traveled down the Nile with a tour group. Lena was very attached to it, especially after reading about the sphinx. She wasn’t one for riddles, but I knew she must feel an affinity for the sphinx’s subtler qualities, its unshakable repose.
    She smiled at me. Her hair smelled of lavender. Her skin glowed. Around her neck she wore a gold locket, engraved with her initials, that I had never seen before.
    I couldn’t take my eyes off it.
    “Do you like it, Xeno?”
    I nodded.
    “It opens,” she said. Holding it between her thumb and index finger, she released a tiny catch. “See?”
    The locket was empty.
    She clicked it shut.