“Nice to meet you,” said Mike.
Sadie looked between the two of them like she didn’t trust what could happen here. “Mike, could you go unlock the doors and put out the open sign?”
“Sure,” said Mike agreeably. Lloyd continued to look amused, giving Sadie a look like this was the best day ever.
“You doing okay?” Mike asked Michaela as he passed.
Michaela held up a piece of paper. “Three,” she said.
Mike laughed. “Great. If you need me, just come up to the table, okay?”
Michaela rolled her eyes. “I’m fine.”
Mike ruffled her hair. “Have fun, kid. Don’t hurt your eyes.”
“If I do, could I get glasses like Ms. Alexander? I like those.”
“Nah, you’ll just be blind.”
“Daaaaaaaaaaad.”
Mike grinned and opened up the doors for the day.
*****
The kids were nowhere to be seen once Sadie and Mike were through with the book fair. They knew their kids were together because they’d come by to ask for permission to go outside the hall and play on the playground in the back where a clown was busy entertaining the kids who got bored with books. Mike had been surprised that Michaela had wanted to go but Sadie told him that Jaden could be very persuasive.
“It’s good for her I think. She can really get lost in her own world sometimes. It’s good to see her acting like just another ten year old.”
“Jaden will watch over her,” Sadie had said with quiet confidence.
But now they were both nowhere to be seen. The clown couldn’t specifically remember them and calling out for them wasn’t yielding any results. Michaela had a phone on her which Mike called and called with no reply.
“Should we call the police?” he asked anxiously.
Sadie was in two minds about that. Would the cops really care about two black kids who had disappeared from the playground? They’d probably assume that the kids were up to no good.
“Maybe we could get a search party going?” she suggested instead.
The search party fanned out along the woods that lined the property. Someone had suggested that there might be a wild dog that had been terrorizing residents but he’d been shushed by the majority of parents fast. Nobody wanted to borrow trouble. But levels of anxiety were high.
“So I guess the dog’s the one that’s been killing the deer and the missing cats?” Mike grunted, shoving a branch out of the way. He held it until Sadie got past and let it snap back behind them. The sun was just sinking into the horizon in a colorful burst of pinks and golds, residual warmth still present as its rays filtered through the trees.
“This town sucks so hard,” Sadie said, struggling up the slope, a long stick in one hand. Of course the dog had decided to go to higher ground. There were scraps of fur left here and there on the bushes, and occasionally she spotted a clawed footprint in the ground, bigger than Mike’s hand.
“Tell me something, what kind of bad luck do you have to have to lose your kids in woods with a rabid dog residing there?” They froze. A low gravelly howl was coming from somewhere up above them, rising and rising until it sounded like a fire-alarm yell. “How big is this thing going to be?” Mike whispered.
Suddenly a massive crashing started up above them, and Sadie knocked Mike flat as about eight terrified deer came leaping down the hill right past them. One jumped right over their heads, both of them ducking under their arms.
“Holy shit,” Sadie said, panting, and then Mike was grabbing her frantically and dragging her up to her feet, yelling, “Run, run—” and they were scrambling all the way back down the hill they’d just been climbing with the gasps and snarls of the dog panting after them.
Sadie skidded to a stop, turned and hesitated, wondering if their kids could be up there somewhere but her stopping just made it howl even more furiously. Her resultant startlement threw her off her feet, into Mike, and they both went head over heels down the slope, crashing through bushes and leaf piles, the whole world spinning crazily in the twilight.
Sadie slammed up hard against a tree and lay there staring dazed up at the branches, all the breath knocked out of her; her nerveless fingers empty. She shook her head hard and pushed herself up onto her elbows and froze. The dog was ten feet away from her, shoulders as big as a fucking linebacker, crouched low on its forefeet. She grabbed for her sharpened stick as it jumped, hot stinking breath and yellow eyes, its bloodstained jaws grinning madly as they opened in front of her face, and she shoved her forearm sideways into its jaws and prayed the leather would keep its teeth out of her skin while she stabbed it hard over and over in the side, the sharpened stick punching holes that poured black hot blood out over her.
It snarled muffled around her arm and started to close its jaws, bone grinding down as it clenched and yanked, fuck, it was like her arm was going to come out of its socket, and then the gunshot went off like thunder next to her ear. The dog slowly sagged and went limp on top of her, light fading out of its eyes.
“Jesus,” Sadie said, letting her head fall back against the tree. Mike was kneeling next to her, panting.
“You okay?” Mike said, grabbing the dog’s jaws and prying them open.
“Yeah,” Sadie said, hauling her arm free. “Let’s find our kids and get the hell out of here.”
They limped back down to the hall where two children ran up to them, fear in their eyes.
“Mom,” Jaden shouted.
“Where have you been?” Sadie snapped.
“We went to get popcorn down the street at the cinema house. We told the girl at the door where we were going…”
Sadie had no words.
*****
The kids were asleep by the time Mike dropped them home. He refused to let Sadie drive herself with her injured arm. He’d wanted to take her to hospital but she put her foot down.
“I’m fine, just take us home.”
“Fine but I’m cleaning your wound and observing you for the night.”
“Fine,” Sadie was too dizzy, tired and disoriented to argue. They got to her house in one piece, the kids already fast asleep in the back seat. Sadie got the door open while Mike carried them in. He placed them gently on the couch before transferring them one by one, Jaden to his room and Mickey to the guest bedroom. Mike noted that there was only one. He shrugged internally; he could always take the couch.
He walked back to the sitting room where Sadie sat staring at nothing.
“Come on. In the shower with you,” he said hauling her to her feet and making way by instinct to the bathroom. Sadie staggered a bit and Mike reached out to catch her, dragging her along with him. Sadie finally dragged herself up to her feet, and staggered into the bathroom. Mike followed her a few minutes later, and Sadie didn’t even bother arguing when his clothes started coming off too, a ruined heap on the tile floor, and they climbed into the shower together.