30. Teddy
TEDDY SLICED A TRAY OF NOUGAT FUDGE AND ARRANGED THE pieces on her marble slab. Pickles watched her every move, no doubt hoping that some might fall on the floor, though she preferred peanut butter flavor. A dog made the perfect companion. Plus, dogs were much easier to train than humans.
Barking became the biggest and most annoying problem. With lots of treats, and lots of patience, the behavior stopped. Except for yesterday, when a boy and his mother entered the shop, Pickles rushed at the child, wagging her tail and yapping with a friendly play-with-me arf. The boy cowered behind his mother and started crying. Teddy rushed the dog away and locked her in the storeroom where Pickles whimpered the whole time the boy stayed in the store. She apologized profusely and, with the mother’s consent, ended up giving the little boy his choice of candy—a giant rainbow sucker, and a red Triceratops gummy. The minute she released Pickles from the storeroom, she ran to the door and whimpered.
The thought of losing Pickles had loomed over her ever since she and Jack discussed the possibility. She tried not thinking about it, but she also prepared herself. The hurricane had resulted in thousands of lost dogs in Texas. In Bird Isle, she’d checked the community board almost every day. The odds were, she’d never find Pickles’s owner. But as much as she hated the thought of it, she had to try.
The bell over the door clanged, and in walked Jack carrying an iPad and wearing a new “Country Boy” gimme cap.
“Another new hat?”
“Huh?”
She pointed to his hat.
“Oh, that.” Jack gave her a half smile.
“What brings you over here this fine day?”
“You about to close?”
“Yes, good timing.”
After a pause, he said, “I was going . . .” Jack stopped short. A wrinkle of worry creased his forehead.
“Is there something wrong?”
He had this weird un-Jack-like expression on his face.
“Pictures?” She asked nodding to the iPad.
“When you’re done, I’ve got something to show you.”
Without saying a word, he collapsed into a chair in the back-room and stared blankly into space.
“You act like you’ve lost your best friend.”
She’d never seen Jack without his upbeat can-do and let’s-do-this attitude. A knot formed in her stomach. “You’re scaring me.” She tickled him in the armpit. No reaction. She slumped back in her chair. “Say something.”
Jack stared at her, one of those let’s-see-who-blinks-first stares, then he opened the iPad and handed the picture to her—Pickles licking the face of a darling little boy with a wide grin, front teeth missing. That made him sixish, she guessed. Comments to the post exceeded a thousand.
Her stomach spasmed. She clapped a hand over her mouth and ran outside, barely reaching the sand before retching.
Jack came behind her and pulled her hair from her face. He’d left Pickles inside, but Teddy heard her barking.
She swore. Tears poured from her eyes. Jack attempted to turn her to him, but she pulled away. “I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t know.” She rushed back into the shop and dropped onto the floor with Pickles. “My poor baby.” She cradled Pickles in her lap and kept saying over and over, “My poor baby.”
Jack sat on the floor next to Teddy. He wrapped his arms around her, Pickles squirming between them.
“I’m sorry . . . I’m sorry . . .” Jack’s voice sounded soft and soothing like a lullaby.
“Oh, my gawd. I feel terrible. I’ve had Pickles all this time. I’m a horrible human being.”
“You didn’t know.” Jack squeezed her tighter. “We didn’t know.”
She held her breath. Her heartbeats slowed. “Have you called?” She dotted her tears with her napkin.
Jack shook his head. “I wanted to talk to you first.”
“I can’t do it.”
“You don’t need to do anything right now.”
“I mean, I can’t drop Pickles off to that little boy. I know we have to. I just don’t think I can be there.” Her hands trembled. She should have seen this coming.
“Do you want me to go by myself?”
“No.” She knew she would have to find the strength to face this boy. He would be so happy. “Pickles started barking at a boy in the store yesterday and wouldn’t stop. Now this.” She paused. “Do you remember where we saw that Spiderman boogie board, and the beach buckets and shovels?”
Jack nodded. “But that happened a day or two ago.”
“C’mon, Pickles. Let’s go for another walk.” Her mind raced.
Jack narrowed his eyes, as if confused, then he stood.
They walked down the beach for about a half mile.
“I think we’re close.” Jack pointed to a spot just ahead of them.
She unleashed Pickles onto the deserted beach. Pickles rushed off toward the water, then circled back toward the dunes.
Jack squeezed her. “Talk to me.”
Teddy swallowed and forced herself to look at Jack, his face barely visible in the failing light. “The other day when we were here, did you think . . .”
Jack tilted his head side to side in a way that definitely confirmed he did know exactly what she thought. If she wanted to be brutally honest with herself, which she always tried to be, she knew Pickles belonged to some else. The reality hit her the other day when Pickles raced to those beach toys. But she pushed the knowledge aside. She’d made so many excuses—checked the community board. But she knew Pickles belonged to someone else.
Pickles found the pile of beach buckets and the Spiderman boogie board. Pre-hurricane, the city cleaned up all the trash each day. But with the city of Bird Isle stretched thin, the trash remained on the beach where Pickles discovered the Spiderman boogie board.
She held back a scream. She wanted to yell and cry and rant about all the losses in her life. But her problems seemed small some-how—a little boy had lost his dog. She called to Pickles. “Find it.” She pointed to the pile of toys. Pickles pushed her nose under the boogie board and started digging.
Teddy’s knees buckled.
Jack pulled her to her feet. “We’ve got this. You know I’ll be here for you.”
She didn’t know. “Why did you have to go find her owner? I told you I checked the community center notices.”
Jack cleared his throat and said in a low soothing voice, “I stumbled on the page by accident.”
The collection of beach items stood completely upended and in the center of them, Pickles continued digging—the wind biting at Teddy’s face, the sensation of her feet sinking into the wet beach, the gaping hole in the sand, Spiderman boogie board standing on end like a tombstone.
She loosened herself from Jack and crouched next to Pickles. “That’s enough now.” She scratched Pickles on the back. Pickles jerked her head toward Teddy and growled. She yanked her hand away. “No! You don’t growl at me. Don’t you ever growl at me!”
I-shouldn’t-haves flooded her mind. This whole thing started with Jack and his ridiculous quest for pickles. She should never have let Jack in, let alone a lost dog. If she had just stayed home that day, this wouldn’t be happening. If she hadn’t left Bird Isle for Houston, she’d have never met Daniel. If she hadn’t met Daniel, her mother would still be alive.
She gulped for air but sobs exploded from her. Jack stooped and wrapped his arms around her so tightly that the warmth of him passed through his shirt. She inhaled the freshly-laundered scent of his clothes.
“I’m so sorry,” Jack said. “I’m so, so sorry.”
Pickles whimpered and stuck her head on Teddy’s lap. She inhaled three yoga breaths and then stroked Pickles back. “I guess we’ve found your family, you goofy girl.”
Jack smiled at Teddy. He snapped a leash on Pickles. “Shall we walk?”
They walked silently back to the house. Jack gripped her hand. She held Pickles’s leash. Even Pickles acted somber.
At the house, she fed Pickles. Jack made tea, and they flopped onto the sofa. Teddy settled into the curve of Jack’s arm. He hadn’t even flinched when Teddy had blamed him for all this. “I’m sorry I tried to make this your fault.”
“It’s all right.” Jack kissed her forehead.
Pickles jumped up between them, and for once, Teddy permitted it. She rubbed Pickles’s belly. “Tomorrow you’re getting a bath. Maybe I’ll even put a bow around your neck.”
Pickles buried her head under a cushion.
“She knows the word b-a-t-h .” Jack laughed.
“Will you call the family and let them know?” Teddy asked.
“You sure?”
“No.” She shook her head. Realizing she held her breath, she exhaled and said, “I’m not sure of anything these days.”
“You can be sure of me, I promise.” Jack regarded her with his kind, gentle eyes.
She smiled at him. “You’ll go with me to take her back? Or, maybe they’ll want to come here.”
“I have a phone number. I’ll call them later, just as soon as I take care of you. I can’t let anything happen to you.”
Pickles kept her head out of the window all the way to Austin. Maybe she smelled Oscar all the way from Bird Isle. Teddy had allowed Pickles to sleep with her, not a great idea. Now, she’d miss Pickles even more.
Teddy had spent yesterday obsessing about what to include in a candy basket for the family. Cindy, Oscar’s mother, wanted to have the whole family over for a surprise party to celebrate Pickles’s return.
As instructed, she texted Cindy just before they arrived. When Jack and Teddy pulled into the driveway, Cindy ran out to greet them.
“Come in the kitchen. We are all making tamales. Oscar will be so surprised.”
She followed Cindy and led Pickles around the side of the house to the backdoor. She opened the door and the kitchen full of family members started singing and line dancing to “No Rompas Mi Corazon,” the Hispanic version of “Achy, Breaky Heart.” Teddy thought the song an odd pick, but the lively laughter and singing indicated otherwise.
A boy’s eyes widened as he stepped out from behind a table covered in corn husks. “Chica!”
Pickles slid on the tile floor trying to gain traction. Teddy released the leash. The boy fell to the floor and rolled on his back. Pickles aka Chica licked his face, her tail wagging like a flag in hurricane winds. This reunion lasted for several minutes until Cindy finally told the boy to take Chica outside. Jack and Teddy followed. Cindy asked them to have a seat in the backyard. She locked the gate, and Chica chased Oscar around the yard. Every now and then, Chica would run up to Teddy and wait to be petted. Tears slid down Teddy’s cheeks.
Cindy wrapped her arms around her. “Thank you so much.”
Seeing this, Oscar and Chica came to sit at Teddy’s feet. “You can visit us. And when we move back to Bird Isle, can Chica come visit you?”
“I hope she will.” She knew she had to control her emotions in front of Oscar.
“I know she didn’t mean to get lost.”
“No. She couldn’t help it. You know how we knew she belonged to somebody?”
The boy looked up at her wide-eyed. “How?”
“One day, we were at the beach, and she started digging at a pile of beach toys—a bucket, a pail, and a boogie board.”
“A Spiderman boogie board?”
“Yes.”
“That’s mine! She smelled it. Dogs can smell things that we can’t.”
Teddy nodded. “I know.”
“She smelled me.” He scratched Pickles’s neck. “Dogs can smell one hundred thousand times better than we can.” Oscar put his hand in front of Pickles’s nose.
“One hundred thousand times?” Teddy pretended to be surprised. She knew a dog could detect a teaspoon of sugar in a million gallons of water.
“I think an angel sent her to you so you could take care of her for me.”
Love filled his big brown eyes as Oscar patted Teddy’s hand.
“Because if she hadn’t gone to your house, she wouldn’t have seen my boogie board.”
Teddy shivered at the magic of the day.
“I wish you could have a dog, too.” Oscar hugged her with his tiny arms. “I hope you won’t be sad.”
“I’m happy for Chica.”
“Chica wouldn’t want you to be sad. I know you’ll miss her. But now we both know where she is.”
“Yes. Now we both know.”
“Do you want to see her tricks?”
“She knows tricks?”
“Lots. But we don’t have any treats.”
“I can help with that.” She reached into her bag for a sack of bite-sized treats.
Oscar put one in his hand and held the treat in the air, “Dance.” Pickles raised her front legs and turned around.
Teddy clapped. “I didn’t know she could do that.”
“There’s more.” Oscar pointed an index finger at Pickles and said, “Bang.”
Pickles moved down and rolled on her side.
“That’s a good one.” Teddy tapped Jack’s knee. “Did you know she was that smart?”
“It doesn’t surprise me.” Jack kissed Teddy on the forehead.
Cindy handed plates to Jack and Teddy, each with two tamales and a napkin. She unwrapped the corn husk and took a bite through the soft mash of corn meal to the perfectly-seasoned shredded beef. Jack had already unwrapped his second tamale. He chewed and smiled at the same time.
Surrounded by this family, and seeing the glow on Oscar’s face, she’d witnessed love in action. In fact, she felt part of it.
Cindy handed aprons to her and Jack.
“You must make yourself some to take home.”
Inside the tiny kitchen, tamale-making supplies covered every surface. A rope of garlic cloves hung in front of the window next to a wreath of dried red peppers. The aroma of braised meat, chile, and onion rose from cast-iron posts in clouds of steam. Teddy breathed deeply savoring every scent.
Cindy spread a wooden spoonful of masa over a corn husk, added a dollop of meat, and then rolled the stuffing into a tamale. Jack fumbled with the corn husk for several tries before enlisting Oscar’s help. Meanwhile, Chica stared at the food drooling.
The oldest woman in the kitchen, a great-grandmother perhaps, chattered in Spanish. Teddy only caught a few words: amor and bonita.
A young woman, who appeared to be Cindy’s sister, stepped next to Teddy and said, “My abuelita says you are pretty, and that the man is in love with you.” She nodded toward Jack.
The family all laughed. Grandma took Jack’s hands, turned them palms up, and traced the tip of her knobby index finger along his lifeline. She then moved her finger to a line below his pinkie.
The girl’s furrowed her eyebrows and shook her head. But the grandmother spoke to her rapidly, as if insisting on something.
“It’s the marriage line,” one of the girls said. “ Mi abuelita says you’ll marry twice.”
Jack raised his eyebrows and smiled at the woman. “Tell her my wife died.”
With this news, the old woman bowed to Jack and pointed to Teddy. Her calloused hands reached for Teddy’s. The woman traced her finger down Teddy’s lifeline, and then checked the marriage line. She dropped Teddy’s hand and moved her hands to Teddy’s face. “ Muy bonita .” Talking to Jack, she added, “ Hermoso. Matrimonio .”
“I didn’t figure on a palm reading today.” Jack directed the comment to Teddy.
Apparently, the grandmother’s comment hadn’t rattled him in the least.
“She says the senorita will marry once. And she wants you to marry her. You’ll make beautiful children.” A blush covered the granddaughter’s face.
An eerie sensation passed through Teddy. She fanned her cheeks and avoided eye contact. She supposed she should make a joke. Instead, she kept wrapping her tamales.
They stayed long enough to finish a dozen tamales, but Cindy insisted they take two dozen. Teddy patted herself on the back for remembering to bring a candy basket, though with all the family, the sweets wouldn’t last long.
Jack kissed the grandmother on the forehead when they left. She gave him an approving smile. She pointed to Teddy. When he grasped Teddy’s hand, she nodded.
“Good times,” Jack said, as they walked to the truck. “I’ve never had my palm read before.”
“How did she know about your marriage?” She waited for Jack to squeeze her hand, or drop it, or give some indication that he preferred not to talk about the topic.
They loaded into the truck. “BTW, I’m okay about talking about my marriage, if that’s what you’re asking. We’ve got to talk turkey one of these days.” Jack reached across the seat and patted her thigh. “And, that abuela happened to be a bona fide palm reader.”
“Then I’m glad we’re on her good side.” Just the memory of his tenderness to the woman made her feel comforted, as if someone had bundled her up like a tamale. “Did you just say you want to talk about your marriage?”
“ Mm-hmm. I’m ready to have a relationship with you,” Jack said. “Dunno what will happen. I’ve been on my own for five years.”
A silence fell between them. Jack made his intentions clear. Meanwhile, she had her own feelings to sort out.