Chapter 4
“I DON’T KNOW anything,” Bazel said. He was so confused, and more than a little scared now. He had heard some of what the fancy man said. He had also heard Atlas stand up for him. Evie rested her head on Bazel’s lap, and he petted her slowly. She was a good dog; he knew that now.
“Maybe you know things you don’t realize. Think about what you saw or heard. Maybe even smelled,” Atlas told him, but Bazel honestly didn’t understand.
“Why you upset? We want come to America and we here.” He shrugged.
“Yes.” Atlas sat down across from him, his face serious, lips in a tight line across his face. “Do you know where you were going? To New York?”
“Yes. Big city where we find work and make home.” It sounded so simple.
Atlas shook his head. “Maybe. But you know what else would happen before that.”
“Yes I know and I afraid for them. But you help? You catch them?”
“Yes. Or they will do that to other people. I wish I could help everyone. I want to help you and the others who were with you. But I can’t unless you help me, if you can.”
Bazel looked confused. “I can’t tell you anything more than what I already did.
I didn’t see anything from inside the truck, and we weren’t let out.
It scary and I worry a lot. You have driver.
He must help.” That was all he could tell them.
He didn’t understand why they expected him to know something he couldn’t. “I not help. Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Atlas said.
“Okay. Can we go now? Get food for others?” Bazel was already on his feet.
“Yes. And we can get clothes for you.”
Bazel looked down. “I like these clothes. They smell like you.” He inhaled and then went to the door, leaving Atlas standing in the middle of the room.
He didn’t move for a while, and Bazel wondered if he had heard, but then Atlas joined him, and they went outside with Evie.
It seemed she was coming too. Bazel liked that.
Atlas was gentler when she was there. He spoke softly to her and smiled a lot when they were together.
Bazel thought Atlas should smile more—it made him prettier.
“You come, yes?” He headed out to Atlas’s car and waited for him to unlock it before getting in.
Evie rode in the back seat, and once they arrived at a big store with red and white circles on it, Atlas put a harness on Evie and they all went inside.
“Evie is working now… sort of. It’s the only way they will let her in the store,” Atlas explained. Bazel barely paid attention as he looked around. It seemed to him like there was everything in the entire world all in one place.
“You need a couple pairs of pants, a couple shirts, and underthings, socks, and a pair of shoes.” He rattled off the list. “It’s this way.”
“Okay.” Bazel stopped at a display of what looked like bright colored food. “What this?”
“It’s cakes with icing and sprinkles.” He made a face. “Kids like them.”
“Oh,” Bazel said, because sometimes things just weren’t fair. He should be used to seeing things he couldn’t have by now. It had happened plenty back home.
“Let’s go look at the clothes. We’ll come back here.
” He got a big red cart and let Bazel push it with Atlas and Evie leading the way.
There was so much to see that he went slow, averting his eyes when they passed the clothes for women.
It didn’t feel right for him to see such things.
When they got to men’s clothes, Atlas showed him various things.
Some he shrugged off, but there was a nice blue shirt with yellow designs on it that he liked, and Atlas put one in the cart.
There was a green one too. Bazel got two pairs of pants and a plastic package of underwear as well.
The socks were easy, but shoes seemed so hard.
There were all colors and designs. Then he had to figure out his size, and by the time he was done, Bazel was exhausted.
They went up to the register, and Bazel waited while Atlas paid and handed him the bag of clothes. “Peek inside,” Atlas said, so Bazel looked and smiled at the box of cake things on top.
“How I pay?” Bazel asked. “Can I get job?”
“Not yet. But you can work for me if you like. I figure the yard work you did is worth the cost of the clothes.” They walked toward the door with Bazel holding the bag of clothes. Evie kept pace with both of them. “Now to the grocery store. Do you know what you need?”
Bazel nodded. “I write down.” He handed Atlas a list, and Atlas looked at it and handed it back.
“I don’t think that’s going to help me.” He smiled. “I can’t quite read that.” Bazel giggled to himself, because of course he had used Cyrillic script. “But the writing is very pretty. I like how it flows.”
“We figure out?” Bazel asked, and Atlas nodded.
“Definitely.”
BAZEL WAS just as fascinated with the grocery store and found everything he needed with the help off Google translate.
They brought the food home, and he started cutting and dicing.
Atlas showed him where the pans were and helped him make the dumplings.
Then they made the meat skewers and flat bread, putting everything together the way his mother had.
At least, it was close. Once it was done and they had both tasted it, Atlas called Chris, and she came over and tasted it too.
The scent of coriander and dill permeated the air and made him hungry.
“You are a very good cook,” Chris told him. “I will take this to the women. I promise.”
Atlas helped him pack it in containers, and she left with the food. “Is there enough for us?” he asked. Bazel dished up some for Atlas, and they sat down to eat. “I really like this. It’s different and so good.” Atlas ate a lot and he burped a few times, which made Bazel smile.
“I glad,” he said, eating some as well. “You eat a lot.”
“It’s very good.” Bazel looked to Evie, who lay on her mat near the outside kitchen door. “It’s too spicy for her. And I don’t feed her food from the table. It’s part of her training.”
“I see. She is very smart dog.”
“Yes. She is. To be part of the K-9 unit, you have to have a dog to partner with, and they thought Evie wasn’t going to be good enough, but we worked hard and she showed them.
Not every dog and officer team work well together.
You have to find the right fit, the right partner,” Atlas explained, and Bazel nodded, even though he didn’t quite understand all that Atlas had told him.
Sometimes when words were new, it took him a while to try to piece together the meaning.
“How long you have her?”
“Three years. She’s almost six years old.
She should be able to work for another two or three years, and then I’d have to find another dog or leave the K-9 unit.
I don’t want to do that if I can help it.
So in a few years I’ll start looking for a new dog so she can retire when the time comes.
But I dread that day, because it’s hard finding a dog as good and as special as she is. ”
Bazel nodded but was still a little wary.
Evie was a good dog, but back home, they roamed in packs sometimes, snatching at food and fighting with each other over what they could find.
Most didn’t have the kind of life that Evie had.
Lots of people didn’t either. Evie had plenty of food, a good place to live and sleep, and someone to care for her.
Back home, Bazel didn’t have any of that.
He had eaten when he could and slept where it was safe.
And nobody loved him, that was for sure.
Not his family. He lowered his gaze as he thought about it.
He was a disgrace to them. He had thought that maybe things might be different here.
Nobody knew what he had done, so he wasn’t sure.
It was best if he kept all that to himself.
But it was hard with Atlas’s big eyes and broad shoulders.
He also looked at him sometimes…. Bazel wondered if he was looking…
in that way… or not. He wasn’t sure and didn’t dare take a chance.
“I have to ask, do you know how to cook other things?”
Bazel nodded slowly. “Why? You like?”
“Yes, I do. If you make a list of some of the ingredients, in English, I’ll try to get them for you.”
He liked that Atlas enjoyed his cooking. Food like this reminded him of home and better times there. Bazel did his best to push away the tougher memories. Nothing was going to change them, and he had to concentrate on making a future for himself here. “I will think about it.”
Atlas cleared the dishes and placed them in the sink. Then he answered the phone and spoke softly before hanging up. “I have to go to a scene. They need my help. You can watch television if you like. But keep the doors closed and locked. Evie and I shouldn’t be gone for very long.”
“Oh.”
Atlas was already putting the harness on Evie, and then they left, with him locking the door behind him.
Bazel went to the room with the television and sat down.
He thought of watching something but didn’t see the use.
Instead, he went to the backyard to finish his work.
Atlas had gotten him nice clothes and what he called snack cakes, and Bazel was not going to sit around and do nothing.
He had a debt to work off, and he fully intended to.
In the garage, he found the tools and went back outside, picking up where he’d left off the previous day. There were plenty of weeds to remove, and the grass kept trying to grow in. But he knew he was up to the task.