Nine o’clock, Fable noticed looking at her phone. Time to go home. She didn’t often stay so late at the animal clinic, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave, not with Scooter so afraid. He was lying on her lap while she sat at her desk going over the month’s statements. Fable owned the clinic, which gave her the opportunity to indulge her greatest passion, caring for animals, but it offered her little monetary means to afford adequate staff. This meant that sometimes Fable was forced to stay late to catch up on the paperwork. With the lion share of her daytime spent seeing patients, the invoices, monthly bills, and tax payments tended to stack up. This month she also had the unpleasant task of writing the newly increased rent check for the space she occupied. Many times, her grandmother had offered to purchase a building for her practice, but Fable could never find the exact one she wanted. Every month when she would write out the lease check, she kicked herself for allowing another year to go by without accepting her grandmother’s generous offer.
She did not mind staying late tonight. There wasn’t a whole lot to go home to that night anyway. Olympia and Salem were away in Charleston. The Consort meeting was tonight. Fable wondered how that was going. She knew it was a difficult trip for her cousin. Seth and Yazzy both had dates. Seth would be off with Vanessa, and Yasmine had plans with Jake. Beryl was doing whatever it was Beryl did when she was not at work, which was rarely. Fable could have gone home and spent time with her mother and aunt, but they never seemed to be doing anything that interested her. Passing her night by keeping Scooter company after his surgery was the best way she could think of spending her time. He was a sweet dog and needed her more than anyone else in her life did right now. But another glance at her phone told her it was time to go home. Especially since she had to be right back in the office by 9am tomorrow.
“You’re gonna be fine tonight, Scoots,” Fable said kissing his soft, gray fur. “I want you to take this medicine in this dropper before I leave. It will help you sleep tonight. I’d take you home with me, but I don’t have permission from your owner.”
They wouldn’t mind, Scooter told her.
“I’m not so sure about that,” Fable replied. “But I have a deal for you. I won’t put you back in the kennel tonight, if you promise to stay here on my couch and not wander around the office. I know you don’t like it back there with the other dogs. Will you make me that deal?”
Yes!
Scooter licked her face several times as a thank you for the consideration. She locked up, turning out all the lights except for a desk lamp in her office for Scooter. There were a few stops she needed to make before returning home. Artemis had requested she pick up a large roast for Friday’s dinner, and she needed to drop the checks and cash in the bank’s night deposit drawer.
The bank was well lit at night, which made Fable feel safer on the nights she worked late. The only other car in the lot was pulling away from the ATM stall when Fable pulled up to the night deposit drawer. She leaned out of her vintage white Jeep to place the client checks in the pull-out drawer but had not leaned in far enough. The heavy drawer snapped back shut sending her checks scattering across the drive-through lanes beside her.
“Damn.”
The slight breeze began rolling her checks into the parking lot. She could have chased them down one by one, but luckily being Fable Blanchard, she did not have to. She closed her eyes momentarily and sent out a beacon, a message for assistance from her friends. Within seconds a couple of squirrels ran down from nearby trees and pitter-patted their way across the parking lot, each collecting a check in their tiny paws. Several birds winged down from their perches and lifted the few remaining checks in their beaks, flapping their wings and gliding towards Fable’s Jeep. The birds obligingly dropped the checks into her lap as the two helpful squirrels scurried up Fable’s front bumper, across the hood, and presented the checks back to her.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Thank you so much,” Fable smiled at them.
She had a little bag of peanuts and a small box of birdseed in her glove compartment and spread it all out on the pavement beside her car. As she deposited her funds in the drawer, the happy animals ate her thank you with gusto.
There weren’t too many shoppers at the grocery store that late at night. Fable took her time through the store, picking up a few extra things she realized they needed back at home. On the coffee aisle, she spotted a rather large woman with a rather large little girl meandering along the aisle. The woman stopped to compare the various coffee flavors, completely unaware that behind her back her daughter was opening the boxes of cereal from the opposite shelves. Fable watched as the chubby little girl dug her dirty hands into multiple boxes, scooping out a handful to taste before moving to the next brand. Fable left them on the aisle and proceeded to the back of the store to the meat department.
She encountered an old woman and her blind husband on the meat aisle. The woman was comparing expiration dates on the packages of ground chuck. Fable was almost in reach of the pot roasts, but the woman was blocking her access by mere inches. Fable waited patiently, taking the time to admire the blind man’s dog with them. He was a gray German Shepherd. Fable spoke to him and patted him on the head.
“Well, ain’t that nice, Trigger,” the blind man laughed. “You must be a pretty lady if he let you touch him. He’s a good ole dog, big help to me, but he ain’t much for people.”
The woman moved her buggy further down the meat aisle and called for her husband and Trigger to follow. Fable picked out two extra-large roasts that would please her aunt. Friday nights were typically Howard’s nights for dinner, and he had an enormous appetite. As she was pushing her cart away, she observed a rather good-looking man pass her. For a second, she thought she heard him speak to her, but when she whirled around to look, she saw that he hadn’t. He was however, filling his cart with every meat product he could get his hands on. Big family I guess, she thought.
She felt it again. Had he said something? It seemed as though he had, although she couldn’t clearly make out the words. It was more of a feeling than a spoken word. It was the same kind of feeling as when Scooter or one of the other animals at the clinic spoke to her. But it also was a little like when her grandmother would mindspeak to Fable. Was he a witch? She almost walked right up to him and asked but thought better of the idea. Still, he was very attractive. She found herself unable to look at much else in the store but his physique. He had a terrific body, a swimmer’s body, lean and taunt. His skin was slightly pale, but smooth. His curly brown hair accented his Chesnutt eyes, and she could faintly smell the aroma of cologne.
He turned to look at her after becoming aware she was staring at him. Embarrassed, Fable ducked down behind her buggy. While doing so, she accidentally rammed the cart into the McCormick Seasoning rack. The tower rack and all its contents spilled out over the aisle. Further down the aisle, the chubby little cereal muncher stood crunching on an open box of uncooked macaroni noodles. Her mother was nowhere in sight. Undoubtedly the hungry girl had wandered off in search for more snacks. Upon seeing Fable’s mishap, the little girl began to laugh hysterically at Fable, drawing even more attention from the attractive man. Fable was mortified. She closed her eyes and sent out a silent message to the air.
Suddenly the blind man’s gray German Shepherd came charging, leash flapping behind him. He took off after the little girl, who was now screaming like a banshee down every aisle trying to find her mother—Trigger was aggressively, but not dangerously, hard at her heels. Fable whispered a “thank you” as he ran by.
