Hide and Seek (6 page)

“But what about the little deer, Daddy?”

“I’m afraid there isn’t much we can do now, Key. There’s no sign of him. I’m betting he’s found a way to get that pumpkin off his head and he’s having a tasty dinner of dried serviceberries and dogwood twigs.”

“Yuck,” Zeke said. “That’s the kind of thing my mom would make for dinner. Can we eat at your house?”

“I’m afraid not, boys. Grandma Alice isn’t feeling well and we’re expecting that new animal tonight.”

“That’s right! Is it an owl?” Zeke wanted to know.

“A fox?” Zack guessed.

“Close. It’s a coyote pup. Or at least part coyote pup. Big Bob has asked us to figure out how much coyote is in the little guy.”

“He might be a doggy,” Razi said, stopping on the trail, the corners of his mouth turned down. “A bad doggy.”

“He’s a puppy,” Keisha reminded her brother. She turned to her father. “Do you think we could bundle up after dinner and look at the moon from the screen porch?”

“Please, Daddy! I want to see Wynken and Blynken,” Razi said.

“Well, it is a fine harvest moon. We’ll see how long it takes to get the new guy settled.”

Back at the truck, Daddy reminded the Sanders boys to keep to the sidewalk. “Cars have less visibility at dusk.”

“Do you think Big Bob might be there already?” Keisha asked Daddy on the ride home. “I remember him saying ‘after dinner.’ ”

As it turned out, Big Bob couldn’t bring over the
new guy until after the Carter children’s bedtime. Keisha knew that Mama
knew
how disappointed she was not to be the first to see the puppy. That might have been why Mama let them pull out the sleeping bags on a school night, so they could be cozy and warm while looking at the moon. Even though they were washed and put away for the summer, Daddy got them from the attic and zipped both children into their bags.

Daddy picked up Keisha inside her sleeping bag and placed her on the glider. Then he did the same with Razi. When they were settled, Mama handed them their hot cocoas.

“With all that padding, you look like two hibernating bears,” Grandma Alice said. She was still too sore to get into her sleeping bag. And she was cranky that she, too, would be in bed when Big Bob came over later that evening.

“At least put on some socks, Alice,” Mama told her. “We don’t want you to catch a chill on top of your sore back.” Mama held baby Paulo in her arms. He was in his sleep sack. It was as if he slept in a sleeping bag every night.

“I am not going to put a thing on my feet until someone notices.”

Razi was the first to guess. “You painted your toes.”

“Women don’t paint their toes, Razi. They paint their toe
nails
. No. Something else.”

“Mom, is that the ring from Big Bob’s mother?” Daddy leaned closer to Grandma’s foot.

“It’s a toe ring,” Grandma said. “It’s very fashion-forward.”

“I don’t know if Bob wants his mother’s ring on your toe, Mom.”

“What would you know about what Bob likes and doesn’t like? And besides, what’s wrong with my toes?”

“They’re bumpy,” Razi said. “I’d rather look at the moon. Mama, will you sing ‘Wynken and Blynken’?”

Grandma harrumphed and hobbled back into the house.

“She’s a crankmeister,” Daddy said. “I hope she feels better soon.”

The Carter children were quiet for a moment as they settled into their sleeping bags. Keisha listened for the city sounds of cars going by, of people calling out to each other and doors closing and the hum of the electric wires overhead. Razi slurped his hot chocolate.

“Come over here, Fay. I’ll be your sleeping bag,” Daddy said as he lowered himself into the rocker. Mama sat down on Daddy’s lap, cradling baby Paulo, who looked up at her with big, wide eyes. Keisha wondered why babies’ eyes seemed to get bigger just before they fell asleep.

Mama started to sing: “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night sailed off in a wooden shoe—sailed on a river of crystal light into a sea of dew. ‘Where are you going and what do you wish?’ the old moon asked the three … ”

Keisha knew what she wished. She wished
she
could be the sleeping bag for a puppy. While Mama sang, Keisha asked the old moon if he would take Canis Major, the constellation of stars that Daddy told her was one of Orion’s hunting dogs, and turn it into a real dog for her.

That night, long after bedtime, Keisha had the strangest dream, that the moon asked her what color puppy she wanted and she said that it didn’t matter as long as it didn’t frighten Razi. And then the moon asked, “Are you sure?” But the way he asked was so strange because he kept repeating himself in a very high voice and he drew the words out: “Are are are you shhhhhhuuuuurrrrr?”

Keisha sat up in bed. She was not afraid of the dark, but it was a little scary to hear the moon still asking his question when her eyes were open. Her dream was not completely a dream.

She put on her slippers, pulled her shawl around her and went out into the hall, following the noises, which led her to the back of the house. The sound got louder as she peered into the dark porch. Keisha thought it was a little like a police siren. But a siren always sounded the same—
woowoowoowoo
—while this noise was more like
arrrrrrrrrooooooooooo
. Sometimes, at the end, there was a long, drawn-out
roorooroooooooo
.

Keisha pulled her shawl tighter and stepped into the room. She was surprised to find Mama in the corner, looking out into the darkness.

“Ada,” Mama whispered. “Not all our neighbors like living so close to wild animals, even when they are in pens. Someone is going to call the police.”

Keisha slipped underneath Mama’s arm. “Is that the coyote puppy?”

“Yes. But he does not vocalize like any puppy I have ever known. And now we see why he got the name he did.”

Racket was an awful name for a puppy, but Keisha didn’t have time to think about puppy names. She had to think about solving this problem. Mama always said Daddy could sleep through a train wreck, and Grandma took a muscle-relaxer pill before she went to bed. This was Mama and Keisha’s problem.

“How big is he?” Keisha asked, thinking he must be quite big to make so much noise.

“He’s a tiny thing. He must be all lungs inside.” Just as Mama said that, the howling stopped. She sighed. “Maybe he’s giving up,” she said.

“Would he fit in the cat carrier?”

Mama touched the ends of her long fingers to her forehead. “Bob brought him over in one.”

“Well, then, let me bring him into my room. Maybe he’s just lonely.”

“Or maybe it’s the moon. Have you ever seen such a big moon? Let’s see if he’s finished first—”

Ar-ar-arrrrooooooo
. The little guy must have paused to collect more night air because this howl seemed louder.

Mama gripped Keisha’s arm tight before she let go. “All right. I’ll bring him in. Go back to your room.”

Keisha ran back to her room on tiptoes, she was so excited. A real puppy in her room! What difference did it make what sort of puppy? Puppies were puppies. You could train a puppy to do just about anything. If you could train a puppy to shake your hand, Keisha bet she and Big Bob and the rest of the 4-H Wild 4-Ever Club could teach Racket not to howl at the moon.

Of course, the smart part of Keisha knew that howling at the moon was not the only thing that stood between her and her lifelong dream of owning her very own puppy, but “first things Fiorenza,” as Grandma always said.

“Here.” Mama swept in and put the cat carrier down. She had draped her own shawl over the opening, so Keisha couldn’t see the puppy.

“No need to get him excited now. He will smell you,” Mama whispered. “Keep this cover on and I’ll
turn out the light. Maybe that will settle him. Good night, Ada.”

Mama closed the door behind her and Keisha kept very still for a moment, trying to think what to do next. Animals could sense fear, danger, aggression. She wanted this little puppy to sense warmth, comfort, peace.

He must have sensed
something
because, after a minute, he started to whimper. Keisha thought back to what she had read about coyotes in the animal files. She knew they were related to dogs and that the pups stayed with their mamas in dens for a long time … and that Mama caught food and stored it in her stomach and when she got back to the den, she threw it up.

Yuck. That was worse than cold toad-in-the-hole.

The pup yowled. If he made too much noise, Mama would come back in and take him away.

“Oh, don’t. Please!” Keisha pulled off the shawl and, for one startled moment, she and the puppy stared at one another. In the darkness, Keisha could just make out two glossy button eyes and one moist nose. She saw a ruff of furry hair and two ears that stuck up so pertly, they looked like the bow tie Grandpa Wally Pops used to wear when he took Grandma Alice out on a date.

Had a puppy ever been this cute?

She didn’t care if he was a coyote or a collie or a cross between the two. He was a baby. The cutest little baby she had ever seen.

Keisha had been longing to love a puppy for so many months that she forgot everything Mama told her except to get the pup to settle down.

“First a den nest.” Keisha jumped onto her bed, twirling and twisting the bedcovers into a swirl, the way she had seen a fox mama do once with an old sleeping bag.

Then she opened the crate. The puppy shrank back.

“No, sweet thing. I’m going to be your mama.” Keisha didn’t give the puppy a chance to decide if he wanted a mama. She scooped him up in her arms and took him into bed. She put the puppy in the center of the swirl, curled herself around him and pulled the cover partway over both of them.

“Roorooroo,”
she said over and over, running her hand over the puppy’s back. He stretched out his legs and looked at her with his sparkly eyes. Then he licked her hand.

Keisha was not certain who fell asleep first. Before she knew it, Razi’s voice shouting, “No, bad doggy!” ended her sweet slumber.

The poor pup was so surprised, he dove under the covers.

“I was going to crawl into bed with you,” Razi said, pouting.

“Razi Carter, I have had it with you!” Keisha sat up and tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes. “The poor little pup was scared half to death last night when Big Bob brought him to this strange place, and for all I know, you scared him whole to death. Out! Now.”

“You can’t make me because I’m going by
myself!”
Razi answered. Keisha could already see the tears. It served him right. She lifted up the covers and tried to see where the pup had burrowed.

“Keisha, baby, I need your help.” While Keisha’s head was under the covers, Grandma came in. “I can’t find my glasses!”

Keisha poked her head out just in time to see Grandma sit down on the end of the bed.

“It’s this ring Bob gave me. I think it got small overnight, but I can’t see.”

“Where did you leave your glasses?”

“I thought you would know.”

Keisha looked for a bulge in Grandma’s bathrobe pocket, but the glasses obviously weren’t there. “I’m kinda busy right now, Grandma.”

“Well, just have a look at my foot. I can’t find the ring.”

“Grandma, what happened? Your foot is swollen.”

“Is that my
foot
?”

Grandma leaned back so she could bring her foot up high enough for Keisha to see. She must have put her hand on the poor little puppy because Keisha heard a squealing, then watched the covers move and the little pup dart out from under the bedclothes and out of the room.

“Grandma! Big Bob’s ring is stuck tighter than your guardian angel. And on top of that, now we have a loose coyote pup.”

Keisha rushed out the door before Grandma could get herself back up.

For the second time in as many days, Keisha ran into Mama and baby Paulo in the hall.

“Just what do you think you’re doing tearing around in your pajamas, miss?”

“I can’t explain it now, Mama. Did you by chance see anything small and furry run by here?”

“Don’t tell me you opened the door to that crate.”

“I promise I won’t tell a lie,” Keisha answered. “Um … have you seen Razi?” she asked, trying to look into his bedroom. But Mama was blocking her view.