|
|
|
|
|
|
|
the TV. They were used to her carrying on over some night critter. What they could not hear was the terror trebling her voice. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She pulled hard against her rope to get at him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Matty crouched and glared into her eyes five feet away. He could smell her fear. Excitement shot through him. ''Bad girl," he said in a low voice. "Bad, bad Gretchen." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She stopped barking and backed up a little, making a low, deepth-roated growl. Her eyes had turned stark with fear. She kept looking back to the house, hoping that somebody would come out. She was beginning to make funny sounds, yelps and barking sing-whines. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Gretchen, stop," Matty muttered in a ragged voice. "Now." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The animal fell silent. Her backward shuffle ceased and her legs collapsed; her ears went back and she began licking at her nose. Matty moved closer to her, eyes locked on her eyes. His gaze was like a funnel through which his will flowed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gretchen began to whine softly, submissively. "Good doggie," he whispered. "Come to me." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gretchen looked over her shoulder at the lights from the house. She emitted a bleating whine, then snuffled down on her paws and scraped along the ground toward him. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Matty rose and watched her inch her way to his bare feet. "Good girl." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
He could feel her hot breath on his toes. His fingers hummed to touch her, to dig into her fur. But he didn't want to startle her, so he kept himself just inches from her snout. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
While she pressed herself onto the ground, she kept up a strange kind of whimpering that sounded to him a little like the yodel-talking that Claudia, the deaf girl in his school, made. "That-a-girl . . ." |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
She looked up at Matty hanging over her, then rolled over on her back, opening her legs. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"Good Gretchen," he whispered. He looked at her white belly. He wanted to feel the downy fur. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
As his hand got closer, Gretchen's whimpers became soft yelps. She was also panting so that her tongue seemed to obstruct her breathing. Matty's fingers stopped just at the tips of the hairs on her belly. He held his fingers there, trying to make sense of the un- |
|
|
|
|
|