Seth entered the apartment with all the finesse of a drunken Marx brother. The wooden planks he carried caught on the door frame, and he slammed into them hard enough to drive the air from his lungs. He startled the young girl who sat on the living room window seat vigilantly watching for her dad. She looked exhausted.
“Sorry,” Seth said to the girl.
Everyone had an assigned task to kill time until Cal returned. Seth’s job was to raid the apartment being renovated upstairs for tools and materials to patch the bedroom windows that had been damaged during the fight. Cat was on the phone, telling her construction contractors to take the day off.
Lelani quietly came out of the girl’s bedroom with the dog wrapped in bedsheets. A limp paw stuck out of one corner, an unfortunate oversight. The corners of the young girl’s mouth drew down and began to tremble. She fell into another fit and buried her teary eyes on her forearm against the sill.
“She was engrossed with the view from the window only a moment ago,” Lelani whispered. “I checked before coming out.”
“My bad,” Seth said.
Lelani hurried out of the apartment.
Seth looked toward Cat to tell her the girl was upset again.
“A family emergency, yes,” Cat said into the phone. She was spinning around the kitchen, putting away candles and incense and doing other chores as she talked. “A death in the family,” she continued. “And tomorrow, too. No, I’m not sure how long. You will definitely get paid for both days. No… I’ll have to talk to my husband about that. I’ll have to… Look, I don’t know the answer to that right now.”
The girl cried so hard she quivered. She soon developed the hiccups. Seth tried to break into Cat’s phone conversation, but she was in her “zone” and the rest of the world didn’t exist.
“I just don’t know at the moment,” Cat continued on the phone. “I’ll call you as soon as I do. Yes, I know many people want to hire you, Mr. Pellegrini-you were highly recommended by the Kramers, but…”
Seth dropped the planks by the couch and gingerly approached the girl.
“Hi,” he said. He was no better at starting a conversation with a five-year-old than a twenty-five-year-old. He realized how much of a crutch the porn gig had been.
The girl looked up. Her expression said You’re not my daddy.
Seth already thought this was a bad idea right after “hi,” but he couldn’t abandon her now.
“I’m Seth. I’m a- friend — of your dad.” Seth spotted a box of Kleenex on the end table and pulled a few tissues for her. “Here, for your eyes,” he said with a smile.
She hiccupped, took the tissues, and honked a glob of snot into the pile. Then she held it out for Seth to take back.
“Uh-why don’t you hold on to it,” he said. “Just in case. So your name is… Britney?”
She gave him a quizzical look, the type with a pout. “Brianna.” Hiccup. “Are you sure you’re a friend of my daddy’s? He tells all of his friends about me. They know my name.”
“Maybe ‘ friend ’ wasn’t the right word. Anyway, I noticed you were sad. Thought maybe you’d like some company.”
Bree shook her head.
“You’re sad because of your pet,” Seth continued.
Bree nodded.
“I have a pet, too. She never saved my life, though.”
“Maggie loved me.” Hiccup. “The bad man hurt her because she tried to help me.”
“That’s what dogs do. They protect the people they love.”
“But, I miss her.” Brianna started to tear up again. “I didn’t want her to die.”
Seth pulled out a fresh tissue for her.
“Maggie was a good dog,” he said. “I know that she’s in heaven right now looking down at you and she’s very happy that you’re okay. I think God gives dogs a special cookie when they save their masters. Sets them up in a doghouse as big as a barn; makes them the alpha dog in their pack in heaven.”
“What’s an alfafa dog?”
“The boss. The big dog who takes care of all the rest.”
Bree nodded. She liked the sound of that.
“What kind of dog do you have?” she asked.
“I have a cat. Her name is Hoshi. It means ‘star’ in Japanese. She sits on my head in the mornings because I won’t turn off the alarm clock. When bad men come after me, she runs under the bed and meows at them, but very angrily.”
Bree smiled.
“It’s true,” Seth said with mock sincerity. “She says things-in cat language of course-like, ‘Leave the food guy alone, you ugly wonk. He hasn’t filled my dish yet.’ Or, ‘Get away from the food guy, you repulsive mooch, my litter needs cleaning.’”
“I’d like to meet Hoshi,” Bree said.
“Sure. I’ll have you up one day.”
It took Seth a moment to realize there was nowhere to have her up to-he was homeless. He forced a smile. The talk of Hoshi chastising men who were after him also reminded Seth that Carmine wanted his kneecaps for wall trophies. Besides the freak show, there were normal everyday humans out for his head as well. He wasn’t sure which set of goons were worse.
“Plumbers are the worst,” Cat said, slamming the phone into its cradle.
“Excuse me?” Seth jumped.
“Plumbers. To get a good one, you have to book them months in advance and then you have a prima donna with butt crack to deal with.”
“Right.”
“Is the…” Cat made hand motions to signify the dog being out of the child’s room.
“Yeah. Lelani took care of it.”
“Poor thing.”
“She was a brave dog.”
“No, I mean Bree,” she said pointing.
The girl was asleep on the window seat. Cat took the tissues from her hand and covered her baby with a quilt.
“Seth, please fix my bedroom window. Then I can put her down in there.”
“Yeah.” He picked up the planks and resumed his march toward the back.