A Boy, a Dog Girl and Bell's South: Part Four

The room was quiet and dark. Moonlight poured through the open windows, curtains rustling slightly in the breeze, the sound of chunky steel carriage cars rumbling below.

It was a quaint, clean room. A queen size bed which Honey had gone near berserk over the moment she had seen it. “We’ve been sleeping on the ground for so many nights! I’ve missed beds!” She had happily curled up on it afterwards. With the lights off, she still reminded him of his old dog.

There was little else of note in the room. A desk, a wardrobe with nothing in it, a rug of the non-flying variety. Nothing to distract him. Nothing to quiet the voice in his head.

Please, let me sleep. I can finally relax.

You died. You jumped without thinking. Again.

I did what I needed to do.

What about her needs? She’s alone now. More alone than before.

I know! What do you want me to do?!

Nothing you can do. Selfish boy. Stupid boy.

Shut up…

Quiet certainly mean rest. Relaxation. Relative safety. It also meant reflection. And as he sat up, the girl who had once been his loyal dog sleeping next to him, snoring softly, his hands clenched tightly at his side. His eyes clamped shut. He tried to silence the voice.

But all he could think of was his mother.

She lost her husband because he fought back. Jail. Divorce. Loneliness.

Now she lost her son because he fought back. To her, he was dead. What was she doing tonight? How was she dealing with it all? He hadn’t had time to think about it the past few days.

Now it was all he could think of.

The spell was broken, however, by a gentle kiss on his hand.

They came one after the other, like rain after a fierce storm, the cleansing calm after the darkness. Zack’s eyes opened wide. He hadn’t even realized he was crying until the tears fell on her face.

“I don’t know what else to do.”

Honey looked up at him, her eyes as wide as Zack’s were, but not filled with the same sorrow. Hers were great pools of concern and love for her boy.

“What?”

“Before. When I was different. On nights you cried, when the man and the woman fought and you couldn’t do anything but cry. I would kiss your hand and let you touch my head.”

He remembered. All of those nights when he had been too young to fight back. Honey had been there, her head on his lap.

“But…you’re not…”

“A dog. I know. People keep telling me. You keep saying it. But I don’t know what it means. Do you want me to stop caring for you?”

“No!” Zack shook his head fiercely. “I…I want…I think I need some air.”

Honey nodded, then pointed at the window. “There’s a ladder on the side of the building. Would you want to…”

“Yeah. I would. Lets go get some air, Honey.”

*

The night was bright in the city, with the stars and moon lighting up the sky and the twinkling lights of the buildings of Bell’s South illuminating the streets. The great golden bell sat in the middle of it all, a gleaming dome which seemed to glow of its own accord.

“It is beautiful.”

Zack sat on top of the roof. The city stretched out before him as his legs dangled over the ledge, Honey next to him, gently holding his hand.

“It is.”

The wind blew, fanning her hair out behind her like a cape. She closed her eyes, reveling in the sensation. Zack found she was the only thing which could make him look away from the lights.

“This is stupid! Why do I do this to myself?! This is…everyone wants this, right?! A city of wizards, magic school, a beautiful girl who…I mean…”

“I have problems with this too,” Honey said softly.

“You do? I mean, you’ve seemed pretty happy.”

Honey shook her head slowly.

“Everyone thinks I’m still a dumb dog. Maybe I am. I know letters and numbers. I can talk and think. I know to pee on a toilet and to dress before going out. But complicated things…”

“Like what?”

“Like why you’re sad. I don’t understand it. And it makes me sad.”

It took Zack several moments to speak again. The moon seemed to gaze down at him like an unblinking eye, waiting for a good answer.

“I guess it’s…regrets. Not over the stuff I did. I wouldn’t change what I did. But I hate how messy doing the right thing is.”

Honey stood up then, brushing her butt off and smiling at Zack. She held her hand out to him eagerly.

“Then no more messy! I’m sick of not knowing what to do! My job is to take care of you, and your job is to take care of me! We can’t do anything about the past, but we can make the future good!”

Zack took her hand, letting her pull him up.

“No more sadness. Okay. Alright. I can…I’ll always miss my mom. But I need to be here for you, too.”

Honey nodded excitedly.

“Right! No more calling you master! I’m not your dog! I’m your girl! You teach me how to think like a human, I’ll teach you how to be free like a dog!”

“Oh? And how do you propose to do so, she who once drank from toilets?”

“Howl with me!”

Zack tilted his head as Honey looked up at the moon.

“Excuse me?”

“Howl! Let go! All the sad, the happy, all of it! Tomorrow will be a new day and the dark will carry it all away!”

Zack couldn’t help but laugh. Then he tilted his head and, with Honey, howled into the moonlit night.

*

Chistos laid in his bed, listening to the two maniacs howling on his roof, bloodshot eyes open, mouth twitching.

“Chista is going to be grounded for a decade…” he muttered.