Lola

Here’s a scene from book #3 – “Hey, anybody got a title?” Spence says. Chet and Bernie working on a case that takes them to Mexico. They’re staying at a cheap motel and Chet wakes up in the night.The power in the village has gone out.

I opened my eyes, saw the bed beside me. I rose and looked at Bernie. He was sleeping, one arm outside the covers, chest rising and falling. I watched that arm for a while, and might have kept that up for some time, but then a gust of wind blew through the open window, carrying a powerful smell, the powerful smell from my dream. The dream itself was gone, but did I care? No. I was already at the window, sticking my nose out into the night. That smell, the very most powerful smell in the nation within the nation: need I mention it’s the smell that females of my kind sometimes get when they … have wants – let’s leave it at that.

The next thing I knew I was outside. I’m a pretty good leaper – in fact, the very best leaper in my K-9 class, which actually led to all that trouble on the very last day, meaning the day I would have gotten my certificate – but with such a low window even a bad leaper, Iggy, for example, could have done it. Well, maybe not Iggy.

Ah. So nice to be outside on a soft and beautiful night, all silvery dark, the moon now in a different part of the sky and lower, nothing stirring, and that special scent a snap to follow. Was this the way things were in olden times? I began to see why Bernie went on and on about them, whatever olden times actually were.

The scent led me away from the motel, across the hard-packed dirt street, still warm from the day, and into an alley with a bar on one side – easy to tell from that barroom smell, which I must have described already, probably more than once – and a crumbling wall on the other. The alley ended at a cross street, also dirt, with deep ruts here and there like black holes. Bernie talked about black holes a lot. They were dangerous, capable of swallowing up everything, so I was careful to avoid them. I made my way down the street, low ramshackle dwellings on both sides, the scent growing stronger. A moment or two later, just beyond a rusted-out car up on blocks in someone’s front yard, I glimpsed a bushy tail, pure white in the moonlight and raised up high.

I trotted on over, not fast; no need to scare anybody. And there she was! Nice and big, although not nearly my size, of course; mostly black and white, with some other colors, too; a longish snout and small watchful eyes: I liked her! She gave me a look with those small watchful eyes and then turned and trotted away. But not fast – we were in tune on that not fast thing. I trotted after her, gave her a sniff. Ah, yes. After that, it got not so easy to keep events straight in my mind. But did she give me a sniff back? Pretty sure that happened. And there’s no doubt I bumped up against her and she kind of pushed back a bit. Then we were in the shadow of the rusted-out car, a very private space. My eyes were on the moon, but I wasn’t really seeing it.

All of a sudden a woman called out from the nearest ramshackle house: “Lola! Donde estas?”

Lola? A cool name, but the interruption was inconvenient. A flashlight went on, and the beam began sweeping the yard.

“Lola! Que haces?” The beam passed over us, came back, and stayed, circling us in bright light. “Dios mio! Vete aqui!” Very inconvenient, because we were busy. And then just like that – in the way the very best things can sneak up on you – we weren’t! Lola scooted out from under me and took off toward the house, glancing back once. Those small watchful eyes: I’d never seen anything quite like them. The next moment something got thrown at me, missing by a mile, whatever that was. “Perro malo – vayase!” Meaning what? Not sure, but I caught the tone and ambled off. I felt tip-top, just about the highest tip-top I can feel. It was great to be south of the border down Mexico way.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 at 9:50 am and is filed under Chet The Dog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

15 Responses to “Lola”

  1. Rebecca Rice
    5:11 am on December 1st, 2009

    Oh my. How romantic!

    Chet, I'm happy for you and all, but… Bernie's usually very much on top of the whole social consciousness thing– doesn't he know how many pups end up in the pound, or worse, because people don't fix their pets?

    I'm not saying there's anything *wrong* with _you_, and I'd feel bad denying you the opportunity to be a great lover, but…

  2. ALR
    5:52 am on December 1st, 2009

    Hard to know what to say about this, Chet! Leap back in that window, buddy. I've heard Mexico is not that safe.

  3. abbie
    7:17 am on December 1st, 2009

    Hmmm a new title. How about "Paws for Reflection" Although it seems to me that Chet wasn't or doesn't do much reflecting. He just goes with the moment.

    Could be, I'm just a cat. We like to reflect on things.

    [img ]http://chetthedog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/1259687833-B0003630.jpg[/img]

  4. Diane
    7:56 am on December 1st, 2009

    Oh – Paws for Reflection is such a good title: someone thought of it already – it's in Amazon.com. I thought about Scent of Danger – but several other books have that title… A Nose for Love could be a chapter heading….

    But most important of all – BOOK THREE!

    Yippee!

  5. Diane
    7:57 am on December 1st, 2009

    Abbie- You are a bee-you-ti-ful calico!

    😉

  6. Rebecca Rice
    2:20 pm on December 1st, 2009

    Abbie– Agreed. Beauteous indeed.

    Our three cats are a quirky black and white who looks anorexically thin (Luna), a grey and white tuxedo cat (Edmund) and a big black tom with a blocky head named Sirius. Wojo is the dog, and he looks sort of like a super-sized black golden retriever.

    Names… Hmmm… A Tail in Two Countries?

  7. abbie
    5:24 am on December 2nd, 2009

    Abbie thanks her new friends for their comments.

    [img ]http://chetthedog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/1259767480-small abbie in a box.jpg[/img]

  8. Tiffany
    2:05 pm on December 2nd, 2009

    Will Chet's little encounter with Lola leave him with any offspring? If so, perhaps the title could be "Heir of the Dog"? 🙂

    [img ]http://chetthedog.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/1259798686-arey pics 260.jpg[/img]

  9. abbie
    6:07 pm on December 3rd, 2009

    OOOOO Tiffany that is a great idea…And I love your snarky look while thinking it….Very funny.

  10. ivy
    10:08 am on December 6th, 2009

    I agree. Very cool title, Tiffany. Snarky is a good word, Abbie.

    Book names are curious. Often, I don't understand why a book is entitled as such until I get to the very end.

    I love books, but I talked myself out of a Kindle this year. 🙁

    …ivy

  11. Dogtanian Jr
    11:29 pm on December 13th, 2009

    How about 'Dog Mexico Way' for a title??

    If I don't talk to you before Christmas, me and my buddies in Australia wish a good one – may plentiful quantities of food be dropped on the floor for you to hoover up!

    Dogtanian Jr

  12. Chet The Dog
    3:25 am on December 14th, 2009

    Dog Mexico Way – I like it!

  13. Dogtanian Jr
    6:59 pm on December 16th, 2009

    We're very glad you like it Chet!! We're waiting for Thereby hangs a tail to hit the shops with the same anticipation that you havw waiting for ribs…. bark.

    Dogtanian Jr and Jackie

  14. megan
    2:36 pm on January 13th, 2010

    title? my owner told me thats its a name of something. so lexi is my title? whatever. but a title for the book…. ummm…….. lets see……..how bout….no…..oh maybe…….no thats not it….uh..oh gee. how bout New Mexico Pups? is that too, megan's slang word- whatever slang means, lame? uh i dunno, im still just a pup. or something like the last title?….. Thereby Hangs A Tail, And Another, And Another. no…. maybe not. good thing it isnt a test….

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    12:36 pm on April 9th, 2011

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