Lost Change

Chapter 14

I ignored Susie's excited jumps as I entered the backyard, and paused only long enough to grab a bag of treats before I continued into the house. The smell hadn't gotten any better from the first day I had entered it, and I quickly flew towards the front door. I glanced behind me, expecting to find the dog following me, but she wasn't there.

Susie was paused at the back door, where she had tilted her head in confusion. I hadn't entered the house at all since that first day, and I had skipped the normal ritual of tossing the ball around for her whenever I returned. She was confused. The dog whined at me, then turned back to run a circle through the yard. She stopped by one of the balls and growled playfully, then picked it up and ran another lap with it clenched between her teeth.

I hovered at the door and whistled. "Susie!"

The dog paused and tilted her head again... then ran another lap around the yard. She dropped the ball and barked at me, then dropped down in a 'play' pose and growled next to the ball.

I thought back to the crates being unloaded by the aliens. How many were there? How far away from the city did I need to get? Would they have to put them at different parts of the city, or was one location good enough to reach everything with? I doubted I had gotten lucky enough to find the one spot they would plant their bomb at, but how many other sites would they have to go through? The Votak had said the city had to be destroyed by the end of the week... but how far away was that? Was today Monday, or was today Friday? Did they even use the same concept of 'week', or was that just the closest meaning my brain could understand?

We had to go.

I flew out to the backyard and swooped over Susie's head with another urgent whistle of her name. She whined at me, but instead of following after she just grabbed the ball and stared up at me, as if daring me to take it from her. I hissed at her, trying to get her to understand, but she was too focused on the idea of playing - she growled back at me, then took off around the yard once more.

I sighed with a frustrated warble. Fine.

Another ball was lying in the overgrown grass, so I glided towards that one. Susie caught sight of me and seemed to realize what I was headed for. She dropped her ball and growled, then dashed towards the other ball. I flapped to put on some speed, and snatched the ball up just before Susie got towards it.

I flew back into the house... and this time Susie followed me. I heard her claws skitter across the wooden floor as she sped through the hallway after me.

I hovered next to the front door and dropped the ball, which Susie happily snatched up for me. I went to work on the door, unbolting the lock and then turning the handle, swinging it open wide and giving the dog access to the wide world beyond her back yard...

The dog just stared out the door with another look of confusion.

I dashed through the door and whistled for her, throwing a loop through the air on top of it, but the dog stayed inside the house. I whistled again, and she whined before taking a nervous step towards the door... then she stepped back, looking around her like she had just been caught chewing up the carpet or ruining the furniture. I circled around the outside of the house and grabbed the bag of treats from the fence, bringing it back and dropping it on the ground in front of her... but she just stared at it for a long moment before she looked back up at me and whined nervously.

I whistled at her again, but it was no use. The dog almost looked scared at this point, and I felt bad even thinking about urging her onwards. I hovered for a moment and tried to think. There had to be something else going on here - Susie wasn't scared of going outside; she was perfectly fine with going out the back door into the yard. It was only the front door she was worried about. I hovered for a few more seconds, then flew back inside.