For Bear Part Two*~
Leon
John watched Bear hobble slowly over to his bed; lay down, head on paws; close his eyes and whine agonizingly, yet almost soundlessly. He took the medicine bottle out of the bag from the animal clinic, went over and knelt by the dog’s bed.
“I know you’re not going to like this, but it’s the best I can do for now boy.”
He measured out the dosage written on the bottle’s label into the dropper, lifted Bear’s head and gently opened his mouth. Bear didn’t fight it, just let John squirt the liquid medication down his throat and swallowed.
John’s didn’t think his heart had any more room left in it to contain the hurt he felt as he watched Bear being so passive. Seemed like there was to no limit to the pain his heart could hold.
He stroked Bear’s head once, and then stood while pulling his cellphone from his pocket.
John had tried fruitlessly a hundred times since that day, and again like the hundred times before, the phone clicked several times before he heard Harold Wren’s voice-mail, again.
“Harold, please call me. I know you hate me now, I don’t blame you. But it’s not about what happened between us this time. It’s Bear. I know you can hear me! Damn it Harold, talk to me! .... Oh God, I’m sorry, just please call me.”
John pressed the end key and held the phone against his forehead. He knew there would be no call, but he waited, fruitlessly hoping there would be one anyways.
He called Leon Tau. Leon couldn’t quite disguise his surprise John was even calling, “Hey man, what’s up?” John politely asked Leon to come over and gave him the loft’s address.
Thirty minutes later Leon was there, in the loft, his eyes widening as he looked around. “Nice, place, dude. I really need to get in the business of helping people.”
John had Leon up against the wall his hands clutching Taos shirt in his fists without even thinking, “Can it Leon, I know you’ve been working for Harold. Where is he?”
“Can you let me go….please? I’ll tell you what I know,“ pleading with John, knowing his secret was out, if it had ever been one.
John let the shirt and the man in it go. Smoothing the shirt under the palms of his hands, his voice was deceptively calm, “Okay, Leon. Talk!”
“Okay, I do work for him; have since you two severed your partnership. He sends me… stuff… to pass along to that crazy bitch, Shaw. That’s all I do man, I’m just the messenger boy. I don’t know where he is. And no, I can’t track where the crap comes from. I tried once, got nowhere, just a warning to never try it again.”
“You know what? I believe you Leon. So you are safe…for today. Now you are going to make it up to me that you have been lying to me all this time, by staying here with Bear.”
“Why can’t he stay at my place?”
“He’s sick, Leon, he stays here. There are some meds in the fridge for him. The emergency number for the vet is there on the door. If he wants to eat, there’s something for him in there too, next to the meds. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone.”
John left to go change into clothes suitable for riding the Ducati Harold had bought him for his last birthday, before everything had fallen to pieces. Leon was sitting cross-legged on the floor, Bear’s head in his lap, as John headed for the door.
“Not quite ‘déjà vu’ John, but I hope you find him. For him now too." He was looking knowingly down at the dog. "I’ll take good care of Bear, you can count on me.”
~*~
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
For Bear
Chapter Five