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DOG of GOD: The Novel

Balboa Press

Chapter One

A police car moves slowly down a quiet residential street. Due to the short winter days, the evening cold is already crusting the snow, making the roads slippery, making it difficult for the officers to find the house number in the dimness.

The patrol car finally slides next to the curb and the drone of the motor dies. The officers inside wipe the fogged windshield, straining to see the small clapboard house just up the shoveled walkway. Its one lit window shines across the soft-mounded yard.

The two police officers exit and head for the house, sliding and slipping with every step. Tramping up the stairs to the porch, they pound on the red front door. As they wait, cold puffs billow from their nostrils. A woman peers through the curtain, then jerks it closed.

The wait seems interminable for the two officers as they hit themselves for circulation under their jackets, stamping and blowing against the cold.

Yes? ... the door opens a crack.

Lillian Fleur?

Yes ...

Do you mind if we come in?

What is this about, officers?

May we enter and discuss our reason, it's very cold ...

She makes no indication of being hospitable.

Madam Fleur, we have evidence that you are harboring a small dog confiscated from Paramanguaia (Para-mon-gee-a), Brazil.

I have no dog, officers, so if you'll excuse me ... The door starts to close.

We've just interviewed your neighbors, and they have verified that you indeed have a dog on your premises answering to the description we have on file.

The door shuts and remains shut. The officers knock again, wait, knock louder, then pound the door. Still no movement. The larger officer yells through the door, This animal is in your possession illegally, Madam. Open up now, or we will have to take more forceful measures!

The woman opens the door, her arms folded across her body, but she says nothing. She is noticeably nervous, with little beads of sweat on her upper lip, even in the winter's cold. The officer continues in a normal tone, Madam, According to Canadian Law 13789 of the penal code, you are in possession of stolen property—a dog from Brazil.

Tears well up in the woman's eyes. Please leave me alone! I have no dog, I-I don't know what you're talking about.

We see that indeed you have just returned from a trip to Brazil transporting a dog. Sergeant Fernando Oswego Rodrigues, a high ranking official from Brazil has personally contacted us for verification so this dog must be very important ...

She slams the door and the police hear the lock clicking into place—along with a dog barking somewhere inside.

Chapter Two

Away out in the blue of the waters and away down in the black of the Ocean depths-an event is going on. Two lovers are about to partake in their daily race that starts very early in the morning and goes until one or both are too exhausted and can go no further. Today will be a great race because it is the beginning of the currents of warm; the dolphins have been traveling a long way together to elude the northern waterways of the cold ...

Two feet cubit times fifteen raised to the fifth power—got it! Go now! Go-go-go!

WHOOSH—up, up, up, dark to light—major tail kick, FA-WAP ... AIR. Breathe, in-out, in-out, fill lungs, sheebit first time it always burns, get over it, thankgawd cooling: in-out-in-out, she's in front of me, tilt head down-WHOOOOHUMPPT—water: faster with more thrust, com'on, com'on, com'on, thankgawd she's falling back, yahahaha ye-ssss always faster underwater, feeeeels sooo good.

SONAR READING: object ten feet head.

TRACKING: moving sideways, moving upward: thick, thin, thick, thin; strings together, strings out = lunch!

My fave! Squid ... ahhhh.

Race canceled.

Lookit her fizzzt past, damn she's fast. So glad to have her back—I'm smiling, I'm smiling, she always makes me smile. That's why I love her. But my tummy calls.

Squid.

Two feet, ten inches north by northeast—go!

YES! STRIKE! Ahh, yessss—yumyumyum, whooooo tickleeey; struggling, squirmin' little tasty squididy squid: numnumnum, ahhhhh sooo satisfiyin', ahhhh.

Uh oh.

She was back. She was puffin'. She was mad.

Hey, you can't do that, nose head! she was sayin'.

Gawd, it always drove her crazy when I changed my mind so fast. Couldn't help it, though. Always said, Opportunity shows itself—ATTACK!—or it just passes right on by looozer.

Besides, I just happened to be a teeny-bit hungry after a whole morning of racing. Gotta give it to her though, man, she's got it—fast as hezzop—great competitor. Keeps my torso tight. That's my girl, Eeeoo. You might think Eeeoo's her name, it's not. It's her frequency—Eeeeeeooo—think about it.

Me? I'm Zeeep: also fizzzz fast, dikdik impatient, love to race, always racing ... but it's not my finest talent. My finest? Well, take a guess ... heh, heh. And my next finest attribute? I am an aquatic acrobatic artist. I excel at: back-falling, breaching, three-quarter body breaching, half-body lobtailing, flips of all kinds: somersaults, twists: right turns, left, sqeezzzzipper. I am, however, still working on the spin. Whoa! Now that's a beebo-a-ramma. Saw it demonstrated off the coast of Santa Barbara, whole pods of these pinstriped jobs executing with the finest precision, all the hezzop over miles-and-miles of territory—greatest thing I'd ever seen. Dikdik!

I admit I'm a show-off. Most dolphins are.

Take Eeeoo, now she's ... she's to the extreme. She was famous once, ya know. Truth. Was a main feature in some kind of Aquatic Zoo. Kinda sad story. Whadda life, workin' with the humans. Not somethin' I'd a chose. The stories? Gaaaawd.

Now, some of those human folks were good, loving, devoted—even stellar—but man, some of 'em—sick! Sick to the core. Nasty, nasty bunch. So much so, they fitzbing un-did all the good.

How'd Eeeoo ever get into a situation like that? Well, we were young, just teenagers. We were each other's first love. Outta control. Sheebit like that always leads to trouble. Eeeoo got addicted. Yeah, strung out on tour boats cuisine that would chug up and down the coast. She was hooked on the amazing eats they'd throw off the side of those boats—prize fish, delicacies not from around here. Not so tasty, I thought. Not fresh from the ocean, I could tell. But a farm pond (I later found out.) But not Eeeoo, no,no,no, she became fanatical to the prestige of foreign dining. I guess. I dunno. Women.

I gotta confess though, that for a while I even got hooked, heh, heh, heh. Yep. What was addicting was free food, heck yesss—more time for fun. Now that I think of it I'm still addicted. I'm addicted to fun ... and again with the confessions: that's why it was so hard to go through all the stuff that happened to us because of it.

Chapter Three

The nurse's eyes turned to her. Squinched way down to a hard line, her eyebrows grew together and two worry lines popped up between them. Sabrina could feel her whole body tense up.

Because we have vaccinations, the nurse replied. I need to review your records, young lady ...

What was she talking about? She remembered the whole month of...