Uncle Peanut was wrapping up a story about him and Ted, a story of them vacationing together in Peru, when my mom seemed to have been struck with a sudden thought.
“Sorry, Jack, it’s just your story about scuba diving reminded me of something: Has anyone seen Tammy lately?” Mia asked, looking under the table. Normally she was chirping and bouncing around one of my moms’ legs, if she wasn’t a shadow behind Rex.
Rex shook his head. “I haven’t seen her all day actually.”
“That’s weird.” Ashley stood, looking around. The yard was large, and it connected to a few different buildings that all housed rehabilitated animals, along with the fields for the horses and the lake behind them. It wasn’t unusual for Tammy to lounge by the lake; she was an otter after all.
I stood and Rex followed my lead. “Let’s go check near the lake,” I said. “She’s probably diving around in there.”
Rex and I left toward the lake as my parents and Uncle Peanut started to spread out across the yard, calling out for Tammy. Normally she came running at the first syllable of her name, so this did feel a little off. We walked down the stone path, looking into the bushes just in case she decided to take a nap. That was something she usually did in the summers, but on cooler days like today, she typically enjoyed them by the lake.
“So,” Rex said, when we were out of sight from my moms. “About last night.”
“Tammy! Yeah, about it. Tammy!”
“I really liked it. A whole fucking lot. Tammy!”
“So did I.”
“Maybe we should head back to the guesthouse, after we find Tammy. Just, you know, to hang out.”
I chuckled, trying to play things off as cool as I could. Meanwhile, I could feel my briefs getting tighter. “That sounds like a pla— Oh my God. Rex, look.”
“Holy shit.”
He saw it immediately. How could he not? It was a trail of dried blood, crusting against the leaves of green grass that led toward the quiet lake, its water serving as a reflective surface for the sun to bounce off. It took a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the bright light, but when they did, my heart sank like a ship blown in two.
“Oh no, no, no.” I spotted Tammy by the edge of the water and broke into a run. “Call for help!”
10
Rex Madison
Tammy didn’t look good. She was extremely lethargic when we found her, barely able to lift her head up from the ground. A note hung loose around her neck, reading ‘This won’t end until the Golds do’. There was a cut on her front leg that must have been where the blood came from, and on her back, shaved into her fur, was the outline of a bird.
Except, we all knew it wasn’t any kind of bird. Tammy’s bare skin revealed the rough outline of a dove, with a line shaved at the beak to represent the olive branch. This was a message, and we’d received it loud and fucking clear.
Thankfully, the sanctuary had a vet station on-site. Benji picked Tammy up, and we ran. I called ahead, making sure Mia knew to tell the vet to rush.
“She’ll be okay,” I said as we ran, trying to reassure both Benji and myself. We reached the small clinic and barreled through the doors. Mia hurried them into the exam room. I followed close behind, making sure I didn’t get in the way but was still close enough to help.
“Is she breathing?” Mia asked.
Benji gently laid Tammy down on the exam table, swinging the light over her. “Barely. Her airways don’t seem obstructed, and she’s still conscious.” Benji took a paw in his hand and gave her a small pinch. She jerked back. “She has feeling, so she’s not paralyzed either.”
If this wasn’t such a scary moment, I would have stood back and admired Benji’s shift in demeanor. He switched into leadership mode, taking the reins seemingly without a second thought. He walked around the table with confidence, the fear of the moment appearing to fuel his focus. He grabbed an oxygen mask from the rack and held it on Tammy’s tiny snout, her eyes flitting open and closed.
“She had some nasal drip, and her muzzle looked wet, Mom.”
Mia held up a syringe to the light, watching as the medication filled it to whatever mark she was looking for. She tapped out the air bubbles and felt around for the muscle in Tammy’s thigh. Like a bee sting, she went in quick and efficient. Tammy didn’t seem to notice a thing.
Benji worked with another needle, leaving the oxygen mask resting on Tammy’s snout. He pressed an alcohol wipe on her leg before feeling around with his thumb for a vein. Like a pro, he drew the blood before Tammy could even realize something was up.
“Run a full CBC.”
“You got it.”
“We’ll see what Dr. Kenny says when he gets here—shouldn’t be too long. But I think this is some kind of poison.”
Benji nodded, filling a clear disc with the blood he had drawn before placing it in a diagnostic machine. “That’s what I thought, too. Thankfully she didn’t have enough to kill her.”
“She’s still not out of the woods yet,” Mia said, tying her hair back in a ponytail and wiping the sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her jacket.
Dr. Kenny arrived about five minutes later, rushing in with a stethoscope over his black golf polo. He thanked Benji and Mia, clearly impressed by how well they’d handled the triage. The results of the blood test were already being printed out, saving valuable time and showing Dr. Kenny that yes, Tammy had been poisoned. He got to work, neutralizing any of the poison that was left in her system while making sure she was stabilized.
Benji and I saw that neither of us could do much else for Tammy, not until she was feeling better.
“Mom, I’m going to go check out the security footage, see if we can spot whoever did this.” Benji seemed much less shaken than when we initially stumbled on Tammy. He had gone a ghastly pale, making me think I’d be carrying them both to get help. That changed the second he stepped into the clinic and took the lead in saving Tammy’s life.
“You did great in there,” I said as we walked down the shaded path toward the house. The leaves looked like they were dipped in red and orange paint.
“I spent a lot of days hanging out in there.”
“It showed.” A thought struck me. “Why didn’t you ever consider going to vet school?”
Benji pursed his lips in a thin smile. “I did at one point. School was just never my thing. Dusty got all the brains, and I got all the looks.” He put a hand under his chin and cocked his head, laughing and sounding exactly like his identical twin.
“I don’t believe that,” I said, laughing with him, grateful that this moment allowed for laughter. It could have gotten real fucked-up if we hadn’t found Tammy when we had.
“Why not look into it?” I asked, seeing a little bit of the spark in Benji’s eyes, the one I recognized from when we were kids. He had always talked about doing big things, changing lives and being known, one way or another. He used to talk about being a commentator on ESPN, or a famous sports doctor. He talked about opening up another sanctuary, and becoming a TV host for an animal conservation show. I remember him being fifteen and talking about going to Yale or Harvard. His dreams seemed endless, and it all appeared to be within Benji’s reach.