“She’s microchipped,” he said, once again with that same exaggerated patience in his voice, “as anybody with any knowledge of most dogs would be aware of.” In the meantime, he saw the look in the dog’s eyes, one of broken trust and fear. “It’s okay, girl. The bad man won’t hurt you again.” Tucker glared at the abuser.
The manager hesitated. “Well, it’s your neck,” he said. “If she bites you, it just gives me a better reason for putting her down.”
With the cage open, Tucker waited for the manager to step back. Tucker stepped inside the cage and closed it and then stood and waited for the manager to leave.
The manager hesitated, and then he shrugged and said, “Hell, if she rips you apart, makes it even easier too.”
“She won’t,” he said with complete confidence, “because I don’t abuse animals.” Then he turned to sit down at the corner opposite Bernie and said, “Hello, girl. It’s been a pretty tough ride these last few months, hasn’t it?”
Addie Rottenheim walked into the living room and looked at her sister, Bernie. “What’s the matter now?” Addie asked in exasperation. Her sister lifted a languid hand and brushed back a few tendrils of hair from her forehead. “I’ve got a headache,” she said.
“You’ve got a headache from the mess you caused,” Addie snapped. “What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t do anything,” she said. “That dog’s a menace.”
“That dog never hurt a fly,” she said. “I’m not even sure how the hell you got her to bite you. You must have been intentionally cruel to Bernie. This has got to stop.”
“I hate that dog,” she said. “Better that it’s long gone. I wish they’d already killed it.”
“And I never understood that about you,” she said, staring at her younger sister with loathing. “Why would you hurt an animal like that?”
“I’m not hurting it,” she said waspishly. “She needs to be put down.”
“And why is that?”
“Because she’s a danger, and I proved it,” she said with a smirk.
“So this all goes back to Mom and Dad getting it for you, and then you not wanting it, huh?”
“They didn’t get it for me,” she protested, pouting.
Addie shook her head. “You’re the one who convinced them that they should adopt this K9 dog because it had the same name as you. What did you think it would do? Come with a handsome soldier at the same time?” she said, staring at her sister. She never really understood what made her sister tick, and it seemed as soon as she did understand one little bit, something changed. “Or was that just because, at the time, you had a military boyfriend, and you thought he’d be impressed that you had a War Dog?”
Her sister glared at her. “It has nothing to do with Ivan.”
Addie rolled her eyes. “Right. Of course it doesn’t. It has everything to do with you. Always about you.”
Bernie huffed in dismissal. “Besides, Mom and Dad wanted a dog. Remember?”
“Sure they did, but they were looking for a chihuahua. And somehow you managed to convince them, like you always manage to convince them, to get something that you thought they should have. It’s called manipulation. That’s something else that you need to stop doing. To your own parents. To me.”
“So what?” she said. “And now we know that that dog was a big mistake. It’s not my fault. They made their own decision,” she said with a sneer. “Everybody likes to blame me for everything,” she said, “but they’re the ones who made the decision.”
“And they also make those decisions sometimes under pressure, under duress,” she said, glaring at her sister. “Bernie, you need help. Professional help.”
Again Bernie just ignored that which she didn’t want to hear.
Addie knew most of her tricks. Here, as usual, she changed tactics. It’s called diversion. Addie knew all the terms.
“Well, it’s dangerous. They should have shot it weeks ago.”
And, for that, Addie almost hated her sister. Bernie was a beautiful dog. She stared at her sister and said, “I want to see the bite. I can clean it for you. I am a nurse, you know? Plus we need to watch out for red striations up and down your leg, which are markers for infection. But don’t worry. I bet it’s not even bad.”
“It is so,” she said. “Besides, it doesn’t matter how bad it is. The animal’s dangerous.”
“Not if you’re the one who brought about the attack.”
“I didn’t bring about any attack,” she said. “You’re always determined to think the worst of me.”
“It’s not hard.” She shook her head, headed out to the kitchen where her purse was. “I’m leaving,” she said.
“Wait, wait,” she said. “I don’t have anything for my headache.”
“I guess you’ll have to get up and get it then, won’t you?” she said callously. And she stormed off, out the front door. She’d come over because their sister had been whining about being in extreme pain, and it hadn’t taken very long to realize that her sister was up to her usual games and just wanted somebody to coddle her. It was not a game that Addie played well. But then, with their parents gone on another trip, not too many people were available for Bernie to play her usual games with.
At her car door, Addie stopped for a moment, taking several long deep breaths of fresh air. Her whole family struggled with Bernie. Something was definitely mentally wrong about her. She’d somehow ended up being the most selfish person Addie had ever met.
At twenty-six, Bernie was so spoiled their parents didn’t know how to deal with her. It’s the reason they took all these long trips. To get away. They hated coming back, and, when they did, they immediately started planning the next one. Bernie had shown no sign of leaving the nest, so their parents left to get away from her. It was a terrible situation, and Addie had argued with Mom and Dad several times about it, but they were helpless because ultimately they still loved Bernie, even if she was the kind of person you didn’t like and didn’t want to have around.
Most of the time Bernie was fine; she just needed a lot of extra care and was extremely high maintenance. Mom and Dad had hoped that Bernie would find a boyfriend who’d marry her, but she seemed to burn through them pretty fast.
Addie herself thought that the boyfriends only took so long to figure out just how high maintenance Bernie was before they took a walk. And they never came back. Addie couldn’t blame any of them, but, at the same time, she knew her sister did have good points—some … okay, a few—but it was damn hard to see them sometimes, like right now.
Addie was still so damn angry about the dog. She had yet to even see the bite and had no idea what her sister had done to deserve it, but Addie knew her sister had done something to provoke the dog. So far, all Addie’s efforts to save the dog had failed because her sister refused to do anything other than order that it be put down. Bernie had clearly lied and had said that the dog bit her several times. Then changed it to one bite but kept it bandaged. Addie just didn’t know why her sister hated the dog so much.