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"We’ll stay," Nora said at once

"But after the diste to be weak, isn’t he?"

"At first, very weak," Jiet th back I’e distemper, in spite of the convulsions So perhaps by the first of the year he’ll be his old self, and there should be no lasting infir like that"

The first of the year

Travis hoped that would be soon enough

Again, Nora and Travis split the night into two shifts Travis took the first watch, and she relieved hi had seethed into Carmel It roiled at the s, softly insistent

Einstein was sleeping when Nora arrived, and she said, "Has he been awake much?"

"Yeah," Travis said "Now and then"

"Have youtalked to hiard, and his expression was grave "I’ve asked him questions that can be answered with a yes or no"

"And?"

"He doesn’t answer theoes back to sleep"

"He’s very tired yet," she said, desperately hoping that was the explanation for the retriever’s uncoth even for questions and answers"

Pale and obviously depressed, Travis said, "Maybe I don’t knowbut I thinkhe seemsconfused"

"He hasn’t shaken the disease yet," she said "He’s still in the grip of it, beating the darip He’s bound to be a little muddleheaded for a while yet"

"Confused," Travis repeated

"It’ll pass"

"Yeah," he said "Yeah, it’ll pass"

But he sounded as if he believed that Einstein would never be the sa: it was the Cornell Curse again, which he professed not to believe in but which he still feared in his heart of hearts Everyone he loved was doo Everyone he cared about was torn from him

That was all nonsense, of course, and Nora did not believe in it for a moment But she kne hard it was to shake off the past, to face only toward the future, and she sympathized with his inability to be opti she could do for hi except kiss hiet soone, Nora sat on the floor beside Einstein and said, "There’re souess you’re asleep and can’t hear me, and maybe even if you were awake you wouldn’t understand what I’ain understand, which is why I want to say these things nohile there’s at least still hope that your mind’s intact"

She paused and took a deep breath and looked around at the still surgery, where the dilass of the enameled cabinets It was a lonely place at three-thirty in the

Einstein’s breath came and ith a soft hiss, an occasional rattle He didn’t stir Not even his tail uardian, Einstein That’s what I called you once, when you saved uardian You not only rescued me from that awful man-you also saved me from loneliness and terrible despair And you saved Travis froether, and in a hundred other ways you were as perfect as any guardian angel ood, pure heart of yours, you never asked for or wanted anything in return for all you did Some Milk-Bones once in a while, a bit of chocolate now and then But you’d have done it all even if you’d been fed nothing but Dog Chow You did it because you love, and being loved in return was reward enough And by just being what you are, fur face, you taught reat lesson, a lesson I can’t easily put into words

For a while, silent and unable to speak, she sat in the shadows beside her friend, her child, her teacher, her guardian

"But daot to find words because maybe this is the last time I can even pretend you’re able to understand theuardian, too, that I’uardian and yours We have a responsibility to stand watch over one another, we are watchers, all of us, watchers, guarding against the darkness You’ve taught me that we’re all needed, even those who sometimes think we’re worthless, plain, and dull If we love and allow ourselves to be lovedwell, a person who loves is thein the world, worth all the fortunes that ever were That’s what you’ve taught me, fur face, and because of you I’ll never be the saht, Einstein lay motionless, lost in a deep sleep

Saturday, Ji At noon he locked the office entrance at the side of his big, cozy house

During the ns of recovery He dranklimply on his side Head raised, he looked around with interest at the activity in the vet’s surgery He even slurped up a raw-egg-and-gravyhalf the contents of the dish, and he did not regurgitate what he had eaten He was now entirely off intravenous fluids

But he still dozed a lot And his responses to Travis and Nora were only those of an ordinary dog

After lunch, as they were sitting with Ji a final cup of coffee, the vet sighed and said, "Well, I don’t see how this can be put off any longer" From an inner pocket of his old, orn corduroy jacket, he withdrew a folded sheet of paper and put it on the table in front of Travis

For a ht it-was the bill for his services But when Travis unfolded the paper, she saw that it was a wanted flyer put out by the people looking for Einstein

Travis’s shoulders sagged

Feeling as if her heart had begun to sink down through her body, Nora ether It was dated last week In addition to a description of Einstein that included the three-nu would most likely be found in the possession of a ht be living under different naraphs-of Nora and Travis were at the botto have you known?" Travis asked

Jim Keene said, "Within an hour after I first saw hi weekly updates of that bulletin for six months-and I’ve had three follow-up calls from the Federal Cancer Institute to olden retriever for a lab tattoo and report it at

Once"

"And have you reported hi about it until hether he was going to pull through"