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Ji stupidly He said, "I feel like a child who’s sneaked downstairs on Christifts under the tree"

"My turn," Travis said, sliding forward and putting a hand on Einstein’s head, patting him "Jim just mentioned Christmas, and it’s not far away

Twenty days from now So tellyou?"

Twice, Einstein started to line up the lettered tiles, but both tied them He tottered and thumped down on his butt, looked around sheepishly, saw that they were all expectant, got up again, and this time produced a three-word request for Santa

MICKEY MOUSE VIDEOS

They didn’t get to bed until two in thebecause Jim Keene was intoxicated, not drunk from beer or wine or whiskey but froence "Like a , wonderfully like, yet wonderfully different fro, based on what little I’ve seen" But Ji’s wit, and he was the first to say that they must not tire their patient Still, he was electrified, so excited he could barely contain himself Travis would not have been too surprised if the vet had suddenly just exploded

In the kitchen, Jim pleaded with them to retell stories about Einstein: the Modern Bride business in Solvang; the way he had taken it upon himself to add cold water to the first hot bath that Travis had given him; and many more Jim actually retold some of the same stories himself, almost as if Travis and Nora had never heard thee him

With a flourish, he snatched the wanted flyer off the table, struck a kitchen match, and burned the sheet in the sink He washed the ashes down the drain "To hell with the small minds who’d keep a creature like that locked up to be poked and prodded and studied They enius toof what they thereatness of it, because if they did they wouldn’t want to cage hireed that they were all in need of sleep, Travis carried Einstein (already sleeping) up to the guest room They made a blanket-cushioned place for him on the floor next to the bed

In the dark, under the covers, with Einstein’s soft snoring to comfort the’s going to be all right now"

"There’s still so," he said He felt as if Einstein’s recovery had weakened the curse of untimely death that had followed him all of his life But he was not ready to hope that the curse had been banished altogether The Outsider was still out there so

TEN

1

On Tuesday afternoon, December 7, when they took Einstein hoo He followed them out to the pickup and stood at the driver’s , restating the treatment thatthem that he wanted to see Einstein once a week for the rest of the ’s medical care but for drinks, dinner, conversation

Travis knew the vet was trying to say he wanted to remain a part of Einstein’s life, wanted to participate in the ic of it "Jim, believe me, we’ll be back And before Christmas, you’ll have to come out to our place, spend the day with us"

"I’d like that"

"So would we," Travis said sincerely

On the drive home, Nora held Einstein in her lap, wrapped in a blanket once more He still did not have his old appetite, and he eak His immune system had taken severe punishment, so he would be more than usually susceptible to illness for a while He was to be kept in the house as ained his previous vigor- probably after the first of the year, according to Jied with saturated dark clouds The Pacific Ocean was so hard and gray that it did not appear to be water but lookedcontinuously agitated by soical upheaval in the earth below

The bleak weather could not da, and Travis found hireat interest, clearly treasuring even the somber beauty of this nearly colorless winter day Perhaps he had never expected to see the world outside Jiain, in which case even a sea of juhts

When they reached home, Travis left Nora in the pickup with the retriever and entered the house alone, by the back door, carrying the 38 pistol they kept in the truck In the kitchen, where the lights had been on ever since their hasty departure last week, he i place in a cabinet, and put the lighter gun aside He proceeded cautiously froe itelary, and he expected none This rural area was relatively crime-free You could leave your door unlocked for days at a ti down to the wallpaper

The Outsider, not a burglar, worried him

The house was deserted

Travis checked the barn, too, before driving the pickup inside, but it was also safe

In the house, Nora put Einstein down and pulled the blanket off his In the living rooe-turning machine

He returned to the kitchen pantry, clicked on the light with his foot pedal, and pawed letters out of the Lucite tubes

HOME

Stooping beside the dog, Travis said, "It’s sure good to be here, isn’t it?"

Einstein nuzzled Travis’s throat and licked his neck The golden coat was fluffy and s a bath, in his surgery, under carefully controlled conditions But as fluffy and fresh as he was, Einstein still did not look hi lost a few pounds in less than a week

Pawing out ain, as if to e at the pantry door, Nora said, "Home is where the heart is, and there’s plenty of heart in this one Hey, let’s have an early dinner and eat it in the living room while we run the videotape of Mickey’s Christed his tail vigorously

Travis said, "Do you think you could handle your favorite food-a feeenies for dinner?"

Einstein licked his chops He dispensed more letters, hich he expressed his enthusiastic approval of Travis’s suggestion

HOME IS WHERE THE WEENIES ARE

When Travis woke in the ht, Einstein was at the bedroom , on his hind feet with his forepaws braced on the sill He was barely visible in the second-hand glow of the night-light in the adjoining bathroo had no view of the front yard But perhaps, for getting a fix on The Outsider, sight was the sense on which he least depended

"So to wake Nora unnecessarily

Einstein dropped from the , padded to Travis’s side of the bed, and put his head up on the ?"

Replying with only a cryptic mewl, Einstein settled down on the floor beside the bed and went to sleep again

In a few ain near dawn to find Nora sitting on the edge of the bed, petting Einstein "Go back to sleep," she told Travis

"What’s wrong?"

"Nothing," she whispered drowsily "I woke up and saw hi Go to sleep"

He did e to fall asleep a third tih to learn how to use tools during its six-, it was sh the bedrooave Einstein his medicines on schedule, and he sed his pills obediently They explained to hith He tried, but his appetite was returning only slowly He would need a feeeks to regain the pounds he had lost and to recover his old vitality But day by day his improvement was perceptible

By Friday, Deceh to risk a short walk outside He still wobbled a little now and then, but he no longer tottered with every step He’d had all of his shots at the veterinary clinic; there was no chance of picking up rabies on top of the distemper he’d just beaten

The weather was milder than it had been in recent weeks, with temperatures in the low sixties and no wind The scattered clouds hite, and the sun, when not hidden, laid a war caress on the skin