Rain part 9a of 16.
Anne left the bedroom and called for Moose. And as always, the tan colored, one hundred and twenty pounds mutt whose head almost reached Anne’s chest while she stood on all fours, bounded to her in a heart-beat. Moose was a full-grown dog, but acted more like a restless puppy. Her tail excitedly wagged side to side. Her brown eyes looked at Anne with full anticipation. While she nuzzled her nose into Anne’s side, the big dog saw Thomas standing in the back ground. Her tail stopped wagging for a brief moment.
That morning, Jack had dropped Moose off at the groomer in town who was also offered boarding service. Jack was supposed to be going to California for a couple of weeks. So, Moose wasn’t there when Jack was murdered. But somehow the dog’s love for his master giving her the extra sense to recognize her master’s murderer. In the two years that Moose had stayed with the Sutton’s, she never showed aggressive behavior toward Thomas, but she definitely kept her guarded distance from the man.
Moose returned her focus back to her mistress. Her tail wagged faster, her tongue lolled out.
“ You’re ready to go outside, aren’t you Moose?” Anne ruffled the dog head. Moose was such a beautiful dog of mixed breed, a face like Labrador, a body as big and tall as a Great Dane and a thick coat like a husky. Jack had adopted her during one of his trip to help clean up a community devastated by tornado in Oklahoma. In the two weeks Jack was there, the ownerless-dog had followed him wherever he went.
“ We’re off.” Anne told her husband.
By then Moose had bounced to the mudroom door by the kitchen. Her red leash was hanging on the peg by the door. Anne slipped off her house slippers, then put on her walking boots. “ The rain dampened your day, didn’t it, Moose?”
Moose’s desire to spend time outside was palpable through her excited behavior, circling her own self in anticipation. Her nail clicked against the mudroom’ tiled floor.
Anne picked up the leash and reached out for Moose’s collar and then opened the door. For a second, Moose hesitated to take that first step through the door as thought she sensed something was not right. Her brown eyes looked up at her mistress. Anne patted the dog’s back, giving her the assurance she needed, and the dog immediately took off. She ran outside without a backward glance like a kindergartener during recess time, leaving her red leash lying limp on the floor. Anne stared at the leash; she had taken the first step in her game.
*****
“ You don't have to do this.” Through the open mudroom door, the slightly cooler August air with its mixed of earthy scents of damp grass, freshly broken tree branches, fallen leafs and left-over rain, brought Jack’s presence back to her.
“ I have to.” Anne said.
“ If you do this, it's going to change you forever.”
“ He had changed me, Jack. You knew that. Now that you are gone……” Anne took a deep breath, shook her head and swallowed the raw and deep hollow feeling she always felt whenever the realization of Jack absence on this earth, came to her.
“ I won't deny the fact that Tom had hurt you in every which way a husband could. But he won't harm you.” Jack tried to reason.
“ A car accident, a house that almost blew up, what do you call that Jack? Coincidence? Come on, Jack.”
“ Tom is not a murderer, Anne. “ Jack said, semi-defeated.
“ He murdered you.” Anne said and with that, she closed the mudroom door. Shut away Jack and all his reasons. Shut away her reasons too. She had planned this. She would going to see it done.
*****
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