Chapter 12: Howling at the Outhouse

The next morning I woke up restless. I shifted around in the recliner slightly and stretched and felt the presence of someone else in the room with me. I turned my head and saw Rachel all bundled up in her old robe. She lay curled up on the couch.

Warm sweet tenderness flowed through me in a great wave as I stared at her face, mouth slightly open, emitting tiny snores. I stifled the happy laugh that tried to escape my lips. It gave me a warm, intimate feeling to look at her as she slept, tousled blond hair half hiding the face I loved so much.

Warmth flowed through me as I looked at this woman soon be my bride. I swore never to let anything harm her, to keep her safe from the angry world around us at all costs. I wanted to kiss her gently on her forehead. I did the next best thing and looked at her with all the love in my heart.

I reached for my crutches and silently eased out of the recliner. The doctor was due out later to check on the leg cast and pronounce me fit enough to get it changed to a light weight plastic walking cast or remove it entirely. As I navigated toward the kitchen I suddenly heard two weak barks and a moaning howl at the back door. It made me think of a bloodhound trying to sing opera. I made my way into the kitchen and opened the back door.

The ugliest, most woebegone creature I had ever seen half fell across the threshold. Patches of fur were missing from his bloody skull, one ear hung by a strip of flesh and his right front paw had been mangled. How this poor creature ever managed to drag himself up onto the porch was more than I could imagine. Rachel came hurrying into the kitchen belting her robe around her.

"Forrest, what's the matter..." Her voice trailed off as she saw the injured animal lying halfway in and half out of the open back door. He raised his head and looked up at her as he moaned his misery.

"Oh the poor thing." She stooped down and gently touched his uninjured paw. "Whatever happened, Forrest?"

"At first I thought he had been run over but the wounds look more like he was attacked by a pack of wolves. I don't know what happened to him, but whatever it was, had to have been bad," was my understatement of the year.

"Babe, I don't know what I can do. Help me get down on the floor and I'll try. But don't hold your breath." Rachel helped carefully ease my body down using just one leg. I reached over to the poor beast. His moan was a piteous sound and his tongue hung out the side of his torn mouth. It looked like it had been bitten halfway through.

"Careful, Forrest, he might bite you by accident." I looked at Rachel and smiled at her concern.

I reached out and touched his injured jaw. As my fingers came in contact with his lip the energy flowed as it usually did, but it felt different, somehow. His tongue slowly retracted into his mouth and the fresh cuts and wounds disappeared as they began to heal, one right after the other.

The bones in the dog's crushed foot knitted and his back began to straighten as it lost the twisted look it had when he first crawled into the kitchen through the open door. Finally the energy flow stopped and I withdrew my hand. I began to shiver. "Come on in the house, Boy. It's cold with the door open."

As if he understood me, he rose unsteadily and entered all the way Rachel closed the door behind him and watched as he came over and laid his head on my shoulder after I sat up. He moaned happily and backed off. Rachel knelt down and stroked him. "You are so beautiful," she told the dog with great feeling. She stroked the now healed ear and ran her hands over his back

"Ooooh!" he moaned and lay down on his side. I struggled up into a chair by myself. Rachel rubbed his face and his back. She laughed and asked, "Are we going to keep him?"

"Hon, I don't know who he belongs to. We better wait and see if someone comes looking for him. But I can almost guarantee he was abandoned."

Rachel stood and went to the sink where she filled a dish with water and placed it near the dog. His ears perked up and he buried his snout in the water. He seemed to inhale it Rachel gave him another bowl of water and asked me, "What do we have to feed him?"

Rachel opened the freezer door and removed the package of hamburger. She unwrapped it and placed the frozen meat on a plate. Into the microwave it went. The dog intently watched her every move. Two minutes later the bell sounded and she opened the door. It was still frozen.

The dog woofed at her when she held the plate down for his inspection. "See? It's still ... hey," she exclaimed as the dog opened his freshly healed jaws and clamped them down on the frozen block of burger. We heard a crunching sound as he bit through the frozen meat and gulped it down in icy chunks. It all disappeared down his gullet while an astonished Rachel watched silently.

"I think he's hungry, my dearest one," I told her.

"Forrest, I have to ... Good grief. What is it, a monster?" Ralph stood in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room and stared in amazement at the big dog.

"Isn't he sweet?" Rachel asked the astounded Ralph.

"Will he get mad at me if I say no?" Ralph asked.

The dog looked at him and back to me. He came over and laid his head in my lap. He knew I had helped heal him. He looked up at me and moaned. I petted him and roughed his ears and scratched them and he moaned some more. "He likes me," I told Ralph.

"I'm thankful, because otherwise we'd be burying you tomorrow. That is a very scary animal." I could tell Ralph hadn't been around big dogs before.

My Collie got run over a short time before I moved out to the country and I hadn't felt the desire for another dog until right then. I knew without any doubt in my mind at all, this dog was ours. No matter what the future would bring, the dog was a part of our household, our family. Rachel knew it too. "He ought to be good protection," I told Ralph.

"Uh, yes." Ralph eyed the dog dubiously; "I have to go into town for a while. The doctor is due here to check you out in a little bit. Abe Goldman is of the opinion there are no religious overtones to the latest persecution. He says it feels strictly political to him and originates back east somewhere, maybe DC. Hang tight and tell Bill to hire four more people, one woman and three men.

"I'm going to lease a helicopter, a six passenger Bell. With all the recent notoriety we need to move fast. In two weeks you start your own television show. We have a lot of places to go, people to do and all. I have a hunch most of the charges against you are going to be dropped.

"The FBI is due to investigate RICO allegations against one judge and the mayor. The police chief resigned, sold his home for half its worth and left the state for parts unknown. The whole Hogben clan is under investigation and the new DA is trying to make kissy kiss with Abe. At the present, the main thing we're concerned with is the phony practicing medicine and the allegations of child abuse. Sarah sends her best. Bye" He was gone.

"Uh," I grunted at Rachel.

"Ah," Rachel answered me.

"Anybody home?" Bill called from the front door.

"Back here," I called to him. "Pour yourself a cup of coffee."

"No thanks," Bill answered. "Posy and I decided to attend church meetings more regularly and start living the Word Of Wisdom." He looked a little embarrassed, as if he was afraid I'd make fun of him.

"Which brings us to an important..." I started to say and got no further as Bill spied the dog.

"Where did the beast come from?" he exclaimed.

"He followed me home, can I keep him?" I asked with a straight face.

Bill got over his initial fright. "You don't dare not keep him if he wants to stay. How many people a day does it take to feed him?"

"Oh, what a beautiful dog," Posey exclaimed as she entered the kitchen and spied the dog. "Where on earth did you ever find such a beauty? He's mostly Fila and maybe a little Tosa mixed in, perhaps some pit bull. Where did he come from?" Bill looked at his bride, surprised at her wealth of knowledge of the canine world.

While the two women knelt down on the floor and patted the dog and made over him, I explained I heard a howling at the back door and when I opened it there was a dog near death and he dragged himself halfway through the door and collapsed. "I touched him and he recovered. Right now he's hungry and so am I. So if you women will fix your men something to eat, we'll get this show on the road."

Bill grinned, "I already ate so I'm not hungry."

Sounding put upon and aggrieved, Rachel said, "I'll feed the dog the liver I was going to prepare for dinner. And you, Forrest Eden, will have to do with pancakes." She paused, and then added, "In town."

"Sounds like a winner," I told her.

The doorbell rang and Posy hurried to answer it. She led the doctor into the kitchen. He took one look at the dog and said, "Since I am here I will check you out and replace both your casts. But you will have to find someone else to treat you. I refuse to accept dog fighters as patients."

"What are you talking about, dog fighters?" I was puzzled.

"Don't tell me you don't have a pit animal there. He was bred for one thing, killing. I have seen too many poor animals of this same mix down in the south end of the state. Let's see the arm."

"Here, Doctor," the nurse who followed him into the house said as she opened his bag. He told everyone to leave the room. The dog stood up and came over and rested his head in my lap. He looked at the doctor and watchfully waited for whatever came next.

"The dog goes too," the doctor said flatly.

"Go on, Boy, it's all right. Go with Rachel." I rubbed his big head and pushed him away. Reluctantly he let Rachel tug him away by pulling the loose hide on the back of his neck. At the door he stopped and growled a low threat at the doctor.

"You made a big assumption not based on facts," I told the doctor. "The dog showed up on my back porch, dying, and I cured him. If he stays with us, he will never be mistreated. I like animals and they like me."

"Oh?" he asked skeptically. "When it happened, how old was he?"

"It happened this morning, a little less than an hour ago," I stated in a flat voice.

"Yeah, tell me another. Your dog is in perfect health so far as I can see without examining him." He took a heavy shear like tool and cut the cast off my arm. My arm smelled almost as bad as our friend Hosmer's breath. It looked shriveled and weak.

As his nurse washed the dead skin away I tried to explain, "Doctor, I cure by touching the ill. The hows and whys of it I cannot tell you because I don't know. I'm not a religious guru."

"Yes, I have heard your denials on television and watched your highly polished well scripted séances. Or whatever you call them."

"Please do not interrupt." I decided doctors and preachers have a common failing, which is, if it doesn't coincide with their view of the world, it is wrong. "I have been examined by people as diverse as the Mormon church and a couple of physicists from MIT. They all say the same thing, I got the power, whatever the power is, and it works."

"You don't seem to have much luck healing yourself," he came back at me.

"I admit I tried and found for whatever reason I can help others but not myself. There is so much I don't know about it. I'll tell you something else; I wish I had never gotten it. It has turned my world upside down."

"Yes, money has a tendency to do such things to people," he came back very sarcastically.

"I don't know why I am wasting my time trying to convince a close minded fool like you, but for some reason I feel I should. Therefore I shall try one more time." I noticed the doctor wore contact lenses.

"Well?" he asked, looking at me skeptically.

I touched his face and felt the tingle. It lasted but a moment. "You better get rid of your contacts." I grinned at him as he looked around wildly and squinted as he tried to focus his eyes.

"What did you do to me?" he asked in a weak voice. His face turned white and he stood there staring at me, eyes unable to focus. The man looked afraid.

"Take your contacts out. Then you'll see clearly. Go ahead, it won't hurt a bit." I enjoyed pricking his puffed up ego and felt sorry for him at the same time. He sensed his world was about to come to an end and, just like it had been with me, he was afraid of the unknown.

He turned his back as if in modesty and took out the right lens and then the left one. He stood straight and blinked his eyes. He looked at me and shook his head once. He stepped over to the back door and opened it and a skunk walked in, a stranger. He didn't notice the skunk because he was looking at the trees on the hill behind the house. He stepped back and closed the door. "I ... you ... it ... for real, isn't it? You are not a charlatan."

"Nope," I answered.

"There's a skunk in here," the nurse said in a tight voice.

"Take an egg out of the fridge and break it into a dish and set it on the floor. Move slowly away from the dish." Moving like she was walking under water the nurse did as I said. The skunk daintily lapped the egg up and looked around for more. "Open the back door and step away from it and he will go back outside." Still walking under water she did as I said and the skunk went back out the door.

"When do the religious services start?" The doctor was having a hard time adjusting to the new reality he now faced.

Tiredly I answered, "No old time religion here, Doc. How about doing the cast on my leg?" He nodded.

I looked down at the injured leg. He cut the pants leg away. As he removed the cast he kept sneaking little glances around. He had trouble adjusting to the new reality. There were now miracles in his universe.

"Your knee is still a little tender so wait a week before placing much weight on it, just to be safe. You don't need a walking cast so long as you don't try to hurry things. Use the crutches for a week and then start walking a moderate amount. Be careful. Come into my office in three weeks. Call first and I'll fit you in." Looking like a sleepwalker, he packed his bag and left for his office.

I looked at my now cast free limbs and smiled. I did not know why, but I felt by demonstrating my gift to the doctor I did something important. Rachel and the dog came back into the kitchen and interrupted my musings. The dog came over and laid his head on my lap. I began to scratch his ears and again he moaned his pleasure.

"What was the matter with the doctor when he left? He looked like he was lost." She cocked her head to one side, raised an eyebrow and waited for the answer.

"I cured his eyes and he has trouble accepting he was healed by my touch. Anyway, he now doesn't believe I fight dogs out of here. We need to get shots for the dog and some food also. Maybe we better plug the basement freezer in and use it for his food." I had a small chest freezer I kept fish and game birds on the rare occasion when I went hunting or fishing. I like the wild meat, but don't really care to kill it myself. So it pretty much sat down there empty after I ate the last goose from the previous year. I never got around to restocking it. As for the deer I have hanging around the house, no way could I kill one.