Rachel Alexander 05 - The Wrong Dog

other dogs, as if she thought she’d been dropped on some alien planet. That was the first strange thing that happened that afternoon, but not the last, not by a long shot.”
    She turned to look at Bianca, who was giving Dashiell a run for his money. I looked at them, too. Bianca was young, as tall as she would get, but not yet as wide. I figured Blanche had died and now there was Bianca. But I didn’t interrupt the story to ask.
    “After taking a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket,” Sophie said, “the woman began to talk, just dog-run talk at first, same as any other conversation you’d have here, how nice it was that the Parks Department had put in the run, how important it was for city dogs to be able to socialize and run around safely off leash, how beautiful the day was. Then she noticed Blanche’s cape folded and lying on my lap. She asked me what it was and seemed really interested.
    “I told her that Blanche wore her cape most of the time, except when she was playing with other dogs. I told her it was a service dog cape, and I held it up and let it fall open so that she could see it, so that she could read the round patch I’d sewn on the left side.
    “She read it out loud—Please don’t pet me. I’m working—then asked if it was for real.
    “I told her it was. I tell everyone who asks. And they all
    do.
    “ ‘A service dog?’ she asked. She started to bite the skin next to one of her ragged nails. I remember wondering what was making her so nervous, or if that was just her type—high-strung, one of those people whose motor seems to run too fast.
    “I pointed to the other end of the run, saying that Blanche was the white bull terrier who was teasing all the male dogs and then running away to get them to chase her. I said she was a seizure-alert dog and asked if she knew what that was?
    “That’s when she told me that I was the person she’d been looking for.
    “I don’t know why, but for a minute there, I got scared. I thought something was wrong, that somehow I was going to lose Blanche.”
    “Why did you think that?”
    “I don’t know. It was just a feeling that came over me. But it passed quickly. When I asked her what she meant and she started to explain, well, what she told me was so fascinating that I forgot everything else. Even caution.
    “She said she didn’t have my name, that The School for the Deaf wouldn’t give it to her when she called, but that they said they would give me her number, and that it would be up to me if I wanted to call her back.”
    “The School for the Deaf?” Was she lip-reading?
    “I work there. I’m a teacher.”
    I nodded, wondering when she was going to tell me who’d gone missing.
    But Dash was racing back and forth with Bianca and the sky was the kind of blue I’d always thought you’d have to live in Montana to see. So what if she took her time?
    “I’d never gotten any message,” Sophie told me. “Maybe they just forgot to give it to me. Sometimes they get really busy.” She shrugged. “She told me her name was Loma West. She even introduced her dog, Smitty. I thought it was a funny name for a girl dog, but the way she was sitting, with her legs straight out in front of her, her belly exposed, I had no trouble seeing she was a female. She’d turned her head then, right when Loma said her name, and I remember how big and round and dark her eyes were, how she’d looked first at Loma, then at me, with this astonished expression on her face.
    “ ‘Here’s why I was looking for you,’ Loma said, scooting closer to me and lowering her voice. ‘I work for Side by Side. Did you ever hear of it?’
    “I told her I hadn’t. She smiled and said she wasn’t surprised. She said that the man behind it was very rich. But very private. She nodded for emphasis.
    “ ‘But what is it?’ I asked her. ‘What’s it for?’
    “And she said it was a charitable organization that supplies service dogs to disabled people who need them.
    “I wondered why she was whispering. For a minute, I thought she was going to hit me up for a contribution, but I didn’t say anything about that. Instead I asked her if it was like the Seeing Eye or Canine Companions for Independence.
    “ ‘Not exactly,’ she said, and she took a cigarette out of the pack and lit it. I moved away a little, to get away from the smoke. It must have bothered Smitty, too. She sneezed, then moved right with me. But Loma didn’t seem to notice.”
    “Did she