Who: Everett Walker & Leela Joshi When: Saturday, February 3, 2017 Where: Heeb’s Grocery What: A dog where a dog doesn’t belong. Warnings: Adorable child.
Heebs was the only Mom and Pop flavor of grocery store left in Vigil after decades of gentrification, and it was still going strong despite having prices up to double other establishments in town and having the worst parking situation Everett had ever seen. Yet it was four blocks from his home and offered the sort of level of “buy local” that Everett required for his shopping endeavors. The only problem was that when faced by a wall of locally sourced and produced breads of varying degrees of “crunchy” he had a dilemma. There was a reason that Nana did their shopping, and it wasn’t just because Everett was “too busy” like she insisted. The fact that he’d already been in the store for 40 minutes and had 5 total items in his cart probably had more to do with it, but she was too nice to say.
Meanwhile, Leela’s cart was full - a mix of items from her grocery list and items that Jackie pulled into the cart when her mother wasn’t looking. Leela, of course, noticed their groceries had mysteriously been growing whenever her back was turned and had been met with a wide-eyed shrug when she had asked about it. Knowing better than to start an argument with a four year old, Leela took a page from her daughter’s playbook and surreptitiously emptied the cart of Jackie’s picks when her attention was elsewhere, one item at a time.
She was placing a box of Super Mario cereal back on the shelf when her daughter exclaimed “Everett!”
“Yeah, look at that!” - A stock mom answer, only seeing what her daughter was talking about after she’d already responded. “Oh, yeah, look at that! Hey!” she greeted the familiar face as she pushed her cart towards him.
Everett was surprised to hear a tiny voice announcing his name and looked around, at adult level first, before moving his eyes to child level just in time to see Jackie barreling toward him with the wanton enthusiasm that only a small child could muster. On instinct, Everett dropped to a crouch and let Jackie crash into him at full steam ahead to dole out the hug that the child was expecting.
“Well, thank goodness you’re here. I can’t figure out what kind of bread to get. I bet you can help me,” he said, scooping the child up easily to put her at eye level with the various options of multigrain breads. He glanced around her head to smile at Leela. “Hi,” he said simply, cheerful as the four-year-old on his arm being allowed to rifle through breads, pretending to know exactly what each package said and pondering which one would be best for Everett specifically.
“She’s very good at picking out groceries,” Leela offered, a touch of weariness tinting an otherwise proud statement. She plucked a box of brightly colored cookies from her groceries and gave Everett a tired smile before moving to place it on the shelf, interrupted by a squeaky “mama, keep it!”
Instantly, the box dropped back into the cart and Leela’s hands raised in surrender.
Everett laughed at the interaction. Jackie had apparently managed to notice her mother’s treachery without removing her eyes from the spread of bread bags before her. “And she has eyes in the back of her head!” he observed before she pointed at the bread that he should get with a sort of confidence that implied that she wasn’t open to be questioned. To reinforce this idea, she grabbed the bag with both small hands and dropped it resolutely in his cart.
She could have picked out a bag of mortifying processed bread and Everett would have been happy with the selection. “Thank you! You saved me,” he said before he began to set her down then froze with Jackie’s feet dangling just inches above the ground. She began to squirm but he straightened back up, with the little girl still held tightly to him, almost protectively.
“Hello,” he said to the space behind Leelah where a very large dog stood looking as though he’d been a part of the conversation the entire time… in the bakery section of the grocery store. It wasn’t that Everett didn’t like or trust dogs or that this one looked like it had any particular plans for aggression, but it had taken him by surprise and was considerably larger than the 4 year old he was in immediate custody of. “Out for a walkabout?”
A small exhale sounding like both a startled laugh and gasp left Leela’s lips as she turned in the direction Everett spoke. Instinct guided her a step closer to her daughter, standing between her and the dog until she could determine whether or not this new element was a threat to her baby. Not that Jackie cared. Her hands were stretched toward it, her fingers reaching to explore the textures of a new animal. Leela guided Jackie’s hands down gently.
“What do we do before we pet, baby?”
“Ask permission,” Jackie pouted.
Leela’s gaze remained steadfast on their furry new acquaintance, who tilted its head to get a better look at the three humans. It shook its head, letting out a small whine as it plopped down onto its hind legs, as if asking them to carry on with their conversation. Leela took a peek at the underside - a male. He seemed friendly. Docile, even.
“Do you have another dog?” She asked Everett, trying to find an explanation for its presence. But still, more questions lurked - Why would you bring him to buy groceries? Are dogs even allowed in here?, just to scratch the surface.
“No!” Everett exclaimed with a little more zeal than he’d meant to, too distracted by the dog casually grocery shopping with them to moderate his tone. “No, Loofah and Hyena would never allow it. He probably just walked in. The doors are automatic,” he added more calmly. He gently handed Jackie off to her mother before crouching to the ground to invite the dog to him, a gesture it responded to gleefully by trotting up to him and leaning against him for attention. With his groceries in his cart forgotten (he wasn’t doing that great of a job of shopping anyway), he snapped his work lanyard with his access card to the collar of the dog, naked of anything but an indication that it had received its rabies shot. “I guess I’ll… go try to find his owner? Good to see you in the wild, as always,” he said, laughing at the situation as he stood to lead the dog off. “See you both next time I’m in!”
Leela set him off with a laugh and goodbye while Jackie echoed Everett’s “Next time!” from her mother’s arms, her tiny hands waving at the dog’s retreating figure.
Jackie was returned to the ground and Leela started to push off in the cart when she was pulled back by a small tug on her shirt. She turned to look at her daughter, who pointed at Everett’s abandoned cart. “Mama, the bread.”
“Right, the bread.” Leela plucked Jackie’s pick from the cart and handed it to her daughter, who clutched the packaging tightly in her hands as she followed her mother to the register, chattering the entire way that she would give it to Everett ‘next time.’