The Four Cornered Forest

continued...

In the forest Perim eases up as soon as we are out of sight of her. He sees a squirrel, offers a half hearted chase and keeps going. He knows where we are going and is leading the way. His form of leading is to scan off trail to one side then the other. Occasionally he dips back close and checks behind me. He is a herder by lineage, and keeps tabs on whomever is around.

I am pretty sure I am his favorite. Maybe Grandpa too, but besides him, it’s me. When we walk with Edsel he still checks in on him, but he’ll come the first time I call. He never hesitates. Even with Mom or Dad or Edsel, he still hesitates, but not with me. Not ever.

We both are half jogging. He likes it when we go fast. My deer skin moccasins help me move through the forest like him. I like to go a little fast because the forest still feels a little eerie this time of year. I’ll admit it. It feels like there might be some unknowns in the background just out of sight, which is not that far away. Something dark in the shadows. Something out to get me. So we move quickly and make it a game. Edsel says he is never scarred in the forest but I know he is. We call it ralking. Running walking. But more than that, a noun with a bigger meaning specific to this sort of forest… like there might be something lurking. Some eerie unknown. He ralks as much as me.

Grandpa is waiting on the porch holding something. As I get closer, my god. A puppy. Kind of like Perim, but furrier and littler. Perim joins the puppy immediately. Licks it. Perim knows that if the puppy is Grandpa’s then it’s his. He is that smart. I still don’t understand the bite. Or I’m afraid I do understand it, and that is what’s weird. I’ve just got to come out and say it.

Grandpa, Perim bit that lady today, one that pulled up in the driveway.

What?

Seriously. He did. Some lady Mom knows pulled in after you left and got out of her car and Perim just went straight to her and bit her. Like straight away.

Perim? Perim. He puts his hand on Perim and shakes his nozzle softly, but he knows it's too late to talk to him about it.

What do you think it was? Grandpa asks, half to me, half to Perim.

Well… I pause and look at my Grandpa. I give my serious eye because when I do he seems to get it, and he’s not afraid of me telling him my ideas or what I think of something.

So seriously, what do you think? he asks again.

I think he doesn’t like her. I think he straight up sees something about her that he thinks shouldn’t be near anybody. Or at least around us.

What you do you think? Did she seem nice?

He’s giving me time to think, and I like that about Grandpa. I have to look at my fingers for a second, scrape a little dirt from under one nail while I think about it.

Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I watched it happen. It happened right after she got out of the car, and he knew right away. He went straight to her leg, bit it and backed up, watching her the whole time.

Did he bite her from behind, like he was herding her or something.

Nope. Straight from the front. And never took his eyes off of her. Like he wanted her to know it was coming from him.

I suspect he did. I’ve never seen him so much as growl at a person before. Other than the UPS driver, but that is pretty common. Well, maybe some, but now just some woman who pulls up in the drive. Your driveway, no less.

Margaret. That’s the lady.

Margaret. Grandpa gets a look like he is thinking about something he isn’t going to tell me.

You know her? Grew up here, she says. Cabin on the 220.

Margaret. That Margaret… I’ll be damned. Yep, I do know her. And Perim bit her…His voice fades off with his eyes.

He didn’t have to say another thing. I know he thinks it's interesting. But he may well tell me out loud anyway, Grandpa always does.

That is interesting, he says. I knew it was coming. I haven’t heard that name in a long time. Wonder if she is going back out to that cabin of theirs.

Says she is.

That is going to need a lot of work. A lot.

Says she saved up money, moving back. From Great Falls.

Yep, Great Falls. I remember when she went.

Where?

Great Falls.

Why’d she go there.

Well, kind of sent there. It's a long story. One probably better for your Mom to tell you, but the short version, and you are old enough to know I think, is that she killed a boy. On accident, I suppose.

Grandpa pauses a long second looking at the two dogs.

That is what I’ve always wanted to think, anyways.

Grandpa is playing with the puppies ear. Perim is sitting down on his side. Grandpa's hands are like old saddle leather. Made from tree limbs. Tough as steel. His hands on those soft puppy ears. And giant. He is petting the puppy as he remembers a whole lot of something.

That is, what she said. I’ll be honest, and your Mom and Dad may well feel otherwise, but I am telling you now one of my secrets, ok, like you tell me sometimes… Big picture stuff. I never trusted her, that girl. I never thought that was an accident.

He pauses. Looking out in the forest.

Your Mom and Dad, I am pretty sure they did trust her, and that was a long time ago, and people can certainly change, I know that for fact, but at the time…

Grandpa set the puppy down. Perim got up, scuffled his fur a little to shake the dust off, and went to the puppy to push him a little with his nose. The puppy wriggled a little, then pounced.

What’cha gonna name him?

Her. And yeah, what are we going to name her?

She looks like an Augusta to me, I say.

The town?

Yep.

Where we camped last fall?

Yep. Kind of has that coloring.

Damned if you aren’t right.

Grandpa! Language!

I know. I know. Augusta it is. Augusta it is.

She looked up at us, turning her head a little crooked. She already had it.

After a couple weeks Augusta is spending about half her nights with us. Grandpa says he likes for us to have a dog around and with Margaret coming by so often, Perim isn’t his first choice to stay with us. Otherwise, I’d probably get to keep him here. But Augusta is great. She hasn’t pooped or peed in the house a single time. She clearly has an affection for me and considers Edsel to be more of one of her sheep. She nips his heels constantly.

Mom is laying adrift and tired on the couch in front of the fireplace after making some lunch. The cabin is warm.