Chapter 1. No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
[Chapter 2 will be available on August 1]
The invitation that could change
Vanessa's life was stuffed, unnoticed, with the rest of her mail in
the overloaded briefcase under her arm. She struggled to get the
key into the lock of the wood paneled door to her condo. Her damp,
honey colored hair fell across her face as she tried with her other
hand to control the leash attached to a wet and shaken dog she'd just
rescued. At last the key clicked into place. She dragged herself
and the frightened dog into the warm, welcoming, yellow front hall.
Her foot caught in his trailing leash and she flopped onto the hard
parquet floor. Her violet eyes looked at the shivering mass of
dirty, white fur. “No good deed goes unpunished, right, Mr. Dog.”
He whimpered and sniffed her hand.
She felt he was asking a bewildered 'who are you?'
“I could ask you the same.” Great.
Now she was talking to dogs.
The scent of her Jergens hand lotion
must have reassured him because he let her lift the ID tag attached
to his red leather collar. Somehow the dog must have pulled his
leash out of the hand of his owner or dog walker and ran away. The
shiny brass disk was engraved Charles and gave a phone number.
After reading it, she pushed herself off the floor.
“Don't worry, Charlie. We'll get
you home as soon as I make this phone call.” Since they were both
wet from the icy November rain, she hung her Burberry raincoat on a
door hook and took him into the small, bright kitchen. She set out a
bowl of water. When Charlie started lapping it up, she punched in the
number on his tag.
“Lakeview Animal Clinic. This is
Jackie,” answered a husky voice. Vanessa explained why she was
calling. She had found the dog cowering at the stone steps to her
brownstone building and wanted to locate its owner. When asked she
gave her name and phone number. Jackie said she would check her
records and either she or the dog's owner would get back to her.
While talking, Vanessa had carried the
phone into her white, subway tiled bathroom. She pulled off her dark
grey suit jacket and skirt, replacing them on the hangers she had
left out when she got dressed that morning. The white cotton blouse
went into a straw Mexican basket hamper. Since she didn't know if
she'd have to go out again with Charlie, she decided not to get into
her usual Nick and Norah pajamas, splashed with red cherries. She
sighed and got into an old purple sweat shirt and pants, left over
from her student days at Northwestern. Sylvia, her best friend, said
she looked like a bloated grape in them, but they were comfortable
and reminded her of happy college days.
She found an old blanket for
the dog. She put it
down in front of the
refrigerator 'cause
she thought he might like the warm air that always seemed to come out
its bottom. It was a good thing Dan
or 'Dumpling' Dan as Sylvia called him, was
too busy to come over that night. It looked like her evening was
going to be occupied with a dog. A frizzle of worry seeped through her
mind. It seemed that Dan
was always 'too busy' these days. Maybe their once hot romance was
cooling off.
Her phone's ring tone
signaled a call from Sylvia. Too bad it wasn't a call about the dog,
she thought, but was glad to tell Sylvia about her Good Samaritan
deed. While they went over the details of their busy days, Vanessa
slid a frozen Gino's pizza in the microwave and set the timer.
Whenever she used the microwave, she felt like saying, 'It's eazy
peazy,' just as she did as a little girl with her Easy Bake oven that
cooked with the heat from a light bulb.
A great multi-tasker she
laughed at Sylvia's description of a new law client, waited for the
pizza, and flicked through mail she had picked up, with some
difficulty because of the dog, from the downstairs entry hall.
Nothing but bills and
fliers, except "ooh, that's odd." She must have blurted it
cause Sylvia asked, "What's odd?"
"Oh, sorry. I was
thinking out loud. Flipping through the mail I finally got something
interesting. It's a square, cream colored envelope and on the back
it says "Chateau de Savigny". I think it's from France!
Why would I be getting a letter from France?"
"Open it, open it,"
urged Sylvia.
"Hang on, while I get
a knife." Vanessa slipped a red handled paring knife under the
flap and opened the envelope. She slid out a stiff, heavy weight
folded note card.
"The cover has an
embossed picture of a chateau. Oh my gosh, I can't believe this."
"Well, don't get too
excited. It's probably an invite to come down to the local wine shop
for a sale on French wines."
"Don't be such a
cynic. I think it's an exciting invitation to a romantic and
adventurous weekend on the French Riviera. In fact, I need to
believe that so I'm not going to open and read it. I don't want to
have my dreams destroyed.
"Hey, you can't leave
me hanging." protested Sylvia.
"You're going to hang,
because my call waiting is clicking. It's probably the dog owner so
I have to take it. Talk to you later."
It was Jackie from the
animal clinic. "I'm sorry but we haven't been able to reach
Charles' owner. We're closing the office now, in fact I stayed over
so I could call you."
"But, but, what should
I do with him?" He was a cute, quiet little guy, Vanessa
thought, but she had no dog food or other doggy stuff.
"You could always call
animal control and they'd take him to the pound." Jackie
suggested.
Charlie looked up at
Vanessa as if he knew an important life decision was being made for
him.
"I...I couldn't do
that." she stuttered.
"Could you possibly
keep him until tomorrow when we'll do a further search for his
owner?"
"I guess I could do
that." Vanessa agreed. It was a good thing she'd put on the
sweat suit. She'd have to take the dog out for a bathroom break.
The microwave beeped. The
pizza was done and smelled delicious, of melted cheese, basil and
sausage. She took some of the meat off the top, broke it up, and put
it in Charlie's bowl. He looked at her in surprise.
"What's the matter?
You're too good for pizza sausage?" She knew her near north
side neighbors included plenty of wealthy pet owners, people who
probably hired uncaring dog walkers, but still fed their pampered
dogs steak. In her business she met lots of the very rich, who hired
someone to do everything for them. Charlie may have been used to top
sirloin, but he was a hungry animal. He gave a little arf and set
to.
Vanessa sat on a tall
kitchen stool while she ate her share of the pizza, drinking water
instead of Coke, beer or wine. She was trying to cut down on
calories, not that it seemed to do her waist line any good. Maybe she didn't really look like a bloated grape but she was beginning to feel like one.
The pile of mail called to
her and she idly went through the rest of it. Set to the side, the
card from France seemed to shine, its creamy surface reflecting the
overhead light. She ignored it, wanting to continue her fantasy of a
trip to France. Perhaps she was the long lost heir to a fortune. Or
she'd won an all expense trip for a stay in Provence.
But even if the invitation
was for something wonderful, she couldn't leave her job, or Dan,
could she? And now, what about Charlie?
[To be
continued on August 1.]
