Adam picked Sophie up outside the triage entrance and handed
her a new phone. They were headed home for a long-overdue
night together. The air had warmed up considerably. The snow
that remained on the ground had softened. A low level of fog
forced Adam to drive extra cautiously. Blu greeted them at the
door, excited and happy to see them.
Sophie laughed with delight. “Blu! I’ve missed you, buddy.”
She burrowed her face into the fur on his neck.
He jumped up and licked their faces—first Sophie, then
Adam, then back to Sophie. He jumped down and bolted out the
open door to relieve himself.
Adam poured some wine and lit some candles. Sophie let Blu
in and got down on the floor to give him a belly scratch. With
half the bottle of wine gone and Blu settled on his doggie bed,
Sophie and Adam went up to bed.
Some hours later, Sophie awoke to the sound of Blu barking.
The front door had blown open, and a small pile of snow was on
the threshold. Blu was frantically barking. Sophie called for him
from the doorway.
“Come here, buddy! Blu, come here! I’ve got a treat,” she
cajoled. He ignored her and kept barking. His bark turned into
a growl. Then he started snarling, something Sophie had never
heard from him. She strained to see through the darkness but was
only able to make out a figure standing at the edge of the yard.
She heard a thud, then a yelp. Blu went quiet.
202
“Blu!”
JULIE HATCH
She ran to him through the snow, barefoot and with a throb
bing ankle. She heard footsteps running away across their yard,
then down the street. Blu lay in the snow, whimpering.
She yelled for Adam, who was already out the door.
“What the . . . ?” he said.
“There was a guy! He ran that way!”
Adam chased after him. Sophie heard squealing tires and a
car racing off farther down the street. She cradled Blu’s head in
her lap. There was blood coming from his mouth. “What hap
pened, buddy?”
She noticed a small cardboard box on the ground next to
him. She picked it up and helped Blu stand up. He slowly got
to his feet and, with his tail between his legs, lumbered toward
the house. He stopped and lifted his leg, yelping as he relieved
himself.
Sophie went into the house, her frigid feet aching, and tossed
the box on the couch.
Adam ran in. “I couldn’t catch him.”
“Could you see anything? Was he wearing a brown parka?”
Sophie asked.
“He might have been, but I can’t say for sure.”
They checked Blu over from head to toe. His mouth had
stopped bleeding, leaving a layer of bloody fur caked around his
muzzle. He was in pain, there was no denying that, but he didn’t
appear to have any broken bones, and other than his mouth, no
cuts. They gave him some water and tried to get him comfortable
on his bed.
Comfort was not going to be part of Blu’s night, which meant
sleep wasn’t going to be part of what remained of Sophie and
Adam’s night. Blu whined to go outside, cried when he peed,
then came back in. A half hour later, they went through the same
thing. This went on through the night.
203
THE VERY BEST OF CARE
In the morning, they took him to the vet. After listening to
their story, examining Blu, and running some blood tests, the vet
told them Blu would be okay. He’d been kicked—kicked hard in
his kidneys. Relieved, Sophie and Adam thanked the vet.
“Here’s some medication for his pain. Give him plenty of
water. He should be fine in a day or two, and if he’s not, bring
him back. Who did this?”
Sophie and Adam shrugged. “No idea.”
“Well, if you ever find the person, they should be arrested.”
On the way home, sleep-deprived Sophie and Adam went
over what had happened.
“Did you see anything else?” Adam asked Sophie.
“Not a thing. Nobody else was out. It was the middle of the
night, not even any cars driving by. Nothing. But I know he was
running from our yard.”
Adam concentrated on the road.
“Should we go to the police?” Sophie asked. “Report this and
maybe ask them to keep an eye on our house?”
“Yeah, I think we should.”
When they got home, they helped Blu inside and gave him
some of the pain medicine. Sophie got him settled on his dog bed
with his favorite blankets.
Adam picked the cardboard box up from the pile of blankets
and towels they had used on Blu the night before. “Soph, did you
look at what was in the box?”
Inside was a cardboard name placard—the one that hung at
the end of Danny’s incubator in the NICU. Adam read out loud:
“Daniel Fitzgerald Young.”
Sophie ran to the bathroom and threw up. When she came
back to the living room, she was trembling. She grabbed the card
from Adam.
She screamed, looking up at the ceiling. “Who are you? What
the hell do you want?
