The Story of a Lonely Wolf Chapter 21: Waiting Room
"See I told you it wouldn't take long," Cassi said as the little red car came to a stop behind the van.
"Yeah," Josh replied as they all got out of the car.
"My butt…" Hige whined as he slowly got out of the car and began rubbing his sore butt.
"That's nothin'," Josh said as he walked toward Hige, "I have to sit there for hours at a time sometimes. You can't be that sore. We were only in the car for about 20 minutes."
"Yeah well, I've never had to sit like that before, ok?" Hige replied still rubbing his butt.
"Quit complaining and come on," Tsume said in an annoyed voice and followed Drake and Sara into the office.
"Sara, show them where the waiting room is," Drake said as he laid Toboe down on the examining table.
"Ok," Sara replied. "This way," she said and led them to the waiting room.
"This does not look fun at all," Hige said as he followed Josh. "There are cages, needles, boxes, and lots of other painful looking things in here," he said nervously as they walked through the little room. All the rooms in the office were quite small and all had white walls. They smelled of about one millions different scents from all the meds, people, and animals that had been in there earlier that day.
"What happened to all these animals?" Kiba asked as they walked past the cages and saw all the sick and wounded animals.
"Oh, those are all the stays we found on the street," Sara replied as she took them out of the little room and through a hallway.
"I'm glad I'm not in there," Hige said with a relived sigh as he walked out of the room and into the hallway.
"Why would you be in there?" Josh asked as he turned around to look at Hige. "You're not an animal. You wouldn't be in a cage like that."
"Oh yeah, you're right," Hige replied and rubbed the back of his head with a smile. If you only knew kid.
"Right…" Tsume replied as he turned to look at both of them. The hallway didn't look much different from the other room. It had white walls and bluish-purple color carpet that stretched all the way down the long hallway.
"This is a very nice place," Cassi said with a smile as she walked behind Sara.
"Well it's not the biggest place in the world, but it works just fine," Sara replied as they continued to walk down the hallway.
"Is it just me or is this hallway really long?" Hige said as he walked.
"Could be," Sara replied, "I guess since it all looks the same it could seem very long. We really need to get some paintings on these walls don't we?"
"What's in all these rooms?" Kiba asked as they walked passed a bunch of doors on both sides of the white walls.
"Those are all of our examining rooms," Sara replied.
"I thought the room Toboe is in was the examining room," Cassi replied.
"Well it kind of is. That's where we keep all the sick animals. These rooms are just for check up visits."
"Oh I see," Cassi replied as they came to a door.
"Finally," Hige said.
"Here is the waiting room. Please wait here. I will come get you when we are finished," Sara said with a smile as she opened the door to let them all in. "I'm going to go back and help Drake now. There is a button on the front desk if you have any problems push that button and I'll be right in."
"Thank you," Cassi said as Sara turned and walked back down the long hallway closing the door behind her.
"Look Mom, it's almost light outside," Josh said as he looked out a nearby window.
"Yeah, it was like that on the way over here too," Hige replied.
"This room isn't so bad," Kiba said as he looked around the waiting room.
"Yeah, it's not all white," Tsume replied in his usual tone.
"Well of course it's not. They make the waiting room the best looking room because it's where the most people are," Cassi said. The waiting room did look a lot better then the other rooms. It had nice comfortable chairs. The wallpaper had beautiful designs on it with different shades of dark and light blues mixed together. There was also a big fish tank with lots of different colored fish next to the window Josh had looked out of just a few moments before. In the front of the room was a desk with a computer on it. Behind the desk was a little room full of shelves with flies in them.
"Did you show them to the waiting room?" Drake asked as Sara walked in.
"Yes," Sara replied. Drake had already begun on Toboe. He had reopened the stitching on his chest and was cleaning it with some different machines.
"Find anything?" Sara asked as she put on some gloves and walked over the table.
"Only lots of infection," Drake replied.
"His lung is infected?" Sara asked as he began petting Toboe's head.
"Well only in one spot. He will have to go on some more medicine and maybe have a breathing treatment or two, but I think he'll be ok," Drake replied as he flushed out the wound some more.
"You're not going to have to use that huge needle on him to give him the medicine are you?" Sara asked.
"Yes."
"Awwww poor boy," Sara replied sadly. She knew which medicine Drake was talking about and the only effective way to give it to him was to stick a big needle in his chest and into his lung and on top of that the medicine burned. It was really a very painful thing to have to do to an animal.
"Well instead of having to use the big needle on him can't we just give him the medicine now while his chest is open?" Sara asked.
"Not in his case," Drake replied, "We have to do it when his chest is closed so it can heal."
"Oh... so he needs more then one dose then?"
"Yes. The infection covers a small area, but it is a very bad infection so it will need more then one dose. We can't leave his chest open that long so it has to be closed."
"I see," Sara said as she stoked Toboe's soft brown head. "Well boy, looks like there will be some pain in your future, but don't worry it will pass and you'll feel 100 times better once we are all done."
"Hey, check his neck to make sure it's not infected as well," Drake said.
"Alright," Sara replied and cleaned the stitches then carefully began shaving the area so germs from Toboe's fur couldn't get in his wound.
"Make sure you clean it really well before you open it," Drake said.
"I will don't worry."
/Flashback/
I hope Granny gets home soon, Toboe said to himself as he settled down next to Granny's old rocking chair for a nap. I'm really hungry, he thought as he waited for Granny to get home. "Oh well I'm sure she'll be home soon," Toboe said and fell asleep.
"Oh Toboe," Granny's old voice was heard a few hours later. "Are you hungry, Toboe?" the old woman asked as she quickly got Toboe's food ready. She knew he'd been alone all day and must have been starving. "Toboe," she said again and began walking into the living room.
"Hi Granny!" Toboe barked happily as his head popped up and he wagged his tail at what looked to be 80 miles an hour.
"There's my good boy," Granny said as she slowly walked into the room. Her old legs wouldn't go as fast as they used to so Toboe decide to go to her instead of making her come to him.
"Granny!" Toboe barked happily again as he raced toward his old friend and jumped on her chest. He didn't know he was a lot bigger and heavier then he used to be and Granny couldn't hold herself up under his weight
"Oh Toboe, please don't!" the old woman cried as the brown wolf jumped on her causing her to drop the food and fall backwards under his weight.
"Welcome home, I missed you. Did you have a good day?" Toboe happily barked as he stood on Granny's chest and licked her face.
"Toboe please…" the old woman said as she gasped for air trying to get her lungs to expand under the brown wolf's weight. "I can't breathe…" she said as an old hand reached in the air then fell to the ground.
"Granny?" Toboe said when Granny's eyes closed and her face became pale. "Are you ok?" Toboe asked as his tail slowly stopped wagging and he stood over the old woman's cold body waiting for her to wake up. "Granny?" he said again. He didn't know he had killed her. He thought she just fell asleep. He slept on the floor all the time. There is no reason why she wouldn't as well.
"Old lady," a knock was heard at the door a few days later.
"Huh?" Toboe said as he sleepily woke up.
"Old lady," the knock was heard again this time much louder then the first.
"Granny, someone's at the door," Toboe barked and licked her face trying to get her to wake up. It had been a few days since Granny fell asleep, but Toboe hadn't left her side even for a moment. He wanted to be sure he was there when she woke up so he could play with her. Why won't she get up… Toboe asked himself as a great sadness filled his eyes. "Granny, someone's at the door. You need to get up," he wined but the old woman wouldn't move.
"Old lady, are you alright?" the voice and the knocking at the door got louder and full of more concern each time they knocked on the door. "Hey you, can you come here for a minute?"
"Granny, please get up," Toboe said.
"What do you want?" another voice was heard outside the door.
"Call the police and tell them the old woman that lives here hasn't been seen for a few days."
"Hey, I know that voice," Toboe said as his ears picked up every word and he realized he knew the man who was knocking at the door. "That's Tim the mail man!" Toboe barked happily. He liked Tim a lot, but hadn't seen him for a few days because of Granny. "Tim!" he barked happily and ran to the door.
"Why do we need to call the police? She might be visiting a family member or something," the other voice replied.
"I wonder who that is?" Toboe said as he stood by the door.
"No, she's all alone. She doesn't have any family alive," Tim replied.
"Well how do you know she's been missing?" the man asked.
"Because she hasn't gotten her mail," Time replied. He didn't have a phone to call anyone and was talking to a man whom he saw walking down the street to see if he could call someone to come and check on Granny.
"I'm sure she's fine. She's probably just taking a nap or something," the man said.
"For a few days?" Tim replied annoyed.
"I don't know and why should I care? I don't even know that lady," the man replied angrily.
"Can you just call the police, please?" Tim asked.
"No, I can't. I'm not wasting the minutes on my phone to call for someone I don't even know," the man said and walked away.
"What a jerk," Tim said. "Guess I'll go to the neighbors' houses and see if I can use their phone," he said and walked away.
"Tim, wait don't leave!" Toboe barked. He was very hungry and very lonely. He didn't want Tim to go. "Tim!" he barked again, but Tim was already gone. Oh he left, Toboe thought to himself sadly and walked back over to Granny and laid down next to her again. I wish she'd wake up.
/End Flashback/
