Chapter 6 - Moving On
We all knew that sooner or later we'd have to move on from Manchee's death, we just didn't know when that time would be. Time moved slowly and gradually, second by second, longer every passing day, but we got through it. I think that it was easiest for Tito and Acacia, Manchee's own pups. They say that animals move on from things easier than people do, and I guess they're right. The pups don't even seem to remember that Manchee was ever here. Sometimes they sniff at his bed, but their Noise doesn't let out anything.
Gus and Harper moved on pretty easily as well, but they still didn't forget him like Tito and Acacia did. They played with the pups and they took their minds off it pretty easily. Harper started training them like she said that she would, and Gus sometimes tried to fall asleep in Manchee's bed to pretend that he was one of them. They spent even more time with them than usual.
Toby went out hunting with Todd sometimes, and he started to bring Tito with them. I began to notice how muscly the pup was getting, and soon enough he was bigger than Acacia. I actually began to wonder if they were even pups any more, or if they were dogs now. Maybe they were like teenagers but in mutt form. Acacia sometimes runs to the door when Todd and Toby take Tito out, like she wants to go as well, but she never can.
"Pa said that it's a man's job," I heard Toby say to her one day. "No girls allowed, Cia!" She whimpered and nudged his leg. She's quiet, for a pup. They usually scamper around - which she does - but they also usually talk and chatter and play. She talks very quietly when she does talk, and she doesn't tend to talk unless there's something very important that she has to say, or if she has a strong opinion about something that the family are talking about. By that I'm not saying that she's not normal,because she is...kind of. It's just that I'm used to Manchee, I guess, and Tito is more like him and Acacia is more like, well, their mother, probably. We don't know their mother, actually - that has never really occurred to me before. One day Manchee just came home with them and introduced them to us as his pups. He never said who the mother is.
We tried not to talk about it as a family, but we all heard the boys' Noise - and it all sounded the same.
Ma's cabbage was nice and Manchee and can we go hunting today? and Manchee and Tito, here boy and Manchee. Manchee Manchee Manchee Manchee Manchee. We couldn't get it out of our heads. And it hurt. Part of me just wanted to forget. I couldn't help but remember all those times that Manchee had saved us when we were younger. When he ripped Aaron's face open, revealing his teeth in a gash on the side of his face. When Todd had told me that Manchee bit Aaron's leg when he almost killed Todd before we met. When Todd saved me from Aaron and Manchee bit his arm and then his nose straight off his face. Thinking about Aaron made me feel sick, but I pushed that to the back of my mind. All those times, Manchee was the hero. He was a great dog. And we all wish he was still here.
I awoke early this morning to find the bed cold next to me. I looked over and Todd was gone, and the window was open. I looked out to find his muddy bootprints staining the dry grass. I slipped on a shawl and my boots, left the room and closed the back door behind me as I went outside. I followed Todd's bootprints all the way to the woods, and I found him sitting on a clearly home-made bench. I went and sat next to him.
After a few minutes of silence apart from the whispering of the trees, Todd spoke. "I built it for 'im," he said, patting the space next to him. "I'ma gonna paint it and engrave it today."
I nodded. "Its beautiful." I smiled at him. "I'm sure he would have loved it." Chewed it, more like, I thought, and I was glad not to have the Noise germ.