The rest of the afternoon went by uneventfully as well. Brandy had some work emails to send, so she had retreated to her office. In the meantime I found ways to entertain myself. After asking Brandy for permission, I went into the living room and watched T.V. for about half an hour. There wasn't really much that interested me, but I did catch some National Geographic. They were doing some kind of documentary on the legend of drop bears and where it originated. It was kinda cool, but not much to keep me entertained. I shut off the T.V. and made my way upstairs and into my bedroom. The longer I spent there, the more it grew on me. The way the light cascaded through the window onto the hardwood floor created a warm feeling as I walked over it. I laid down on the bed and opened my book as I often did. It was quite an interesting book, documenting some WW2 battles. I had always been a war buff, and I loved reading about it. That wasn't the only thing though. I also loved books about mythology. After about an hour of reading I heard Brandy calling my name from downstairs. I got up quickly and made my way through the hallway and down the stairs. Brandy was standing next to the front door with her bag in hand.
"Time to go!" She said.
It was a pretty uneventful drive. I talked to Brandy about her job, what she liked to do, etc. After about 20 minutes in the car we turned into another small neighborhood. We drove right up this hill into a cul-de-sac. Brandy parked on the street in front of another interesting house. It was all shades of color, and gave off a very homey appearance. The driveway already had 3 cars in it. We got out and walked up a stone pathway to the front porch. A few toys littered the front yard, but they weren't dirty. They had clearly been placed there recently. I was basically having an anxiety attack the entire time. Brandy once again took my paw like she had at the adoption center and led me to the front door. Brandy rang the doorbell, and I proceeded to do probably the most embarrassing thing of my life to date. I, a 16 year old male, hid behind her. Obviously "hid" is a very strong word. I was quite a bit taller than Brandy, standing at 193cm (6'4"). To say I was nervous would be the understatement of a century. After a few short moments the door swung open revealing a red heeler who looked very similar to Brandy.
"Hey Chilli!" Brandy said, exchanging a hug with her. Chilli responded,
"Hi Brandy!" She turned toward me, "And you must be Oscar!" She exclaimed.
"Oh...uh...yeah that's me," I said while smiling meekly. Chilli proceeded to usher us into the house. I had my right paw on my left arm, feeling awkward just standing there.
"Follow me and I'll introduce you to everyone," she said. I followed her quietly to the next room, which appeared to be the living room. Sitting on the couch were a few guys watching a cricket match on the T.V. Sitting in an armchair on the other side of the room was an older blue heeler knitting something. There were also two little kids laying on the floor coloring, a young red heeler and a slightly older blue heeler. The room was loud, too loud for me anyway. The kids were arguing with each other about what color a unicorn's horn should be, and whichever team the guys on the couch were cheering for appeared to be losing. I had to tuck my ears for a second to avoid sensory overload. The two kids glanced up when we walked in and shared a look with each other before running over to Brandy and hugging her.
"Auntie Brandy!" they both yelled in unison.
"Hey girls!" Brandy responded while hugging them back. Chilli butted in.
"Girls, this is Oscar. He's your cousin," she blue heeler got a confused look on her face for a second.
"How does that work?" she asked.
"Well your Aunt Brandy adopted him," Chilli responded. The red heeler then joined the conversation.
"What does 'adoptsed' mean?" she asked, absolutely butchering the word.
"It means I'm his mum now," Brandy piped in, which was kind of a blunt way to put it. The two little heelers seemed even more confused by this.
"What about your real mum?" the blue heeler asked me.
"Bluey!" Chilli exclaimed.
"What?" Bluey asked defensively.
"N-no i-it's alright," I said to Chilli, "W-where is y-your r-restroom?"
"Down the hall on the left," Chilli responded. I quickly turned and walked down the hallway towards the bathroom. As I was walking I could hear Chilli scolding Bluey and apologizing to Brandy. When I got to the bathroom I shut the door and locked it. I sat down on the floor with my back against the wall, just trying not to cry. I'm not sure why I was so emotional. Normally I don't react like that when my parents are mentioned. Like I said, I barely remember them, but every once in a while something gets through. Something about what that little girl asked me had given me a dark reminder. My parents are dead, and there's absolutely nothing I can do about it. It was so unfair. By this point tears were starting to roll down my face, soaking my fur. I held my tail in my lap and cried for a few minutes. I had always been told to let my emotions out instead of bottling them up, but I sometimes found it hard. Every once in a while something could tip it over the about 5 minutes had passed there was a knock on the door.
"Are you okay Oscar?" Brandy asked, her voice muffled.
"Yeah I'm alright!" I called back. I wasn't too sure of it myself, but I didn't want her worrying about me. I figured it was about time to return to the group, so I stood up from the floor and quickly washed my face at the sink. I didn't want Brandy or anyone else to think I was crying. I exited the bathroom and walked back down the hallway to the living room, where I was greeted by Chilli.
"Are you okay?" She asked me, "I'm really sorry about that. She... didn't know." I smiled at her.
"It's okay really! I know she didn't mean any harm," I said. I then walked over to the little red heeler that was sitting on the floor playing with this stuffed purple rabbit. I kneeled down next to her.
"Hey there. It seems our first introduction was cut short. My name's Oscar, but I don't think I caught yours," I said. The little girl smiled and looked up at me.
"I'm Bingo!" She said, "So Auntie Brandy is really your mum?"
"I guess you could say that," I responded, "So how old are you Bingo?"
"I'm five!" She said while holding up 5 fingers.
"Wow! And how old is your sister? Her name's Bluey right?" I asked. Bingo nodded her head,
"Yeah, She just turned seven last week!" She exclaimed.
"That's cool! Well I'm 16," I said to her.
"Wow you're old!" she said, "So you go to big kid school?" This made me laugh.
"Yeah I go to big kid school. Anyway it was nice meeting you Bingo!" I said. She smiled and went back to playing with her bunny. I walked back over to Brandy who was engrossed in conversation with Chilli. They were talking about shampoo or something like that. Brandy looked over at me.
"Hey Oscar! I saw you met Bingo. Have you met any of the guys yet?" She asked.
"Uh no I haven't," I responded while glancing around. "Do you know where they went?" Chilli piped in.
"They went out to the backyard to look at that broken tap. Guy stuff," She said while sharing a look with Brandy, "Anyway you should go meet them! It's not often we have this many Heelers all together. The back door is through there." She pointed to a doorway on the other side of the living room.I nodded and walked past Bingo and through the doorway, finding myself in a playroom. There was a kiwi carpet in the center of the room, and the floor was littered with toys. I carefully stepped around them and made my way outside into the back yard. Upon stepping through the sliding glass door I heard a yell of frustration from who I assumed was one of the guys. I stepped timidly off the porch and turned to where the noise came from. There I saw a large blue heeler struggling desperately to turn the valve on the hose tap. Another blue heeler was standing nearby and laughing as the other struggled. The third and final blue heeler, a much older one, was standing a little further away. He was holding a ginger beer, which he occasionally took sips from while yelling advice to the guy trying to open the tap. The second heeler, the one who was laughing at the first, was coincidentally the first one to notice me standing there.
"Hey!" He called out, "You must be Oscar right?" He walked over to me and stuck out his paw to shake mine. I took his paw and shook it.
"Uh... yeah that's me," I said.
"Well I'm Stripe, Bluey and Bingo's uncle. And now I guess I'm technically your uncle too. I'm also the brother of this bumbling baboon over here," He said while gesturing toward the heeler at the tap. Upon hearing this the heeler stood up.
"Hey!" He yelled before seeing me and walking over as well, also sticking out his paw to shake.
"I'm Bandit, Bluey and Bingo's dad, and I'm the brother of THIS bumbling baboon," He said as he jabbed Stripe in the side, who proceeded to wince and hold his paw there. From behind the two came the third heeler, the older one.
"I think you're both baboons," He interjected while pushing between them, "Hey there mate. I'm your Grandpa Bob," He said, becoming the third one to shake my paw.
"It's nice to meet you all!" I said, "I see you're having a little trouble with the tap." I gestured to it.
"Yeah," Bandit said while scratching the back of his head, "The blasted thing doesn't want to open."
"Well, is there anything I can do to help?" I asked. Bandit thought for a moment before replying.
"I think I could get it open if I had my wrench. D'you think you could run around to the garage and grab it?" He asked.
"Sure!" I said, "I'll go find it." I walked around the side of the house to the driveway where I found the garage door already open. I went in and started searching the tool bench against the back wall for a wrench I thought would work. As I'm searching I hear a small sniffle coming from somewhere in the garage.
"Hello?" I called out, "Is anyone there?" I start looking around the garage, and under the workbench I was just standing at I see the little blue heeler, Bluey, sitting there next to a couple paint cans. She had her tail curled around her and she was looking down at the floor. Her eyes were red, and her face was slightly damp. It was obvious she'd been crying. I kneeled down in front of the work bench.
"Hey," I said softly, "What's wrong? Are you okay?" I asked. She stayed quiet for a few moments before finally she speaking up.
"I'm sorry for what I said," She responded, "I didn't mean to make you sad." She wouldn't look me in the eyes. This broke my heart a little. I immediately felt bad.
"Hey, there was no way you could've known. You didn't do anything wrong Bluey," I reassured her, "Now why don't you go and play with your sister?" I said, trying to change the subject. Bluey nodded and slowly got up from under the workbench.
"Thank you Oscar," She said. She then proceeded to give me a quick hug before running off.
"Now what did I come in here for again?" I asked myself. "Oh right! The wrench!" I quickly found it sitting under a couple things on the workbench. I ran back around the house to meet Bandit.
"There you are! I was starting to think you got lost," He said while chuckling. I smiled and handed him the wrench. I stood back with Stripe and Bob and watched as Bandit took the wrench to the tap. Boy did he get that thing open. He got it so open in fact that the hose, which was laying in a coil at my feet, started spraying wildly. I yelped in surprise and jumped back as fast as I could, but not fast enough to avoid getting drenched. Stripe quickly jumped in and kinked the hose while Bandit re-closed the valve with a bit of effort. "Sorry mate," Bandit said, "You right?" He asked. I shook off as much of the water as I could, but I was still very wet. This wouldn't have been such a big deal if it wasn't late May. I was absolutely freezing.
"Holy c-cow that's c-cold," I said with chattering teeth. The three of them looked a little worried.
"Let's get you inside before you come down with something," Bandit said as he led me back into the house through the sliding glass door while Stripe and Bob followed closely behind. Brandy and Chilli looked up as we entered the living room.
"What on Earth happened!?" Brandy asked loudly as she got up and walked over to me, "You're soaking wet!"
"There was an...er...incident with the hose," Bandit explained.
"Bandit!" Chilli exclaimed, "You had the poor boy for less than 10 minutes!"
"Hey, it was an accident!" Bandit yelled defensively. Chilli rolled her eyes and turned to me.
"I'll go get you a nice dry towel. Just stay here," Chilli said while shooting a death glare at Bandit, who scratched the back of his head sheepishly. Stripe and Bob sat down on the couch and turned the T.V. back to the cricket match, which I frankly had no interest in. After a few minutes Chilli returned with a towel, which she proceeded to wrap it around me. I was still wet and cold, but less so. Chilli turned to Brandy.
"Could you please run to our master bathroom upstairs and grab my hairdryer?" She asks Brandy. She nods her head and goes off to fetch the hairdryer. Chilli refocuses her attention on me as she attempts to dry me off with the towel.
"Does that feel better?" She asked.
"Yes that's m-much better," I said, still shaking slightly. You'd think with my German Shepherd fur I'd be having a better time, but I guess that's just more surface area for the water to cling to. Brandy returned with the hairdryer as requested and handed it to Chilli, who proceeded to plug it into the nearest outlet and fire it up. The warm air hit me like a blast, and it felt pretty good if I'm being honest. It didn't take long for her to finish drying me off. When she was finished both Chilli and Brandy stifled laughs as they looked at me.
"What's so funny?" I asked. I looked down at myself and noticed my fur was puffed up like a porcupine. At this point Bob, Stripe, and Bandit looked as well. Their reactions mirrored those of Chilli and Brandy.
"Yeah yeah, real funny," I said as I smoothed out my fur.
"Oh don't be like that," Brandy said as she helped me smooth out my fur. "It's cute," she said. It was then my turn to roll my eyes.
"Well that was eventful," Stripe said from the couch. Chilli proceeded to shoot him one of her patented death glares. I got the impression she did that quite often.