The Phantom Photograph Page 5

  “I haven’t seen him lately though,” Peter added.

  Sal and Phyllis looked at each other.

  “Ernest died last winter,” Phyllis said quietly.

  “Oh.” The homeless man was silent for a moment. “Well that’s a shame… the world needs more people like Ernest.”

  Sal nodded. A fresh wave of grief washed over Sal. He missed his kind, cheerful friend. Sal was not at all surprised to learn that Ernest had befriended a homeless man; Ernest had been friends with everybody.

  Phyllis thanked the man again, before she and Sal continued walking toward the building.

  Peter watched them leave. I guess Ernest must have been waving goodbye, he thought.

  *****

  A cheer went up when Sal and Phyllis entered the senior center.

  “Here comes the bride…” sang Wanda, smiling and pointing at Phyllis. Several old men came to shake Sal’s hand and clap him on the shoulder.

  Weddings were rare among people their age, and all the seniors wanted to be a part of the blue moon event. Mrs. Michaud hurried over to the engaged couple. “Ah, there you are! I can’t wait for you to see the room… it’s going to be just splendid!” she said.

  Mrs. Michaud had placed herself in charge of decorating the senior center’s community room, where the reception was to take place. “I’m holding off on most of the decorating until after bingo ends tomorrow.” Mrs. Michaud shook her head and whispered, “I don’t want to risk it getting messed up… you know how crazy those bingo ladies can get.”

  “I’m sure it will be just beautiful,” Phyllis said, smiling at Mrs. Michaud’s enthusiasm.

  “Oh, yes, everyone is so very excited about your little wedding,” said Agnes, who seemed to appear from nowhere. As always, her friends, Mildred and Priscilla trailed behind her. “You’d think it was being held at the Ritz Carlton, the way folks have been carrying on around here.” Agnes rolled her eyes and waved her manicured hand dismissively.

  “Agnes, didn’t you have a reception at the Ritz Carlton?” Mildred asked.

  “Why yes; I suppose I did… when I married my fourth husband. But he insisted on nothing less than the very best for our wedding; the mere thought of having our reception at a community room would have been… well, laughable,” Agnes said with a smirk.

  Mrs. Michaud narrowed her eyes at the snobby old lady. “You are under no obligation to attend the reception if you feel the choice of venue is… beneath you.” Mrs. Michaud pointed her cane at Mildred and Pricilla. “And the two of you could opt to stay home as well,” she added.

  Agnes’ heavily made-up face took on a look of wide-eyed innocence. “I certainly hope you don’t think I’m being insulting!” She touched the string of pearls at her throat. “On the contrary… I am looking forward to experiencing the earthy charm of crepe-paper decorations and home-made sandwiches.”

  “Good! Because so are we,” Sal said sincerely, kissing Phyllis’ cheek. The elderly couple walked away; leaving Agnes staring, her mouth agape.

  Sal and Phyllis passed Smitty on their way to the reception desk. As they checked in, Phyllis nudged Sal. “It looks like Smitty found a new audience.”

  Sal turned to look at Smitty, who was talking animatedly to an old man sitting next to him. Smitty was in rare storytelling form, gesturing grandly as he spoke. The other man sat very still; staring as if entranced by the tale.

  “And that, my friend, is why you should never trust a beautiful woman who smells of pine shavings,” Smitty concluded with a flourish.

  The other man continued to stare, his mouth agape.

  “Well?” Smitty asked, touching the man’s shoulder.

  “Huh?” the man said loudly. He turned to Smitty. “Were you talking to me?” he shouted. He pulled a device from behind his ear and smacked it against his palm. “My hearing aid must be on the fritz again.”

  Chapter 20

  When Ryan arrived at the shelter, he headed straight to the shelter’s clinic, where he saw Henry and Grace.

  “How is she?” Ryan asked Henry.

  Henry looked upset. “She won’t eat,” he said sadly.

  Ryan squatted down beside Henry to examine Grace. “Her paws look much better,” he noted. “Do you know if she made anything?”

  “No,” Henry answered.

  Ryan began prodding her belly, and Grace yelped when he pressed a certain spot.

  “I’m sorry, little girl,” Ryan told Grace. She licked his hand, as if accepting his apology.

  Ryan stood up and looked around the ramshackle clinic. “Do you know where Lana is?” he asked.

  “She’s with the cats,” Henry replied.

  Ryan strode off in search of Lana, while Henry stroked the sick little dog. He showed her the bowl of food again.

  Henry put a bit of the food on his finger, and held it in front of Grace’s nose. She sniffed it, and hesitantly licked the food from his finger.

  Henry smiled with relief, and dipped his finger in the bowl again.

  *****

  Ryan found Lana in the cat room, cleaning cages.

  Zena was lying on the floor, entertaining a litter of kittens while Lana wiped their enclosure with a sponge. The mother cat was eating a bowl of food and enjoying a break from her babies.

  The tiny kittens crawled all over Zena as if she were a big, furry jungle gym. The gentle old hound held one of the squirmy kittens between her paws while she licked it with her big pink tongue. Several kittens were grouped behind Zena, their eyes riveted on her tail. Every once in a while, the old dog would give her tail a tempting twitch, and the kittens would pounce on it.

  “Good morning, Lana,” Ryan said.

  Ryan felt his cheeks flush and his heart beat a bit faster when Lana turned her bright green eyes on him and smiled.

  “I’m g-glad you’re h-here. H-have you s-s-seen Grace?” she asked. She had finished cleaning the cage, and was placing a bowl of water, a blanket, and a litter box in it.

  “Yes, I saw her on the way in. Henry told me she still hasn’t eaten or pooped, huh?” Ryan replied.

  Lana shook her head, and started placing the kittens back in their enclosure. “Thanks Zena… g-good g-girl,” she said as she took the wet, freshly washed kitten from between the old dog’s paws.

  Lana put the mama cat in last, before shutting the cage door. Zena put her nose to the cage, as if checking to make sure the kittens were settled in properly.

  “I suspect Grace has an intestinal blockage,” Ryan said. “It’s fairly common for dogs to accidently eat something that isn’t food. Usually the object just passes through the dog, but sometimes it gets stuck. I would need to take an X-ray to be sure, though.”

  Lana gave Ryan a thoughtful look. “We h-have an X-ray machine h-here, you know. B-but I don’t know if it works.”

  Ryan raised his eyebrows. “Really? Can you show it to me?”

  Lana nodded and headed through the shelter toward the run-down clinic. Ryan followed her to the storage room.

  “The X-ray m-machine was here when I b-bought the p-p-place. I m-moved it to the storage room, since we d-don’t have a vet to use it anyway,” Lana explained.

  Ryan helped Lana move the bags of kitty litter and pet food that were piled on top of the machine. It was an older model, and covered with dust. Ryan hoped he could get it working.

  Henry came running into the storage room, waving an empty bowl. Teeny pranced beside him. “She ate!” he cried excitedly. “Come see!”

  “That’s great, Henry,” Ryan said.

  Ryan and Lana followed Henry to the clinic to find Grace trembling on the blanket; a puddle of vomit on the floor.

  “Oh no!” Henry cried.

  Lana got a rag and began cleaning up the mess, while Henry and Ryan crouched beside Grace.

  “I’m so sorry,” Henry said to the little dog. “I shouldn’t have tried to make you eat.”

  Lana heard the bells on the shelter door jingle, so she went into the
shelter area, leaving the door to the clinic open behind her.

  Two men had entered the shelter, and were peering intently at the dogs in the kennels. One man wore a blue baseball cap. The other man had red hair and his shoes were covered with what appeared to be bird droppings.

  “M-may I h-help you?” Lana asked them.

  “Yeah, we’d like to adopt a dog,” the man with the baseball cap said.

  The red-haired man was poking his finger into a hamster’s cage. “Hey, little guy…OW!” He yelped and jerked his hand away as the rodent bit him.

  “We have m-many nice d-dogs who n-need good homes,” Lana answered the man with the baseball hat.

  Zena had followed Lana to the shelter area. Lana noticed that the fur on the back of the old dog’s neck was bristling, and how she stood protectively between Lana and the two men.

  “D-do you s-see any d-dogs you are interested in?” Lana asked warily. Zena’s reaction to the two men made Lana leery.

  The man in the baseball cap stopped looking in the kennels. He now stared through the open door to the clinic where Grace lay on the blanket. He nudged his partner with his elbow.

  “Yes. We’d like to adopt that dog,” the man said, pointing at Grace.

  Lana blinked in surprise. “I’m s-sorry, that d-dog is ill, and is n-not up for adoption at this t-t-time,” Lana said, closing the door to the clinic.

  “Oh, we don’t mind if the dog is sick,” the man in the baseball cap said quickly. “Just give her to us… we’ll take good care of her.”

  The man’s eagerness to get his hands on Grace made Lana even more suspicious of him.

  “The d-dogs in the c-c-clinic are undergoing veterinary c-c-care and are n-not available for adoption at this t-t-time,” Lana repeated firmly. “These d-d-dogs,” Lana gestured toward the kennels in the shelter, “are c-c-currently available for adoption.”

  The man in the baseball cap didn’t even glance at the other dogs. He rubbed his hands together and stared greedily at the door of the clinic.

  “How much would it cost to buy that dog from you right now?” the man asked. He looked around the shabby, crowded shelter. “Name your price… It looks like you could use some money.”

  Lana decided she had had enough of these two men. She put her hands on her hips and said, “That d-dog is n-n-not for sale. If you are n-not interested in one of our other shelter animals, I’ll have t-t-to ask you t-to l-l-leave.”

  Lana felt the back of her neck prickling.

  The man in the baseball cap looked angry, and took a step toward the clinic door. Suddenly every animal in the shelter went nuts. Dogs barked. Cats hissed. Birds chirped. Rodents squeaked. Zena laid her ears back and bared her teeth at the advancing man.

  The man in the baseball hat froze in mid-step, looking fearfully at the frenzied animals. He took a step back. The animals were suddenly silent.

  After a moment of eerie quiet, the man grabbed his partner and said, “Okay, okay… we’re going. Sheesh, lady, I’m just trying to take a sick dog off your hands, for Pete’s sake.”

  Lana breathed a sigh of relief when the two men left the shelter.

  “What was that all about?” Ryan asked her when she re-entered the clinic.

  Lana described the strange encounter with the two men, and their unusual interest in Grace.

  Ryan looked at the sick little dog.

  “What do those men want with you, little girl?” he asked.

  *****

  Sam and Rodney got into the van and drove away from the shelter.

  “See!” Rodney exclaimed. “Tell me that wasn’t some kind of supernatural occurrence! Did you see how those animals acted? Do you believe me now?” He sucked blood from the hamster bite on his finger.

  Sam shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck where the strange prickle lingered. “I don’t know about that, Rodney… All I know is that we’ve got to get that dog.”

  “And how are we going to do that? You heard the lady; the dog isn’t up for adoption,” Rodney replied.

  Sam smiled. “The sign says the shelter closes at six o’clock. We’ll just come back after hours and steal her.”

  Chapter 21

  After water exercise, Sal and Phyllis did some shopping at the supermarket. Phyllis had a coupon for free cat food, which she wanted to donate to the shelter. After making their selections, Sal and Phyllis stood in line at the register. When it was their turn, Sal placed the cat food and their other items on the belt so the cashier could scan them.

  “I have a coupon for the cat food,” Phyllis told the cashier, who nodded and smacked her gum.

  When Phyllis reached for her giant purse, Teeny met her at the mouth of the bag, and handed Phyllis her wallet. “Let’s see…” she said, opening her wallet and extracting a handful of coupons. The cashier rolled her eyes, and the man waiting in line behind them sighed. Phyllis squinted at the coupons and selected one. “Here it is,” she said, handing it to the cashier. The register made a buzzing sound when the cashier scanned the coupon.

  “This is expired,” the cashier said brusquely.

  “Oh…so it is,” Phyllis said, peering closely at the date. “Don’t worry; I’ll find the right one,” Phyllis assured her. “Just let me put on my glasses.” Teeny poked his head out of the bag, her eyeglasses in his mouth. As Phyllis struggled to open the case with her stiff, swollen fingers, she saw the man behind them in line look at his watch, tap his foot, and shake his head. Flustered because she felt rushed, Phyllis fumbled with the eyeglass case, and dropped the coupons she held.

  “Oh, dear,” she said, as the slips of paper fluttered to the floor around her feet. As Teeny retrieved the coupons, Sal gently took the case from Phyllis, opened it, and handed Phyllis her eyeglasses. He tried to position himself between Phyllis and the man behind them, whose impatience had become palpable. The man peered around Sal to give Phyllis a disapproving look. He noticed a photo of four seniors on top of the old lady’s bag.

  “Hey, lady…” he began irritably. “What’s the holdup? I don’t have all d…” he stopped, and stared in shock-- the photo on the purse had changed; two of the pictured seniors were now staring at him and making rude gestures. The man blinked, then turned and faced the other way; grumbling to himself.

  Sal stifled a laugh and put his hand over the photo.

  “Here it is!” Phyllis announced proudly. She handed the cashier another coupon, and sighed with relief when it scanned properly.

  “Sorry you had to wait.” Phyllis told the man as she and Sal left the store. The man blushed and grumbled some more.

  *****

  Two men were leaving the shelter as Sal and Phyllis pulled in the parking lot of All Paws Animal Shelter. One man had red hair and the other wore a baseball cap. They were talking excitedly as they got into a white van.

  Phyllis frowned. The man in the baseball cap looked familiar, but she couldn’t remember where she’d seen him before.

  Inside, Ryan had moved the X-ray machine out of the storage room and was wiping off the dust when Sal and Phyllis entered the building. He came out of the clinic to greet them.

  “Hi Mom, Sal… what brings you here?” Ryan asked.

  Zena sniffed the elderly couple and placed her nose in Sal’s hand.

  Animals like the old man, Ryan noted. Teeny jumped out of Phyllis’s bag to greet the old hound.

  “I had a coupon for free cat food. We’d like to donate it to the shelter kitties,” Phyllis said.

  Lana gave Phyllis a hug. “The shelter k-kitties are v-very grateful,” she said.

  Teeny jumped onto the giant bag and tugged at the package of cat food with his teeth.

  The bag was bigger than Teeny, and he growled at it in frustration.

  Henry laughed and came to help. “Oh, Teeny, that’s too big for you,” he said, reaching for the cat food. As he did, he noticed a photo resting in the giant bag. Henry had seen the photo on Sal’s mantle; it pictured Sal, Phyllis, Betty, and
Ernest in front of a waterfall. He wondered why it was in Phyllis’ bag. As he lifted the cat food the image of Ernest gave him a slow wink, and Betty blew him a kiss from inside the picture.

  Henry blinked and almost dropped the cat food. He looked up at Phyllis. “Did you see that?” he asked.

  “See what, Henry?” Phyllis asked.

  Henry looked back at the picture, which now appeared quite ordinary. “Oh… I guess it was nothing,” he said after a moment. He glanced at the photo again before he carried the cat food to the storage room. Teeny pranced after him.

  Phyllis watched the boy walk away with a thoughtful expression on her lined face. She stared at the photo that lay in her bag before following Sal and Ryan into the clinic; where Teeny was giving Grace a thorough sniffing.

  “Is that the dog Henry found?” Phyllis asked.

  “Yes. I think I know what’s wrong with her, but I’d like to take an X-ray to know for sure,” Ryan explained.

  Henry came out of the storage room and crouched beside the sick dog. “Her name is Grace,” he said, petting her ears.

  “She seems very sweet… I wonder where she came from,” Phyllis said.

  Sal pointed to the X-ray machine. “Does it work?”

  “I don’t know, Sal. I’m trying to get it going. It’s been in storage since Lana bought the place,” Ryan answered.

  “Would you like some help?” Sal offered.

  “That would be great, thanks,” Ryan replied gratefully; recalling how easily Sal had fixed his suitcase.

  Ryan and Sal spent the next few hours tinkering with the X-ray machine. Ryan was amazed at how resourceful his future father-in-law was. It didn’t take long for Sal to figure out how the machine worked, and how to get it up and running again. Phyllis’s giant purse provided all the tools they needed to accomplish their work.

  Ryan was tempted to ask his mother for a unicorn, just to see if she had one in her bag.

  They needed some x-ray film to test the machine. Unfortunately, it was one thing that Phyllis’s bag couldn’t produce.

  Ryan rummaged around the storage room, hoping the prior owners had left a supply. While he searched for the film, Ryan discovered a wealth of veterinary equipment buried beneath piles of blankets, pet food, and other supplies.

  With a little work, this could actually be a nice little vet clinic, he thought.