The Dog Park Read online

  “Have a good trip,” I said, and I opened the door.

  2

  After Sebastian left, I put Bax in the gold-starred blue collar, clipped on the matching leash, and Baxter and I took a come-to-Jesus walk. It was the kind of walk we needed in order to get reacquainted after a week apart, in order to become Jess and Baxter again. Such walks were usually long and meandering, often around favorite places like the Lincoln Park Lagoon or the beach, but always landing at the dog park. Once we came back from such a walk, Bax and I always returned to normal. To get Baxter acquainted to the neighborhood again, I first walked Baxter down State Street, cutting up and around Goethe, Burton and Astor, letting him stop and sniff every wrought iron fence and bountiful bush that he wanted. It was a gorgeous summer day, one that was warm but not unbearable as the previous three weeks had been. Instead of huddling in air-conditioned rooms (or coffee shops or bars) everyone was outside. This was the same route Sebastian and I used to take when we first got Baxter. It was hard not to think of that time.

  The decision to get a puppy had been carefully debated, test-driven. We had long thought we’d get a shelter dog. We had volunteered at rescues, had run 5K races to raise money for no-kill facilities. We regularly visited adoption places in Chicago. We dogsat and read dog books and frequented dog parks. In the end, we fell in love with the idea of a goldendoodle (no shed, hypoallergenic) and a mini one. Sebastian pointed out that a dog under twenty pounds could travel with us. We could travel. That’s what he’d said. We. And we decided we wanted a puppy, a brand-new being in the brand-new world we were creating. Or trying to create.

  So we investigated every breeder. We visited many. We called people who’d gotten puppies from them before. It felt, joyously, like Sebastian and I were working together on one of his stories.

  The day we got him felt so alive in my memory, I could almost touch it when I closed my eyes. A responsibility never felt so good before—the responsibility of deciding to take custody of a new creature, a new ball of life energy, and pledging to care for it.

  We decided I would take the wheel during the three-hour drive to Indiana. Sebastian would drive the return trip while I rode with the puppy in the back, which the breeder had recommended for bonding.

  We’d already been once to the breeder’s farm, run by a young family, with a red barn behind the house. So it wasn’t a surprise to walk in that house in the middle of winter and see two litters of squirming golden fluff. But what was different was that one would be ours. Ours. I loved that word.

  Sebastian and I clasped hands tight as the breeder led us to the eight-week-old litter in the back—six dogs, four females and two males, one of whom was soon to be (that word again) ours.

  The breeder was in her late thirties with curly copper hair that matched some of the dogs in her barn. She smiled over her shoulder at us. “Ready?”

  She opened an octagon-shaped enclosure that held the litter and quickly waved a hand. “Get in before one gets out.”

  We were rushed by puppies—scraps of panting aliveness crawling over us, their faces peering up at ours, pink tongues darting at our chins.

  “How are we going to decide?” Sebastian asked. He laughed then, as a red-goldish puppy climbed up and stuck her tongue in Sebastian’s nose.

  The hour we spent in that pen was a different world in a different time. We were suspended in between our old lives and our new, and we both knew it.

  While all the pups scrambled and licked and nibbled, one boy was a ferocious biter and a jumper. I kissed him on the head. “I feel bad but we’ve ruled him out,” I told Sebastian.

  “What about this one?” He held out a two-and-a-half-pound little girl, already sleeping in the palm of his hand. I took her and cuddled her to me, letting her siblings squirm around Sebastian and me, both cross-legged in the pen.

  She burrowed into the crook of my neck as I held her up. “She’s one of the front-runners,” I said.

  We played with each of them, trying to be systematic, which was impossible. We came up with names for them to try and keep them separate—Cutie for the sweet, sleepy girl, Biter for the ruled-out boy.

  Big Eyes was what we called the other boy. He had an interesting way of observing the group, happy to sit back for a moment when it wasn’t his turn and watching the other pups and us before deciding to get back into the fray with a paw to the head of one of his sisters. He was a lover, too, kept burrowing his snout in the crook of Sebastian’s knee or under my sweater. Pretty soon, we loved him back. And Big Eyes became Baxter.

  But even though Baxter was the best of dogs, beloved by us both, Sebastian and I didn’t stay together, and now we shared that soul that we’d adopted.

  Baxter pulled hard on the leash, maybe sensing I was lost in my thoughts. As we made our way to North Avenue and he realized we were headed for the park, he tugged even harder, his little golden legs churning.

  “Take it easy, buddy,” I said, but I smiled. As Baxter’s legs churned faster, I could see the images flying through his head—the dog friends he might see, the birds he might chase.

  I looked at my watch, hoping the other dog owners we knew would be there. We were people who probably wouldn’t know each other otherwise. But our dogs were friends. Odd and simple as that. And so we had roughly learned each other’s schedules. And we shot to meet up in the late morning like now.

  At this hour, during the weeks Sebastian had Baxter at his place, I really didn’t know what to do with myself. Sometimes, I would still go to the park and chat with the others, but I always felt forlorn, rubbing the mini tennis ball inside my pocket, no dog to throw to, always missing Baxter. Sometimes Sebastian.

  Although any missing of the ex would stop now, I reminded myself, since I planned to come alive without Sebastian.

  We reached the park and, as hoped, some of Baxter’s pals and their owners were there. Among the dogs was Comiskey—a border collie named after former White Sox Comiskey Park, but called Miskie for short—and a pug named Miss Puggles. The pug had a historical air about her, one of a heavy, corseted woman who talked in a high voice, always held an aperitif in hand, but Miss Puggles was always social and friendly. Rounding out Baxter’s pals in attendance was a tiny scrap of white fluff named Daisy. Daisy must have weighed all of eight pounds, but she had the heart of a German shepherd. She chased after the other dogs, her little legs racing doubly fast.

  As we entered the park, Daisy skidded into the sandy baseball pitch after a ball. Then Baxter and Daisy saw each other, and, as always, it was all Romeo and Juliet. Daisy’s head raised, the ball dropped, and as she churned her little legs toward Baxter, he did, too—two lovers racing across a green lawn to tangle and nip at each other.

  Bax jumped and picked up the pace, making Daisy speed after him in pursuit. I stopped momentarily, thinking how similar their relationship was to Sebastian’s and mine—an awful lot of chasing on my part. But that was all done. I reminded myself I would thrive on my own. With my dog. (Whenever I got to have him.)

  I walked over and spoke to Daisy’s owner, Maureen, who was talking with the British couple who owned the pug.

  “Did Daisy go to the groomers?” Tabitha, the wife, asked Maureen.

  “We had to. She found something dead in our alley and before I could stop her, she flipped over and rolled in it.”

  “Eew,” we all said.

  “Thank God Miss Puggles doesn’t do that,” Tabitha said. “She wouldn’t deign to.”

  We watched as Miss Puggles sassed around the park, heavy-snouted with a light, sashaying rear. Baxter spun away from Daisy and tried to entice Miss Puggles into playing. Eventually, he turned his sights back on Daisy, and the whole thing started again.

  “So you have Baxter back,” Al said to me.

  “Yeah. I missed him so much.”

  “I don’t know how you gu
ys do it.”

  He said this to me at least a few times a month.

  His wife swatted his arm. “Al, leave it.”

  “Hey, have you guys ever tried that bitter apple spray?” Maureen said. “Daisy is still chewing the one end of my couch. It’s making me crazy!”

  We talked for the next thirty minutes about all things dog, from the food we fed them and their digestive systems, to their antics and habits.

  The group broke up when Maureen announced she had a lunch date.

  “Great. Have fun,” I said, wishing I had a lunch date myself. But who did I want that date to be with? I had no idea.

  I hadn’t met many people since Sebastian and I split up. I’d made a stab at internet dating, but felt too out of the game to make a decision to go out with any of the guys who’d written me. I’d since canceled my membership. I was too concerned, apparently, with picking over the life I’d had with Sebastian.

  But now that I’d decided to move on, I should grab opportunities. Maybe I’d go out with the weather guy that my broadcaster friend was always trying to set me up with. Maybe I’d try to date online again. I’d go after business harder, maybe start courting some of the local magazines more so I could style their shoots.

  Bax and I continued our walk and when we reached the busy intersection of North and Clark I decided to take Baxter toward the nature museum and the creek behind it.

  We stopped for a moment at the corner. “Sit,” I said to Baxy. He did so obediently. I smiled a smug grin, thinking, He is such a good dog. Sebastian and I got so lucky.

  “Hey, Mrs. Hess.”

  It didn’t used to irk me when people called me that. Sebastian was fairly well-known in Chicago and I was known as his wife. So although I hadn’t taken Sebastian’s name, preferring Jessica Champlin to Jess Hess, I never minded. But now that we were split up, now that I was on my own, it bothered me.

  I turned. Then it didn’t bother me so much. “Hi, Vinnie.”

  Vinnie was a sweet fifteen-year-old kid. I’d known him for a few years, since Sebastian and I had moved to this neighborhood. Back then, he went by William or Will. That was his middle name. (Apparently, his parents had named him Vincent only as a tribute to a grandfather who died on the day he was born.) But recently, upon entering high school, apparently in protest to some perceived injustice, Will started calling himself Vinnie. His parents hated it, so he kept using it. He’d told me this one time when Bax and I were at the park and Vinnie was hanging around shooting short films on his phone.

  The kid was always behind that phone, videoing something. Often he chuckled, scolded himself for a bad shot or generally just mumbled low, narrating, apparently.

  Once he showed me the short films he’d made. Some were silent, with a sort of French feel. Others were loud, raucous street scenes. He seemed to like the juxtaposition of the two. After that, I’d looked at the webpage where he posted his films, and saw he had a lot of followers online. A hell of a lot more than I did.

  “Hey, Baxter,” Vinnie said. He bent and petted Baxter on the head. Baxter batted his golden tail on the ground.

  “How’s he doing?” Vinnie said, pointing to the dog.

  “Good. I just got him back from his dad.” Yeah, that was how I talked. I was Baxter’s mom and Sebastian his dad. I was fully aware that I was a childless woman in her thirties whose dog was her kid. (Hence Baxter’s winter sweaters that were just waiting to be worn and the fact that I sometimes signed emails to friends, “Jess and Baxter.” I wasn’t even embarrassed.)

  Baxter stood suddenly, his nose pointed across the street, his eyes peering.

  I saw a mastiff walking with his owner. (His dad, I mean.) Although Baxter weighed all of fifteen pounds, he often seemed to think he was heavier and wanted to play with dogs much larger than he was.

  I considered going back to the park, where it appeared the mastiff was heading, but then Bax strained on the leash even more.

  “Sit,” I said.

  Nothing.

  “Sit!” I demanded, pointing at the ground as I’d been instructed by an obedience trainer.

  But not only did Baxter not sit—he ran. Or rather, he bolted.

  And not toward the mastiff but horizontally across North Avenue to the opposite corner.

  A little toddler, an adorable girl in a yellow dress, stood there with her mom in front of a bank.

  “No!” I yelled. “Baxter, stop!”

  If there was one behavioral issue Baxter possessed, it was that he not only wanted to play with big dogs, he wanted to play with little kids, a desire that sometimes resulted in him jumping on children, often terrifying both parent and child. Luckily, he’d never come close to biting or hurting anyone and I no longer feared he would.

  Until that minute.

  Baxter was running fast, and he was headed right toward the toddler.

  3

  Vinnie, the little jackass, laughed as Baxter ran. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the kid raise his phone.

  “No!” I yelled, not at Vinnie but at the dog.

  By then Baxter had nearly reached the other side of the street.

  “Baxter, no!” I yelled again.

  And then he tackled the kid. Absolutely tackled her.

  The mother screamed and lunged at her daughter.

  A truck whizzed by. “Baxter!” I shouted, sure he was going to be mowed down.

  Instead, he stood over the toddler, panting.

  I charged after him, yelling his name.

  When I got there, the mother was on the ground, cradling her child. The girl was surprisingly dry-eyed, but the mom was crying.

  “I’m so sorry!” I said, shoving Baxter out of the way with my leg but grabbing his leash so he couldn’t get too far.

  Baxter took a couple steps back, but his panting gaze remained on the toddler. She was a little beauty who was smiling and cooing in her mother’s arms, as if she had no idea the quick turn of events that had just happened.

  “I’m so sorry,” I said again. I crouched next to mother and child, careful not to get too close. The mom was young, wearing white jeans and a pink T-shirt.

  She looked up at me, tears rimming her blue eyes.

  “I truly apologize,” I said. “He’s really a friendly dog, but sometimes he doesn’t know his limits. That’s our fault. My husband says I...”

  I shut up. What did it matter what “my husband” (who was no longer my husband) thought about a dog who tackled tots? It didn’t matter that we’d gotten the dog to try and stay together, but had lost each other anyway. And it certainly didn’t matter how many obedience professionals we had contacted about this jumping problem of Baxter’s.

  To my surprise, the woman smiled at me. “He saved her,” she said. “Didn’t you see that? He saved my daughter.”

  “Good work, Baxter!” I heard from behind me.

  I turned to see Vinnie, holding out his cell phone.

  “Check this out,” he said. “That truck had no idea.”

  “I know,” the mom said.

  “The truck?” I said.

  Vinnie stopped and looked down at the child and her mom. “She okay?”

  The mom nodded vigorously. “Her name is Clara.” She held her kid tighter.

  “Check this out.” Vinnie held out his phone—there was a still image of Baxter dashing across the street, his gold-starred collar gleaming and his gold-starred, blue leash blazing behind him.

  “He looks like a superdog,” Vinnie said. He fiddled with his phone, then turned it back to us. “Watch this.”

  He pushed Play. There was Baxter, dashing, the leash streaming behind him. But at the top of the screen...

  “See the truck?” Vinnie said, crouching next to us.

  I nodded. A white delive
ry truck. And it was headed right at Clara, who was taking a wobbly step off the curb. “Oh, my God,” I said.

  Just before the truck hit her, Baxter tackled her.

  “Your dog saved my daughter,” the mom said. She held out her hand. “I’m Betsy.”

  I noticed Vinnie seemed to be videoing again, but I was too relieved to protest.

  I shook the mom’s hand. “Jessica.”

  “Jessa!” the toddler said in a mumble, mimicking me.

  We all laughed.

  Betsy, her arms still around Clara, turned to Baxter. “And who is this one?”

  “This is Baxter.”

  I let go of Baxter’s leash, and he took a few steps toward Betsy and Clara. Betsy kissed him on the top of his head. Baxter licked Clara’s ear.

  “Baxter, no,” I said.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Betsy said. “In my book, this dog gets to do whatever he wants.”

  I looked up at Vinnie. He was still taping our exchange. “Vinnie,” I said. “Enough.”

  “Okay, cool.” He put the phone in his pocket. “But I’m putting this online.”

  Words, it would turn out, that would change everything.

  4

  The first call came at five o’clock that evening, just eight hours after Sebastian had brought Baxter to my house.

  After the incident on the street, Baxter was wiped out. We went home and he slept most of the day. I cleaned the house, returned emails about an Art Institute benefit and read through specs sent by a magazine editor I was working with. It was my first time styling a photo shoot for them. I wanted to do a great job so I could work with her again.

  When Baxter finally roused, we took another walk, and I threw a ball in the alley for him.

  Really, aside from the scene on the street (which, though scary, had taken only a few minutes), it was like any other day.

  The phone—the landline I used for business—was ringing when we walked in the condo. It was Victory, a state senator with a great name, who had retained me for the past six months to outfit her with chic but serious suits and dresses. “Jessica, do you have a dog named Baxter?” she said.