The Madrona Heroes Register: Underneath It All

Chapter 32 - The New Patient

Binny had gotten some satisfaction from seeing Cassie get in trouble with their parents at the house. But they were only mad at her for walking the dog on her own. They didn’t have any idea how reckless Cassie had been by introducing Rembrandt to Ollie, the neighborhood’s animal abuser. She would tell Zach about that for sure.

But Ollie hadn’t done anything to the dog. Not yet anyway. Maybe because Cassie was there watching. Maybe he liked to do whatever it was he did on his own. How Cassie didn’t see there was something wrong with that boy, Binny didn’t know. 

Not only might Ollie have hurt Rembrandt, he might have hurt Cassie too. Caleb had said that kids who hurt animals grow up to be adults that hurt people. Binny wondered how early the transition came from animals to people. Was ten too early?

Each thought got Binny more scared, more angry, and closer to the one person who seemed to be at the root of all the problems – Dr. Huitre. He was the one who got her mother involved with Luce Labs. He was the one who was connected with Dr. Trace and her weird son. And while she wasn’t sure exactly how, he was somehow the cause of Binny’s parents’ divorce. 

“Oh hello Binny. Where is Cassie? Did you do shifts today?” Henry Huitre opened his door to let Rembrandt in. Binny’s thinking had carried her all the way to Huitre’s house.

Binny stood at the door, fists tightly balled, not sure whether to scream or run.

“Come in Binny, come in. Is everything okay?” Huitre said.

Binny couldn’t bear to look at him. Binny watched Rembrandt who was curling up on a couch by the fireplace. 

“You know you are not supposed to be there.” Huitre admonished his dog. The turning to Binny, he explained, “He’s so old, I can’t bear to banish him from that spot.” Huitre’s eyes crinkled accompanying his pained smile.

Binny’s eyes traced the features of the room from the couch to the fireplace to the mantle above it where a series of small framed pictures sat. Some looked old in black and white, several were of Rembrandt. But one caught Binny’s eye and sent a jolt down her chest.

“What are you doing with this?” Binny pointed at the picture as she marched across the living room. “Why do you have this?” Binny was screaming now, waving the picture around wildly as she spoke.

“Binny, Binny, what is wrong? Please be careful. Why are you so upset?”

Huitre’s confusion just made Binny angrier. The picture she’d seen on the mantle was the very picture she’d seen in Huitre’s mind when she’d looked two days earlier. It was the picture of her mother from before Binny or even Zach were born.

“Why do you have this picture of my mother here?” Binny demanded.

Huitre slumped a little at Binny’s question. “Binny, that’s not your mother.”

“Of course it is. Look at it.” Binny shoved the frame towards Huitre.

“Binny, that is a picture of my wife. My wife Jacqueline.” Huitre’s hands were out, palms up, as he explained.

“What? Your wife? You don’t have a wife!” Binny felt a crack forming in her righteous anger.

“She died Binny. Jacqueline died 15 years ago.”

Binny was speechless.

Huitre reached out his hands and gently took the picture frame from Binny. Turning it around he pointed to a corner. “Don’t you see who that is in the corner of the picture?”

In the corner of the image were the unmistakable ear, nose, mouth, and front paws of a puppy – a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy. Rembrandt. When Binny had seen the image in her mind, she hadn’t noticed the dog in the corner.