Old Orchard

Annabelle

Luke and I say little to nothing on our runs while cleaning the kennels out together. While I am cleaning a kennel with two miniature doxins named Max and Peeper, I figure out why Luke's comment from yesterday working at the shelter seemed so off to me. Putting my shovel down, Luke must sense I am staring at him. "What?" he asks, leaning up against the outside of the kennel like I just did.

"Why did you say I was not a slacker?" I ask, patiently waiting for his reply while he takes a few seconds to mull over my question.

"Jane must have told me" I knit my eyebrows together while I am thinking why my grandmother would talk to Luke about me and being a slacker? Sensing the awkwardness that has slid over us, Luke covers it by saying another observation, "I was shocked to see you running this morning," and I feel he is trying to change the subject.

I ask nervously, "Why wouldn't I have gone today?" I wonder if he knew why I had skipped the last and only time since being in Maine. Because of you, I want to scoff at him but keep my mouth shut by taking a sip of water from my water bottle next to the building's door. He leans up against the back of the wall next to me, and we are almost touching arm to arm. Taking a step back, I decide I need space between Luke and me to keep thinking straight.

"I thought you would be hungover from drinking last night," he says as a smile creeps up across his face as if he is trying to suppress a chuckle from an inside joke.

"Ha. Right," I say, my tone sounding a little harsher than necessary.

"Yeah," he responds while kicking some of the river rocks off the walkway. I had a suspicion the last time he waited on us, he made the drinks nonalcoholic on purpose, and my insides gleamed a little bit until I remembered he has a girlfriend.

"I see that you and Hannah had fun. I am glad things are working out for the both of you" I know I am making it sound like I am good friends with Hannah when I had only met her for five minutes. Turning my heel swiftly, I walk back to Max and Pepper and start cleaning their kennel while beads of sweat start popping up on my back.

The rest of the afternoon drags on while Luke and I say very little between one another. We mumble incoherent things when we have to dance around each other a few times to get to the next kennel. Rebecca arrives three hours later whistling while she walks over to me with a very patient chocolate lab that matches her strides perfectly, not pulling her. She walks over to us when Luke excuses himself, saying he has work to do inside. "This is Duke," she says as he pulls the door close behind us. I catch myself thinking how Duke rhymes with Luke, and I shake my head, trying to forget that he has a girlfriend again. It is a lot harder than I thought it was going to be.

"Hi Duke, how is it going?" I say as I bend over and start petting his head; Duke's rear starts to wiggle, and his tail starts flapping, hitting Rebecca in the leg. "What does he have in store for himself today?" I ask Rebecca.

"He will be running through the course all by himself today. I have a training introduction later on this week." I slip into the agility side and sit on one of the benches to watch. Frasier joins me, immediately hopping onto my lap – happy that he is no longer alone. We sit and watch Rebecca for the next half an hour as she instructs Duke on what to do. She takes him over to the tunnel, and he goes through as quickly as possible. I glance at Frasier, letting him know how impressed I am. Duke then goes flying toward the popped-up V shape ladder and jumps over it in one motion. He next runs to the white poles set up zig zagged sticking up out of the ground. He ends up jumping over what I call the doggy hurdles as quickly as possible he can and then runs to the finish line and ends with giving Rebecca a high five. They keep going over it, and finally, on the tenth time, they are done, and Rebecca sits down next to me on the bench. "Wow! That was great!" I say.