The Matters of Power

Chapter 35- A Good Dog is Obedient

It's been a few days since that fated meeting with Howard Corvanez, CEO of Star-Cor Technology and supposedly the giver of my psychic powers. I had never felt such numbness so far in my life, and yet I just went with the flow of the school days, even feeling indifferent as Payton, Carl, and I had celebrated the passing grade for Carl's project by eating out in the city. Even so, my parents had suddenly decided to reverse their decision to give me a curfew, saying that "It was unreasonable for them to give a curfew just on some unfounded worries.", not that I was complaining. I contemplated whether or not I should tell them about Mr. Corvanez and his home invasion then, but I doubt they would believe such a wild story and could even have my father fired if he wanted to retaliate against me investigating. I'm stuck in a rock and hard place, with no option but to follow on the deal he gave me though I need some time to mentally prepare myself so I can talk to Yan about the gangs.

Once the last school bell had rung, I take off from the school campus and head towards the direction of San Anton's shopping area that a lot of people tend to go to. Just before I reach there, however, I stray towards an unoccupied alleyway and transform my body back into its "original", making sure that I still have the cans of dog food in my pockets. A few minutes of navigating around other people and making sure I don't cause a crowd, I reach the spot that I wanted to go to and, to my relief, still find the stray dog living outside. I met the poor fella the day after I met Mr. Corvanez, when Mom wanted to take me shopping so I could help her and "indulge myself" as she claimed. Though when she spotted a friend and told me to go explore for a bit before meeting back at the plaza fountain, I was intrigued towards a small group that was talking about "the dog who stands guard by his owner's business". They were trying to coerce it to leave its little hideout by waving various foods, but most had their hands slightly bitten at when they got too close. Even by a few warnings, I still tried to approach the dog and could miraculously understand it in English to some degree, probably because of my psychic abilities. Needless to say, I could almost feel the dog's bite trying to go through my hand and I had no choice but to retreat just as I got a message from Mom. "No human arf harf arf owner!" are the words that kept playing in my head bit by bit as the days went on.

Very little progress has been made in befriending the stray, and I had to use a bit of my spare money to buy packs of bandages to dress my bite marks he makes every time I try to hand him a piece of food. I figure that I should stay still and pass bits of food at a safe distance so that it gets used to me being in his presence, so I do just that despite the warning the dog tries to keep barking at me, with some rather crude remarks. I don't pay much attention to it and feel the small victories that happen whenever he takes a nibble at the dog food and slowly backs away to his resting spot. Apparently, the dog's owner had a business that lived in a long while back, but the mass migration of companies and corporations taking advantage of San Anton's development had put a strain on his profits and was forced to sell the lot, then moved out of the city while unknowingly abandoning the dog as he wasn't aware during the rush to pack things up. Still, it's a shame that it has to endure so much even though it's only doing its job of guarding his business. As I sit there, still wondering where his owner could be at this point, I sense and hear rough steps approaching us. "Hey! What's your deal here? Why're you wasting your time taking care of a mutt on the streets?" The other cronies snicker as what appears to be their leader taking charge of the conversation. "It's only here taking care of his owner's business. What's wrong with that?" "I tell ya what's wrong," he gets dangerously close to my face, "that thing is a menace to others close to it and can hurt others at any moment!" Before he can start to get close to the dog, I quickly step up to block him. "No! I won't let you do anything to him! He won't do anything as long as you don't do anything to him." He pauses for a second in surprise, but quickly starts to get angry and shoves me aside, landing on the ground.