Spark of Flint

Chapter 8

1213 word count

Janet's P.O.V

I woke up around 11:30 to take out the dogs. Rusty is funny to watch. He seems so awkward when he uses the bathroom. Like he doesn't like people watching him. Weird dog, I cleaned up the water bottles I had not cleaned up from yesterday. I need to tell mom we need more to get gallons of water. I look at the sink and give it a pretty bird with my middle finger. We only use it for cooking and showers now. Years ago when I was a kid I gave the dogs some water and they refused to drink it, I told mom about it and we got a pack of water bottles from the store. The next day the water looked brown and we were not the only ones. Everyone on our street had either smelly or discolored water. We stopped using the city water that day for anything. 

There is a knock on the front door. I take a quick look back to the backyard. My dogs are still wandering around. Rusty is laying right in front of the back door. I just have the screen door closed. If it's who I think then they are a bit early. I opened the door to the police of the City of Flint. 

"Hello, the hole is right there." I said as I pointed to the place on the wall.

 Yesterday, after getting Rusty in the house with a lot of effort and cleaning him up, Grandma Mari told me to call the cops on the non-emergency line and have them take the bullet out. I did as she told me to. I moved to the kitchen to get out of the way and make myself some coffee this time. There are 2 men. One older and on the round side with a know it all attitude wearing his blue uniform and a smaller guy that looks like he should stay in the lab with his brown semi formal attire and round geeky glasses. They move my couch out of the way. I was not inclined to help besides I don't like cops but for a select few. I hate how they are invading my space.

The know it all cop stares at me. It makes me uncomfortable. I am just wearing a grey t-shirt that doesn't dip down at all, it has a round collar and I have tan baggy cargo shorts on. You hear a tool sound cutting into the wall.

"I noticed that you have 4 dogs out back. The max you can have is 3 over the age of 6 months. You need to get rid of one in 24 hours or I will call the pound" said the piggy in blues.

Not surprised that he is a know it all asshole. Just then Rusty is opening the screen door with his nose. It's not hard to do, the screen door was left open a jar. He lays right next to me staring down the cop. With his big body right next to me I feel safe. The cop stares back at the dog. I point to Rusty.

"He was bleeding in my back yard and seemed to have been in a pretty bad fight, yesterday," pointing at Rusty,"I don't own him. Nor do I know him before yesterday. But how could I just leave him to suffer? Besides My mother has a kennel license." I reply.

"Then show me the paperwork to prove it." he said. 

"Can't, I don't have the key to the filing cabinet." I answer him.

He must have been in this line of work for a long time because he gives me a hard stare. Not liking my answer. I am not lying. I am not to be trusted with it because I would lose it. I have a bad knack of losing things. Suddenly there is no tool noise. A minute later the geeky lab man pops his head around the corner.

"Okay, I got the bullet. Sorry about the wall. If need be call me," as he hands me a card,"and I will pay for the patching in the wall. I am outta here. Good-bye" he said as he was out the front door, leaving it open.

Maybe thinking the cop in blues would follow him. He didn't, actually the man relaxed. As if he was waiting for the other cop to leave. I don't like this. My gut is telling me something is wrong. His dark almost black eyes look sharp compared to before.

"You need to call your mother here, right now. She and I have some things to discuss." he says in a demanding voice.

Rusty growls at him, not liking his tone with me. That sounds odd. Isn't it just one thing? What other things would you need to talk about?

"I can't, she is at work with her phone on silent." I lie.

Now my dogs make their way in the house on guard with the stranger in the house. They all stand in front of me. Making a wall of dogs between me and this unsettling man as he smiles at me. What he says next makes me cold in this humid weather.

"You look just like her when she ran away. She is my twin you know. You may not believe it because we look nothing alike. I look exactly like our father and she looked like our mother. Not even remotely like our father. If it weren't for the fact we were in the same womb; father would have thought that mother cheated on him." he said.

Mom always told us there was a good reason she ran away. Her blood relatives were bad people. She never said how but seeing how this man makes me feel sick with his smile, I can take a few guesses.

"You need to leave. You seen the magic around the property, warning you not to over stay your welcome. You have. Now, leave before I ask Rusty to drag you out" a little girl's voice sounded behind the cop at the front door.

He whips around to see her. When he turns he moves to the side making it easy for me to see the little girl. She has long shiny straight silver hair with grey eyes that stare sharply at the man. She wears a white plain dress without shoes. 

"You damn familiars, always saying shit! You can't make me do a fucking thing!" he exclaims.

I know the little girl. She is Grandma Mari's niece. She has a condition not letting her body grow properly. So, she is actually 30 years old but looks completely like a healthy little girl. Grandma Mari appears behind her.

"But I can. Besides you found her by accident. You won't find them as easy. Rusty will you throw out the trash. I will be talking to your superior about harassing a girl under age." as she said this her, the little girl and an unknown woman in red go to the side, out of his way.

Rusty has an open mouth smile and grabs the cops clothes and drags him out. The creepy cop takes out a pocket knife to stab the dog and a fearsome growl comes from all my dogs. Startled from the sound he drops the knife and leaves with many grumbles.   

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A\N: Hi guys! I hope you are enjoying the book. As you can tell the setting is in Flint, Michigan. I grew up in towns around Flint. My parents did not want to raise their kids in Flint or even go to Flint schools for good reason. When the water crisis happened I had stories from friends and family to tell me, along with constant news updates.

I also lived on the East-side for 2 of my adult years. I have a general idea of what it's like.