What was going on with her? She was smelling so frightened. The fear was just coming off of her in waves. I'd understood the fear smell when we could hear them talking just outside of the RV. It seemed like hours of talking, but Arlene seemed surprisingly calm the whole time. And it sounded like she was willing to trust the deputy. Perhaps a human ally would be a good thing.
We hadn't really had one since Red. Even though Red was older and part of one of the fringe cultures, he had still been willing to speak for us. But he'd shared with me, that because of his background and lifestyle, that most people would have a hard time hearing what he had to say. He felt he wouldn't be a good advocate for us because his past would make it hard for him to be heard. And he worried might make people even more suspicious of us.
Arlene had pissed off the Sheriff. I'd sighed with relief when he left. He smelled angry and like rotting meat left too long in the sun, I remembered the smell from hunting, and from roads where the flattened animal carcass lay too dangerous even for the carrion eaters to enjoy. Sometimes even the hunters had smelled like that when they were heading out, dangerous, tense, with deadly anticipation for the kill. But the Sheriff was gone back inside and only his scent remained hanging dead, probably to avoid the flies his smell would attract.
The deputy smelled good. He smelled like he'd been with a woman this very morning a musty warm hint, layered in with like cold pizza with a spiced meat, and the outdoors. He'd sounded kind. But he'd left too. And then Arlene had come back in and left again to go to the library. I'd heard her go. It was all very tense for some reason. I didn't understand why we didn't just drive away. If this place was the source of problems then why were not leaving and avoiding their problems.
To me the place smelled like home or near enough. I could smell the trees close by, the rocks and the dirt that wasn't covered in cracked asphalt.
Somewhere down the street a guy was chain smoking some cigarettes. I heard a couple people walk out and get into their car and drive off. Then I smelled another who'd been outside earlier.
I whined.
She looked at me for a minute and seemed to calm down.
I licked her. Mmm... she tasted good. I enjoyed the way I could get her smell on me. I felt a flash of dreamy and warm bubbles inside.
Then all of a sudden she began to be very very afraid. I heard the boots on the sidewalk, I readied myself to strike. But they walked on past and stopped down the street. I was alert again... all my warm bubbles popped. I watched her. I didn't know why this human was more bad than the next.
She was uncomfortable. She saw something up the street that was continuing to make her very afraid. She was breathing weird and she seemed to be getting worse and worse. She went from window to window, and what she was seeing was making her more and more afraid.
I jumped when the door opened behind me.
