Tok, Alaska

5

Erik spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening reading. He immediately realized that Walter was right when he described the translation as "old-fashioned," but was nonetheless deeply captivated by the prose. As he read, numerous residents of the Asylum made their way in and out of the living room, but he took no notice of them. He found that the style of Demian was starkly different from the previous Hesse experience he had had in Siddhartha. They were both beautifully written and meaningful in their own way, but the denser, more intellectual style of Demian came across to him as more fascinating. He got up to the middle of the second chapter when he heard the sound of the van pulling up. The dog, Judith, began barking and tore through the living room, running outside from wherever she had been in the house. He felt around in his pockets, first the right and then the left, and finally found a crumpled up receipt. He unfolded it and saw that it was from his meal at the Busy Bee the previous afternoon. He hastily stuck it in the book to mark his place, set the book down and walked outside, where he found that things were relatively quiet.

Molly and Robert got out of the big white van. Molly was dressed much differently than the previous day. Her clothes were professional and she wasn't wearing the straw hat, but she still had that aura about her that had attracted Erik the very first time he'd seen her. She had a somewhat urgent look on her face as she walked into the front yard.

"Erik. Get someone to gather up everybody. I have something to show you all."

He promptly sprinted into the kitchen, where Thomas and Leo were standing, talking about something.

"Hey. Your mom wants us to gather everyone up. Apparently there's something she wants to show us."

Thomas smiled.

"I think I know what this is about," he said. "I'll get Kendra and the rest of the people uphill. Leo, you get everyone who's inside."

They left in their separate directions, and Erik, who suddenly found himself alone, walked back to the yard. Before too long, Thomas and Leo had gotten everyone, and the entire family was gathered there, silently awaiting whatever it was that Molly had to show them.

"Okay," said the matriarch. "This is a day I've been awaiting for a long time, not sure if it would ever come. But here it is."

Without a word, she slid open the back right door of the van, and hoisted out a large cage with a blanket over it. Thomas and Walt had knowing looks on their faces.

"I present," she said, lifting the blanket off the cage with a flourish, "Lester."

There was a dog in the cage, medium sized with short hair. He made a small sound, clearly a bit frightened. Thomas and Walt were now grinning from ear to ear.

Walter's face lit up. "You got him after all!"

Molly nodded, smiling. "Mr. Larson came in today and said they couldn't keep him. Apparently he didn't get along at all with their other dogs. So now he's ours."

"Are you sure he'll get along with Judith?" asked Henry.

"Oh, I'm sure he will. She's such a sweet dog. I bet they'll be friends."

"Well," said Robert, "now that everyone's seen him, why don't we all disperse? The poor thing's frightened enough without a crowd of people staring at him, for Chrissake."

The family members complied and gradually turned around and went to continue whatever they had been doing before Lester's arrival. Judith was at the front of the cage, sniffing the new dog. He sniffed her as well, and it appeared that they indeed were already getting along well enough. Erik was about to turn away as well, when Molly said, to no one in particular, "It's so wonderful to finally have a dog of my own again."

"What about Judith?" asked Erik.

"Judith is really Henry's dog. No, I once had a dog to my own name. His name was Drake. He died... God, nearly twenty-five years ago." She appeared lost in nostalgic thought, and then suddenly chuckled. "One time I was driving from Dallas to Austin. I used to do that a lot in my younger years. It was nighttime and pouring rain, absolutely pouring as hard as it could. I had Drake in the backseat. So there was a flash of lightning, and I saw a young man, about my age, standing on the side of the road in front of me with his thumb up. It's actually a good thing there was lightning, otherwise I never would have seen him. Anyway, he was holding this sad little sign, dripping wet, that said 'Austin.' So I stopped to pick him up, and when he opened the passenger door..." She chuckled again. "When he opened the door, the entire fucking door came off in his hand. I just sighed and said, 'All right, throw it in the back with the dog.' And we rode all the way to Austin with no passenger door." She smiled, and then crouched down, opened the cage door, and started petting Lester, who was still making uneasy noises, trying to calm him down.

Erik turned around and saw Thomas and Kendra sitting under the huge forsythia tree, holding hands. He now felt comfortable enough with Kendra to seat himself next to her without asking permission. The light was starting to fade.

"So what are you guys doing for dinner?" Erik asked after a period of silence.

Thomas shrugged. "Dinner isn't really a formal thing around here, unless we have company or if Gerard is here. If you're hungry, you can rummage around the kitchen for food. There's plenty of food in the fridge and the cabinets."

"Ah."

"Erik," said Kendra, "how would you like to go to a poetry reading on Friday night?"

"Really? You mean it?"

"Of course."

"I'd love to. Where is it?"

"It's twice a month in the basement of a church that's about forty minutes from here. Thomas, Walt, Walter and I always go. We'd love for you to join us."

"Again, I'd love to, but I hope it won't disappoint you if I don't have anything to read. I don't really like to share what little I've written. It's not very good."

"You don't have to read anything if you don't want," she said. "And if you do want to, I'm sure you'll find something, anything, that means something to you at the moment."

Erik once again was pleasantly surprised by Kendra's friendliness.

"Today's Thursday, right?" he asked.

"Yes indeed," responded Kendra.

"So it's tomorrow."

"Yeah."

"Nice. I'm really looking forward to this."

Kendra smiled. Erik was beginning to get hungry, so he went inside to the kitchen, and taking Thomas's advice, rummaged through the cabinets and fridge. There was indeed a lot of food, ranging from fresh vegetables to cans of soup and anything in between. He decided on a can of Manhattan clam chowder, although it somehow made him a little uncomfortable eating something named after a place he had just escaped from. There was a microwave in the corner. He found a bowl in a cabinet and poured in the soup, and managed to find a bin marked "Recycling," which he placed the used can in after washing it. Soon he was eating his meal at the table. No one else was around.

Before long it was time for bed again. Everyone made their way through the house to their respective bedrooms. As Walter passed through the kitchen, he said to Erik, "You can turn the couch into a bed again by yourself, right?"

"I'm sure I can figure it out."

"All right. Good night." He gave a quick salute.

Erik successfully converted the couch into a bed and lay down under the covers. Just like the previous night, he found himself very tired and fell asleep quickly.