Unholyverse

~Part 22~

Ella was picked up a few days later. Mikey borrowed Ray's car and drove Frank out to meet the family who'd found her eating something out of their trash. It was a real nice neighborhood, Frank thought, watching the trees on either side of the wide avenues go by. The sort of place his Mom had always wanted them to live when he was a kid, even though Frank preferred someplace a little dirtier, really, and had never felt like his life sucked because he couldn't run out to the ice cream truck and then play in the sprinklers with Jimmy and Susie from next door, or whatever.

He couldn't do that shit anyway; dairy made him sick and his lungs were such a mess when he was small that he might as well have run under a sprinkler shooting pneumonia out over the lawn, but his Mom still always got a wistful look on her face when they showed those fake families on TV.

The family didn't have kids called Jimmy and Susie, they had two small daughters and a big house with a safe backyard. Frank sat in their dining room and drank their coffee and watched Ella running back and forth between the daughters, barking happily at the ball they were throwing around.

"They fell in love with her pretty much right away," the Mom said apologetically.

Frank nodded and put his cup down on the coaster she'd passed him. "Yeah, so did I."

He refused the Dad's offer to pay him for Ella, just told them what she liked to eat and promised to send her veterinary records along.

"She looked real happy there," he explained to Mikey on the way home, more to stop Mikey shooting him worried glances than anything else. "I can't give her that life, Mikey. She's better off."

"But she's your dog," Mikey insisted, hands tightening on the wheel.

Frank looked out the window as the trees rushed by in reverse. "Not anymore."