Fight for Life

Chapter Four

A girl wearing a faded green “Save the Whales” sweatshirt leans at the counter. She has a long black ponytail. Maggie recognizes her from school. She also has a pet crow named Edgar Allan Poe Crow. She’s Brenna Lake, and Maggie is surprised when she says she’s the newest volunteer. Gran pokes her head into the waiting room. She says she’s glad Brenna made it. Maggie and Brenna look at each other awkwardly, not sure what to say to each other. Gran says that with Brenna around, Maggie will have more time for her homework. Uh-oh, the dreaded H-word. Brenna will help with the clinic chores after school. To start off with, the cages need cleaning, and the newest patients need eyes in the recovery room.

But this is all Maggie’s job. She can tell this just isn’t going to work. Maggie makes excuses to try to get out of studying. She says that it’s not fair to give Brenna so much work on her first day. Perhaps Maggie can study in the recovery room so she can be there to help Brenna with questions. Brenna says it would be nice to have Maggie there to show her around.

Shelby, Inky, and Dinky are sleeping in a puppy pen on the floor of the recovery room. A heat lamp shines over them. Maggie explains any patients recovering from surgery or from being sick lives in the recovery room. Gran is strict about everything staying spotless. Maggie shows Brenna to a double-decker row of cages against the back wall. She shows her how to take out the dirty newspaper, disinfecting and wiping the inside, and laying down clean newspaper. Brenna catches on quickly and cleans the second cage almost as fast as Maggie cleaned the first. Maggie will have to talk with Gran so that Brenna doesn’t take more of Maggie’s jobs.

Maggie drags out her backpack and flops on the floor with her social studies book. She has a government exam tomorrow. Brenna warns on her exam, she had to write an essay on the steps required to make a new law. Maggie knows laws start with ideas. State representatives vote on the law. Blah, blah, blah. Maggie finds her eyelids drooping. She needs a break.

Maggie says that Brenna isn’t using enough disinfectant. Without that, the cages will get moldy and gross. She reaches out for the bottle to show Brenna how to do it again. Brenna holds it out of reach and says she doesn’t want Gran to come in and see Maggie doing everything. The two glare at each other like stubborn mules until Brenna spritzes the tray again and wipes it with a paper towel. Maggie may have met her match.

Brenna tells Maggie that she cleaned Poe’s cage once when he was injured and living inside. He was shot with a pellet gun by kids not much older than herself. The intent was to set Poe free eventually, but now, he’s one of the family.

The two girls sit across from each other with the puppies in the warm pen between them. Dinky is still breathing quickly, the same rate as before. His fluid is dripping slowly, which means he needs less fluid than before. Maggie explains she learned everything from Gran, and from living at the clinic. Since her parents died in a car crash when she was a baby. The clinic is the only home Maggie remembers.

Maggie tucks a blanket around the shivering Dinky. He opens his mouth and yawns, then snuggles against Maggie’s palm.

Then Gran comes in. She looks serious. She says a litter of sick puppies is coming in. Gran will need extra help while she tries to find another vet or vet technician to come in. Their associate, Dr. Gabe, is doing goat vaccinations at a local farm. It sounds like the puppies are malnourished and wormy. She tells the girls to wash up.