Wow, totally rambling about my dog. But I miss him.
That’s about all I miss from home.
Can’t wait to hear from you again.
Gabriel
CHAPTER 1
Do hugs, not drugs.
-Sierra to Gabriel
SIERRA
Gabriel,
I’ll have you know that I took your advice and got a dog today!
I swear to God, walking into that shelter to get a dog was by far the hardest thing that I’ve ever done in my life.
The shelter where I got Axe from is a no-kill shelter, so they had tonnnnnsssssss of dogs. I’m talking, every single kennel they had was filled with a precious fur baby.
When I got there, I asked the front desk attendant who her favorite dog was. She said that it was a dog at the end of the line—he was a long-haired German Shepherd like you have!
Anyway, I walk down to the end of the kennels—which was the hardest thing, again! —and there he was. He wasn’t at the gate like the other dogs. He was at the back of his little cell, facing the wall, not even bothering to look at who the other dogs were barking at. He was curled in on himself, and he had a bowl full of food just beyond him that according to the kennel attendant, he barely ever touches. They said that he was severely underweight, barely ever moved out of his curled-up position, and never got a second look from anybody.
It was then that I knew I had to get him.
Anyway, so I go in there with him, talk to him, and the only time I hear him perk up is when I tell him softly that I’m going to get an ax and break him out of his jail. I swear to God, his head jerked up so fast that I knew that the name had to be familiar to him.
So I started calling him Axe.
Actually, if we’re going to be honest here, I call him Axie Poo now.
I think he tolerates me.
Even better, he hates men, which means that he hates my brother.
It’s so funny to see my brother walk into the room and hear Axe growl.
This letter turned into a short novel.
Wow.
Hope that you’re doing great, Gabriel.
Love,
Sierra & Axe
• • •
Six months ago
“Hey,” I heard said from the other end of the line. “This is Melissa.”
Melissa, aka my English teacher from high school.
“Umm,” I paused. “Ms. Abrams?”
“Yes, sorry. I forget that you all don’t know me by my actual name.” She chuckled.
My brows furrowed.
“What’s up?” I asked. “How are you?”
She laughed. “I’m great. I’m vacationing in Bora Bora. My husband is literally sunbathing out on the beach naked. Wow, that was a little much. I’m sorry. It’s just, I get so nervous talking to old students. I don’t know how to act.”
I laughed then. “I got you. It’s a little weird talking to old teachers, too. But luckily, we’re both adults now. It’s good that you have a beach you can sunbathe naked at, though. I kind of wish I had that right now. It’s currently hot as balls here, and it’s only spring.”
Melissa peeled with laughter. “That’s why we’re vacationing. We’ll get home and it’ll be awful. Anywho, I got something for you. Do you remember that pen pal program that we did in English?”
Did I ever.
“Yes,” I replied, wondering where she was going with this. “I do.”
My dog, Axe, jumped up on the couch beside where I was sitting. He moved until his head was resting on my lap, right against my stomach.
I ran my fingers between his raised ears and scratched while I tried not to think about those letters. The letters that I got for years and years before one day they just… stopped.
My heart still hurt.
I knew, somehow knew, that something really bad had happened to him.
He was a Navy SEAL.
He went to dangerous places.
Bad things happened to good people over there.
“Well,” she said. “The older woman that’s checking my mail for me got a letter in the mail. It was addressed to you. She thought about throwing it away, thinking that it was for someone else, but I told her if she was to get anything like that she had questions about, to call. And anyway, you have a letter from your pen pal. I know that when you got out of my class, you continued to write him. I’m assuming that he doesn’t know where to write you anymore, so he’s trying the old PO Box.”