A Scrappy Tale – The Fire Within

     The puppy awakened in the morning to the sound of Dominic laughing at him from the center of the cell. It didn’t really bother him at the time. He was too numb inside to feel anything at all. The Woman came to feed the dogs and the one time Dominic didn’t run the pups off with a time limit, the little Chihuahua couldn’t bring himself to eat. Dominic sat and laughed at him quietly while they ate. The puppy closed his eyes and began to daydream about the cape again. A mask would be good. That way criminals like him wouldn’t know who destroyed them. His dreaming ever so slightly aroused a sense of justice in him. But the emptiness of loss still owned him.

     When recreation period arrived he very slowly walked outside, far behind the others. The Woman picked him up and took him into the Office and sat him down beside her on the floor to watch the first Scooby-Doo movie. As she talked on the phone he noticed her cigarette on the ashtray. His sense of smell hadn’t gotten used to it yet but at this point everything was dulled. Suddenly it rolled off by itself onto the carpeted floor. He looked at her then back at the cigarette. Now he smelled another bad smell. Twisting his head he looked more closely and saw the carpet giving way to a hole under the cigarette flame and the hole was growing. Just as a little yellow flame popped up the Woman stepped on it and rubbed it out.

     The puppy began scrapping his brain for the first time since the horrific experience the day before. He had just thought of one answer to several issues. Now his anger was awake and he vowed in his heart to find a way to do to Dominic what he did to Daizey. After the Woman left to get the dogs from the play yard, the puppy pulled one of her cigarettes from the pack and raced out to the cell. He carefully nudged it under the frame of the bottom of the cell. He found just enough room to fit it completely out of sight. He ran back into the Office just in time to be missed by any of the puppies coming in from the play yard entrance. The Woman picked him up in both hands and returned him to the cell.

     The puppy lied a foot away from the gang bed looking toward the cell door. The Woman entered the area and hung a large wood, painted sign reading “Smoking by Dogs Prohibited in This Facility”. The puppy barely twisted his head perplexed as he read it. After she had returned to the Office Dominic came out of his corner to sit in the middle of the cell and stare at him. He laughed. The puppy stared at him. And he burned inside. Dominic stopped laughing to stare some more. The puppy didn’t budge. Dominic began the laughter again. Then he stared again. “Ya kyoot little goilfriend is gwunna be… 'late' fwor dinna tuhnwight! Aaahh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaah!" Dominic began to laugh uncontrollably. Now the puppy began to fume inside. But he didn’t move a muscle. Finally his tormentor went back to his corner where the puppy could see a lighter flame flare up a few feet away from Dominic's bed. Then he saw the cigarette ember quickly move from where the flame was and stop where Dominic’s bed was. This was interesting to the puppy.

     “Izza there anyt’ing we c’n do fwor you?” Ace quietly asked the puppy. “You needa eat. We still gawt summa last nwight’s stash ovah heah fwor ya.”

     “Is da lighta still over there?” the puppy asked without breaking his gaze.

     “Yeah.”

     “Has Zippy got ‘dat hole almost ready?”

     “Awlmost. You okay?”

     The puppy gestured with his head for Ace to come to him. “I’m finally stawrtin’ ta figger out what my mamma meant by the code of silence.”

     Ace asked very distinctly, “What… did… you… say?”

     “I didn’t stutta, Ace.” The dachshund sat down to listen with great interest. “Dominic is an arrogant blowhawrd. He’s so proud he couldn’t keep his mouth shut in a thong-strap muzzle! I’ve held in so much he’s got no idea what I got in mind for ‘im. I t’ink I know how ta get outta here. I like yooze guys but if we’re gonna get out alive we need each other. And we cannot speak much. We’ll hafta signal wit’ looks sometwimes. And nunnuvit’s gonna work without loyalty to each other.”

     “You awre tawlkin’ about ‘Omerta’. Awre you…?”

     “My pop was.”

     “So was mine!”

     “Let’s take ‘dis up later. We gotta get ‘dis plan ready. Follow me to the door and block ma view.”

     Ace walked between the puppy and Dominic’s lair so he was not completely visible to Dominic or Leak. The young Chihuahua pulled the stolen cigarette from its hiding place and carried it back to the gang’s bed with Ace shielding him from view. “You taken up smokin’ awlluvasudden? You know ‘dat’ll kill ya bafwore ya twime, huh?”

     “No. Ace, I’m gonna ruin that loud-mouthed piece-a gawrbage if it’s da last thing I ever do. Before I die I’m gonna crush ‘im! Guys, gather inna here. I think we can split ‘dis joint and pay back ‘dat stupid palooka in da corner over there.”

…to be continued…