Othello raised his head limply as Chad bounced along the drive and then flopped back to the mound that covered his late mistress.  Chad parked, grabbed a bowl of water and packet of dog meat from the fridge, and trudged out to the grave.  The dog didn’t even attempt to rise to meet him.

Chad raised the dog’s head and gazed into his cloudy eyes.  He sighed painfully.  “Oh Othello, you can’t.  She can’t handle more loss.  Please.  Drink.”

The dog merely whimpered and turned away.  Chad dropped his arms on his knees and hung his head, praying.  When, minutes later, the dog’s eyes froze in death, Chad sighed.  “Oh Lord, how will I tell her?”

An hour later, he covered the dog with the final shovel of dirt.  Chad hoped he’d done the right thing.  He prayed he’d done the right thing.  Shoulders slumped, he carried the bowl and shovel back to the house and tossed them inside the barn door.

The pup bounced obnoxiously around his ankles as he filled the water pot and grabbed the milking pail.  Chad called reassurances to Wilhelmina as he entered the pen and filled the feeding trough with loose alfalfa.  Willie stepped around skittishly and then kicked the puppy sending it flying across the pen.

Chad watched as the pup whimpered, stood, shook her head, and walked a little drunken looking back toward Wilhelmina.  “Oh no you don’t girl,” Chad warned as he pushed the wriggling puppy away again.

Half an hour later, Chad sat in the Finley living room with one of Kari’s journals lying open and unread in his lap. The clock chimed six-thirty.  He tried to read the book but failed.

With great reluctance, he pulled his phone from his pocket and scrolled through his address book for Bill Franklin’s number.  When Bill answered, Chad spoke one sentence.  Only one.  “I’ve just buried Othello.”

***

Willow notice the surprise in Bill’s face but the menu before her captured her attention before she could see the dismay that wiped the surprise from his eyes as he lifted the phone to his ear.  Anger covered the dismay just as quickly and left Bill speechless.  He snapped the phone shut.

“Is everything ok?”

“No, but it isn’t anything that won’t keep.  Have you decided what you want to order?”

Willow shook her head ruefully.  “It all sounds so bizarre and exotic.  Why don’t you choose something you think I’ll like?”

The sushi experience with Willow was delightful.  They ordered different appetizer samplers and her reaction to each was entertaining in the least.  She loved some, wrinkled her nose and pushed away others, and in the end, sat back in the chair and sighed.  “This was so much fun!”

Bill glanced at his watch.  It was only seven-thirty but he knew it might be a late night when she discovered her dog was gone and the next day there was church to consider.  He knew she’d walked there the past weeks.  She needed her rest.

“Have you considered getting a car?”

Her laughter rang out freely.  A few around them sent strange looks in their direction but Willow didn’t seem to notice.  “What would I do with a car?” she exclaimed amazed.

“Well, you wouldn’t have to walk into town anymore, you wouldn’t have to carry things back from town, and you could-” He paused.  Maybe it was too soon to expect her to want to visit him spontaneously.

“I could what?”

“Well, you might want to come into town, see the sights, do some shopping, take me out to dinner-”

“Walk on your walk-mill.”

“Treadmill.”

“Treadmill,” she agreed.  “Can I try it before we go home?”

“You want to use my treadmill.”  Bill was dumfounded.

“It’s such an interesting machine.  You have a city full of interesting places to see and yet you have a machine so you can stay home to walk.”

“I have a city full of unsafe places to walk.”

Willow remembered her mother’s fear of strangers, vehicles, and her last experience in the city before she’d left it and her family forever.  “This is true.  So will you let me try?  I want to see how long I can walk on it.”

Twenty minutes later, Willow walked leisurely on the treadmill wearing one of Bill’s t-shirts that hung to her knees, the sleeves past her elbows, and a pair of swim trunks cinched at the waist.  She quickly learned how to operate the apparatus and Bill watched amazed as she increased speed and incline almost immediately.  It took over ten minutes for her to break a sweat, which was a little embarrassing for Bill.

He excused himself and slipped into his bathroom with his cell phone.  He dialed his last call and waited for Chad to answer.  “Hey.  Bill here.  What should I do about Willow?”

“Where are you?”  Chad dreaded Willow’s arrival.

“My place.  Willow wanted to try out my treadmill.”

Chad started to reply but Bill’s words caught him by surprise. “Treadmill?”

“I know, crazy isn’t it?  She’s obsessed.  She’s been on it for fifteen minutes and is like the Energizer bunny.  She keeps on going like nothing.”

Chad could imagine.  She hadn’t seemed the slightest bit winded after walking back from Fairbury carrying a suitcase.  “Well, that’s Willow.”

“So what should I do?  Do I tell her about the dog or what?”

Chad’s silence was unnerving but eventually he spoke.  “I think I should tell her.  I don’ want to but I should.  I don’t know how she’ll take it.  Do you know how long they’ve had that dog?”

Bill thought for several seconds before replying, “Well, I think they got him four or five years after I started going out there so he has to be seven or eight years old.”

“Ok,” Chad decided.  “I think you need to tell her that I called and have something to discuss with her so you’re going to just drop her off and then go back home.  I’m really sorry for ruining your evening but I have to work at ten tomorrow so I need to get home as early as I can but I think she’d take this better from me.”

“I understand.  I appreciate it.  I’m not very good with these things.  At least you get some training- though I guess not for dogs huh?”

The men rang off and Bill left the bathroom somewhat subdued.  They had enjoyed such a memorable day.  He didn’t want it to end and even more than that, he didn’t want it to end the way it would.

As he caught Willow’s eyes, he laughed.  Sweat dampened the shirt slightly and she was walking deliberately now rather than casually but there was little obvious effort expended.  “I knew you were amazing Willow but this is just embarrassing.”

***

Half way up the drive, Willow spotted the light from her living room windows.  “Chad must still be here.  I didn’t expect him to wait for me.  Now I feel terrible.”

“Why?”  Bill was stalling and he knew it.  The car slowed to a minimal creep along the lane.

“When I came back from the court thing in Rockland, I mentioned how sad it was that mom wasn’t there to welcome me home.  He must have-”

“That’s not it,” Bill began nervously.  “He has something to talk to you about.  We talked when you were on the treadmill.”  Before his words could sink in and she asked any uncomfortable questions, Bill kept talking.  “I had a wonderful time today Willow.  Thank you for coming.”

Her mind temporarily distracted from Chad, the lit house, and looming discussions on mysterious topics, Willow unconsciously laid her hand on his arm and said, “Oh I had a wonderful time too!  Thank you so much for taking me to Boho Chic; I’m sure it wasn’t much fun for you.  Oh, and don’t forget to reimburse yourself for my clothes and food and everything.”

Bill shook his head.  “I’ll cut me a check for your clothes Willow, but our meals are on me.”

“I can’t let you pay for my food!  You did that last time.  If anything, I should have paid for your dinner.  It was my turn.”

He stopped the car, three hundred yards from the house in the middle of the driveway, and put the gear in park.  “Willow, I wanted to take you out for the day.  I wanted to treat you.  Think of it as a gift that someone wanted to give you.  You accept the gift but do you write a check out for the cost?”

Understanding dawned slowly.  “Oh Bill!  I am amazingly dense, aren’t I?  This was a date!”  She shook her head as though amazed and then gave him a slow smile.  “What would mother say?”

Bill knew she wasn’t thinking of their day as anything but fun and a kind gesture on his part and her realization caught him off guard.  “What do you mean?  You think your mother would object?”

“I think my mother would shake her head and ask if there was nothing that I wanted that I wouldn’t eventually get.”

His eyes widened in surprise but before Bill could respond, Willow unintentionally stomped down rising hopes.  “Remember, I had a crush on you once.  Delayed gratification is still gratification.  Oh, mother!  If you could see me- Wait, I guess she can, can’t she!  How funny!”

To his dismay, Willow reached behind his seat and pulled out her purse and the souvenir bag from the museum.  As she opened the car door, Bill caught her arm.  “Where are you going?”

“I have to get Chad out of my house.”

Those words were the last he expected to hear.  His brilliant reply left him groaning in disgust with himself.  “Huh?”

“He has to work tomorrow morning so if there is something we have to talk about, I need to get in there so he can get home.  Thanks again.”

“Get in.”

“What?”

Bill’s voice grew slightly more insistent.  “I said, get in.”

Willow started to acquiesce but stopped with one foot raised.  “Why?”

“You’re not walking the rest of the way up this thing alone.  What kind of heel do you think I am?”

The door shut behind her as Willow slipped into the seat.  Chad heard the door from inside the house and steppe out onto the porch surprised to see the car still barely moving along the driveway.  He walked to the corner of the porch and glanced toward the barn but nothing looked amiss.

A sigh escaped as Bill saw the front door open and Chad emerge from the house.  “Well, looks like he’s waiting for you.”  The car stopped.  “I’ll get your door.”

With a hand on his arm, Willow stopped him.  “I offended you.  I’m sorry.”

“No, I just wish things could be different.”

She smiled brightly at him.  “They can.  Next time.”

“Will there be a next time?”

She opened the door, exited, and stuck her head back into the car before closing it firmly.  “That, Mr. Franklin, is entirely up to you.”

***

Chad waited as Willow made her way up the path to the porch waving at Bill as he turned around and drove back down the driveway.  Not knowing what else to do, he met her at the bottom of the steps and took her hand.  “I have something to tell you.”

Willow set her things on the steps and walked with Chad as he led her around the barn and across the meadow to the oak tree where her mother’s grave looked disturbed.  She gave him a pained look and tried to tear her hand free of his to rush to the grave but Chad held her back.  “Willow.”

“Someone has messed with Mother’s grave!  Let me go!”

“I did that Willow,” Chad began miserably.

All struggle ceased and Willow’s face lifted to look at his.  The moonlight silhouetted them near the tree- his hand holding hers, their faces seeming to draw slowly closer.  A car passed along the highway and the woman inside nudged her husband and sighed. “Look, isn’t it romantic.  I think he’s going to kiss her.”

“What is it Chad?  I can see that you’re hurting.  Why did you mess with Mother’s grave?”  Willow saw something in her friend’s face she didn’t like.  His eyes glanced at the grave to her side and his shoulders slumped.

Swallowing the lump that seemed to grow bigger with every second, Chad replied, “I thought you and your mother would like Othello to rest there with her.”

“Oth-” her eyes sought the grave again and saw what she’d missed the first time.  It wasn’t one disturbed mound but two.  “Oh no!”

She sank onto the freshly dug grave, her hand holding tight to Chad’s, and pulling him down with her.  She stared, seemingly unmoved, for some time at the dirt beneath her fingers.  “I was going to name the puppy Desdemona,” she commented flatly.

“Demonwhat?”

“Desdemona.  She was Othello’s wife in the play.  I even imagined her having Othello’s puppies.  Wouldn’t they have been adorable?”

Chad didn’t know what to think.  They sat for some time on the little pile of dirt that covered a long loved pet of hers and Willow seemed almost unaffected.  He felt a raindrop and glanced up at a cloudless sky.  Stars twinkled above; the moon shone.  Another drop splashed.  With the third, he tilted Willow’s face and saw her fighting back tears.

“Don’t Willow.  Let-”

“I know it’s silly.  He was a dog, a pet.  He wasn’t- But I got him as a puppy for Christmas one year.  The feed store brought him with our order and left him with a big red bow on top of a bag of chicken feed.”

“You loved him.”

She wiped at her eyes impatiently shaking her head.  “He was just a pet.  It’s not like losing Mother.”

With a tenderness Chad didn’t know he possessed, he caught her other hand.  Holding both hands in one of his, he used the back of his fingers to brush away a few missed tears and pulled her firmly to his chest.  “Shh.  No more excuses.  Cry it out.  You lost not only a dear friend but you also lost him on the heels of losing your mother.  I imagine the grief is intertwined.”

“Bill knew about this didn’t he?”

“He knew.”

Willow sobbed.  She wailed.  She tore her hands from Chad’s and pounded fists against the dirt until Chad pulled her back to him and then she pounded his chest.  “Just leave me alone.”

“I’m not going anywhere Willow.  Not until you’ve let it all out.”

Time crawled for Chad as he sat holding her and trying to comfort her through what he suspected was more than the loss of a dog.  He should have known that recent wounds would reopen with this newest one.  He remembered how Luke had encouraged him to consider a pastorate and praised the Lord, as he wiped yet more tears from Willow’s face, that he’d been steadfast in his determination to be a police officer.

“Thank you.”  Willow’s voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear her.

“For what?”

“Burying Othello.  I couldn’t have done it.  Not right away and then-”

Chad stood and pulled her to her feet next to him. “Oh Willow.  No one would have left you to do that alone.”

“You did.  You did it alone.  Why is it ok for you and not for me?”

As they walked to the house, Chad listened as Willow questioned life, death, and the inconsistencies of both.  He stopped at his truck and opened the door.  “Willow, part of what you’re experiencing is culture shock.  You and your mother had your own culture.  Her death plunged you into another culture.  They’re closely related but whereas you and your mother valued grit and independence, we like to serve others- especially when they are hurting.”

Chad drove away feeling like a hypocrite.  If he valued service as he claimed to, he wouldn’t be fighting his service for her.  “Lord, thank you for Bill Franklin.  If things keep going the way they are, I may be off the hook before long.”