Anne McCaffrey -The Great Canine Chorus

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The Great Canine Chorus

By Anne McCaffrey

PETE ROBERTS OF THE WILMINGTON, Delaware, K-9 Corps has as his partner a

German shep-herd named Wizard. One night, just after they took the beat,

Wizard started acting itchy, nervous, whiny. He was snappish, not like

himself at all. He kept try-ing to pull Pete toward Seventh Street.

That wasn't the beat, as Wiz well knew. But Pete decided there might be a good

reason. Wizard was a canny dog; he could pick a culprit out of a crowd by the

smell of fear the man exuded. And he'd saved Pete from two muggings already

this year. So, pro-testing, Pete let Wizard lead him to a block of build-ings

being torn down as part of an urban renewal program.

Wizard became more and more impatient with Pete's apprehensive, measured pace,

and tried to tug him into a jog. Pete began to feel worried, kind of sickly

scared. Suddenly the dog mounted the worn stairs of one of the buildings about

to be demolished. He pawed at the door, whining.

Who's that? a voice asked, high and quavering like

an old lady's. Pa? It couldn't be too old a female,

then.

Wizard barked sharply three times in the negative signal he'd been taught.

Hi, dog. Do you see my pa?

Wiz got down from the steps, looked up and down the street, then barked again

three times.

Pa's so late, and I'm so hungry, the voice said.

Pete, who had eaten well an hour earlier, was sud-

denly overwhelmed with hunger-a sullen kind of

174

stomach cramp that he'd experienced in Korea when his unit was cut off for

four days. The kind of grip-ping pangs you get when you're hungry all the

time.

"Lady, I'm going down to the deli on the corner. I'll be right back with

something to tide you over till your pa gets back." Pete made the announcement

before he realized it. He left Wizard to guard the door.

He ordered a sub with no onions (somehow he knew she wouldn't want them), two

cokes and a banana.

I'm in the back room, said the voice when he and Wizard entered the hall.

Pete had had the distinct impression the voice had come from the front of the

building. It was too thin to have carried far. The stench in the filthy hall

sickened Pete. No matter how many years he might spend on the force, he'd

never get used to the odor of poverty. Maybe it was the stink that brought a

growl from Wizard.

Pete pushed open the back door and entered the pitifully furnished room. On an

old armchair by the window was a wasted little figure, like a broken doll

thrown down by a careless child, limbs askew. By now he expected a girl, a

child, but this was such a little girl!

Wizard got down on his belly, licking his lips nerv-ously. He crawled

carefully across the dirty floor. He sniffed at the tiny hand on the shabby

arm of the chair, whined softly. The little band did not move away, nor toward

him, either.

What kind of a father, Pete fumed to himself, would leave a kid, a mere baby,

alone in a place like this?

I'm no baby, mister. I'm nine years old, she in-formed him indignantly.

Pete apologized contritely, blaming his error on the glare from the single

window. He wouldn't have thought her more than five, six at the outside. She

was so pitifully underdeveloped. She was clean, as were her shred of a dress

and the old blanket on which she lay, but the rest of the room was filthy.

Her pinched face had a curious, calm beauty to it.

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Anne McCaffrey -The Great Canine Chorus

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