LIFE Interrupted

She rubbed her temples feeling like she was going crazy. Deciding a walk, the exercise would do her some good, Sophie went back to their bedroom where her gym shoes were. She had worn yoga pants this morning and a light weight knit shirt. She no longer needed a jacket; the afternoon air had gotten warmer.

She slipped into her walking shoes wondering when the last time was that she had worn them. She and Kai had gotten on a kick about fitness at thirty-eight as forty fast approached so they joined a gym. She straightened after tying her shoes and pulled her hair up in a ponytail.

That had lasted six months. Sophie chuckled to herself.

Heading outside, she started down the sidewalk at the edge of the yard and headed towards the end of the street. Each street, block after block ended in a cul-de-sac in this neighborhood. She could walk for miles going up and down them and spend hours never getting anywhere.

Walking aimlessly, she wandered, and the exercise and fresh air was clearing her fog. Sophie even walked down Kai’s street. Kai was at work right now or she could have stopped there and spent time with her friend.

She was at the edge of the thick woods that ran behind Kai’s house when she heard a noise that stopped her in her tracks. Sophie listened. She walked backwards and listened some more. A faint whimpering noise was coming from the drainage pipe beneath the road.

She stepped off the sidewalk and walked down the slight incline to the drainage ditch. It emptied into a long, steep trench that ran for yards into the woods. At the opening of the pipe were concrete retaining walls on either side of the trench and a slate stone bed that only ran for a few feet.

Sophie was just going to look to see if the dog or dogs were injured but the concrete pipe that ran beneath the width of the road she had been walking on was dark. She couldn’t really see anything, but she could hear them better from this vantage point. They were in trouble, scared or they were hurt. She could tell by the whimpering sound that they made.

Climbing further down the hillside to the edge of the retaining wall, she leaned over and peered inside. A small amount of water lay in the base of the pipe flowing out of the darkness beneath the road across the slated rocks and downstream. She wasn’t supposed to get her port wet until it healed. She couldn’t see in the dark of the massive, thick pipe, but she wanted to see those dogs. She thought there might be more than one.

“Come here, baby,” she called. She whistled. “Here boy.” She waited. “Or girl.” Nothing happened. She didn’t have her phone with her to shine it inside the pipe to see how far into it they were.

A truck stopped beside her on the road, Sophie glanced up still balancing herself on the edge of the retaining wall. Roman Garin rolled his window down. His arm rested against the edge of the frame. “What are you doing? Didn’t you have your port inserted today?”

She frowned at him. “Something is in there.”

“Besides trouble, Sophie?” She could tell he was teasing her.

“Funny. A puppy or a small dog, maybe two.” She kept looking in the tunnel then at Roman. “It or they need help.”

“Sophie, get out of there before you get hurt.”

“Roman, it needs help,” she insisted.

Roman put the truck in park. He got out glancing in back at his sleeping son in the car seat. He leaned in and grabbed his phone then he slid down the grass beside Sophie. His dress shoes were getting dirty.

She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

He rolled his beautiful, brown eyes at her. “I’ve done nothing yet.” He flashed the light on his phone inside the drain pipe. Then he jumped down, landing in inches of water, splashing his good, dress pants halfway up to his knees.

“Where are you going?” She asked.

“Getting the puppy, I see. It isn’t that far inside the pipe.” Roman squatted and slipped inside the pipe when he returned he had a reddish-brown, soaked puppy with floppy ears. Roman handed her to Sophie. “There’s another one. The mother didn’t make it,” he informed her.

“Oh no.” Sophie stroked the shivering, tiny puppy in her arms.

Roman came out of the drainage pipe with another puppy exactly like the one in Sophie’s hand. “How old are they?” Sophie asked him.

“I don’t know. Six, seven weeks, maybe. Not very old.”

“They’re cold and hungry.” She petted the one in her arms while Roman laid the other one next to her. He hoisted himself up to the hillside where she sat.

“So, what are you going to do with these puppies, Sophie?”

She glanced between the two dogs then she looked at Roman. “You take one home and I’ll take one home,” she said to him giving Roman her best, smile.

“Oh no.” He was shaking his head. His dark hair fell, over his forehead

“But they are so cute,” Sophie declared, batting her eyelashes at him.

“Stop that, it won’t work.”