Chapter 37: Ashley

We pulled into the parking lot of the Vet's office and there were two people standing outside with a gurney. As soon as Bob got out of truck, they started towards us. Bob picked Thor up and put him on the gurney and all of us headed towards the door.

I listened as Bob talked to the Doctor, "Don't try to separate the two of them. Thor is likely to get violent."

"Come on Bob, Thor wouldn't hurt anyone. He is one of the friendliest dogs I ever seen," the Doctor said. Apparently everyone thought about Thor this way.

"Just trust me on this one, I'll try to explain later."

The Doctor looked at Bob, "You look like you could use some help too."

"I'll be fine, just take care of Thor."

"No Bob, I think you need help too. That stuff can cause permanent damage to your eyes. I think I'll take care of Thor and have my assistant help get you cleaned up. If she can give me a hand, we can get both of you better in no time."

I was confused now, he wanted me to help him clean up Thor? He turned to me and said, "If you can give my assistant a hand that would be helpful too."

He thought Dave was a girl too. I looked over at Dave, he wasn't dressed in girls clothes, but sweats weren't really boys or girls either. I have to admit though if he walked up to me and my friends in the mall, other than bad fashion sense we would not have given him a second thought about whether he was a girl or not.

I looked up at the Doctor, "If you think I can help, I'll do whatever I can."

"Good with two pretty helpers we'll be fine."

I kept from laughing out loud, but would tell Dave about it later. Hopefully it will give him a laugh too. He seems to need one. As we walked towards the building the nurse asked me my name and I told her Ashley.

We went in and they wheeled Thor into one room, and I followed Bob and the nurse into another. She looked over at Bob, and started asking him questions about whether he had been sprayed. She also had him take his shirt off and lay on the table. While she was doing that she told me to wash my hands real well.

I got them cleaned and then she helped put on some rubber gloves and big gown. "Ok Bob," she continued. "Lay down and we will start by washing out your eyes. Can you help me by holding his head steady." I nodded.

We spent quite a while first washing out his eyes with these funny bottles of water, then shampooing his hair, and washing his arms and chest. I hoped Dave wasn't having problems getting Thor clean. Bob was nice about letting us getting him washed up, since I could tell that he thought he could do it himself.

With Bob clean and dry, the nurse gave him a set of those green scrubs that you see doctors and nurses wearing. I turned around so he could change. The nurse got put his clothes in a bag and helped me out of the gloves and gown. "Now wash these clothes separately a couple times to get them clean. You should too, honey. Otherwise the oils might still burn you."

We stepped out of the room and saw that Dave and Thor were coming down the hallway. We waited for them to get here and Thor barked a greeting when they got here. We both reached down to pet him, and he wagged his tail in response. I looked over at Dave and he looked a bit better, his eyes were still red, but he had stopped crying.

We turned as a group and walked out to the lobby, as we entered the room, Mr. Olson stood up and walked over towards us. Dave on the hand came to a complete halt, and I almost knocked him over.

Thor stepped in front of and began growling, I stepped around him and looked him in the face. He was as white as a sheet, "Dave what's wrong?"

The next thing I knew Bob had picked him up and turned him away from the lobby. I spun around and looked around. There sitting near the door was a big St. Bernard. Mr. Olson got up to us and Bob handed Dave to him. "Take him out to the car, and I'll explain when I get there."

He took Dave and headed to the door with Thor on his heals, still growling and me following behind. I saw that his truck had all the doors open and we walked over to it. "Just set him in back and let Thor get in with him."

He looked at me and shrugged, then set Dave in the back. Thor jumped up with him and curled up around him. I asked Dave if he was ok, but the only thing I heard was him softly crying. I sighed and turned back to Mr. Olson.

"What's wrong with him?" he asked.

"I don't know the whole story, but I think that when he was a little kid, one of his neighbors had a big dog and used to have it chase him."

"Oh, but what about Thor?"

I turned and looked at Dave curled up in the back of the truck, with Thor laying next to him. I didn't really know how much to say. "It took him months of being near Thor, before he wasn't afraid of him. You know Thor follows him around every morning, don't you?"

He nodded. "I've seen them a few times."

He looked at Dave, sighed, and sat on the bumper. I joined him, and we waited in silence for Bob to return.

Bob came out a few minutes later and walked over to where we were sitting. He looked into the back of the truck, and asked, "Dave are you ok?"

I didn't hear an answer, but he continued. "We're going to head home now. Are you sure you're ok?" Again I didn't hear anything, but Bob said "Ok".

We got off the bumper and Bob closed the back of the truck. I looked up at Bob and before I could say anything Mr. Olson asked, "Is he going to be ok?"

Bob answered, "Yeah, let's just go home."

We got into the truck and I looked back at Dave. He was still curled up and Thor was laying next to him licking his face.

We started our drive home, and Bob asked suddenly, "Hey aren't they just going to get that stuff all over them again?"

Mr. Olson said, "What? No, I hosed off that mat for about fifteen minutes while you were inside. All that's going to happen is they end up a bit wet."

I stifled a giggle at that, I thought that Dave was already more than a bit wet. Mr. Olson kept talking, "What happened back there? Ashley said something about him being bothered by a dog when he was a kid."

Bob twisted around and looked back, "Bothered no, as far as I know, he was terrorized by his father and neighborhood kids. One of them owned a St. Bernard and used it to chase him, and terrify him. He had a hard time as a kid."

"It was that bad?"

"You saw it, he just froze. I don't think he could have moved if his life depended on it."

"But what about Thor? They seem almost inseparable."

Bob sighed, "They are inseparable. There is some sort of connection between them, and I don't know what would happen if someone tried to forcibly separate them. I know I wouldn't try."

I almost yelled, "It's because they love each other."

Bob looked back at me, "Yes Ashley, I think they do."

Mr. Olson looked over at Bob, "Love?"

Bob paused for a moment, "Yes I think love is the right word. It's a complicated story and I think that Dave should be the one to tell it."

We finished the drive in silence, with me occasionally looking back at Dave. He just lay there with one arm draped over Thor. I thought about how he had acted and realized just what it took for him to give Thor that present last year, and I know that I've never been that scared in my life and hope that I never am.

As we got close to home Mr. Olson asked where we should go and Bob suggested Sarah's first. As we pulled in there were two police cars sitting if front of Sarah's house. She was sitting on her porch with Steve and an old guy in a Sheriff's uniform.

We pulled up and stopped. I twisted around and told Dave that we were home. I heard a muffled "Ok" as he started to move some.

We got out and walked around to the back, where Mr. Olson opened it and Bob picked up and set Dave on the ground. I looked at Dave's face, and I think that he looked worse now than before. As we walked up, the three of them stood up. Sarah looked like she was about to run out, but Officer Wildler grabbed her arm. The old guy looked like he was about to say something, and stopped as he looked at Dave.

Instead as Dave got to the stairs, he held out his hand and said, "I assume that you are Dave Wilson, I'm Sheriff Walstra. I need to ask you some questions, if you're up to it."

Dave paused and looked up at him. When he went to grab the hand, Thor moved between them looking at the Sheriff. "Now is good, if it's going to be quick."

"Quick as I can make it. Can you tell me what happened right up until Deputy Wildler got there?"

Dave told his story quickly, it was short and to the point. The Sheriff asked a couple questions about whether or he recognized the three men and if any one was out to get him. He answered those and the Sheriff asked Bob what he saw.

That was quick, Bob got there about the same time as Steve and had just grabbed Thor to stop him. Mr. Olson was next and explained that he got there after it was over and just gave them a ride.

The Sheriff got their phone numbers and gave them a business card. He shook their hands again and left. Deputy Wildler yawned, and said something about it being past his bedtime. He shook Bob and Mr. Olson's hands, gave me, Sarah, and Dave a quick squeeze, then patted Thor's head. Mr. Olson left too.

Sarah looked at us, and asked us in. Bob started to say something and Sarah cut him off, "Come inside Bob."

Bob sighed, and all of us including Thor went in. Sarah wrinkled her nose, and said, "I can still smell that stuff a bit."

Bob held up a bag, "It might be these. The doctor told me to wash them by themselves."

Sarah looked at them, "Here let me wash them, and I'll wash what Dave and Ashley are wearing too. They probably need it. Ashley come with me, you can borrow some of Dave's sweats. Take a shower and change, I'll call your parents."

Sarah grabbed the bag from Bob, and led me down to the nursery. She grabbed some sweat pants and a sweat shirt. "Here you can wear these."

I carried them to bathroom, and started to shower. Sarah knocked first then came in and grabbed my clothes. When I finished my shower, I found a new pair of panties on the sweats. I wondered why she had panties in my size here.

After I dressed, I walked into the living room and saw just Bob and Sarah there. "Where's Dave?"

Sarah looked at me, "I, uh, told him to lay down for a nap. He argued for about ten seconds, then relented. Thor is laying on the floor just below him."

Sarah made us some lunch and we sat and talked while the clothes were being washed. Something was odd about the way they talked to me. It took me a while, but I realized that they were talking to me like I was an adult. It was odd, but I liked it.

We had been talking for a while, Sarah had even restarted the washing machine to rewash the clothes, when there was a pounding on the door.

Sarah jumped up, ran to the door and yanked it open. "Please be qui…" she started, but stopped halfway through. She stepped back and Dave's friend Steve walked in.

"Is he all right and where is he?"

Chapter 38: Steve

I was sitting around watching ESPN, waiting for the baseball games to start, when the phone rang. I grabbed the handset and answered, "Hey there."

"Hey Steve, it's Greg," the voice on the other end said.

"Hey Greg, what's up? You off work? Wanna come and watch the game?"

"Hey that kid, that you invite over to watch some of the games. His name is Dave Wilson right?"

"Yeah, why?" I answered him slightly worried. "And I'd like to point out that he's older than you are."

"Well I was over at the county lockup and the Sheriff's department brought in three guys. When I asked what was going on, they said that they had attacked him…"

"WHAT?" I yelled into the phone. "Tell everything you know."

He went on to tell me what he knew, and it wasn't much; just that these three guys had attacked Dave and that dog that followed him around. He wasn't sure if anyone was hurt, but someone went for medical treatment. And one of them had emptied a can of pepper spray.

I thanked him, hung up, and grabbed my helmet and jacket. I was out the door, and on my bike in a few moments. I broke a couple laws getting out to his place, but that didn't bother me.

I pulled up to Dave's, his car was sitting there, but there were no lights on in his house. I pulled in behind him and parked my bike, and bounded up onto his porch and started knocking on his door. When he didn't answer after a few minutes, I stopped and tried to figure out where he would be.

I turned and looked around, his landlady's house, they were good friends. She should know where he is. I ran over there and started pounding on her door.

It only took a moment for the door to open and she was standing there. She started to say something, but I cut her off. "Is he all right and where is he?"

She gave me a real stern look and said, "Shhh, he's sleeping. We'll tell you everything…"

She was cut off again, when that dog started coming down the hallway growling. I paused and looked at the dog, he looked pretty scary at the moment.

A voice called out from the another room, "Thor, it's ok. Go back." The dog looked at me, and went back to wherever he had come from.

I turned back to his landlady, and opened my mouth, but she cut me off. "Steve please go have a seat and we'll talk. I'll be right there."

She walked down the hallway, and went into the living room. There was a large man, whose name I thought was Bob, sitting there. He was wearing surgical greens and looked horrible; his eyes bloodshot and his face all red. Sitting on the couch near him, was a young girl about Dave's size. She was in sweats, and her eyes were red too.

"Hello, I'm Steve. You're name is Bob right?"

He looked over at me, "Yes, and this is Ashley." He nodded at the girl. He pointed to a chair, "Have a seat, Sarah should be right back."

I sat down and wanted to say something, but felt that I should wait for Sarah. It was only a moment and she walked in and sat down. She looked at me, "Steve, Dave is ok, he's just had a massively stressful morning. He's sleeping in my spare room. Thor is laying right near him."

"So what happened?" I asked, a bit confused. Something seemed, not wrong, but off.

Bob spoke up, "Just about every morning Dave walks around the park with my dog Thor. He does it to get exercise. They usually stop and play fetch out in one of the fields. This morning three men jumped them in the field. Two grabbed Dave and the third started spraying Thor with Mace. Deputy Wildler, who lives over there and happened to be getting home from work then, stopped them.

Dave, Ashley, and I were given a ride to my Vet's with Thor to get him cleaned up. I was covered in it too, from holding on to Thor. When we were leaving, sitting in the office lobby there was a St. Bernard." He looked up at me at that point.

I looked back at him, with a bit of a blank look on my face. "What's bad about that, other than being a big dog?"

"He told about you why he's afraid of big dogs?" I nodded a reply. "Did he mention what kind of dog it was?"

I started to shake my head no and stopped, "It was a St. Bernard right?" He nodded at this. "What happened then?"

Ashley spoke up, "He froze. Just stood there unmoving. Bob picked him up and handed him to Mr. Olson, who carried him out to his truck. I don't think he really moved any 'til we got back."

"But he's not hurt right?" I asked just to make sure. I looked at them as they answered, and something struck me as odd. They all seemed nervous about something.

Sarah said, "No he's fine, he was just scared, incredibly scared."

Forcefully, but not loudly, I said, "I want to see him now." I looked back and forth between the two adults.

"Steve he's sleeping right now, wait until he wakes up, then you can see him."

"No Sarah, you, all of you, are hiding something and I want to see Dave." Ashley made a sound like a mouse, and Bob seemed to shift a bit. "Now unless you are going to physically stop me, I'm going to see Dave."

As I started to get up, Bob spoke, his voice was timbered in what could be called a command voice, but still soft. "Steve, wait one moment. If you go down there right now, you will wake up Dave…"

I cut him off, "I won't wake him, I just want to see that he is ok."

"Trust me, you will wake him. You may not want to, but you will, and when you do you will scare him. When you do that, Thor will attack you. I'm not sure how badly you will be hurt, but you will be. Animal Control will take Thor, and I will have to fight to keep him from being killed by them."

When Bob said this, Ashley let out a startled gasp. Bob ignored that and continued. "If he is, Dave will be devastated, possibly suicidal."

I cut him off again, "He's afraid of dogs, and you are telling me that he will be that affected by a dog, that isn't even his?"

"Yes," he continued. "There is only one being on the planet that Dave trusts unconditionally and it is that dog. Fortunately Thor feels the same towards Dave. This morning after being sprayed with Mace, I had to struggle to keep him from attacking the men that had attacked Dave. He didn't stop until Dave sat in front of him and started talking to him."

He paused and looked at me. I said, "Ok I promise that I won't wake him."

He looked over at Sarah, I turned to her, she was looking at Bob. She then looked at me, "Steve sit down, and let us tell you why you can't just walk in on him."

Again Ashley jumped in surprise. "Can we, without Dave's permission?"

That surprised me, why would they need his permission to tell me anything. I sat back down, and looked back to Sarah. "So what do you want to tell me?"

She sighed, then started, "Have you noticed a difference in Dave?"

"Yeah, he seems happier, more confident, and somehow more mature." Ashley almost burst out laughing at that. I turned and looked at her.

Sarah said, "Shush, Steve let us tell you why that is. I'm not proud of all of it, but we'll tell you the truth. It all started when I rented the trailer next door to Dave…"

I sat there stunned. There was now way what they told me could be true, but I saw a picture of Dave dressed up, and they couldn't have made it up on the spot.

The whole thing was running through my head, I had no idea what to think. It was really strange, but one thing was certain and that was that Dave was better off. "So who knows?"

"Besides us, Ashley's parents, Deputy Wildler, he lives in the park, and one other lady knows some of it. She has two toddlers and Thor likes to play with them, so she saw a lot of Dave while he wore diapers on his walks. Other than that no one."

Bob spoke up, "Well he has sent pictures of himself dressed up to his father."

I stifled a laugh at that. "So you didn't want me to go down there because…"

"Right now Dave is sleeping in a crib wearing diapers and a girls nightie. Now I know you wouldn't have wanted to wake him, but I think the surprise would have been enough for you to wake him."

"You're right. I would have." I sighed, "What now?"

Sarah looked at me straight in the eye, "First off, what do you think of everything we told you?"

I took a deep breath, "It surprised me, I knew that something was up, but not what. I think that whatever you are doing, as long as it helps Dave is fine with me."

"I tried to help him, while he was in college. Hell, I think I did." I looked over at Ashley, "Sorry. I went to his Dean to get him to talk more to Dave. I kept people from picking on him. I tried to get him involved with stuff, but I didn't know how to really help him."

Sarah spoke again, "I'm going to go get Dave up, he's probably starving, Thor is probably pretty hungry too." She got up and headed down the hallway.

Bob stood up reached over and grabbed some keys, "Here Ashley, run next door, Dave has some food for Thor, grab a couple of cans and bring them back. He keeps them in the cabinet below his microwave. Grab his bowl too."

Ashley grabbed the keys and went out the door saying "Ok" as she did.

Bob got up and walked into the kitchen, "I'll see what I can make quickly while he's getting up."

I joined him and helped as he made up some omelets. He explained that they were quick and easy, and Dave would probably want something now as opposed to later.

Ashley returned with the dog food and we waited for Dave. He came down the hallway wearing some sweats, and looked at me. His eyes were all red and puffy.

"Steve," he said, his eyes downcast. "They told you everything?"

"I think so."

"And?" he asked.

"Dave as long as you are happy and it's helping I don't care what you do. You definitely need some happiness in your life." Saying that I stepped over to him and gave him a hug.

He hugged me back, "Did Sarah even tell you that you held the door at the movie theater for us?"

"No, she didn't."

Sarah said, "I forgot about that."

We sat down to eat and spent the rest of the afternoon talking. Ashley's parents and the cop joined us at some point, and we ended up having dinner too. It into a pretty good day after all. I noticed one other thing during the evening, everyone seemed to be relaxed. Before when I had visited Dave, with or without his friends, there had always been a little bit of tension.

When our gathering finally broke up, everyone headed home except Dave, he was spending the night with Sarah. That didn't surprise me, but when Thor wouldn't leave Dave, that did. I guess the two of them did share something.