The Second Heart (6 page)

The newscast concluded with footage of a
press conference with the president, who promised that the nation’s
top scientists were working overtime to understand the phenomenon,
while all federal emergency aid resources were being deployed.
Meredith tuned it out as she walked around the couch and sank
slowly into the seat.

After a few moments, a burning smell reached
her nostrils just as Rob cried, “The eggs!” He rushed back into the
kitchen to take the eggs off of the frying pan while Amelia, Vi,
and Meredith stayed motionless, staring at the screen. Soon he
returned and sat next to Meredith on the couch, reaching out and
squeezing her hand.

All thoughts of breakfast and going home were
abandoned as they spent the rest of the morning watching newscast
after newscast discussing the possible ramifications if the rain
failed to abate. The outlook was dire as experts speculated about
various topics, from where to house evacuees from flooded areas to
the strain on global food supplies as flooding threatened crop
stores and livestock.

When the newscasters had reached their
saturation point and were just rehashing the same information,
Amelia turned off the TV with a sigh.

“So who else is thinking about their 72-hour
survival kits that they didn’t bother packing?” Vi asked
brightly.

“Oh man, I bet Walmart’s getting cleaned
out!” Meredith responded with a half-hearted chuckle.

Just then, Meredith’s cell phone began to
ring. Glancing at the screen, she saw that the caller I.D. read Sun
Valley Animal Clinic, where she worked. She answered it quickly,
wondering if she had been mistaken and was supposed to be at work
today.

“Hi, Meredith. It’s Dr. Whitney.” Dr. Whitney
was in his mid-seventies, with a gray beard and bright blue eyes.
His face was red and ruddy, and his overall person seemed careworn,
though kindly. Meredith had often secretly thought that he looked
like Santa Claus with a drinking problem.

“Hey, Doc. What’s up?”

“Well, we are getting a lot of rain over
here, and the office is starting to flood.” Meredith wasn’t
surprised. The office was in a run-down business park, and the
parking lot looked like it hadn’t been repaired since it was put in
during the sixties. The entire complex sat in a slight depression
of land that was barely noticeable unless it rained, when the
shallow basin filled with water.

“Okay,” Meredith acknowledged, waiting.

Dr. Whitney seemed a bit nonplussed, and if
he had been hoping for a different reaction. He stammered, “Well,
we need to evacuate the animals.”

“Oh! Of course, and you need help,” Meredith
offered.

“Yes, exactly. Can you come?”

Meredith thought of her small Toyota Corolla
sitting in the driveway. She stalled for a moment, “How many
animals and where are we going to take them?”

“I’ve called several of the owners, so most
of them will be going home. But there are a few that I didn’t get
ahold of, and of course the office animals.” The clinic had a cat
and a parrot that lived in permanent residence at the office. Dr.
Whitney continued, “In particular, I hoped you might take Sammy to
your house, along with another cat whose owner I can’t reach.”

Sammy was the office cat, and an absolute
sweetheart who knew Meredith well. The other cat would be an
unknown, and Meredith wasn’t sure how skittish it might be.
Meredith hesitated as she considered his request. Her apartment
wouldn’t allow any pets, and her parents detested cats. “Hold on
just a moment, Doc.” She looked down at her phone and pressed the
mute button, and then turned to face her parents, who returned her
gaze expectantly.

“The clinic is flooded, and we need to
evacuate all the animals,” she began.

Immediately understanding where she was
headed, Rob started to shake his head.

“I’ll stay here and take care of them for as
long as they’re here,” Meredith promised. She looked from her
mother to her father hopefully.

Rob folded his arms over his chest and
frowned, locking down his expression into a thick brick wall that
said,
No way, and don’t ask me again.

“Those poor animals have no place to go,”
Meredith pleaded, turning her attention to Amelia. From past
experience, she knew that Amelia was the likelier of the two to
crack. “It’s only for a little while. Plus, then you’ll get to see
more of me!”

“Maybe, if it’s only for a little while,”
Amelia ventured. “What sort of animals would be here?”

“Uh, he wasn’t sure yet which ones still need
a place,” Meredith fibbed. She watched her mother’s face carefully
as Amelia considered the request. As familiar with the older woman
as she was, Meredith knew the moment when she’d won Amelia over.
She suppressed a smile and waited patiently, careful not to
celebrate prematurely.

At last, Amelia conceded, “All right, but
only a few. We don’t need a zoo here.” She turned toward her
husband with uplifted eyebrows. “Is that okay with you, Rob?”

Rob sighed loudly and dropped his arms to his
sides. “If I even get a
whiff
of animal excrement, the
deal’s off.”

Meredith grinned triumphantly and unmuted her
phone, returning to her conversation with Dr. Whitney. After
assuring him that she would be leaving shortly, she hung up the
phone.

Irritated, Rob said, “And I suppose you’re
going to ask to borrow the truck, next.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Meredith saw Vi
melt out of the room. She didn’t blame her friend, wishing she
could leave, too. However, her father was right. “Well, Dad, the
parking lot is flooded. I guess I could park on the street and wade
through it, but carrying the animals back to the car would be
pretty difficult.”

Thankfully, Amelia interceded. “Oh for Pete’s
sake, Rob. Why do we have a truck if we’re not going to use it when
it’s needed?”

Realizing he was beaten, Rob threw up his
hands and headed toward the kitchen. “Just when you think they’re
all grown up, they come back with their hand out for the car
keys.”

Vi
volunteered to accompany Meredith to the vet clinic, and they began
to get ready while Amelia followed them around the house, lecturing
about how to drive safely in the rain. Meredith changed into the
same shirt from the day before, and put on a red rain jacket that
she borrowed from her parents’ closet. Then she went into the hall
bathroom and took some more antacid pills, as her sore stomach was
still nagging at her.

Finally, they were able to leave, and
Meredith and Vi were soon buckling in as they waited for the garage
door to finish opening. Meredith eased the truck out of the garage,
skirting past her own vehicle parked in the driveway. The truck was
a white Dodge Ram with four-wheel drive and a tow kit on the back.
With a diesel engine and manual transmission, it drove like a tank.
Listening to the sound of the engine reverberate against the
concrete floor of the garage, Meredith was relieved that she was
taking the truck, and not her small sedan, out into the rain.

The rain drummed on the roof of the truck as
it poured off eaves of the house, making it almost impossible for
Meredith and Vi to hear each other. Once the truck was clear, the
pounding lessened considerably and they were able to have a
conversation.

“So this global weather change shit sure puts
a damper on things, huh?” Vi said half-jokingly as Meredith turned
the wheel and drove carefully down the street.

Water streamed down the hill on either side
of the roadway, and Meredith didn’t take her eyes off the road as
she responded. “Kinda makes yesterday seem like a distant
memory.”

“Oh geez, yeah. The fires. Well if terrorists
wanted terror, I guess they got it.”

“You suppose they’ve got a great big weather
machine socked away in a mountain somewhere?” Meredith chuckled as
she reached the end of her parent’s street, flicking on her turn
signal to make a left out of the neighborhood. There wasn’t another
car in sight. She made the turn, staying alert and keeping an eye
out for any hazards. With over three hundred sunny days per year,
Arizona didn’t afford many opportunities to practice driving in the
rain, and Meredith felt out of her element.

Vi was quiet for a few seconds, allowing
Meredith to concentrate on her driving. Then as she gazed out
through the rain streaked window, she said, “Do you think your
parents would be cool if I stayed over again tonight?”

Meredith hazarded a glance at Vi, and saw
that her friend looked drawn and unhappy. It was a rare glimpse
into the emotions that Vi usually masked with sarcasm and humor.
“I’m sure they would love to have you.” She patted Vi on the
knee.

Vi looked down at Meredith’s hand and then
over to her face, plastering on a bright smile. “Good! If they’re
especially unlucky, I might even offer to cook.”

Guessing at the source of Vi’s sadness,
Meredith asked, “Have you talked to your parents today?”

“Nope. They haven’t called,” Vi replied
briskly.

It was clear to Meredith that Vi didn’t want
to talk about it, but Meredith pressed on. “Well have you called
them?”

“Why should I have to call them? You’d think
they’d be worried enough about their only daughter to call
me
.”

Meredith fell silent, slowing the car to a
stop at a red light. The windshield wipers swished furiously
against the rain soaked windshield, and they seemed especially loud
as the car idled at the intersection. Finally Meredith said, “Mom
and Dad don’t know it, but we’re bringing home cats.”

Vi burst out laughing, releasing the tension
in the car. “Oh my God, your parents hate cats.”

Meredith smirked. “I know.”

They giggled as the light turned green and
Meredith accelerated through the intersection. Soon they were
pulling into the parking lot of the clinic, and as Meredith had
imagined, it was completely flooded. The clinic was in a strip mall
at the far side of the lot, and she was glad to have the tall and
powerful truck to slog through the water. As she navigated through
the deserted parking lot, Meredith enjoyed watching the water spray
up in waves on either side of the truck.

Pulling up to the front door of the clinic,
the truck stood in water that was over a foot deep. It spilled over
the curb and pressed against the plate glass storefront of the
office. Water seeped under the front door, and Meredith wondered
how far it had encroached into the veterinary clinic.

Meredith opened the door and frowned at the
floodwater at her feet. She was still wearing the jeans she’d put
on earlier, and she was wearing her good sneakers. Decided, she
quickly shucked off her shoes and socks and rolled up her jeans to
her knees. Then she plunged into the cold water barefoot, sucking
in a breath as her skin came into contact with the frigid
rainwater. On the other side of the truck, Vi was following
suit.

They hurried and ducked under the overhang of
the strip mall’s roof, and Meredith pulled firmly on the front door
of the clinic. The door sloshed through the water at their feet,
and Meredith could see that the entire waiting room was under at
least an inch of water. The parrot, Mike, squawked from inside the
cage that resided in the lobby.

She greeted the bird and then called toward
the back, “Hey, I’m here.”

“In the back!” Dr. Whitney’s voice came from
the rear of the clinic, where there were kennels set up for animals
that stayed overnight. Meredith carefully stepped through the
waiting area, worried that she would slip on the wet linoleum. The
water squelched between her bare toes, and she left wet footprints
in the hall where the water had not yet reached. From somewhere in
the clinic, Meredith could hear a cat yowling miserably.

On her way to the back room, Meredith passed
the four exam rooms, two on each side. She glanced into each room
as she walked past, looking for anything of interest. She spotted
Sammy, the small black office cat, huddled on top of the upper
cabinets in one of the rooms, looking thoroughly ticked off. She
pointed the cat out to Vi. “Do you feel up to trying to get her
down? I’ll come back with a carrier for her.”

Vi nodded and veered into the room, crooning
at the cat. “Hello, Sammy, girl. Do you remember your Auntie Vi?
Here, kitty, kitty.”

Meredith left Vi to her task and continued to
the back room. Dr. Whitney was in the process of stuffing another
cat into a carrier. The cat was a large white Maine Coon, and it
was resisting captivity with all of its twenty-two pounds of might.
This was the cat responsible for the yowling that Meredith had
heard from the front of the clinic, which it interspersed with
angry hisses.

Quickly, Meredith grabbed the cat’s front and
back feet and held it firmly in the carrier while Dr. Whitney
closed the door. At the last second, Meredith yanked her hands out
so the doctor could latch it shut.

“Thanks,” he said. “This is Sabrina. She’s
your other charge.”

Oh shit.
“Charming, isn’t she?”
Meredith said weakly. Her parents were not going to be happy.

Dr. Whitney chuckled. “I’m sure she’s just
out of her element. Once she gets to know you, she’ll be fine.”

Meredith frowned skeptically. “I hope you’re
right.”

From within the cat carrier, Sabrina growled
ominously.

Shrugging off her misgivings, Meredith said,
“Sammy’s in Exam 2. My friend Vi is trying to get her down. Where’s
her carrier?”

Once Sammy was safely stowed in her own
carrier next to Sabrina, Vi and Meredith followed Dr. Whitney’s
instructions as they readied the remaining animals for transport.
There were two dogs, including the puppy with parvo, a pregnant
gerbil, and the parrot. The puppy was the biggest challenge,
because he needed to be kept on an IV to stay hydrated. Dr. Whitney
planned to take all of the remaining animals home.