204: Picking Up Mimi
The 10-year-old, silver Toyota Corolla turned into the car park at Pets R Us. This time, the driver’s angle was much better; there was plenty of space either side, no risk of hitting the brick walls. The person in the passenger seat wasn’t squawking at all as the driver picked a spot to park in. He made sure to swing wide and after he had lined it up, pumped the gas enough to slide in perfectly between the lines.
“Not bad, apprentice,” Zoe said, nodding and unbuckling her seat belt.
“I had a patient teacher,” he looked across at Zoe, grinning. Seeing that the snow had all but melted, it was actually he who offered to drive from the cabin all the way down the mountain and back into town.
“I definitely,” she started saying, before getting out of the car, “had fewer heart attacks this time around.”
During the long drive back, they had talked about their plans for this week: picking up Mimi first, fitting in some last minute Christmas shopping and figuring out at who’s place they were going to have Christmas lunch or dinner. Neither of them had mentioned anything about what had happened the night they arrived at the cabin or the morning after.
Ever followed Zoe into the clinic. They walked past the waiting room, its lights dimmed. Ever peered in through the window; ghost animals play-fought, jumping on one another or kept to themselves. Besides the fact that they were souls, nothing about their behaviour really was different from when they were alive.
A svelte cat materialised out of the wall, weaving a figure eight around Zoe’s legs. “Oh hello, Nika,” Zoe said, looking down. “Did you miss me?”
^Human.^ From Nika’s point of view, this was a warm greeting.
They turned into a previously unvisited area at the back of building. Zoe nodded at one of the caretakers who looked after the animals staying in overnight care. After signing in, she received a set of keys, which who promptly handed to Ever.
^Ever!^ Mimi squealed and whined from down further down the rows of cages. Ever jogged forward, past Zoe until he found his beloved sausage dog. She was wagging her tail so hard her little butt had no choice but to follow along. She danced on her hind feet, forepaws up as Ever unlocked the cage.
The dachshund just about bowled Ever over, attacking him with a barrage of licks. ^I missed you, you were gone forever!^
^Ugh, revolting,^ Nika meowed with disgust. Ever ignored the sourpuss, who was very much the animal version of an eye roll.
“It was only a few days,” he said, scrunching his face up. He eventually got his hands over the tubular dog, keeping her at arm’s distance.
^Guess what? I made some new friends. Oh hello Zoe!^ The dog panted happily at the vet. While patting her with one hand, she deftly put the leash on her collar with the other, allowing Ever to put her down to walk. ^There was Haru and Charlie and this weird bird called Undertaker…^