Better Off Dead

Chapter Thirteen: Just a Game

Dogs aren't really supposed to hang out in labs. Neither are kids, now that I think about it. But sometimes my dad would have to go into the lab on the weekend, and he'd take our dog Bella and me with him. Which is SO COOL when you're a kid.

You aren't supposed to touch anything in a lab. I was great at that. Bella was perfect at not touching things, which is kind of surprising since she was dog. She didn't even bark at any of the animals in the tank. She'd just watch them. The two of us could watch the tank for hours.

Sometimes we'd explore the room. All those shelves of beakers and tables with test tubes and papers, or there was my dad's desk, but we weren't allowed to look at it. It was supposed to be very secret.

As secret as you can keep something in a room with children and pets.

There were tanks in the middle of the room, but they were science water tanks, and didn't have any animals. So they weren't very exciting, except for hide and seek. Not that they worked well for me, since Bella could smell me. You can't pick a spot and hide from a dog because they'll just walk right up to you and have no idea that they ended the game too fast. I'd try and move around to stay hidden, or at least prolong the game. It wasn't very successful, but it was the best plan I had, and it kept our games fun.

Hiding is cool when it's just a game.

I woke up to another puddle of sweat and slime. At this point I had come to expect a certain amount of misery when I woke up. Some because of the slime, but mostly because it meant facing another day. I reminded myself that I wouldn't be facing many more.