Cinderella's Ghost

Chapter 10: Another Step Forward

Here she laughs
A vision like flowers in spring
My heart skips

Chapter 10

"Are you sure you're okay?" Lillian asked worriedly as she rubbed the back of my head. "We heard a really loud sound when your head hit the floor." Barok stood in front of me, as though anxious about my condition as well.

I smiled, reaching out a hand to touch his head. "I'm okay."

Becca had managed to attract the attention of Bill away from me by giving him a new bowl. While she made sure he ate, she reprimanded him. Seeing how his attention was all on what he was eating, I think Becca's effort was going to waste, but that was all right. The laughter that bubbled out of me had taken me by surprise, but I loved it, and I wouldn't blame Bill for anything in the world even if I ended up with a head concussion. I wondered if Jarell would call me a masochist if I told him that.

Speaking of Jarell, he'd been standing outside the kennel, brows raised with a wide grin playing on his lips. Most likely mocking me for being so clumsy, and on my first day of volunteering too, I narrowed my eyes at him before looking away.

"Well, there's that." Lillian finally ceased trying to rub the lump away from my head. She stood up, and Barok took that as his cue to start on his dinner. "You sure you're okay?" she asked again as she helped me up.

I nodded.

"All right then, let's continue, shall we?"

I nodded again, this time more vigorously.

It took us about twenty minutes to make sure all the dogs had their share. They finished their food pretty quickly, so by the time we had made our first round, it was already time to collect all the empty bowls. When I volunteered to wash them, Becca insisted that I stay with the dogs. Lillian agreed. I could tell they both had my 'curfew' in mind, and I appreciated their consideration a lot.

Afterwards, Lillian took me along to bring the dogs out for a walk while Becca stayed behind to wash up. It was tiring work, having a few dogs to handle all at once, especially when they were so large. Only Barok, one of the three dogs assigned to me, seemed to know the good pace to go at. Even so, I still kept getting pulled along by the other two dogs, Luky and Flo, one an elderly white golden retriever, another a mountain dog. Halfway through, Luky felt that the walk was taking too long, so she sat in the middle of the street, too tired to walk, her way to show her refusal. Lillian had taken over Barok and Flo, and had gone on, while I walked back alone with Luky.

"Does your head still hurt?"

"Nope. You were laughing at me, weren't you?" I said, not bothering to keep my voice soft. The surrounding area was quite a deserted place, even when it was still light.

"I was?"

"Weren't you?"

He scoffed. "I was just thinking how painful it must have been."

"It didn't look that way to me."

"Whatever," he said quietly.

"So tell me why you're scared of dogs. What's the story behind it?"

"Tell me what you and your dad went through that made you want to come here first."

I glared at him. He shrugged and said something about being fair, which was true. He'd been telling me almost everything about himself, and I'd yet to say anything about me even though, in my defense, he did only start to show interest not too long ago. And so, I told him.

Actually, when I had the happy moment with dad, it wasn't volunteering at an animal shelter, but an adoption drive. We were just casually passing by in the car when we saw a group of dogs within a fenced-up area. Curious, we had gotten out of the car, the idea of pizza out of our heads. I immediately squealed my delight when I saw the dogs up close. When we were allowed to enter the enclosure, one dog after another came towards me. I laughed so hard when I eventually sat down, letting all the dogs huddle around me, rubbing against me, sniffing me. One dog in particular, very much like Bill, came bounding towards me when he saw the little commotion I made, and threw himself at me, and I had laughed even harder than before.