He'd never stolen anything before. Not even in his childhood. No candy from the five and dime no cool pen from a classmate. Now at the age of thirty seven he was standing in the rain in a mall parking lot looking at two little dogs in an unlocked car. They looked a lot like teddy bears. One cream colored, one caramel. They were looking at him with their hopeful little eyes and he was deeply tempted. When he thought of his nephew Jabel in one suburb and his niece Daffodil in another and he thought of their lonely lives he knew that he had to give them each a dog.
It was simple enough. The dogs seemed glad to join him. They sat together looking alert and interested on the passenger seat. He gave the cream colored one to his niece Daffodil. There were a few awkward moments when his sister laid down the law and said absolutely not. On no account. Impossible. A few pleas won her assent, and Daffodil said she would she would feed and groom and water and love and care for and take for walks on rainy days and never let out of her sight and yes anything if she could just have this dog to keep as her own.
Jabel's mom was drunk on the couch and his dad was out of town so he just left the other dog in Jabel's arms. He came back with a bag of dog food and a couple of dishes. Jabel was in the recliner with the little dog in his arms when he returned with the dog food. ``Thanks, uncle,'' Jabel said.
A couple of days later at the grocery store he saw the sign. Lost. Two little dogs. Taken from a car in the mall parking lot last Saturday afternoon. Any information leading to their return...
A few days later another sign. A blurry photo of the two little dogs and a reward. Five hundred dollars! There was a lot he could do with five hundred dollars. He could get his master cylinder fixed. He could get a couch. He could take a trip to Las Vegas.
It was the last sign that did it. It seemed the dogs were the beloved pets of a dying woman who was inconsolable. He walked round the block half the night trying to think what to do. Take both dogs back with some story, claim the reward and share it with the kids? Keep the reward for himself? Return the dogs and not take the reward? Or leave the dogs where they were and forget the whole thing?
Maybe the dying woman story was a lie. Maybe there would be no reward. Maybe they would bust him if he showed up with the dogs.
He went to his sister's house first, to talk to Daffodil. She was in the kitchen with a red puffy face making chocolate chip cookies. The dog was nowhere in sight.
``Where's the dog?'' he asked.
``Gone,'' said Daffodil, with a strangled sob. Salt tears fell into the cookie dough.
``What happened?''
``Mom saw the sign. We took him back for the reward. Jabel did too. We both got five hundred dollars.'' She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and got a blob of dough stuck in her nostril.
``We said we found them running loose on the road,'' his sister said, ``and we gave one to Jabel, that's what we told them.''
``They were very nice, they were very happy,'' said Daffodil, ``and uncle guess what. We're going to Disneyland!''