Earnest Read Online Free PDF Page A

hurried around the counter to Anna.
    â€œI heard sirens a while ago,” Mary said.
    â€œOur house. On Rainier. You’ve got to help me with Earnest. I’m terrified for him. He’s in my van.”
    Anna rushed back through the front door with Mary. Just as they reached Vincent, Yvonne appeared at the clinic’s side door. She hurried toward them with the gurney as its wheels rattled on the parking lot’s gravel.
    Anna’s phone rang again. Damn. She whipped it out of her purse.
    â€œAnna? Doug Holloway here. Can I pick up Jane’s flowers before I go to the hospital this afternoon?”
    â€œMr. Holloway, our house is on fire. I’m with Earnest at the vet’s. He’s hurt.”
    â€œOh, my. What happened? Can I help?”
    â€œI can’t think straight right now. I don’t know about your flowers. I’ll have to get back to you.” Anna realized she was shouting.
    Mary and Yvonne stooped down and stepped through Vincent’s sliding door. They positioned themselves next to Earnest, picked him up, and set him on the gurney as gently as they’d have set down a spiderweb’s gossamer thread. Though he did not protest being moved, a shiver undulated down his body from his shoulders to his haunches. From pain? Fear? Oh, my beloved dog .
    Anna felt like an elephant was standing on her heart.
    As Mary and Yvonne rolled Earnest down the clinic’s dark back hall, Anna followed. She clicked on her phone’s “Favorites” list and pressed “My Honey” at the top. Jeff was her favorite of favorites, chiseled into the highest peak of her personal Mount Rushmore—and now she longed to reach him more than she ever had since they’d met. She needed him to share the worry. She wanted to tell him about the fire and beg him to leave his Seattle office and come home now .
    But with each ring, Anna’s heart beat faster. Jeff wasn’t there. Of all the times. Where is he? His cell’s voice mail recording finished just as Yvonne and Mary pushed Earnest into an exam room. “Call me,” Anna said and hung up.
    Dr. Nilsen was waiting, his arms crossed over his white lab coat, a grim expression on his face. A blue-eyed, blond Norwegian, he usually seemed hardy, the kind of man who’d rise out of a sauna every morning, beat his chest, and charge, naked, into snow. But today his eyes had a tentative cast, which suggested he was unsure he could save Anna and Jeff ’s dog. His expression said more clearly than words that he didn’t like emergencies that might not end well.
    â€œPlease, please help Earnest,” Anna shouted.
    â€œYvonne said he’d been in a fire?” Dr. Nilsen asked.
    â€œIn the old house where my shop is. After Earnest led me outside, he ran back in and rescued the women who rent with me.”
    â€œI’d expect no less. Such a good dog.” Dr. Nilsen patted Earnest’s shoulder—but, far away in the distant land of suffering, Earnest didn’t seem to notice.
    Anna rubbed her hands together to warm them. Dr. Nilsen’s exam room smelled of bleach. There were no windows, and the too-bright overhead fluorescent lights made the room feel harsh. They glared on the edges of the steel gurney, where Earnest was lying on his side and laboring to breathe.
    His eyes were opened just to slits, and his dear, sweet face made clear that he was traumatized. On former visits, he’d greeted Dr. Nilsen with squeaks and tail wags and waited for biscuits to emerge from his lab coat’s pockets. But today Earnest only twitched his tail, as if he wanted to wag it but didn’t have the strength.
    When Anna saw that, the tears she’d been holding back on the drive here leaked out. She quickly wiped them away with the back of her hand and coughed to keep Earnest from seeing her distress. He always seemed to feel that comforting her was his personal duty, and he would want to nuzzle and