An Available Man Read Online Free Page B

over again.
    Nick rubbed Bingo, too, absentmindedly or as if for luck, and Julie still buried her face in his coat, as she had when he was a pup and served as her own personal comfort and confidant. And Edward could cry in privacy while the dog sniffed at every bush and scrap of grass in search of the perfect place to squat during their nightly walks. For a time, someone was always around to walk Bingo, which wouldn’t be true, at least during the day, once Edward went back to school in the fall, and the rest of the family resumed their regular lives. He suggested that one of the kids might take him on.
    But Julie couldn’t keep him in the city because dogs were excluded from the lease for her apartment, and the woman she shared it with was allergic to fur and dander. Why didn’t Nicky take him?—Bingo was his dog, too. Although Nick, as Bee had, worked close to home, and had a house with a fenced-in yard,he and Amanda didn’t really want the responsibility of a pet. Their new marriage and their respective jobs used up all of their energy and time, and besides, Bingo had always been Julie’s dog. What was that stupid joke? That life doesn’t begin at conception or at birth, but after the children leave home and the dog dies.
    Bingo was grizzled and arthritic and slightly deaf. Cataracts clouded his vision, and sometimes he lost his balance when he lifted his leg. He was very old, especially for a dog of his size, but he was far from moribund, from becoming anyone’s lesson in death. In June, the month before Bee died, Edward found an ad in the local
Pennysaver
placed by someone offering to do odd jobs that included weeding, babysitting, and dog walking, all for a reasonable fee. He clipped the ad and threw it into the crazy drawer.
    In the middle of August, he took the ad out and called the number listed. A woman answered the phone and said she’d come by that afternoon for an interview. Her name was Mildred Sykes and she was short and square, like a crude wood carving, and somewhere in late middle age. Bingo fell for her immediately. Not that he was a hard sell, but he took to Mildred as if she had sausages hidden on her person.
    Her fee was as reasonable as advertised; she lived nearby, in one of those new, low-cost-housing units; and she was available every afternoon at the hour Bee used to leave the clinic and come home to walk the dog. An old boy like that, Mildred said, could probably use a midmorning walk, too. So Edward hired her immediately, without even checking the references she’d offered. He would make up a couple of extra keys—she could start after Labor Day. In the past, under other circumstances, he might have been more prudent, but right then it seemed as if he had nothing left to lose.
    She asked if Edward needed her for anything else. She coulddo some light housekeeping or cooking if he’d like, or help in the garden. But they’d had the same reliable cleaning service for years, food had become just a source of sustenance, and he depended on weeding and pruning to keep him occupied, something to do on those endless summer days besides his new hobby of ironing or just moping around. And outdoor work would help to sustain him during weekends once the school semester began.
    “If you want me to, I could read your cards,” she said. “Or do your numbers.”
    “Pardon?” he said.
    “I’m mainly a psychic,” she said. “You know, Tarot, numerology, auras. I do all this other stuff to fill in the hours.”
    “I see,” Edward said, with a pang of regret. “Well, thank you, but right now I only need some dog care.” Why had he said
right now
? He’d always believed that so-called psychics were deluded, demented, or simply con artists. And who in his right mind would ever want to know the future?
    “That’s fine,” Mildred said, taking the leash from the broom closet doorknob. “Now, why doesn’t Bingo show me some of his favorite trees?”

An Extra Man
    A fter all his reluctance