As she finished speaking, the Rottweiler had approached Miriam and bumped her hip with his big, anvil-like head. She staggered a bit, but scratched him on the head. “Hey, watch it,” she said.
I checked the command list. “Mother,” I said. “This is all in German.”
“You don’t need to be fluent to memorize the words on a piece of paper,” she said. “Now, I have to go. Spend some time building those dog houses. They’ll need somewhere to sleep tonight. Oh, and before I forget,” she said, ducking back into the back of the SUV and dragging out not one but two giant bags of dog food. “This is special food. You can order it online when these two bags are empty. Use the blue card to pay for it so we can lump it in with our business expenses.”
“Right,” I said. “Of course.”
“Excellent,” she said. “Well that’s all for me. You girls take care of those dogs.”
As she drove off, Miriam, the dogs, and I stood there watching the gate close.
“Wow,” Miriam said, after a minute.
“I know,” I said. I don’t know why, but I was on the verge of tears. It wasn’t the first time Mother had displayed just how little she cared about me, nor was it the first time she’d done it to me in front of a friend, but it stung this time.
In silence, we moved the food indoors and dragged the doghouse sets over to the car park. According to the instructions, construction was simple, but in practice, the design was elaborate. About a half hour into construction, we had one mostly built, and Miriam wiped her brow.
“I’m gonna go to change into some shorts,” she said. “It’s too hot.”
I nodded. Having long ago stripped off my blazer, I was still feeling hot, but I wondered how much was due to still being angry at Mother. I stopped working for a moment, and that’s when it hit me all at once. Kneeling there in the car park, hot, sweaty, and humiliated, I just started crying not quietly but in body heaving sobs. And I had become so consumed that when Miriam touched my shoulder I nearly shrieked. One of the dogs, the Rottweiler moved a little closer, but when he (oh, yes, it was very obviously a he, as was the Shepherd) saw this wasn’t a problem he could fix, he sat back down.
“What’s wrong?” Miriam said. I looked at her, and she said, “Right. Is she always like that?”
“Not usually that bad,” I said, tears still flowing but sobs subsiding as she put an arm around me. “Only when I try to make friends.”
“What the fuck,” she said. “Doesn’t she want you to have friends?”
“I don’t know anymore,” I said.
“Well, what does she want?”
It was there in that hot miserable car park that I filled her in on what I figured my parents had in store for me after graduation. It was the first time I’d told anyone anything so personal, and I shook with fear and relief as I did it. And when I was done, I buried my face in her shoulder and let her hold me. Eventually, I gathered myself together and raised my head. I expected her to look awkward or uncomfortable, but she just smiled back at me.
“I bet this seems stupid,” I said. “Rich people problems.”
Her fingers brushed a few disheveled locks of blonde hair away from my face and said, “It’s not always that simple. That’s just life, Dee.”
I could’ve kissed her for that. Should’ve. But I noticed the dogs just staring at us. Weren’t they supposed to be patrolling or something?
Miriam noticed too, and said, “Big help you guys are.”
I laughed in relief, and wiped my eyes. It took a while to get myself back into working shape, but eventually we got the second doghouse built, and scooted it over next to the first.
“Hope you guys are happy,” I said, and then turned to Miriam. “I don’t know about you, but I could go for a swim.”
Miriam hadn’t brought a swim suit, but I was pretty sure we had something in her size. Mother, as I said, always had a plan, and that included keeping a few extra items of clothing around for potential guests. So, I led Miriam back inside and upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms. We had been digging around in the dressers for a few minutes before I realized I didn’t know her size.
“What’s—” I started, but felt awkward again. “What’s your size?”
“Eight,” she said. “Sometimes ten.”
I shook my head. “I mean…” For some reason I felt weird about saying it, so I cupped my own breasts over my blouse and jiggled a little to drive home the point. And then I realized that I would’ve been better off just using my words.
Miriam broke into a fit of giggling that she couldn’t stop no matter how hard she tried. At first, I turned red, but the longer her giggling went on, the more infectious it became, and I soon found myself laughing along with her. It had been a ridiculous thing to do, but it felt kind of good to not take myself so seriously for once.
“32C,” said eventually, when she could breathe again.
I dug through another drawer. Skirts. Another drawer. Ties. Really, Mother? Finally, I found a drawer full of swimwear. Personally, I was hoping for something more modest, but the first thing I dug out was a bright yellow two-piece. It wasn’t exactly a bikini, but it would show off a lot more skin than I thought she (or I) might be comfortable with. I set it on the carpet and kept digging, but Miriam picked it up and held its pieces against her body.
“This’ll do,” she said.
“Are you sure?” I said. “I could find something less… less.”
She snorted and grinned. “Ain’t nobody around,” she said. “Besides, what do I got to be shy about?”
“Point taken,” I said, my eyes focused on the floor.
There was a bathroom attached to the guest bedroom, so while she went in and got changed, I went down the hall to my own room and the similarly attached bathroom to change into my own suit, red with small white polka dots. I chose it partly because it was similar to Miriam’s and I didn’t want her to feel like I was more dressed than she was. Mostly, though, I chose it because it was my favorite suit. It fit well, which was unusual. My bottom size was somewhere between a four and six (I mentioned I was a little skinny, right?), and my breasts were 28, but somewhere between an A and B. Finding bras that fit me comfortably was difficult enough, but going shopping for swimwear was like finding Carmen Sandiego.
When I came out of the bathroom, Miriam was waiting for me by the door to my bedroom. I stopped abruptly—too abruptly, actually, because the corners of her lips turned up. “Fits perfect,” she said, and turned and a slow circle. It really did.
Once again, I led the way through the house. As I stepped outside, I nearly leapt out of my skin. The dogs were sitting at attention on the grass, just off the small patio. Their stare made me deeply uncomfortable, and then I realized: the whistle. Quickly, I stepped back inside, shut the door, ran upstairs, grabbed the whistle from where I’d left it on the bed, and returned.
“That’s just creepy,” Miriam said. “How’d they even know we were coming out this way?”
I shrugged, trying to ignore my misgivings. “Mother said they’re trained well,” I said, hoping that answered the question. I opened the door and stepped out, and Miriam followed, shutting the door behind her. We still had a few more hours of daylight left, and I really wanted to spend it at the pool, so again I shoved my worries aside and started down the path to the pool. As we went, the dogs flanked us and kept pace, the Shepherd a little ahead, the Rottweiler a little behind. When we got to the pool, I unlatched the gate, ushered Miriam through, and latched it behind us. I didn’t doubt that these dogs could clear the fence if properly motivated, but they seemed content to leave us be. In fact, when I made a shooing motion to them, they trotted off like normal dogs. I shrugged. Weird.