Free A Dream for Hannah by Jerry S. Eicher

to wait this out. Shep took a step toward him, the hair on his neck straight up. The lightning cast crazy shadows on the lawn and made Shep look twice his real size.
    “Good doggie. Good doggie.” Lester managed to get the words past his dry lips. The bag was now between him and the dog.
    Shep advanced another step and then paused. His head was right above the bag, its raw smells wafting into his nose.
    “It’s good stuff,” Lester croaked from his parched throat.
    Shep lifted his head and growled.
    “I’ll open the bag for you,” Lester whispered and made a move toward the bag. The dog backed off slightly and waited. Lester opened the bag and pulled out some of the things Peter had brought along.
    Shep looked up expectantly at him.
    Lester pulled his hand out and tossed the tidbits toward the dog. Shep sniffed once and then lowered his head and began devouring the pieces of meat.
    “What’s going on down there?” Peter asked.
    “I’m feeding the dog,” Lester whispered back. Then the two heard a sound from the house. It was the sound of a window sliding open.
    Shep stopped eating for a moment and looked up toward the upper story. Lester dug into the bag and threw everything he had to the dog. Shep wagged his tail, lowered his head, and chomped at the food again. After a long moment, the upstairs window closed.
    “Let’s get out of here,” Lester hissed sharply.
    This time Peter listened as he moved down the trunk of the tree as fast as he could. This took old Shep, who had just finished the last of the scraps, by surprise. For the first time he barked sharply.
    “Shut up, old dog!” Peter commanded, now almost on the ground. His voice must have sounded familiar because Shep quieted down. Then he looked back and forth between the two boys and must have changed his mind—his barks began again, this time with urgency.
    “Let’s go,” Peter said as he led the way rapidly down the fencerow to the car. Together they pushed the MGC a hundred feet before Peter jumped in and turned the key. With the car started, they drove off into the night.
    “That was the craziest thing,” Lester snapped when he felt free to breathe again. “I’m never doing that again.”
    “We’ll see,” Peter said calmly. “I still want to see that girl.”
    “There are plenty of other girls,” Lester insisted.
    “Well, yes,” Peter concurred, “but not quite like this one.”
    “So, why didn’t you say something to her when that window opened?”
    “I don’t know,” said Peter thoughtfully. “I wasn’t sure it was her window. I couldn’t see too well in the dark. My first instinct was to freeze. What if it hadn’t been her? I just can’t mess this up. This may be my only chance, you know.”
    “There are all those English girls in town.”
    “Yes, but it’s not the same. I want to get this Amish girl.”
    “You are a skunk,” Lester said.
    Peter only smiled and drove wildly around a curve as Lester hung on in the darkness.

Eight
     
    Roy looked none too happy at the breakfast table. “There sure was an awful lot of fuss going on around here last night.”
    “I heard you go outside once,” Kathy said quietly. “Did you see anything?”
    “Shep was gone,” Roy said with a wave of his fork. “There was no sign of him…but I was sure I heard something. I just don’t like the feel of things around here right now. It’s like something’s going on that shouldn’t be.”
    “You sure you’re not imagining things?” Kathy asked.
    “I could be,” he acknowledged and turned his attention back to the food on his plate, “but Shep did bark a little later, after I was in bed. I almost got up again. Then it didn’t last for very long. Something awfully strange is going on.”
    “I heard Shep too,” Hannah said, thinking it would be best to volunteer a comment. If Peter was involved in any of this, she wanted her own part clear. “It sounded to me like he was chewing on a groundhog he’d dug