Free From a Distant Star by Karen McQuestion Page A

four of the miraculous recovery, Lucas went back to the hospital for more tests. When Eric said he wanted to stay home and work, Mrs. Walker let me come in his place, so it was me and Lucas in the backseat of the car with his parents up front. The hospital was an hour away, so while the adults were talking about traffic and road construction and alternate routes, I took the opportunity to reach for Lucas’s hand resting on the seat between us. He looked startled at my touch and then looked down at our interlocked fingers like he was trying to figure out where I started and he ended. I smiled at him and he smiled back and I felt our old connection comethrough. I mouthed the words “I love you” and waited for him to do the same, but it didn’t happen. Instead, he just furrowed his brow and turned his attention to the front of the car. Like he had no idea what this lip moving thing was all about. As if we hadn’t mouthed those words to each other a hundred thousand times. I was crushed and confused.
    That was the first weird thing.
    The second weird thing happened after we’d returned from the hospital later in the day. The tests had been run and even though the technicians couldn’t tell us what they saw, off the record, every one of them indicated that the results were mind-bogglingly good. We arrived back at the Walkers’ house happy, so happy, because Lucas’s parents and I just knew that when we heard the final results from the oncologist, it would be good news. Mack, who’d been kept outdoors and away from Lucas for the last few days, came bounding up to the car when we pulled into the gravel drive. I got out on my side and he jumped up on me, as if he knew we’d just gotten the best news of our lives. I rubbed behind his ears and patted his side, exclaiming over him.
    “Good dog, you are such a good dog, Mack,” I crooned. He barked and jumped, like a crazy, happy dog, loving every bit of the attention I was giving him. But that all changed when Lucas and his mom walked around from the other side of the car.
    At the sight of Lucas, Mack bared his teeth and growled. It was a deep-throated growl, a warning of an attack to come. A chill went up my spine at Lucas’s reaction, which was no reaction at all. He kept walking toward the house like he didn’t know that Mack’s growl was abnormal or alarming.
    “Mack!” Mrs. Walker scolded. “What are you doing? You know Lucas.”
    Mr. Walker held Mack’s collar and commanded him to sit, and the dog did, reluctantly dropping to his haunches.
    Mrs. Walker called out, “Lucas, come back here. Let Mack smell your hand.” Lucas turned and walked back, seeming unsure what this was all about.
    “Put your hand out,” Mrs. Walker said, demonstrating.
    Mack stayed seated, but all the while he strained at the collar, growling and showing his teeth in a way I’d never seen before. It made my breath catch in my chest. A few minutes before, I’d have sworn that Mack was gentle as a lamb, incapable of turning on his owners, but now I wasn’t so sure.
    “That’s enough, Mack,” Mr. Walker said, a firm grip on the collar. “It’s just Lucas. You know Lucas.”
    Lucas followed his mother’s direction, extending his hand toward Mack’s snout, and the dog lunged for him, teeth snapping just a fraction of an inch from Lucas’s fingers. Alarmed, Lucas stepped back and Mr. Walker yanked the dog away.
    Mrs. Walker’s hand flew up to her mouth. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked, looking at Mack who’d now stopped growling, although he still looked unsettled. “Why is he acting this way?”
    “I don’t know,” Mr. Walker said. “Maybe Lucas smells different because of the tests?”
    I stared at Lucas. He didn’t look troubled at all that his beloved dog wanted to chomp off his hand, and I knew it wasn’t just that Lucas smelled different from the tests at the hospital. He’d had all those tests before and Mack had never acted that way.
    The way Mack was