Free Cabin Fever by Janet Sanders

He fought hard, but in the end the cancer got the better of him. Now it’s just Pollux and me.”
    Sarah paused to catch her breath. The shadows in the room seemed a little deeper than they’d been before. She’d come here today expecting to gather the details of a trivial story, the sort of thing that would be printed only in the pages of a newspaper that reported on a community in which nothing important ever happened. But this story was starting to break her heart, and she swallowed hard over a lump of sadness that formed in her throat.
    “How did he … Pollux, did he get out of the yard or something?”
      “No, I was walking him, and I let him off leash – which I know I shouldn’t do, but he looks so happy when he can run around and sniff at everything, and even now that his hips aren’t so great anymore I can have trouble keeping up with him. But he always comes when he’s called … well, he usually comes. Only this time he saw a squirrel or some such and took off after it through the bushes, and I called and called but he didn’t come back.” She sniffed quietly, then gave a little laugh to clear the air. “You must think I’m silly, worried so much about a dog.”
    “No, not silly at all! You love your dog, and you’re worried about him. Why should there be anything silly about that?”
    “I do worry about him. It would break my heart if he didn’t come back. Frank was always the dog person, I’m more of a cat person, but now Pollux is all I have left. Frank loved those dogs like his own children, and I loved them too. I know it’s not forever, Pollux is getting old, but I’m not ready to say goodbye yet. Anyway, I was hoping that if the newspaper wrote something up about it, then maybe someone will remember seeing him somewhere and we’ll be able to get him back home.”
    Sarah nodded earnestly. “Yes. Yes, that could happen. At any rate I’ll do my very best, Mrs. … Winnie. We’ll find Pollux,” she added, and hoped that it was true.
    Winnie smiled and stood, reaching out her hands to clasp Sarah’s between them. “Thank you, Sarah. I know you will. Are you sure I can’t get you anything to eat? Or maybe a cup of coffee.”
    Sarah knew that the woman was looking for a moment of companionship, but her heart felt heavy and she needed to regain her composure. In any case, she had a story due and wanted to get started on it. She smiled and shook her head. “I’d love to, but I do need to get started on writing this up. Maybe you’d like to get together for lunch some day?”
    Winnie beamed. “Oh, that would be lovely! I don’t get out much these days. I know it’s not good for me to be cooped up in here, but sometimes the entire day goes by without my noticing. I need to get out and smell the fresh air sometimes.”
    Sarah nodded. “It’s a date, then. Look for the story in the paper in the next day or two.” She reached out her hand for a handshake, and then thought better of it and drew Winnie in for a hug. The woman melted into her arms and rested there for a space. Sarah did not think of herself as much of a hugger, but she held Winnie close for a long space before releasing her with a smile that she hoped conveyed empathy and compassion. Winnie squeezed her hand at the door before shutting it behind her.

10
    Twelve hours later she was sitting in a metal folding chair in the newspaper office, watching Duane’s impassive face as he read through her story. The office was a brightly-lit space, full of desks that now mostly seemed empty. Duane’s own desk was the only one to look lived-in, with an old Dell computer on the floor wired into a monitor that perched between piles of paper. Duane was as rumpled as he always was, and he leaned back on his chair with his head resting on his right fist as he read. Sarah scanned for some sign of whether he loved or hated her story, but nothing she saw in his face was any more or less gloomy than she knew Duane to look while he was