Enter
the Hound: The Origin of Inu
Chapter
4: Happy Birthday, Baby
November 30th was
Ashley’s birthday. However, since she
wasn’t going to be home for her birthday, she and her family celebrated
early. They went to the Lone Star
Steakhouse that Saturday – really, they could have gone to Arby’s or Hometown
Hot Dogs and Ashley would have been happy; but as everyone was sick of turkey,
and it was her birthday, steak sounded like the better option.
Brittany was especially happy to see
them come home after dinner. Dad had
saved her the bone from his steak, and she knew it. Ashley knew it too, but was too full to care
how delicious it smelled. Such thoughts
usually disturbed her anyway, and she tried to ignore them. She watched as dad went to the front door,
steak bone high in the air and Brittany leaping at his heels. Of course, she knew what was really going
on. The bone was just a diversion so
that the food-obsessed beagle wouldn’t beg for cake.
“I’m hungry. Can we cut the cake now?” Dominik
asked.
“Kid, you just ate!” Joe laughed.
“Yeah, but I want cake,” the little
boy replied.
Tawnie
brought out several boxes from the bedroom.
The tradition was “gifts first, cake later.” It was a necessary tradition, for if you set
your cake down to open a gift, your cake was in danger of being eaten by
Brittany. That was the flaw in putting
Brittany outside so early. By the time
she came back in, the family would still be eating cake.
The gifts were simple: sweatshirts;
socks; a collar (a gag gift from Kelly); and gift cards galore. Then the lights went out, candles were lit,
and wishes made before cutting the cake.
The birthday song was skipped all together to spare Ashley’s sensitive
ears.
“Ice cream or
peanut butter?” Tawnie asked as she carved out
the first slice.
“Peanut butter,” Ashley
replied. Dominik’s
eyes shot wide open and his nose scrunched up in disgusts.
“Peanut butter? With chocolate cake?”
“Yes,” said Ashley. “That’s how I like it.”
“Aunt Ashley, you’re weird.”
Ashley laughed. “Is grandma weird?”
“No,” said Dominik,
rolling his eyes.
“I picked up the peanut butter thing
from her, you know?”
Dominik
stared thoughtfully up at Ashley for a minute, then
turned to Tawnie.
“Grandma, you’re weird.”
*************************
Later that night when Kelly took Dominik upstairs to put him to bed, Joe and Tawnie gave Ashley one last gift: an old, sealed manila
envelope. It wasn’t wrapped up in a box
or covered with tissue in a bag, but it was very special all the same.
Ashley frowned upon receiving the
envelope. She wasn’t disappointed, just
puzzled by the gravity of her parents’ expressions as she turned the envelope
over in her hands. Only Brittany looked
excited as she sat beside Ashley and stared at the envelope. Ashley looked at the beagle and held the
envelope up for her to sniff. Brittany
inspected the envelope, sniffed it, licked it; and then she snorted and moved
to the other end of the love seat, disappointed that the envelope wasn’t food.
“Goofy dog,” Ashley chuckled. She opened the envelope, and gasped upon
seeing the contents.
Inside the envelope were several
pictures of Drs. Harvey Pembroke and Kaeda Akita,
presumably before the change.
“Dr. Pembroke gave us those pictures
after we signed the adoption papers,” Tawnie said as
Ashley studied the photographs. “He
wanted you to know them as they used to be.
I think they were both ashamed of their condition and didn’t want you to
know about it.”
“Fat lotta
good that did,” said Joe, laughing a little as he shook his head. “You found out anyway.”
Ashley smiled and shook her
head. “Well, he must’ve changed his mind
right before he gave you the envelope.
Look.”
She held out the last picture for
her parents to see. It was a picture of
Dr. Pembroke with dog ears.