Part 1, Chapter 5: Concussion

That feeling of dread

Days passed from when he yelled at me. Form then on, I took every precaution that I could to avoid any contact with the Muller within my daily schedule. Every Tuesday and Thursday I would take the long route around to Math class just so that I could avoid him and his dog walking through campus in the morning. I didn't like it. It felt as though I was wanted for something, some crime that I did not commit or play any part in, but yet he some how managed to make me feel that way. He was the one who yelled at me, but now I was the one that felt like I had done something wrong.

Kicking up the last of the decaying leaves of November I walked back towards my dorm attempting to meet with someone who might be remotely interested in getting something to eat with me. I blew out a puff of smoke into the cold November air. My nervousness drove me to smoke more than I normally did, it was a habit that I was trying to break yet every so often I still found myself with a cigarette in my mouth. Staring off at the sky as I exhaled another puff of smoke I felt a droplet of rain fall upon my face and splatter onto my glasses. Great. Quickly taking them off I used my sleeve to wipe the water off the lens before putting them back on my face. When I put them back on I almost ran into Sofie coming out of the building, my expression brightened, "Hey, Sof." I smirked at her. "Want to go get food or something?" I asked, readjusting the beret on my head.

She raised her eyebrow, the curly blonde hair falling sloppily around her features, "I wath juth heading that way." She broke into a toothy grin, her lisp ever present when she spoke. "Anything you want thepethifically? I think I can get Tim to make it better if you want thomething from the thpethialth bar… you know, thomething that doethent look like plathtic." She snickered at that.

I smiled to, "Perhaps if he makes us Turkey sandwiches or something, he'll make them a little less salty. I don't want to worry about having instant cardiac arrest from just eating one of them." We paused for a moment before we both burst out laughing. "Ah." I sighed, "Now that I'm away at college, home cook meals seem so far away right now…" I stopped, looking at Sofie; she seemed to have just frozen up, her entire body rigid. Blinking, suddenly a new feeling of muted dread came over me, "Sof?" I said as I reached out and gently prodded her shoulder, "Sof…. Talk to me." Her expression unchanged, she moved her hand up to motion at something behind me. I squinted, not really comprehending what she was trying to tell me. Sofie motioned frantically with her hand as I felt a gentle tap on my shoulder. I finally turned around and what I saw almost made me faint on the spot.

"M-m-m….Mr. Muller…." I squeaked out.

There he was, holding the leash as his dog sat beside him looking between the two of us in slight confusion. I swallowed hard; my stomach seemed to plummet to my feet. He looked to me blankly over the rim of his near-plate sized glasses. I was dead scared at that point in my life, my entire being seemed to freeze up, much like Sofie had done a few moments earlier. I merely stood there staring at him as he remained silent and me gawking at him. The dog looked between the two of us rather confused as why they had made this sudden detour on their daily route. She wagged her tail slightly as she looked at me and titled her head as her ears came forward.

"Miss Abigail…" He rasped as he stared at me, all emotion and color devoid from his face. I was statue still in my spot; my feet seemed to be cemented to the earth. My eyes were wide and my hands twitched slightly in nervousness as I looked to him. The Muller shifted his weight to lean more against the cane in his right hand. "Miss Abigail…" however before he could say what he wanted, the dog limped up to me and sat down defiantly in front of me, her tongue lolling in and out of her mouth as she looked up to me, expecting to be petted, an oblivious dog smile plastered upon her face as her tail wagged weakly back and forth. Her paw came up and she gently nudged it against my leg to try and get my attention. "Ana…" Muller said quietly, "Kommst hier." He commanded his dog. She looked back at him dejected, her ears falling because she wanted to be petted. "Schnell." Tail lowered, she came back to her master's side laying down respectfully at his feet and resting her head upon his shoes.

I had been watching the dog throughout her endeavors and jumped when Muller coughed, he was looking right at me again, his blue eyes piercing. "Miss Abigail, I want to apologize to you." I could have dropped dead from shock right there had Sofie not been hiding behind me, partially holding me up on my feet, was he serious? Muller did not strike me as the type of person to apologize this easily to someone he probably did not think very highly of at all. The gate incident proved that, I was sure that there was still some bitterness that was present in the aura around him and I knew that it was taking all his will to probably not yell at me again. "I want to say that I am sorry for what happened the last time that you came by." He put his hand over his heart and bowed slightly to me and Sofie. "It was not right of me to disregard everything you were trying to do in that manner and I deeply regret for acting the way I did to you." His eyes looked away for a moment, "I hope that you will forgive me." With that his gaze snapped back to me expecting me to give him some sort of answer.

"I…" I stumbled out my words, "I… guess… I forg-give you…" I was still entirely baffled.

This appeared like such an out of character move for him. Not that I knew much about his character in the first place, but from what I have seen of him he seemed like the type of person that would not bend his will to anyone or anything no matter what forces or pressures were put upon him. I swallowed hard as he kept looking to me for a straight answer instead of me muddling through my words trying to form a clear idea in my head. I did not realize that my hands were tugging violently at the ends of my scarf. I felt Sofie nudge me, she looked as eager as I was to get rid of Muller for the time being. Although, she did not have her reasons to doubt all the rumors that she had heard.

I straightened up a bit, my legs still a bit numb, "I accept your apology, Mr. Muller… and… a-and it was very nice of you to come out here and to give me one.

I nodded my head to him and a new light seemed to come into his eyes at my acceptance. Later I would look back at this a supposed acceptance of each other. A strange and subtle turning point in out dealings with each other, even though I still was wary of him. After that, whenever I passed him walking back from the park I would say hello and he would nod his head in obligatory greeting. Neither of us made any move, we had both reached our stalemate. I would not go forward; he would not let down his defenses. So there we remained stuck for the next week or so, mired down in the bogs of our own suspicions of each other. This persisted and hung over us whenever we greeted each other in the morning, yet there came a time where this odd estrangement between us was soon to be direly tested.

I was sitting on the low wall in front of the colleges cafeteria, swinging my legs over the side, tapping some beat against the red bricks. Sofie sat beside me and we both munched happily upon overly salty turkey sandwiches. Tim was not working the counter today and we joked that because we were actually eating the sandwiches we were both going to go into instant cardiac arrest, either that or just get sick from actually being able to finish them. Though I would not say that I actually did not mind the sandwiches, at least they were one of the few items that actually had a flavor. The beat that I hit the back of my sneakers to the wall changed suddenly as I started humming some beatles song. I then paused, giving a sideways glance at Sofie. Our eyes met and in an instant we both started singing the song complete with hand motions that matched the words and what not, even moving out feet even though we never actually left the wall.

"Living is easy with eyes closed,
misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone
but it all works out.
It doesn't matter much to me."

We both started laughing and I nudged her. "You're not a bad singer, Sof… how come you never tried out for the plays?"

Sofie shook her head, "Performanth ithnt my thing. I juth thing and thath it," she smiled and then stared laughing returning to her sandwich. I was about to say something else when she suddenly put her hand up and pointed at something. "Ithnt that the Muller'th dog?" I followed to where she was pointing and saw the rickety old German Shepherd barreling as fast as her old legs could carry her. She barked loudly, her head turning this way and that looking around. That was odd. She was never very far from her masters side and the Muller was no where to be seen. A confused look came over my face as I looked at the animal running towards us. It was very odd, too odd. I did not like the feel of it. Something felt terribly wrong.

I looked to Sofie, "Something isn't right."

"You know the Mullerth better than I do… Perhapth you thould deal with thith."

I tilted my head, "Thanks Sofie…" I slid off the wall, "Don't eat my sandwich." I put the sandwich on the napkin beside Sofie and ran across the street towards the dog. "Ana." I said as I put my hand towards the dog, "C'mere girl." The dogs ears came forward as she looked to me and her tail started wagging madly, yet she did not come towards me. And she was supposed to be a smart dog. "Ana…" I pointed my finger to the ground next to me and snapped. "Come". She dropped to her front paws, still not coming. Perhaps she was just being ornery. "Kommst hier," I said, just to try it out. Still the dog refused to come to me. Getting flustered, I went towards her. "Whats wrong with you, girl… usually you'd be all over me for…." I reached out towards her and she bounded back towards the way she had come, turning back and stopping to look ay me again, tail wagging.

I raised an eyebrow. What on Earth? I stepped towards her again and once more she bounded away, avoiding my hands. Now it got to a point where if I took a step towards her, she bounded even further away from me. I was about to give up when she came close enough to me that I could get a really good look at her. She still wore her dingy green collar, yet the rope that she would normally be attached to in the backyard tailed behind her, it was frazzled at the loose end. It looked like she had chewed through it. I tilted my head: Something was terribly wrong.

Following her at a quick gait she lead me right back to her house and then she came right to me without me even having to call her. I gently knelt down beside her and reached up a hand to stroke her head: "What's wrong, girl?" I asked her. She wagged her tail weakly as she nosed against me. The dog then barked loudly and moved away from me, continuing to pace in front of the chain link gate that blocked off the back yard. Shaking my head, I went up to the porch and knocked at the door, tapping my foot impatiently, my arms around myself as I nervously waited for a reply.

I got none.

I knocked again and still there was no answer.

This was extremely odd. I waited for a few more minutes before I gave one final knock. Stepping back I stared at the house as if this was suddenly going to make things better. Quickly, I went to where the dog was, she whimpered up at me and kept pacing completely befuddled, not knowing what to do with herself. "Ana…" I tried to sooth the poor creature and in turn I was trying to soothe myself for I was getting more and more nervous the more time passed.

Finally I could not stand it any more. Ana whimpered loudly as she put her paws upon the fence and that was enough for me. She almost reached over it, and I now realized that in whatever dog emotion had driven her to chew through the rope must have also given her aching bones the adrenaline to charge and lunge over the chain link fence. I stared over the fence and then back at her. "Good job, girl." I petted her head before I heaved myself up and managed to get a leg over with much difficulty. I flailed and struggled, trying not to break anything or get anything caught on the wires. I managed to find a foot hold on the way down and then jumped down from the fence.

However, my luck was short lived, the bottom of my shirt managed to snagged and shredded as I fell away from the fence. Now awarded with a tear across the bottom for my efforts I grew frustrated for an instant as I inspected the damage. "God D****t." I swore, but the torn shirt was the last of my problems as I snuck around to the back of the house. The back yard was covered with lawn save for a few small patched left bare where the two of them tended to various flowers of all shapes and sizes. Right now, the patches were bare because of the quickly approaching weather save for a few of the hardier plants that were still clinging to life against mother natures chill. Sprawling from the back door of the house was a raised deck of wood in various stages of discolor and decay, I still thought that I should convince some of the guys from the dorm to come down here and help me paint this in the springtime. It desperately needed it and the Muller's were far too old to be doing themselves.

The deck then ended with a stair way of about four steps that led to a little concrete patio to the side where an outdoor table and chairs were set. The umbrella was closed and wrapped for the winter. And that's when I saw him. There was not much space between where the patio set stood and where the stairs ended, but in that small space lay Mr. Muller, laying fretfully on his side. I saw that one of the patio chairs had been overturned violently and his cane was flung away from him. I stared for a moment in utter shock, my mind gone blank, unknowing what to do in this situation for I had never encountered it before. After the initial shock came the panic, sheer panic. I felt my whole body start to shake as I rushed over in a zombie-like haze.

I assumed the worse.

Ana barked at me loudly from the other side of the fence and that seemed to bring me from my stupor. She continued to bark and bark as I heard her run at the fence and put her paws back upon the chains. The clinking of the metal shook me back to reality even further. I feel to my knees beside him and saw the river of blood trickle from a gash on his forehead and I was relieved to say that at least he was still alive. I gently moved him to almost be fully lying on his back so that I could get a good look at him, his chest rising and falling in a slow manner. Muller was limp in my arms as my hands shook, out cold completely.

My breathing sped up as I put him back to his side. I had to get help. I turned to run up the stairs and found that the second to lowest step had been smashed through and that was what had probably caused him to fall and collide with the chair that had been over turned. Quickly jumping this, I looked around for some sort of entrance into the house: the back door being closed. I tried for all times sake to find that it was locked. There had to be another way in to the house. I knew Rose had a phone in the kitchen if I could just reach that I could phone for help. Sadly, at that time I was so distraught that I did not think about every other person in the cul-de-sac that might have a more readily accessible phone than the one that was inside the house, I was only focused on that phone and that phone only.

I was able to find a side window that was left open and I was able to enter the house that way. Falling, thankfully, on to a neatly made single-person bed I tousled around in the covers for a moment trying to find my footing and fending off a wayward teddy bear that had managed to somehow attack me when I landed. Managing to get my feet on the ground, it took me a few moments to locate the kitchen from there and as soon as I had found the phone I spun the dial to call the paramedics as quickly as the old phone would let me. I new wave of panic came over me as I waited for them to pick up and felt my knees only go weaker as I pleaded for them to come when someone did answer.

They came about ten minutes later and Mr. Muller was safe for the time being.

I held Ana close to me the whole time waiting and as they took him away.