The hands of Leo, Page 2

  «Accursed meddler, is you her wanted» you/he/she howled with contempt toward Steve lifting the tense arm to take the aim.

  Steve meanwhile you/he/she had gotten up and you/he/she had started to race to zig-zag toward a big machinery, to the desperate search of a shelter. The situation was serious, moreover from a moment to the other the scatolonis would definitely have surrendered. That was my last occasion to try to help my friend. Banished every hesitation, I picked up me to detach the jump. The first hit of gun exploded while impattavo against the window, its echo played again so much strong to cover the noise of the glasses that you/they went to splinters. Deafened, with an acute hiss planted in the ears, I saw the second fiammella go out of the reed of the gun really while I was placing the legs on the floor. Feeling the first hit Steve to explode had instinctively lowered the head and you/he/she was stopped. While it was slowly turning him with the lifted hands it was stricken in full breast. The impact with the bullet hurled back it to the and when its back touched earth something it went out out of a pocket of its raincoat, a small quadrated object and shining it slipped along the smooth and oily floor up to fall in a loophole. I took no interest me some Bogy man, that was racing now toward the front door with the intention to melt her/it to him, to race from my companion.

  «Take him/it Leo. You take that carcass» Steve told me in a whisper.

  Courses fast as I had never done in my life but the other one was useless it was out already and you/he/she had closed again the gate. I succeeded only in seeing, from a small opening, the man that salivates in car. It departed in reverse to go out of the parking lot and it bumped a lamp-post, later it gave immediately a beautiful sgasata, it grafted her/it before and it got further in hurry lifting a rain of gravel.

  Chapter 6. Steve's death

  I sadly returned from my friend. It was spread out to belly earth in above with the head turned of side and the folded up knees. It panted. I licked his hand. It slowly rotated the head, then with an inhuman effort he/she succeeded in lifting an arm to caress me behind the ear, as it always did. Its hand was very cold that gave me a shiver. I closed the eyes. Suffered an idea I lengthened me to insert the face in the pocket of the raincoat, to the search of the cellular phone.

  «It is useless, I have forgotten him to house.» it murmured him with to grimace of regret realizing my intentions. I sent forth a desperate yelp.

  «My friend I am sorry. The fears that is ended indeed this time.» it added looking me with shiny eyes.

  Reading the resignation in his/her eyes I understood that there was not more nothing to be done. I crouched me to his/her side, the nearest possible to try to give him some heat. After few instants he was shaken from a hit of cough, then another and another anchor.

  «I am sorry» it whispered a last time, closed forever then the eyes.

  An abysmal silence remained, ever felt before, interrupted only by the whistle of rare gusts of cold air that you/they entered from the broken finestrone. They took around the sharp odor of the shot dust, that mixed to that of the blood of my companion it was nauseating, but I didn't get further me. Would not have left at all only it to the world! He was there, close to me, immovable. It was there, yet there was not anymore. It ignored me.

  "Is not correct" I thought" cannot leave me so, had made a pact! Always together, up to the end."

  You/he/she had been our sentence scaramantica, you/he/she had repeated her every time before entering action. Two words, an occhiolino, and then street, together toward the danger. Those words meant that if it owed something ugly to happen - it was one of the possibilities, gives the work that we did, and we were aware of it - we had to go together. And instead no. After years of friendship left me so, left only me! And the worse it was that the guilt was also my, if I/you had been more careful, more definite, the things would perhaps have gone otherwise. Had had too trust instead in him, had waited too much to jump through that accursed window!

  A memory attacked me of sudden giving me a slim thread of hope. During the weeks of training, when I was few more than a pup, it often brought me to play in the country. We rolled there on the grass, absorbed in the lukewarm and perfumed air and surrounded by to flutter incessant of the colored butterflies. We made the struggle, then of hit him he pretended dead. What a fear, the first times! Terrorized me I licked him the face, I shook him/it with the leg, and he immediately went off later standing laughing as a crazy person. I knew that it was useless, but I tried the same.

  "No, is not a joke!" I thought desperate.

  Chapter 7. The liberation

  The following morning, called by the owners of the shed next to cause of mine to bark and of my continuous yelps, some colleagues came to see what you/he/she was happened and they found us there. I had tried for the whole night to recover the small object that was gone out of the pocket of the raincoat of Steve, but there had been no anything to do. I could come to touch him/it with the leg, but to grab I would have had to have him/it the fingers. I had tried to dig a hole with the solo result to break me the fingernails against the floor of cement; I had also tried to pick him/it up with the mouth but unfortunately my face didn't enter the crack in the floor because it was too tightened. I had insisted the same, more times, stubborn as not never, and at the end I was given me a beautiful cut as soon as above the nose. Then I tried in all the possible ways to attract the attention of the agents for their mostrar that object, but after having consoled me to turn for few minutes they answered to mine to bark saying that they didn't have time to play. as if at that time The hads felt like putting to play me. They took to devote himself/herself/themselves to their occupations and they didn't lend me more interest. The scientific one, the photographers and the journalists arrived, and Steve was brought away on board of a grey van.

  «Head, that we do of it of him?» he/she asked an agent pointing out me.

  The Head lowered and the face took me among the hands.

  «Poor Leo. The don'ts succeed really to imagine how much hard must have been for you. to see him kill the companion in front of the eyes! See to bring away it in a coffin of metal. and moreover cannot speak, otherwise the assassin would have the counted hours! My goodness! Hand him/it to house of Steve and you take his/her things. For some it will be with us to the plant, we will see if someone will want to adopt him/it.»

  Feeling that you/they would have brought me home the my moral it lifted him of a few, in fact on the answering machine there was recorded the voice of the assassin. I would have done so that someone he/she listened to him, I would have made him understand that that recorded was the voice of the bastard that my friend had murdered. I was certain that you/he/she would not have been difficult, but I just gone down by the auto I warned again the odor of the shot dust and the oil. Without doubt the assassin had been there, of certain to look for the documents of which spoke Steve and to cancel the message in reception office! In fact the inspection that took place in the apartment of my friend, to the search of something that could make light on the last hours of life of Steve, it didn't give some fruit. For all of my life I had often desired to have the hands, even also an only time, also only for one day. I was firmly convinced that the hands were one of the few real differences between me and a man. I had always wondered how many things I would have been able to do, if I/you had had her. More give futile - but also amusing - type to make to rotate a cat in the air holding him/it for the tail, for then to open the fingers and to see to fly away it, or to throw me stones, pine-cones, batons and balls for my account, for then to run after her and to bring me her. But I would have been able to also use to make her useful things, besides I would have had the mastery of the refrigerator and the television, and I would have been able to open alone me the door when the needs escaped me and to throw myself a cover I set when I was cold. That time I was me to so intensely desire him/it as I had never done. If for a some miracle had been possible, also only for five minutes, would have been able to recover the myste
rious object that Steve had lost for putting the assassin with the shoulders to the wall! I was only instead an useless dog, with four useless zampacce. I fell in a state of deep depression and mistakes the three following days extended on an impromptu kennel in the room of attended of the district, with the face supported on the anterior legs, without eating neither to lift the look. I sometimes rotated the ears without moving me, when I felt that someone pointed out me or it pronounced my name or that of my companion.

  Chapter 8. To the funeral

  "I won't grow fond anymore me to anybody, and I don't want anymore any human being to my side! You give him everything yourself, you protect him the house and you make him play his/her children - and unfortunately the preferred game of his/her/their children with the dogs is that to continually grab on, with all of their strength, to their ears and their tail - the bushels nearby you make him company, and you console him/it when it needs comfort. And this, to compensate you, allows only all of a sudden suddenly yourself. and then you should new start relationship with another dark or people, to look for again the equilibriums and to earn you the respect. To learn words, intonation of the voice and new habits, and to face again a lot of annoying things, as for instance that to fight with the other dogs of the district where you will go to live only for having an angolino whether to make your needs. Then your new companion decides even to go to vacations, or of sudden an allergy comes him, or simply a child is born him, and then you/he/she gives you a beautiful kick in the tail.

  And then Steve was special! I would never find another friend as him, not even if I looked for him/it for the whole life. My goodness, if only had been more definite. the remorses will accompany me for the whole life! And how much it gnaws me not to be able to do more nothing for him. I am certain that the fallen object in the grit is a lot of main point, but I/you/they has not succeeded in recovering him/it and alone I will never succeed there. What will I do from tomorrow? Perhaps, if indeed took me with itself someone of the plant. but no, is better of no! This life I am fed up with. I am tired of uniforms and shoot-outs, pursuits and blank nights. I could do the stray one, at least until I won't have the clearest ideas, after all I know how to get by her/it and of sure I would not starve."

  These were my reflections, while to the head of the funeral procession I was accompanying my friend to the last abode. We walked in silence, absorbed in the perfumes in the autumn, and I was not very sure that my tears were due to the fresh air that stung me the nostrils. Have you ever seen a funeral that respects him without rain? No, true? In fact, altroché if rained! There was a damned wind that detached yellow leaves and marches from the branches of the trees to send her to amusement, while the breath condensed him in cloudlets. On the lawn, you dresses in dark suits and with the open umbrella, there was a myriad of people. In many they were alternated in front of over-the-counter close to the hole for something, the words were always different but the meaning was always the same, and I was fed up indeed. I didn't have intention to be to look at the coffin lower in the pit, you/he/she would have been too much cruel. I had turned for going and I had already crossed a street piece when unexpectedly a voice recalled my attention. I straightened the ears, I turned me and I returned on my footsteps.

  «In front of tragedies as this he often asks if.» you/he/she was falsely telling the Bogy hand touched tone.

  «. and therefore, we of the Scientific one, have decided.»

  I listened with attention to be sure that mine was not only an impression.

  «. and this is certainly the best way to honor the memory hand of that.»

  Was really he, was the carcass that had shot him and, as had thought since the beginning, was a police officer! What face toasts, he/she wore even the same coat and the same hat, and even it also had with itself the same gun with which you/he/she had killed him/it.

  Chapter 9. The attack to the Bogy man

  I didn't need to reflect for a long time on the to make himself/herself/themselves, in an instant everything the blood had been climbed me to the head for the anger. I didn't have very to choose; gives my condition of dog I didn't have the voice to report him/it, neither tantomeno of the hands to search him/it, therefore what could do was to try to send to make him/it company to my friend! I taken runs after her/it, with the legs that labored to make taking on the mud, I purchased the maximum speed of which I was able until joint next to over-the-counter I jumped. I went beyond her in flight, immediately after trentacinque kilos to the speed of forty hourly kilometers fell on the assassin that ruined in the pit, and when it touched the fund with the shoulders I was him above. I looked him/it at an instant with the open teeth and I gave him a growl, that meant": I have pecked at You, accursed. Meanwhile to you I think it me. Then, when will be in the aldilà, will also see her/it to you with Steve!"

  While the agreements assembled him on the eyelash of the hole in a dismayed shouting, to see what was happening, I snapped at him/it to the neck. But with mine immense surprise, rather than to find soft meat, my teeth banged against something of solid. I threw back me disorientated. Lost an instant of too much in the search of another weak point, and before I/you could retry us something of very hard - the shovel of the pecks at, I suppose - it got depressed with violence on my poor head almost killing me. I knocked down to earth with the wide apart legs. When I reopened the eyes the head it ached me of ugly and I immediately realized me that the legs had tied me, besides I also wore now a beautiful muzzle. The assassin looked me mocking, but I realized that you/he/she was still frightened.

  «Who knows that you/he/she has taken him» the Head told his perplexed chin scratching himself/herself/itself.

  «Fortune that yesterday have had that tamponamentos! If I/you had not had the collarino for the hit of whip, to this time.» it added.

  "But which tamponamento?" would have liked to shout" over that an assassin are an accursed liar! Have beaten against a lamp-post while were escaping!"

  But my despite, what I succeeded in doing was to address him an appalling growl and to look at him/it more in with hostility that was able.

  «This however it changes the things. I understand that I/you/he/she am stunned for the death of his/her master» it told the Bogy man tall voice to make himself/herself/themselves also feel from the others, pretending himself/herself/itself comprehensive «but you/he/she is shown dangerous.»

  «I don't have him with him» it added serious «but to leave him/it free, to my opinion, it is too much risky.»

  «Mhhh. unfortunately The fears that you macaws right» the Head responded.

  «Thing you propose to do?» he/she asked then him.

  Without answering, the other tightened him in the shoulders and it lowered the eyes to look at himself/herself/themselves the dirty shoes of mud, falsely embarrassed.

  «You, is unfortunately right» concluded the Head showing himself/herself/itself of accord with the tacit answer of the other. Then it bent him on me and me said a pair of friendly pacches.

  «Believe me Leo, is sorry me. regrets seriously me! In a few hours I lose two of mine best investigators» it announced touched, and it seemed indeed me deeply been sorry.

  "As two agents? I am alive!" I did for asking considering me us on, he got up and with the hand it made sign to an agent to draw near, these it came to his/her presence and it put on on the careful ones.

  «Commands, Mr. Captain.»

  «Hands you him from the veterinarian» it told him in an ear, and in to hear those words I felt me to freeze.

  «You excuse Captain, have I understood well?» he/she asked incredulous the agent, the other one nodded with a printed sad expression in face. Meanwhile, not seen, the assassin was crushing me of intention the tail with the heel to make me a spite, looking me of sbieco with a taut smile.

  Chapter 10. From the veterinarian

  Two colleagues, puffing for the work, they transported me to braccia through the room of attended tied up and gagged as the worse one of
the criminals. The other present animals turned me timid compassionate and embarrassed looks. The agents spoke in a low voice with the secretary of the doctor, then they brought me in a small clinic and they abandoned me on a bunk. In attended that the veterinarian arrived, the two remained to my side. They kept on looking I am sorry and to give me some paccas.

  «But thing devil is picked up you, so to the sudden one?» it reproached me the most elderly of the two looking me compassionate, with the shiny eyes.

  «Among all the present people to the ceremony you had to attach really the more bastard? Poor Leo, that dishonorable end» it added softly caressing me the back, that I instinctively bent when its hand arrived near to the tail. Then it dissuaded the look, he/she didn't want to make to see me that it was about to start crying.

  «I am also sorry it, but by now the omelet you/he/she is done. And then who knows, even of there it will find again Steve» it said the other so much to encourage him/it.

  «Yes, you are perhaps right you, are better perhaps so.»

  A guy entered. It was tall, he/she wore a candid white uniform and it had two thin baffettis. Its teeth were some leaning ones and the expression of the face, under to the thick and astute greyish hair as you fence, it was difficult to decipher.

  «You can go, I will occupy of it me» it said dry to the agents.

  «Doctor, begs me.»

  «Is calm, it won't suffer.»

  The two turned me a last look, then they greeted the veterinarian and they went out. The doctor turned a couple of times around the bunk and observed for a long time me, holding a closed fist leaned under to the chin and the knuckle of the finger index nibbling every now and then himself/herself/itself.

  «It is a sin. he, is really to since» it said.

  "You do your job to the quick one, please" I thought, but he kept on studying me perplexed. A thigh lifted me.