I’m waiting at the curb for Dad and Jackie to pick me up.
“Let’s go, Dad,” I demand, jumping into the back seat. “I have to go get Neewa.”
The ride out to the Doc’s ranch seems never-ending. I twitch and move around in my seat but I can’t settle down. Finally we arrive.
Dad points to some boxes in the back seat. “We have the cameras and some of the other equipment for our investigation of the Doc’s ranch. I’ll set everything up in the back of the van before I go in. Jackie, you stay in the van and watch everything. Make sure the cameras are running.”
Jackie moans, “I don’t see why I have to wait out here and take the video while you guys go inside.”
Jackie smirks, “Yeah, yeah, okay I‘ll stay here and sweat to death. No, I’m going for a walk around the ranch till I find a nice cool shade tree to sit under.”
Dad whispers, “Okay, but keep everything in sight. I don’t want to get caught snooping around.”
In the waiting room, I clench my sweaty fists and pace from wall to wall. “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” I pray Neewa will be all right.
Dad is walking around the room looking at all the artifacts. He’s taking notes as he goes from one display to another.
“Here she is,” Lyle boasts, walking her through the door into the waiting room.
“Neewa’s walking,” I exclaim, jumping to my knees to embrace her.
She is wagging her tail. That’s good, really good. Even her nose is a little wet. I hold her close as I feel the thump, thump, thump, of her tail on my ankles.
Dad gets his traditional sniff and lick on the hand. In return, Neewa expects and gets a scratch on the head, just behind her ears.
“Is she okay? Will she live?” I stutter, blinking my eyes, anxious to hear his answer.
He kneels next to me, stroking Neewa’s ivory white coat, scratching her behind the ears. “Doc thinks she is going to make it, but she’s still in danger.”
Walking us to the front of the building Lyle says, “The doctor said give Neewa plenty of water, dry food only, and one of these pills every six hours. You have already given her the best chance to live.”
I stare at the sign on the wall, “All Doctor’s Fees are Payable on the Day of Examination.”
Lyle sees me and says, “We will take no money from you and Neewa.” He hastens, “Doc wants her back here in two weeks. Oh, and he had a question… where was she born?”
I answer, “The dog catcher said she was born in the desert, just outside of town. We adopted her at the pound.”
“Oh,” he nods closing the door behind us.
Neewa walks across the parking lot. Excited to be free, she tenderly frolics around us on the way to the van. She runs to Jackie who hugs her, and in return gets a lick on the face, from eye to forehead.
“Neewa your breath stinks,” she says.
I’m so thrilled to have her back. At last, I can laugh again.
Neewa hops gingerly into the van and stands on the back seat waiting for me. Watching me, she tilts her head the way she does. She looks so much better.
All the ghost-hunting crap is in my way as I squeeze into the seat next to her.
Finally I shout, “Get this stuff out of here, it’s in Neewa’s way.”
I hand Jackie a meter, camera, and begin to lift up piece after piece of equipment.
Reaching, Jackie looks at the meter and shouts, “This one is stuck at forty-eight MHz. That’s twelve higher than the reading we got the other day at Donner Pass, the highest reading I’ve ever seen.”
Dad asks, “Jackie did you look around for anything that might give off an electromagnetic field? Like a transformer or an air conditioning unit?”
“No, I was busy with all this stuff. Then you guys came back too fast. What am I, a magician?” She blurts out sarcastically.
Dad looks around and exclaims as we pull away, “This place is loaded with spirits. I can feel it. As soon as we get home we’ll check all the cameras, meters, everything.”
We drive out the rutted driveway leaving the Doc’s ranch. He has a huge place full of all kinds of animals, the smell of them permeate the hot air. Several barns, two houses, and fenced corrals dot the landscape. He has cattle, horses, and sheep too. There are a couple of ponds. Some ducks and geese rest on the shore while others are dipping and diving in the fresh water. They probably get their water from those spinning windmills; it looks more like an oasis rather than a ranch.
The main house has many windows, two big chimneys at each end, and a long porch that runs all the way along the front, side, and across the back. Clotheslines traverse the yard running from the house to the back fence. There’s one set of clothes already dry from the hot desert sun.
Neewa will live. I know she will, although I can still see the disease in her yellow- tinted eyes. And her breath smells really bad. Sitting in the van, I daydream about giving her food and water, lots of water.
After getting home I give her one of the pills. The only way to be sure she swallows it, is to push it down her throat and watch her neck bulge as it goes down. She walks away and goes into my room where she curls up in a ball on her bed and goes to sleep.
I tell her, “Go to sleep, girl. It’s time for you to rest. You’re home now.”
In the living room, Dad and Jackie are looking at our cameras and meters. They are in our paranormal lab, at least until we can figure something else out. I call it ghost-hunting headquarters.
“Did the camera get anything?” I ask Dad and Jackie.
Dad replies, “We are looking at the digital file now.”
“There, there,” Jackie exclaims, “That’s a floating orb! There’s another and another!”
“This place is paranormal central!”
“Did you see that?” So excited, Jackie sprays spit on me.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up. “What are they? And what do they do? Why would anyone call floating bubbles, orbs?” I sarcastically add.
“Christina, cool it! Give me a second. I’m watching this,” Jackie says perturbed by my interruptions.
Staring at the screen, she finally answers me as if she is reading from a textbook. “The orb is energy being transferred from a source such as power lines, heat energy, batteries, or people—to a spirit… or orb, so it can manifest. It may not even be a conscious act. The spirit is doing what it does. It’s the way they get their energy.”
Really excited Dad jumps in, “Finally we got something on film.”
“Look! Six floating orbs! It’s an orb hotel out there!” Jackie shouts, “Dad, they could be animal spirits. They don’t have to be peoples' spirits, especially since he’s a vet. I’ll bet a lot of animals die out there. And the ones that haven’t crossed over yet, well they are still there,” Jackie whispers.
Standing behind her, I visualize cattle and horses floating through the air.
She pulls herself closer to the laptop, focused on the screen. “I’m going to import this video into my movie maker program. I’ll be able to look at the video and audio tracks separately. Maybe we captured one of those orbs trying to speak with us.”
Dad warns, “Jackie, make a backup copy of that file right away, and put another on a DVD to be safe. And by the way, we can’t tell anyone about this, at least not until we get back East. First we have to get as far away from here as possible. Then we can report our findings to the National Paranormal Society. I’d probably lose my job if we made this discovery public now. Besides, there is a lot more ghost hunting that still needs to be done before we disclose what we do.”
“I want to go back out to Doc’s ranch again. We have a good excuse, Neewa’s follow up is in two weeks,” Jackie adds.
Dad guesses, “I bet we find their secret Indian burial grounds out there.”
“I’ve had enough for today,” I close my door.
I’m finally away from all the ghost talk. Collapsing on my bed, I think about Neewa’s pills. They look like horse pills, an ugly gray and brown color, and they are so big.
Maybe they are horse pills? I just hope they work.
She is lying down in her own bed now and will probably sleep through the night. She’s stretched out her feet up in the air as usual, the way she always does. When she dreams in that position her feet move back and forth as if she is running, I laugh at her.
I’ll have to wake her and give her another pill in a few hours. I hate pushing it down her throat, but I have to make sure she swallows it or she’ll never get better.
“Good night Dad, love you.”
“Good night Christina, Jackie, love you.”
“Love you, Dad,” Jackie says.
“Good night, Neewa.”