Page 22 - Faraway Frieds

16 FARAWAY FRIENDS
a pleasant one. Initially, when Brittany’s face ap- peared on the laptop’s screen, MaryCatherine failed to notice that her sister was dabbing her eyes red from crying.
“Oh, MaryCatherine, it was awful! Buddy was crossing the road yesterday when a car full of teen- agers, music blaring, rounded the corner going way too fast. They knocked Buddy off his feet. Actually, he went flying to the curb. They didn’t even stop. Mom managed to get Buddy to the vet, but it was too late.” Brittany was sobbing by then.
MaryCatherine was near tears, too. Buddy had joined the family when he was just a puppy, growing up along with Brittany and MaryCatherine. True, he was slowing down, showing signs of aging. She wondered if his hearing was impaired. Shouldn’t he have heard the car coming? By the time Dad wrapped his comforting arms around her, Mary- Catherine was crying, too.
A soft rain spattered its teardrops against the win- dow of their third-floor hotel suite. MaryCatherine found it comforting somehow, but there wasn’t much time to mourn the loss of her canine friend. Soon, she and Dad would be in the lobby downstairs wel- coming Daya and her mother. Some weeks earlier, they had met for the first time at Daya’s house to inspect the pair of pigs she raised in her backyard. Selling each farrow of piglets as they came along