CHAPTER 31
I walked the rest of the way to Rovette’s house. I was not exactly moving slowly, but neither was I going fast; I was simply walking, with a hope in my heart and determination in my soul.
As her house came into view, I saw Rovette outside. She was strolling around the perimeter of her dwelling, smelling the flowers that grew in the bushes there.
When I reached her domicile — I’m not sure how I got there, really, without tripping over or running into something, as I never took my eyes off her — I turned up the walkway without giving myself time to change my mind, or plan what exactly I was going to say to her. Rovette was climbing the steps of her porch when she heard me approach, and looked back at me.
I was tongue-tied for a second. I wanted to say something breezy, but not flippant. I wanted to say something noteworthy, but not pompous. I realized she was waiting for me to say something, so I settled with, “Hi, Rovette.”
“Good afternoon, Taterskin. How have you been?” she answered.
I was exuberant that she had remembered my name. That was a good sign. And I saw no other Dog around. If she had a Dogfriend, he would certainly have come out to confront me by now.
“I’m well, thanks, Rovette,” I managed to say. My throat was getting dry. There seemed to be a lump in it. “How have you been?”
“Just fine!” she answered. “Did you ever find that strange man and his nice wife that you were looking for when I saw you last?”
“What?” I said, confused. I had forgotten all about Warble. I mean, I hadn’t literally forgotten about him (that would be hard to do), but he was the last thing on my mind at the time. Then I remembered that the first time (and the only time, up until then) that I had talked to Rovette, I was asking her if she had seen Warble and Mary McGorkle walk by.
“Oh, yes, I did find them; thanks again, Rovette. But, uh . . .”
“You look like you have something on your mind, Taterskin.”
I gulped. The time for small talk was over. I had to either claim that my visit was an “I was in your neighborhood and thought I would stop by to say hi” kind of thing, or tell her what was truly on my mind and in my heart.
I decided to lay all my chips on the felt, so to speak.
“Rovette, will you come down here for a minute, please? There’s something I want to ask you.”
“All right, Taterskin,” she said, and descended the steps.
When Rovette walked up to me, searching my eyes with her beautiful ones, I again gulped. But I barely hesitated before saying, “Rovette, I have been thinking about you ever since I saw you for the first time.”
I know, this wasn’t exactly true, but I had been thinking of her so much since the time she was recalled to my mind that I felt it was true in spirit; I had thought of her so much, and so intently, since then, that it was as if I had been thinking of her that whole time. I had ‘made up for lost time’ by thinking about her almost non-stop. Besides, if I had instead said, ‘I’ve been thinking about you recently’ that wouldn’t have given the right impression or reveal what I truly felt about her.
“I’ve been thinking about you, too, Taterskin,” Rovette replied, without taking her eyes off me.
We stood there looking at each other. What to say next? She was obviously waiting for me to say more. The ball was on my side of the lawn, so to speak. Would I retrieve it and bring it back over to her?
Yes. I would. And I did. You can ask Rovette about the rest of the conversation. She remembers it a little differently than I do, and I don’t want to contradict her version of events. Not in print, anyway.
The important thing is that, to make a long story short, she left with me, after bidding farewell to the humans and other animals she had been living with, and joined me and the rest of the gang in the Zephyr as we headed off toward our next destination: Tinga Tinga, Tanzania. There we were to visit Tubthumper’s brother Chumbawumba as well as Rory Zamba the Lion and Yukyuk the Chuckling Hyena.
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