"Yours?" Both women acknowledged me at once. I nodded and made my way over to Sasha, who held the paper out to me. I took it, and hurried back to my table where my bag was, shoving it inside before Michelle could see there was writing her eyes had not yet scanned. Sasha put her hands on her hips and headed behind the counter, Michelle rocking back and forth on her feet, and me getting my behind out of that room before the Spanish Inquisition began. Inevitably, Michelle followed me.

"Sasha seems real cross today, doesn't she?" she asked, watching Sasha with one eye and me with the other. She could give Gideon a run for his money.

"I-I haven't noticed anything," I answered. I kept my back turned toward her, sweeping all the same spots over again, hoping with every fiber in my body that the letter had chosen to play it smart and stay put. Michelle wouldn't take my answer.

"That's 'cause you're acting just as funny!" She waved the photo around in the air. "Why so embarrassed of this guy? He looks nice!" She took another look and squinted. "Sure, I wouldn't go for him, but he looks nice!"

"I'm not embarrassed of him!"

"Was he nice?" she asked, leaning against Sly's-no, Sneak's-well, what's his tongue's tank and stared idly at the photo. I closed my eyes, gripping the broom in my hands. While I won't say nice is quite the word, he certainly was a gentleman. When I didn't answer right away, Michelle came up with her own story. "He was a bastard, wasn't he?"

"Of course not," I mumbled.

"But you still love him, don't you?" I reached for the photo which she quickly pulled away. "Don't you?"

"For goodness' sake, will you give that back?" I asked. "Can't you for once in your life just mind your own business and just-" I nearly growled in frustration. "leave me to work?"

Grabbing the photo from a distracted and almost heartbroken coworker, I stuffed it in the pocket of my apron and continued to sweep that damn floor. Ignoring the girl behind me did no good, and I could feel the guilt of my words eating me alive. Those dead rats were nothing compared to the garbage that was me. I turned around to apologize.

"Look, I'm sor-" She was gone. I set the broom down and left the reptiles behind me, seeing both Michelle and Sasha behind the counter. Sasha had a hand to her temple, Michelle's hand on her shoulder. I slowly walked up to join them, careful not to jump on any cracks in the ice. "What's... going on?"

"Business is in a rut," Michelle answered for Sasha. Sasha removed Michelle's hand and nodded.

"You're right, our business isn't going as well as we'd like." Sasha removed her sun hat and placed it next to her parcel, playing with the strings tying it together. Samson barked. Tracy squawked. "We're expecting more animals to be brought in tomorrow from some breeders, and it's crowded in here enough as it is."

"I always volunteer to take some home," Michelle said. "And I'm sure Hannah wouldn't mind taking the serpents with her."

"Both of you are too kind," Sasha said rolling her eyes. Michelle elbowed me with a wink, me steadying myself with the desk. Grabbing a few treats she always kept in the apron of her pocket, Sasha quieted Tracy with a palm full of his favorites, and he closed his eyes when she put her finger to his head feathers.

"Sasha, if there's anything we can do-"

"Hannah and I will help!" Michelle interrupted. She looked to me with a cautious look. "That is, if you want my help."

"Of course," I said, giving a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry I got after you, I was just-" My mind reverted back to the letter in my bag and the photo in my apron. Subtly I reached my hand in the apron and felt around for the paper like hindrance that had followed me to work this morning. It was still there. I thought about my writing, still sitting on the table with the cover pushed aside so that anyone could read it. It wasn't meant to be read yet, not while it wasn't finished. And something told me that starting today, that story wasn't quite done being told.

"I suppose-I guess I was being a little nosy," Michelle said shrugging. I could tell she still wanted very badly to know who it was that was in the photograph with me but the issue Sasha brought up took her attention for the time being. I supposed we were both taking too long to get our thoughts out into appropriate apologies because Sasha spoke again, after looking back and forth between us.

"Thank you girls, but I don't know whether you can help with this kind of problem, I can't ask you two to buy out the whole store," she said. "Not on your salaries anyway."

"We'll do whatever we can," I said. "These animals mean a lot to us, despite our tendencies to put them all in danger." Michelle fought back a grin of shame, and I smiled the best I could muster. Sasha sighed. "Come on, Sasha, let us help."

"You know what those old folks down the road will do to you if they catch you?" she asked. All three of us knew that retirement home meant business when they threatened to close our shop. And that was not a threat we wanted to make a prophecy, so we were careful to shy away from anyone with a walker in a fifteen foot radius. I mean, this is all those animals have! It's out to the streets for them, or the pound if they're lucky. And we are not about to put our animals down when they're not wanted, we'll take them in ourselves. Sasha knew that. "If they catch you hanging up posters or shouting in the streets they'll come after you."

"What can they do to us?" Michelle asked. "Chase us down?" I snorted. Sasha however, did not.

"You're talking about a group of people who are very handy with a rotary phone and are very able to dial certain phone numbers, ones found under their mattresses saved for occasions such as these. I hate to put you two to such a mission...and this one shouldn't even be too difficult..." I let the photo in my apron to stay there by itself, hoping it could read my non verbal requests. I couldn't afford to lose it.

"Me and Michelle can take it on, whatever you need for us to do," I said, sounding very unlike my timid self. Usually if Sasha said a job was too big for me, I left it alone, even if I really wanted to do it. Maybe the sound of Samson's barking was enough to push me out of my comfort zone. Before Sasha could interrupt me, I grabbed a dog treat from behind the counter and made my way to his cage. "This seems awfully important by the way you're acting, and maybe a trifle big for you to accomplish alone."

"Yeah," Michelle agreed before bowing her head when Sasha gave her a look. Finally with a sigh, Sasha walked to her office and returned some minutes later with a stack of papers. I also returned wiping away crumbs and dog slobber. The stack of papers was handed to Michelle.

"What are these?" she asked, dropping the pile into my arms. I doubled over, struggling to keep any from falling.

"These," Sasha started before tidying up the stack. "are flyers that you are to hang around town, or hand out to anyone you see. We need people at least knowing about this place in order for them to buy our animals."

"Now now," I huffed, heaving the stack of papers so they were level with my waist. "We don't want just anyone buying our animals, we want them to have good homes."

"Yeah!" Michelle agreed.

"Of course. Which is why not only should you stay away from the elderlies, but any shady parts of town that might take an animal simply for a plaything."

"But of course, not all shady neighborhoods have shady people-" I shut my mouth as soon as Michelle's foot stomped on mine. My constant arguing was getting us nowhere.

"Thank you, Michelle. Like I was saying. Hang these up, give them to children or whoever, and make sure they see the address nice and clear, alright? I used big fonts for those so they won't miss it."

"And the old people can read it without their glasses," Michelle mumbled to me. Luckily Sasha didn't hear, or she pretended not to. Grabbing a metal bucket by the front door she made her way to the backdoor, kicked it open, and turned back to see both of us staring.

"The spigot's out back, ain't it?" she asked. "Well what are you two standing there for? Get to work!"

My feet trudged under me as I carried those flyers down the street. By myself. With Michelle skipping beside me, swinging the hammer in a dangerous fashion. A bag of nails was in her other hand, also swinging. A tune hummed from her throat and I tried humming along too, but she made me quit after I dropped a few flyers. "Well, that's one way to spread the word," she said as they blew down the street.

Our first stop was a block from the pet store, a nice looking neighborhood. Of course, one mailbox didn't have a door, and another one was completely off its post, and maybe a few trashcans had been knocked over with garbage rolling down the street and maybe we shouldn't have been barging in with our advertising. "Michelle?" I wheezed. "Do you think this is a good spot?"

"It's a perfect spot, and it's only the first." She opened the bag and pulled out a nail, sticking it between her lips while she closed the bag. "Alright," she said taking the nail out. "Give me a flyer."

Both my arms were full and couldn't abandon the other one or all of them would be flying down the road. Pushing my nose across the paper didn't work, it only got ink all over my nose. I made a face when Michelle laughed at me. I tried my lips this time when the top flyer was taken from the pile. "I could have done that," I defended.

"I'm not gonna stand here all night and wait," Michelle said thinking she was being funny.

"I almost had it," I pouted. She took the flyer to a post where plenty of other flyers were covering it. Michelle scanned it for any blank spots and seeing none, stuck our flyer over some politics poster and nailed it on. A gust of wind blew it enough to tear, but Michelle held it on until it passed.

"There. Looks perfect."

"It looks crooked," I said, tilting my head. She tilted her head along with me.

"Crooked, schmooked, we've got work to do. Come on, Hannah." Adjusting my hold on the stack, I followed after her, bowing my head to escape the second gust of wind, keeping my chin steady on the flyers.

Michelle hammered the last nail into the wood, standing back to examine her work. The pile was about half gone now, and my arms were much less tired than they were before. After visiting the block next door, we ended up in an alley way where a long wooden fence ran the length of it. I stood back myself and viewed her work. "Not an inch forgotten," I said, nodding in approval. "If Sasha isn't proud of us, I don't know who would be." The entirety of the fence was covered in flyers for our pet store, Samson's smiling face on every single one of them. Another gust of wind came and we hurried out of the alley as fast as we could.

"My goodness, you'd think Nature was playing a joke on us," Michelle said, holding her long hair out of her face. I had to spit a bit of mine out, as we were only halfway done with the job, and my arms were still full.

We came to a busy street, where a line of cars were backed up in a traffic jam. Horns were honking, people were yelling, finger gestures were given through open windows. It stretched from an intersection several yards up the street all the way down to the corner by the bank and hair salon. Other passersby stopped as well, and murmured among themselves at how bad it was.

Police officers walked down the sidewalk, observing the mess and deciding where to start leading the cars. One of them caught Michelle's eye and she lightly pushed me aside to get a better look at him. "Oh, look at him!"

"Where?"

"Right there!" I squinted.

"Behind the cop?" I grinned as she smacked the back of my head.

"You don't have good taste, that's what. Oh, I see now," she said.

"What?"

"It's cause you're still crushing on the guy from that picture!" Her voice carried out through the wind, getting the officer's attention, and turning my face beet red. I balanced the flyers on my arm and reached the other one into the pocket of my apron, and sighed when I felt the photo on my fingertips. "Come on, Hannah, please? Tell me who it is?" I looked at my shoes and pretended not to hear her, seeing the cop eventually turn away out of the corner of my eye. Michelle tugged on my sleeve. "At least tell me his first name."

"Well-" A whistle blew. More horns honked and we jogged down the sidewalk to see what had become of the traffic.

"Back up! Move over, back up!" Two men were shouting at the cars near the front of the traffic, and the drivers were yelling right back. Some of them fit enough for the profanity spewed at the retirement home. A big man with a broom and a tiny woman with an even bigger broom were marching down the street, pushing mounds of papers away from the cars. Michelle turned toward her Prince Charming Policeman and batted her eyelashes.

"Excuse me," she said. He looked at her behind his sunglasses. "We couldn't help but notice this traffic jam."

"You wouldn't be the only ones," he answered. Michelle laughed.

"We were wondering, my friend and I, what the big deal was."

"Well, it seems some litterbug ran amok and dumped a bunch of papers in the middle of the road, and there's so many it blocked the way to the next town. Real riot 'cause of it."

"What an inconsiderate moron!" Michelle said, shaking her head. The cop didn't seem to give her the time of day, which I felt bad about, but it didn't keep me from snickering to myself. "To think someone deliberately littered on Nature's lawn!"

As the push brooms cleared away the papers on the road, I couldn't help but notice...from where I stood...where the sun hit them just right. It seemed to me that I could faintly make out the face of a dog. A spaniel puppy...

I tugged on Michelle's sleeve, my eyes like saucers. Of course, she ignored me.

"All this traffic, all these angry people!"

The cop didn't even look at her. When I gave Michelle a swift kick on the leg she glared at me, and followed my gaze. Her eyes matched mine. Those gusts of wind hadn't refrained from doing some damage. And now there was a whole mess before our eyes. The officer was also looking at the papers being cleaned from the street, and he finally gave Michelle a glance. I couldn't see his eyes through his sunglasses, but I could see his head tilt downward, and his brow furrow. "Ooklay the other ayway," I mumbled to Michelle. She turned her head around and I backed away from the officer, slowly turning around. We kept our gait slow and easy.

For about, three seconds.

I'm sure a few more flyers went flying behind us while we ran around the corner, but we weren't about to go turn around and check.

I gripped the ends of the rope that was wrapped around my middle. My hands were shaking."Michelle I'm-I'm really not sure this is a good idea," I swallowed. Michelle was sticking halfway out of a hole on the roof, tying the other end of the rope to a vent pipe. And kept messing up, let me tell you.

"Don't worry, I'll have the rope secure in a moment..." I heard her curse as it slipped from her grasp again.

Looking below me, I could see plants blowing in the wind, the same wind that had given us so much trouble that morning, and would surely lead me to my most painful death. This being Michelle's hair-brained scheme, I don't know why I had to be the one performing the circus act. Her claim was that she had more experience tying knots in girl scout's camp.

But she never claimed to earn a badge for it either.

A screech of a bullhorn brought me out of my panic for a second and after turning it on and slamming it a few times, she gave it to me. "Now, go see if it works."

"Why didn't you check it?"

"Might as well check it while you're in the air!" The rope was tested again by Michelle, who tugged it a little too hard for my liking, then grabbed by both hands. "Okay, you ready?"

I looked below myself again. Everything seemed to be swaying back and forth. Blinking back tears, I turned to Michelle and shook my head.

"And, down you go! Now go slowly!" She didn't have to tell me twice. I walked down the roof of the pet store, one step at a time, keeping a tight grip on the rope around my middle. My other hand brought the bullhorn to my lips at Michelle's distant command.

"Buy our pets!" I shouted as loud as I could through the megaphone. "Dogs, cats, snakes-" I could hear Michelle shout something from the top of the roof, probably to comment her disgust on my advertising such retched reptiles. "The fish that we have left..."

I saw a man walking below me, about twenty years of age. I aimed my bullhorn at him and shouted, "Hey, sir! Sir? Up here!" The man looked at me and probably pissed himself. "You look like you could use a companion. You have a wife or kids?" He didn't answer, his frame shaking. "Well I can't help you with that, so don't ask. But I can tell you where to buy a pet! We have many different animals here, dogs, cats, elephants, lions..." I thought maybe that would bring the people lining up. It simply made the man walk faster. "Hey sir! This is an angel you're talking to with a message from God!" I heard Michelle again, shouting something. "What?" I asked. She didn't answer. Now that I think about it, Sasha must have found out about our little stunt, and discovered Michelle with her top half sticking out on the roof.

Not bothering to try to hear the conversation, I focused on not throwing up as the world started spinning again. By now my feet had left the comfort of the roof and I was just dangling there, hanging on by a rope and faith.

I just hoped the rope was stronger than the faith.

Hoping I had imagined it, I grabbed the rope again. It seemed the ground got a bit closer than it had been before. Another gust of wind came and blew the photo from my apron pocket. I looked like a fool trying to grab it back, and it landed on the sidewalk, teasing me by leaving, inch by inch. My ears hurt from the screech of the bullhorn. "Michelle? What's going on up there? Michelle?"

The ground got closer and closer, not all at once, but in small intervals. The sudden stopping made me nauseous, and I was glad that man had left so he wouldn't be covered in my expelled faith. Finally the rope that had been tied to the vent pipe had loosened enough that those intervals stopped. Now, I was just sliding off the roof. "Michelle!"

I dropped the bullhorn and prepared myself for the worst. The worst being, I would land on the ground making a Hannah shaped hole in the earth, right where my tombstone would be placed. I closed my eyes, picturing a sad funeral, with Michelle, Sasha, all the animals. Maybe even Vee would come out and see me one last time. My thoughts were interrupted when a sharp pull stopped me from hitting the ground, which was a foot away from my face. I had been saved.

My heart was racing in a way that I'm sure wasn't healthy. My apron fell in front of my face and I swatted it away, slightly spinning back and forth from the rope still thankfully attached to my waist. Pushing the apron away again, I could see the photograph, just a few inches from my fingers. I reached out to grab it, and keep it safe. Michelle wasn't wrong in saying it meant something to me. She wasn't wrong in saying I hadn't fully recovered from everything that happened in 1996, or the next year. But she wouldn't believe me if I told her, hardly anyone does.

The photo teased me again by coming closer, then inching further away, just out of reach of my fingertips. I pushed the apron out of my face again, and saw the photo being taken. Taken by someone else's hand.

The hand brought it up to a face, a face I couldn't quite see, due to my position. When the face caught a glimpse of it, a voice let out a little laugh. Just a little one. That, I recognized right away. It was a laugh I hadn't heard in years, the laugh I hadn't heard since...

"Now this is one handsome man you've got in this photo," the voice that matched the laugh said. I lifted my head as best as I could, and there he was. "Good to see you again, sweetheart."