CHAPTER TWELVE
Jeremey
Living with Mai was a whole new life for me.
We still worked on training all the time, but from the first day we were together, she changed everything. It sounds so strange, but the simplest, most important thing was I was never alone anymore. I hadn’t thought about how much peace of mind she would give me until she was a part of my daily routine, and in fact it wasn’t until the trainer came to visit me for the two-week checkup that I realized how much was different with her around.
So much of having a service dog was mindset. I was braver, even without her fully trained. I could face stores on busy days and navigate congested downtown festivals full of well-meaning people who overwhelmed me. Most of the time Mai didn’t have to do anything at all. Simply being present was enough for both me and the other people around us. She made other people aware something was going on, alerted them they should behave differently around us, which was what I’d wanted all along.
Sometimes, though, people ignored her service dog vest and decided they should come over and introduce themselves to her, which always got awkward. Kids were pretty easy because Mai didn’t hesitate to knock them over if they stayed too close during the around command, and whatever parent or guardian was with them ushered them quickly away. Adults who wanted to approach Mai while she was working, however, were a more complicated problem. They never took her hints when she blocked them or used around to make space for me. Adults usually began to scold me if I failed to engage with them or didn’t let them engage with her, at which point I would have an anxiety attack and Mai would have to remove me from the scene.
Things were different, however, in April when the four of us went to the art festival and a rude person approached Mai, and the others were with me.
It was a street festival, most of Main Street closed off so we could wander between the booths, with a few food trucks at each end. A couple of the restaurants had tables stationed here and there as well, the fancy Thai restaurant and the co-op, as well as two of the downtown pizza places. What I wanted was hot chocolate from the Café Diem stand, so the four of us were trying to weave our way through the crush of people.
David led us because he was convinced people got out of the way for wheelchairs once they noticed him, and he always made sure they noticed him when he wanted to get through. It was working, mostly, but the crowd was thick and full of people making too much noise. I was starting to change my mind about the hot chocolate. I couldn’t imagine it’d be worth all this trouble. Except I was chilly, and I wanted something sweet and warm to hold on to while we walked around.
Mai noticed I was uncomfortable and moved closer to me, whining and pawing my leg in a manner meaning I was to pet her head and release some of my stress, to remind myself she was with me and I didn’t have to face the crowd alone. I did as she asked, and the gesture worked as it was supposed to. Except a middle-aged woman with frizzy gray hair bent over with a big smile, leaning in too close as she came in to pet Mai.
“Oh, she’s a sweetheart. Is she a purebred retriever?”
The calm Mai’s command had brought me vanished, and panic rushed in as I realized how this encounter was going to go, especially when I ignored the woman and gave Mai the around command. The woman looked both astonished and affronted, puffing up for a lecture.
Before she could so much as open her mouth to start, though, Emmet appeared. “Mai is a service dog. She’s wearing a vest that says service dog and do not pet on it.”
The woman became more flustered than ever, tipping her chin up. “Well, I didn’t see it. He could have said so and not had the dog push me away.”
David had stopped plowing through the people and turned his chair around, wheeling up beside Emmet, Darren flanking him. “Mai is a certified service animal, and Jeremey has social anxiety. Your interrupting and not paying attention to his dog is putting him at risk of having to give up this event and go home. He still might have to, all because you thought you needed to pet his dog. I know what you’re going to say. You didn’t mean any harm. Well, here’s the thing. You don’t have to mean any harm to still cause it. So the next time you see a dog you want to pet, check for a vest, and ask for permission. If you don’t get it, don’t take it.” He spun his wheels sharply in a move he liked to do when he wanted to appear aggressive, placing his chair a foot or so closer to her. “Now, if we could go back to enjoying our day, that’d be great. Thanks.”
The woman sputtered as she hurried away. I watched her go, not sure if I was going to be leaving too, or what. Mostly I was stunned. What had just happened?
My gaze slid to the others, who were all watching me. Well, David was looking at me, but Darren and Emmet had their gazes fixed on things near enough to me I knew they had me in their camera vision. As I looked at Darren, though, his eyes flicked briefly to me, and he grinned widely as he held up his iPad.
“The Roosevelt Blues Brothers to the rescue,” the robotic voice said.
I couldn’t help a smile, though I still felt rattled. Mai nuzzled my leg, and I crouched to rub her head. This time she nuzzled my face and neck, giving me doggy kisses, and I shut my eyes and let her give them to me. This was one of the things we had begun to train Mai for specifically for me: to give me touch. I would never have thought to have a dog touch me, and it was odd at first, almost wrong, because all I could think of was I was substituting Emmet’s distaste for too much touch with a dog’s touch, and that didn’t seem right at all.
But there was something different about the way Mai nuzzled me, something different than the way anyone else touched me. Her love was so unconditional. She was a service dog, yes, so she was working, but she was so sweet. I felt like she truly loved being with me, that we had bonded and she wanted to be my dog. I certainly wanted to be her owner. I loved taking care of her, loved getting her food and putting out her water and keeping her area clean. Taking her on walks never bothered me, not even if the weather was unpleasant. And I noticed simply taking care of her helped keep my depression at bay.
Mai was a Roosevelt Blues Brother too.
I ended up not having to go home. In fact, I didn’t have an anxiety attack at all. I did need to wait with Emmet in a quiet place while Darren and David got our drinks, but this wasn’t bad either, because I got to sit with Emmet and enjoy the nice afternoon.
“Have you seen any art you want to buy?” I hadn’t had time to look around, but I knew he’d have been checking out things with his camera vision.
“There are some pieces I want to investigate more closely before we leave. They might be nice in my office at work.” He touched my leg, a firm pressure, briefly. “Are you feeling better now?”
I nodded and returned his touch with the same kind of pressure. “Yes. Thank you for helping me with the woman. I didn’t know what to say to her.”
“There’s not much for you to say on your own. This is where we’re a good fit, the two of us. I’m blunt and it gets rid of people.”
My heart swelled with love for him. “Can I lean on your shoulder?”
“Yes.”
I put my head carefully against him, knowing how firmly I could press so it wouldn’t be too soft or too hard. I enjoyed knowing I was the only person who could navigate his personal space like that. “Did you give the city council those formulas, or whatever you call them?”
“The projections? Yes. I gave them to Kaya, but we went to City Hall together, and the mayor took us to lunch. I think she was angry with RJ King for trying to deceive her. Kaya says we’ll probably get the funding.”
“Oh, good! Now all we have to do is repeat the same steps at the state level.”
“I’ve been thinking, and I have a bad feeling about it. I think RJ King didn’t like how I beat him by finding his math formula. I don’t think we’ll be able to find his next trick so easily.”
“And you think there’ll be a trick for sure?”
“Yes. He doesn’t want there to be a Roosevelt at all. Not our building and not a Project. If we succeed, Kaya says, we’re a threat to him, because he’s one of the biggest investors of the companies the law would give the funding too. But it’s going to be difficult to beat him at the statehouse. He’s friends with a lot of the legislators and the governor too. He calls the governor buddy and the governor smiles at him and pats him on the back. I found a video of it on YouTube.”
I didn’t fully understand what Emmet was talking about, but I could tell it was serious. “We need to have a meeting with Kaya.”
“Yes. But I think maybe we need to have a Roosevelt Blues Brothers meeting first.” He rocked on the bench, his gaze darting to the place where we had argued with the woman who wanted to pet Mai. “I think we need to have a lot of plans if we want to win against King. More than a computer formula.”
Darren and David appeared around the corner, David talking animatedly to a silent Darren as he balanced a tray full of hot drinks, and casually flirted with women who stared too long at his chair. I stroked Mai’s head and smiled at them, my heart filling with warmth. “I have a feeling we can make as many plans as you need.”