Storytime in parts

--Part III--

Teddy was disappointed with the lack of contents of the Hershey wrapper he found outside of Ike's. He was sure he needed something to eat and continued to search for a snack all the while keeping an eye out for Marilyn. Hopefully she would bring him something so he kept close to the door the best he could but there was alot to see and smell around here. In fact, something smelled wonderfully dead but he was unsure exactly where it was.

He saw something else that he thought might be tasty just as two cars pulled into the small parking lot. To Teddy, the only thing better than a snack might be a new friend and so he ran typically dangerously close to where the first car was parking and waited for the door to open with his long tail waving a welcome. Maybe the new friends might even be bringing him something to eat, he thought, and drooled just a little at the anticipation.

The first car to enter the lot was driven by Irwin Maloff, the county judge; a man with little patience for much of anything besides his pre-teen daughter who was passenger of the big Buick and who had whined long enough about wanting a Fanta that his Honor finally stopped to get her one. He knew she would probably just drink a few sips and throw it away but buying her one was easier than trying to argue against it.

The vehicle to pull in just behind the Buick was a squad car, gleaming black and white with importance and conspicuousness, driven by Officer Walter Blunt, the town's finest. Blunt had two whole years on the police force and had seen Judge Maloff down the street and had decided to pull into Ike's after him with some guise of buying something in hopes that the judge might see him and who knows what benefit that might bring even if it was to just break the monotony of the day? Blunt parked the cruiser just as Melissa Maloff screamed.

"Ow! He bit me!" squealed the startled girl.

She had not seen Teddy until she had opened the door and he nosed in to smell her. When he did the girl jumped and her knee hit Teddy's mouth with a thud. Teddy jumped back and waited for the girl to get out of the car so they could greet each other properly but before he could even catch a whiff of her a heavy boot crashed into his ribs just behind his front leg and lifted Teddy up and over a surprising distance. His yelp was as hurtful to Marilyn as the blow was to Teddy. She came busting out the door with each hand unconciously clutching a candy bar and screamed at the judge who was eyeing Teddy for another potential wallop.

The judge was hollering at Teddy, Melissa was crying, partly from fright, partly from embarrassment, Officer Blunt was swearing he saw it all and Ike was being ignored as he cried something unintelligible about "killed her" and "beating of her heart". Marilyn, too, was adding to the chaos as she called for Teddy to come to her and at the same time pleading his case to the adults at the scene. It seemed unreal to Teddy who failed to understand why they were all screaming. All this and he was pretty sure nobody was going to feed him anything.