Fiction: Chapter 2: The Big Easy
Chapter 2: The Big Easy
A few hours later the car slowed down and noises outside the car grew louder. Georgia popped her head up and saw so many cars and bright street lights. The houses all looked different than from their old neighborhood. They were all close together and almost no yards at all. There were cars moving quickly on the street, so many people walking around, and shops with people hanging out in the front. She could hear music too. It no longer smelled like the ocean.
The crowd was getting bigger, the music louder and soon Georgia could see large buses with no tops. People were standing on them and they seem to be throwing squeaky toys? She could not be seeing this correctly she thought. The SUV was driving really slow now and the music was so loud. She looked around to figure out what was going on.
Georgia saw people throwing so many squeaky toys off these large buses with no tops. Some people had on masks and looked really scary. Some had funny outfits on and the people on the street were wearing normal clothes but had lots of necklaces. They were dancing and singing to the people throwing toys. She saw so many toys she wanted. They had to get outside!
Lainey was sitting up next to Beau. Beau was shaking. He hated loud noises. He was leaning on Lainey. Georgia looked back with a smile at her tiny best friends. Her smile ended she saw Lainey’s face. Lainey’s once all black face had turned almost completely grey over the year they had known each other, making her intense eyes even more pronounced and the look she was making now, one of planning, was making Georgia nervous.
Georgia tilted her heard and quietly said, “Lainey. What are you plotting?”
“Just trust me, Georgia.”
Beau didn’t seem to hear the exchange. He just kept staring at the floor of the car, shaking. Georgia knew Lainey really well and she grew concerned but also hopeful. Lainey would get us out of this. And she hoped no one would get hurt in the process.
Georgia looked out the window again and yawned. The scene was overwhelming out there. And apparently inside the SUV too.
Georgia never had a real family. She had been moved from foster house to foster house and had even been on the streets in Fort Lauderdale near a lot of restaurants once before this last foster mom found her. Lainey had always been with her mom and Beau’s mom had died not too long ago. But I guess they were all family now. When they had first met at the park, it was like they had known each other forever. Like they just hadn’t been able to get together in a while. Lainey had said on their first playtime “Hey, where you’ve been?” As if Georgia had just been a bit busy lately and not that this was their very first time meeting ever.
Georgia was watching the crowds as the SUV came to an almost complete stop. She could now see that there was a big celebration in the streets and it looked like the whole city was out enjoying it that night. There were people all dressed in the same outfit dancing to music in the same way, moving joyfully down the street together. There were little kids playing musical instruments with parents making sure no one from the crowd got too close to them. There women all over the parade walking and throwing toys off the giant topless buses. She even saw some on roller-skates and she let out a little huff. There was so much to look at she didn’t know what to pay attention to first!
Georgia looked back suddenly when Beau screamed like he had been hit really hard. “What happened?” she barked. Beau was still screaming and had managed to get under the fence like thing between the front and back of the SUV. He was running away from Lainey. “Lainey! What did you do to him?” She tried to get close to Beau, but Lainey growled menacingly at Georgia and pushed past Beau under the fence just as the woman opened the side door to see what was wrong. She had turned around immediately when Beau started screaming. With no easy way to help him from the front, she got out of the SUV and opened the side door to see if she could get Beau unstuck from the webbing.
In the meantime, Lainey had snuck completely under the fencing and was now eye to eye with the man who was driving. Lainey’s back legs were on the steering wheel pushing down the horn and her front legs were pushed against the man’s chest. She was growling like a wild animal and her teeth which were actually small looked quite large. The man pushed his head against the back of the seat.
“Oliva, get this stupid dog off of me! HELP!”
The woman raced back to the front of the vehicle. When she tried to approached Lainey, Lainey turned her attention to the woman. Barking fiercely into her face. Balancing herself between to the horn and the man’s chest facing the woman coming at her from the passenger door.
Georgia realized what was happening. Beau, now silent, snuck out from under the webbing and led the charge out of the SUV. Georgia was behind him and nipped the woman in the leg once they were out of the car. The woman screamed thinking she had been bit, not knowing Georgia would never bite when a small scare would do. Lainey jumped over the woman who was now bent over tending to her ‘wound’. The three dogs ran full speed ahead through the crowd and into the celebration.
The women marching and dancing in unison didn’t even notice the dogs had joined them, except for one little girl who was on the side watching. With a huge smile she took her flower crown off and placed it on Georgia’s head. “Pretty Puppy!” Georgia smiled real big and gave the little girl a lick from chin to forehead.
The three dogs didn’t know what to do so they just stayed with the dancing women. Another lady who had been helping keep people out of the street smiled and petted all three dogs while they were walking. They stayed near her the whole march through the city. With wide focused eyes, Beau picked up a squeaky toy and carried it with him, chewing and squeaking the whole time. Lainey held her head up high and was very proud of herself.
They walked and walked and walked. One of the women gave them some water during one of the times they weren’t walking. And a little boy on the side gave them his hotdog, The little boy laughed as the little dogs snatched their pieces quickly while Georgia very gently ate her piece from his hand. Beau kept finding better squeaky toys to pick up. Discarding old toys on the side and joyfully picking up the better ones. Georgia could hear the squeaks and didn’t even have to make sure Beau was staying close by. While they were all feeling better, the threesome were still a little nervous from all the things that had happened over the past two days. The celebration in the streets was loud but somehow helped.
Eventually the people walking in front of them started heading into a huge building. Georgia, Beau and Lainey didn’t understand what was happening and started looking around. The buses went one direction and a tall man with a light stick ushered the dancing women and the three dogs in another direction. The celebration seemed to dissipate into the night. Lights and people going in all directions. They lost the woman they had been walking with and saw many of the women in funny costumes sit down on the side of the road and watch the kids with music march past them.
Georgia, Lainey, and Beau were starving. That hot dog was not enough. They walked around the parked cars sniffing the ground for food scraps. They were super excited to see so many snacks on the ground! People were walking around laughing, sitting on the ground, or in backs of cars. Everyone seemed so happy. Everyone seemed tired but the celebration kept going differently than it had been in the streets. Georgia was chewing on something smelly. Her large mouth opening and closing wide chewing on a gummy piece of bread and cheese melted together that had probably been on the ground a while. She was staring up at a crowd of people who must have known each other for a long time. She didn’t know where they would end up just yet but she knew she really liked it here.
