{"sf1_id":980220,"sf2_id":"k1VAVpAn","title":"Ninny","author":"significantotter","words":758,"posted_at":"2016-03-28T00:04:30.000Z","tags":["Clean","Death","Dog","Drama","Female","Fire","German Shepherd","Human","Male","Ninny","No-Yiff"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/980220-ninny","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/k1VAVpAn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/aa/b3/aab3ed18-a89a-4648-913f-cdfe400ee61c","description":"Was he wrong?","content":"When Lewis's house burned down, the support was overwhelming.\u0026nbsp; Not for him, for his dad - the perfect figure of innocence and the best actor Lewis ever saw.\u0026nbsp; Tall, thin, and meek, he dressed every day in a meticulously pressed navy blue pinstripe suit and mismatched black dress pants.\u0026nbsp; His eyes radiated compassion and empathy.\u0026nbsp; The shuffling pacing of his steps seemed to relax everyone around him.\u0026nbsp; All in all, Mr. James Byrd had a disarmingly passive air about him.\n\nHe corralled the media with a thin lipped smile and crocodilian tears so genuine that Lewis himself almost believed him.\n\nLewis shuddered.\u0026nbsp; The screams of agony rang in his ears and the stomach turning odor of searing skin stung his nostrils.\n\nWhat if he had died instead of Mom?\n\nHe shook his head.\u0026nbsp; That was a dark thought.\u0026nbsp; There was no changing what happened, he'd been too exhausted after the fire to lie to the persistent cameras.\u0026nbsp; There wasn't any way to rectify what he'd done.\u0026nbsp; His whole life was completely fucking ruined.\n\nAnd that wasn't an overreaction.\u0026nbsp; Kathy Grensten had screamed in the eighth grade how her life was over because her fancy new phone broke after she dropped it down a flight of stairs.\u0026nbsp; This wasn't like Kathy's phone, though.\u0026nbsp; This was the real deal.\u0026nbsp; Lewis couldn't look Dad in the face again.\u0026nbsp; He couldn't go back to school; everyone knew about it by now.\u0026nbsp; There was nowhere left for him to be.\n\nExcept alone in a park staring at a roiling river.\n\nWell, not entirely alone.\u0026nbsp; He slipped two fingers into his mouth and blew a short, sharp whistle.\u0026nbsp; Ninny burst from the red currant bushes with a sloppy smile like nothing was wrong.\u0026nbsp; Lewis just needed to see that face.\u0026nbsp; He reached out a hand for the Australian Shepherd to sniff.\u0026nbsp; She happily did so, wagging her tail like smelling his hand was her favorite thing in the world.\u0026nbsp; His fingers gently threaded through her thick brown, black, and white speckled fur, knocking off loose burrs and clumps of dirt that had collected during her woodland romp.\u0026nbsp; He tried to avoid the sensitive patches of bare red skin as best as he could.\u0026nbsp; Tears wettened his cheeks.\u0026nbsp;\n\nMaybe he should have let everything happen as nature intended.\u0026nbsp; If he just laid calmly in his bed, pulled the warm blanket of flames snug up to his neck, and let the thick smoke lull him into a deep sleep, then all his problems would be gone.\u0026nbsp; No Ninny, but no Lewis to miss Ninny.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\n\nThat would never happen.\u0026nbsp; He had always been too much of a coward to give up.\n\n“Screw them,\" he said to Ninny. “They didn't know what she was like.\u0026nbsp; You hated her too, I know you did.\" She wagged her tail in silent agreement.\u0026nbsp; That iota of affirmation was plenty for Lewis.\u0026nbsp; Her licks and tail wags kept his sunk gut from infecting the rest of his body with chilling despair.\n\nHe stood up and stretched.\u0026nbsp; It had been almost six hours since he walked out here.\u0026nbsp; The sun would be setting soon.\u0026nbsp; Hopefully he'd be able to sneak back inside the motel room while Dad was out for dinner.\u0026nbsp;\n\nHe stopped at Terry's on the way home.\u0026nbsp; Terry was the only one who hadn't made him out to be some murderous monster.\u0026nbsp; Of course, Terry was the only one who Dad and Mom had gotten comfortable around.\u0026nbsp; He knew them like Lewis did.\u0026nbsp; Ninny could stay with him and be safe.\n\nTaking her home wasn't an option.\u0026nbsp; Dad had already whispered his promise to kill the “fucking horse-shit asshole mutt bitch\" dozens of times.\n\nTerry's mom opened the door with a nervous smile.\u0026nbsp; Her eyes anxiously glanced this way and that, making sure that none of the other neighborhood moms saw her talking to _that kid_.\u0026nbsp; When she was satisfied, she called Terry down.\u0026nbsp; He greeted Lewis with clear apprehension, but Lewis understood.\u0026nbsp; It wasn't the kind of apprehension that indicated Terry thought he was dangerous or unhinged; it was the kind where he was unsure of how to deal with the terrible sadness that seeped out of Lewis's smiling face in an appropriately masculine way for a teen-aged boy.\n\n“Thanks for watching her.\"\n\nLewis handed Terry a crumpled five dollar bill.\u0026nbsp; Then, he leaned down to the blissfully unaware dog.\n\n“You know I'd still save you if I had to choose again, right?\u0026nbsp; Love ya, Ninny.\u0026nbsp; Be good for Terry.\"\u0026nbsp; He sent her off with a swat of the rump."}