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two-story brick home with an attached carport. Unlike the cattle barn, the home was in immaculate condition and had been renovated through the years. Even with the renovations the house managed to keep its country charm. It even had an old rooster weathervane on the highest point of the newly-shingled roof. A covered, screened-in patio wrapped around the entire house. The old cobblestone well, the very same well that John’s grandfather helped dig, sat next to the house alongside a massive propane tank.
    John parked underneath the carport and trudged up the steps to his patio. He heard cicadas all around him.
    As soon as he opened the screen door, he was ambushed by a four-legged ball of black fur.
    “Oh calm down Lucy,” John said, laughing. “It’s just me.”
    Lucy excitedly wagged her tail and kept her front paws on his chest. She stared at him with her soulful brown eyes and tried to lick his face. She was a big lab, but she seemed to think that she was still a small puppy.
    “Okay… Okay… Enough of that,” John said as he ran his fingers through her thick coat, petting her and trying to dodge her licks. “Go on. Down girl, down.”
    Lucy lowered her paws off of his chest and started prancing around him, panting with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. She was wagging her tail so furiously that her whole bottom half was shaking and bumping against the rocking chairs; she couldn’t even walk straight.
    John glanced over at her bowls; the water one was full but the food bowl was licked clean.
    “Are you hungry girl?” he asked as he leaned down to pet her.
    Lucy barked and circled around him a few more times, looking up at him expectantly.
    John laughed and nodded.
    “Well! I’ll take that as a resounding yes,” he said with a grin as he opened the door and stepped inside. “I’ll be right back with something for both of us.”
    Lucy got down on her haunches and stared at him with her ears perked up as he entered the house, whimpering quietly.
    John kicked off his dirty boots and sat them in their usual spot next to the door. He sighed as he basked in the air conditioning and walked through the living room towards the kitchen.
    The house was nicely appointed inside. The furniture was a little rustic but it held a certain charm that seemed to go along with the house. Naturally, Rebecca’s influence was everywhere when it came to the distressed European décor.
    He didn’t know anything about that type of stuff.
    If it wasn’t for his wife, the house would be decorated with neon signs and empty cans.
    John sauntered into the kitchen, grabbed the bag of dog food out from underneath the sink and tucked it under his arm. He reached over and pulled a can of beer out of the fridge and ran the cool can across his sunburnt forehead with a smile.
    Words couldn’t describe how exquisite such a simple pleasure felt.
    He popped the top and took a greedy gulp of beer as he grabbed his cellphone off of the counter.
    No missed calls, just one new text message from Rebecca.
    He opened the text and read it with a smile. He took another sip and clumsily tapped out a reply across the glass touchscreen with his dirty thumb.
    Satisfied with the message, he pressed ‘SEND’, sat the phone on the kitchen counter and walked outside onto the patio with his beer in one hand and the bag of dog food in the other.

Chapter 6
     
    Rebecca felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. She was wearing simple blue nursing scrubs yet somehow managed to look attractive even in such drab attire. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her complexion looked radiant even under the harsh, unforgiving glare of the fluorescent lights overhead.
    She pulled her phone out of her pocket and quickly read the message.
    “Did you check on room six yet?” a woman asked as she stepped out of the nurses station at the end of the hall.
    Rebecca shoved the phone back in her pocket and turned to face the woman.
    She was a heavyset black woman