Elsewhere(33)

"Is it very difficult?" Liz asks.

"Not really. Dogs are a lot more flexible than humans, and even though we don't always understand dogs, dogs understand us pretty well," Josey replies. "Since you already speak Canine, you're halfway there, Liz. Everything else you can learn as you go along."

"What about other animals?" Liz asks.

"As a DDA counselor, you'll mainly deal in dogs, of course, but within our division, we also deal with all household pets: cats, some pigs, the occasional snake, guinea pigs, and so on. The fish are the worst; they die so quickly, they spend most of their time just swimming back and forth."

At that moment Sadie pokes her head into Josey's office. "You haven't forgotten, right?"

"No, but I'm sort of busy right now, Sadie," Liz answers. Sadie lowers her head and slinks out the door.

Josey laughs, then whispers, "You know, you can't take all the dogs home with you."

"I heard that!" Sadie calls out from the other room.

"And you'll find they all have excellent hearing," Josey says. "Let's find you an office, Liz."

After Sadie, Liz's next advisee is an insecure little Chihuahua named Paco.

"But where's Pete?" Paco asks, his intense little eyes darting around Liz's new windowless office.

"I'm sorry, but you probably won't see Pete anytime soon. He's still on Earth," Liz says to Paco.

"Do you think Pete's mad at me?" Paco asks. "I sometimes pee in his shoes when he leaves me home alone too long, but I don't think he notices. Maybe he notices? Do you think he notices? I'm a bad, bad, bad dog."

"I'm sure Pete isn't mad at you. You can't see him because you died."

"Oh," says Paco softly.

Finally, Liz thinks to herself. "Do you understand now?" Liz asks.

"I think so," says Paco, "but where's Pete?"

Liz sighs. After a moment, she begins her explanation one more time. "You know, Paco, for the longest time, I wasn't sure where I was either ..."

When Liz leaves work that night, Sadie follows her to Betty's car.

"Who's this?" Betty asks.

"This is Sadie," Liz says. And then she lowers her voice. "Is it all right?"

Sadie looks expectantly at Betty.

Betty smiles. "Seems like Sadie's already made up her mind." Sadie licks Betty's face. "Oy!

Welcome to the family, Sadie. I'm Betty."

"Hi, Betty!" Sadie hops into the backseat. "Did I tell you that I was named for a Beades song? My full name's Sexy Sadie, actually, but you don't have to call me Sexy unless you want to. I mean, it's a little presumptuous, don't you think?"

"What's she saying?" Betty asks Liz.

"Sadie says she's named after some Beades song," Liz translates.

"Oh sure, I know that song." Betty sings, " 'Sexy Sadie, what have you done?' Or something like that, right?"

"That's the song!" Sadie says. "That's exactly it!" She places a paw on Betty's shoulder. "Betty, you're a genius!" Sadie barks a few bars of the song.

Liz laughs again, a pretty, twinkly laugh.

"What a lovely laugh you have, Liz," Betty says. "I'm not sure I've ever heard it before."

The Well

Despite her modest salary at the DDA, Liz quickly pays back all of Betty's eternims. She soon finds she has a great deal of spare ones and nothing really to spend them on. She lives with Betty and pays a small amount for her room and board; she doesn't need health insurance or car insurance (unfortunately) or renter's insurance or any other sort of insurance; she doesn't have to save for a down payment on a house or retirement or college or her children's college or a lavish wedding or a rainy day or anything else. She doesn't go to the OD anymore. She would buy a car, but what would be the point when she can't drive anyway? When you aren't preparing for old age, senility, sickness, death, or children, there is relatively little to spend on, Liz thinks with a sigh.

"Aldous," Liz asks during her monthly progress meeting, "what am I supposed to do with all these eternims?"

"Buy something nice," Aldous suggests.

"Like what?"

Aldous shrugs. "A house?"

"I don't need a house. I live with Betty," Liz answers. "What is the point of going to work if I don't really need the eternims anyway?"

"You go to work," Aldous pauses, "because you like it. That's why we call it an avocation."

"Oh, I see."

"You do like your work, don't you, Elizabeth?"

"No," Liz answers after a moment's reflection, "I love it."

It had been just over a month since Liz began her avocation. In that time, she had become known as one of the best counselors at the Division of Domestic Animals. She was in that rare and enviable situation: she excelled at her work, and she loved doing it. Work helped the rest of her first summer in Elsewhere pass quickly. Work took her mind off the fact that she was dead.

She worked long hours, and what little time was left, she spent with Betty, Sadie, or Thandi. (Liz apologized to Thandi not long after she started at the DDA, and was quickly forgiven.) Liz tried not to think about her mother or her father or her old life on Earth. For the most part, she was successful.