The alarm on her phone woke her up. With a groan and a stretch, Val lifted and lowered her hand all over the nightstand in search of her phone. “Just five more minutes,” she murmured to herself, though that of course was more like fifteen in her head. In reality, all of those minutes would amount to an hour or more if Val had it her way.

At last, she managed to snooze the alarm. At the cessation of its blaring, a yelp of an arf sounded, followed by a thump. Did Val accidentally kick her dog out of bed?

“Foofy!” Val called with a gasp. All at once, she jumped to her feet and hovered by him on the floor. “Are you okay?”

Almost as if nothing had happened, Foofy hauled himself up and gave his whole body a shake. Quite literally, Foofy shook it off. In doing so, the tips of his ears flopped around with his unruly head. Afterward, he walked over to the chair in the corner and lifted his leg.

“No!” Val cried out. One hand shoved his leg down as gently as she could so as to not break his hip, then she continued to grab him up by the scruff of the neck. Val dragged him from the room and hooked his leash over his head in one fell swoop. Whether or not Foofy would accept this reprimand by his own free will, Val had him under her control in a matter of seconds with Keep the Peace.

Outside, she released him to pee on a tree that made up some of the motel’s scrubby landscaping. “Good boy!” Val tried to give him all of the praise in the world to reinforce his proper behavior. “Good potty.”

Add doggy house training on the list of things that Val would have to do, because she did not want to be cleaning up after Foofy for his entire life. Albeit, that task might be easier once she first had a permanent place to call home, once again.

At any rate, Val headed back to the room with her stocking feet dragging across the lobby. Back inside, she set to cleaning the bit of piddle that had gotten on the leg of the chair and the carpeting with a towel from the bathroom. The room already had a bit of a funky odor to it, so once she had finished, no one could tell that Foofy had ever tried to do his business in here.

This morning turned out to be far too exciting for Val’s standards. An arm reached up in a stretch while she also yawned. With Foofy taken care of, Val now needed to spend a little time to take care of herself.

She got herself all prepped to go and paused to look at herself in the mirror. Val could not help but smile at her reflection. Shoulders peeled back and chest lifted with pride, her posture looked as confident and content as it had back before Ross had left. Before she headed out for her second day of travel, though, Val thought to check her phone first.

Exactly eight missed phone calls and a flurry of twenty-four texts had been left. Assumedly, all communications had come from her mother last night. Val could only close her eyes, bite her teeth together, and shake her head in a wince. Gods, she must be just about the worst daughter ever. Did Val even want to open up any of those texts, just for her to feel bad and head home? Worse yet, could Val look at these texts, then continue her journey knowing the state that she had put her mother in?

That answer was a definite yes, as bad as that made her feel about herself. A sigh of admission blew past her lips. Naturally, she would feel far guiltier if she left without taking a single call or text from her mother. Therefore, Val tapped on the messages app and looked through everything.

Mom (5:29 PM): Hi Val! I hope that you are having fun studying with your friends!

Supper will be done at 6:00. I just wanted to let you know, in case you wanted to eat at home.

Feel free to keep hanging out with your friends if you want to.

Love you!

Mom (6:38 PM): Leftovers are in the fridge.

Could you let me know how you’re doing when you get the chance?

Thanks.

At that point, Val would have been out of the house for a good six hours or so. Her mother had every reason to expect that she would check-in with her. While Val may be eighteen years old, it was uncustomary for her to ever leave the house for so long, especially not for the purpose of studying with friends.

Mom (7:52 PM): I’m assuming that you must be having a great time!

Text me back whenever you check your phone.

Mom (9:44 PM): Will you be coming home soon? Please get back to me as soon as you can.

Mom (10:17 PM): If you are going to be home late or you plan on staying the night with your friends, just let me know. I would like to know your plans for tonight before I go to bed myself.

Thanks honey.

Mom (11:04 PM): Val, I know that you’re mad at me.

Could you answer a call or send a single text just so that I know that you’re safe?

Mom (12:11 PM): I am so sorry that we could not adopt Foofy today.

You have every right to be upset, especially given Foofy’s situation. I am sure that somebody else probably adopted him today, so you have no reason to feel bad!

I understand that you had your heart set on Foofy becoming your dog, but there are many dogs out there in the world.

I promise that we can still get a dog, just it has to be one that we are allowed to have here.

Everything that her mother sent, they had already talked about together. The restatement of that discussion showed how her mother grasped at straws.

Mom (12:35 PM): I have been looking at all kinds of dog breeds on the Internet!

What if we got a Miniature Pinscher? They look just like Dobermans Pinschers, but small enough to have at the apartment. Plus, they are not considered an aggressive breed.

Also, we could go to a breeder and get your dog as a puppy!

Let me know how you would feel about a Mini Pin!

That suggestion only made Val angrier. Foofy was a living, breathing animal, not to be replaced by any other dog. Least of all, would Val want a miniature model of Foofy—a puppy that had never known any hardship whereas Foofy needed to be lifted out of it. All together, that wall of desperate texts only put Val in such a sour mood that she felt glad of all things that she had not bothered with her cell phone yesterday.

Mom (1:26 AM): Val, I’m sick with worry—can’t sleep until I know that you’re safe.

Send a single text, please.

Anything at all would help put my mind at ease.

Mom (1:43 AM): Please, just be well.

All of these texts, Val read. Her phone felt loose in her hand, barely present as she gazed off to one of those bland, uniform pictures in the motel. All of her mother’s distress from last night, Val had directly caused by never checking her phone, never thinking to let her mother know so much as the truth. Now, she felt bad again.

Presently, the clock read 6:52 AM. No additional texts presented themselves, but Val did not require any more to know that her mother must have been in a state of panic until she had given in to sleep. Maybe she was still awake now, having sat at the kitchen table all night, awaiting the ding of a text or the ring of a call.

As mad as she had felt at her mother as of late, Val could not remain unresponsive for any longer. Her mother asked for a single text, so she would oblige that much and a little more.

“Foofy. Foofy!” Val called. Her hand clapped against the bed to invite him back onto it.

Foofy came barreling across the confined space of the motel room and went soaring onto the bed.

“Woah there!” She would scold him and tell him to take it easy, but Val found herself laughing too hard to mind. “Sit. Sit!” In his animated state, it seemed that Val had to say everything twice to get his attention.

When Foofy sat on the bed, she joined him. Sitting next to each other like that, they were about the same height for a picture. Val snapped the first photo of herself and Foofy together, though her smile did not look as broad as she would hope. Her face crossed up with the pain of a guilty conscience while Foofy had the appearance of wild silliness next to her, at her side.

Val: Good morning, Mom. I’m fine, so don’t worry about me. I won’t be coming home.

We both know that I have always planned to leave, and yesterday had just forced my hand. It made me realize that I should go at once.

Remember that I can take care of myself.

Even over a text to her mother, Val did not feel secure referencing her divine blood explicitly, so she glossed over that and continued to send the picture of herself and Foofy.

Plus, I have a friend to look after me.

Foofy is my dog now!

We are both doing well, so you have nothing to worry about.

While Val tapped about on the keyboard of her phone, she unzipped her backpack to retrieve the disposable bowl. Inside of that, she poured a bunch of dog food that looked to be the right amount for Foofy.

All at once, Foofy started wolfing down his food as quickly as he could, faster than Val knew possible. He gagged a little which made Val worry if she should haul him back outside to throw up. Foofy recovered and continued to munch down his food in record time.

Taking that first picture of Foofy inspired Val to take some more, including a video clip of him eating so piggishly. As her brand new dog, Foofy deserved as many pictures as a family would take of their new puppy, so Val started now.

With a quick rinse of Foofy’s bowl in the bathroom, she filled it with water for him to drink. While he drank the entire dish’s contents, she tried to look through the photos that she had just taken, but their tops were intruded upon by incoming texts.

Mom: Oh, Val, thank you for texting me. I’m so relieved to hear that you’re safe!

How did I know that you would do something like this?

Next, a call started going through on her phone which took over the entirety of her screen. Val had to decline it with a swipe.

Val: I’m heading out so I can’t talk now.

That was an excuse. Easily, she could talk to her mother for the entire day while she walked, but she simply did not want to.

Mom: Okay....

Did you see everything that I had sent last night? I can make up for this! Let me set things right.

Come home, Val, please.

Could you call me when you can?

Val: Yes, I’ve seen what you have sent.

No, I am not coming home.

I’ll be busy all day—can’t call at all.

More and more texts kept coming in on her phone, overwhelming her too much to read them. Disregarding anything that her mother had just sent, Val sent two texts to lay down her terms.

Val: I will text once a day, at night to let you know that I’m still doing well.

I will read and maybe reply to a reasonable number of your texts.

A reasonable number would be the key, there. Val did not wait for acknowledgement nor negotiation as she tucked her phone away and headed out for the day.

How could she be such a terrible daughter? Val felt truly awful about herself, so much so that she could not handle any further interaction with her mother. Pushing on with her journey made for her best option, as the pressures of the outside world would compel Val to keep her sadness on the inside.

Like the previous day, Val and Foofy took to the sidewalks and walked across the city.