Devil's Breath

At the end of a long journey, lightning flashed outside my window…I need more control. My hand squeezed Mulberry’s forearm. Our pilot's voice came over the loudspeaker, "Sorry about the bumps. We'll have you down in Miami in twenty minutes." Mulberry put his hand over mine. "Don't worry. We'll be there soon." He smiled, making his crow's feet crinkle. I tried to smile back but could tell I was just giving grimace. Mulberry handed me his whisky and soda. I finished it off. The ice cubes danced in my empty glass. Below us the ocean was close, steel blue with white caps cresting each wave. The city's skyscrapers looked like towers of mercury in the storm's eerie light. Hugh was somewhere down there in that city, a flat landscape made multi-dimensional through the efforts of man. My stomach lurched as we dropped through the air, my seat belt pressing into me. Blue whined softly and flattened himself even further onto the floor of the plane. A giant of a dog, Blue has the coat of a wolf, the snout of a Collie, with one brown eye and one blue. Both of which were trained on me at that moment. My fear was freaking him out. We touched down with a jerk that sent my heart racing one more time. But as we slowly taxied toward our hangar the storm seemed suddenly minor. Just a breath of wind fluttered across the puddles. "Sorry about that descent. Thanks for flying with us, I hope we'll have you back real soon." As soon as humanly possible. I didn't want to be here, but Hugh was in trouble, and if there was one person I cared about in this world it was him. He was a tie to my murdered brother, a shared memory bank. I would do anything to help Hugh. P.S. The dog never dies.