My-Serendipity.net - Echoes in the Silence

The hot June sun baked down on the search team as they trained. As usual, Melissa’s apprentice Danny thought he knew it all but seemed to be frustrating her on a whole new level today. Something had to give or they were never going to progress. It was time to knock him down a peg and she had the complete support of the team. They were all at a loss when it came to dealing with the hardheaded youth.

"Ok hot pants," she yelled, calling Danny to come back to her. "You think you have a handle on this?"

"I’ve HAD a handle on this for months, you just don’t trust me," he whined back.

"Listen here Luke, enough of the attitude. I’m going to give you the opportunity to show me you’re ready for the next step. Are you game?"

"Bring. It. On."

Garry made a couple of phone calls and the team loaded into their cars and drove to a wooded area near their training ground before piling out. Melissa and Danny stayed behind as the remaining members and their dogs took off into the trees without so much as word. Once they were out of sight, Melissa started to give her instructions.

"In this forest is a "lost" hiker. For the sake of the test, assume that he’s dehydrated…"

"So, he’s not thinking clearly, yeah, yeah…" interrupted Danny.

"Danny, listen to me. This is a test, but we deal in the reality of life and death everyday, nearly always starting after the clock has been ticking for much longer than it should have been. You hold that power in your hands, respect it."

"Where’s the scent? Let’s do this," he cut in again.

"Fine. It’s here," she said pointing to an old t-shirt. "I’ll be shadowing you to grade you, but I won’t help or offer direction."

"I won’t need it," he said oozing confidence. "Let’s get this done."

Melissa radioed the team to let them know they were starting. Buster took the scent off the t-shirt, picked it out from the teams scents and began to track. As long as the path seemed logical, they did great, but the minute that Buster followed the scent along a route that Danny didn’t think was right, he’d correct him. With each correction he drove Melissa a little closer to crazy. Kona even wanted to follow the right path and looked to her partner for guidance. Not wanting to interfere with Danny and Buster, she rubbed Kona’s ears in a small gesture of understanding.

"Mo?" asked Garry’s husky voice through her radios earpiece.

"Go ahead," she answered back.

"I’ve got a visual on you. You’re aware he’s going the completely opposite direction than he needs to?"

"Copy that."

"How many times have you told him to not correct on a track?"

"Repeatedly," she sighed.

"Hayden’s been gone, what, two weeks?"

"Ten days."

"So, you’re not the person to mess with today."

"Precisely."

"Good enough," he responded back.

Melissa decided to let it go until the next correction and that didn’t take long. Buster had lost the scent and wanted to double back to pick it up again, but Danny would have no part of it. "Ok, time’s up. The test is over."

"Time? Wait a minute! Since when are these timed?"

"Today." Calmly she walked over and took Busters collar before returning her attention to her stubborn apprentice. "You are not allowed to talk anymore. You’re going to try and keep up and let me show you what this dog can do when you aren’t attached to him."

"Wh- -"

"No talking. Listen. Keep up. That’s IT!" she told him sternly before softening her tone and turning her attention to Kona and Buster. "Kona, this one is Busters. I know you can do it, let’s let him try." Kona sat down and waited. "Ok Buster, let’s do this. You show me where to go. Let’s find our guy."

Buster looked truly happy. His tail was wagging and he bolted back the opposite direction. "Hey, that’s the wrong…" Danny attempted to talk but Melissa shot him a look of dagger intensity as they tailed the happy Golden Retriever and he wisely kept quiet.

"Good boy Buster! Show me!" Melissa encouraged as they jogged to keep up. It didn’t take them long to get back on course and find their planted lost hiker. While Danny looked stunned, Melissa was angry but able to contain it, at least until he opened his mouth.

"I just don’t understand how he could have gotten so turned around."

"He wasn’t turned around – YOU turned him around! I watched you do it Danny!" When he opened his mouth to protest, she shut him down again. "You are DONE talking. You WILL listen and you WON’T say anything until I’m done. Do you understand?"

The rest of the team met up with their lost hiker and started to walk back to the cars, but even having an audience wouldn’t have stopped Melissa this time.

"You will never succeed at this as long as you try and control it Danny. Buster is amazing and if any dog was ever born to search, it’s him but I will NOT sit back and let you act like you know it all and ruin him in the process!"

"I am not…"

"SHUT UP!" she screamed at him, "SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME! My god, just stop talking for one minute and listen! These searches aren’t for fun. This isn’t a hobby or a pastime or something to brag about to our friends! This is work. As a team, it is our job to save lives and that satisfaction…that’s our salary! You act like this is a game, that you know all you need to, and that we should just throw respect at you because your dog is talented. Respect has to be earned and until you can respect Buster, we can’t possibly begin to respect you. What I can do is keep you from damaging his training anymore than you already have. He’s benched until his handler grows a brain."

"What the!?"

Melissa simply held up her finger as a warning and Danny stopped. "You need to reevaluate why you’re here, why you want to be part of the group. This is not about you, but you do need to accept that you will NEVER know more about tracking a scent than your dog. You take natural talent and work with it the best you can, then you trust them. You trust them with your life and with the lives they are trying to find. If Buster goes left and you think it should be right – by god, GO LEFT! Don’t question…don’t correct – TRUST HIM! It is your job to be his cheerleader, his interpreter and a set of opposable thumbs! That’s IT!"

Danny stood there stunned but at least he seemed to be listening. Melissa took a few deep breaths before she continued.

"I want you to take him home now. I want you to hold Bronson and Bailey, smell their bald baby heads, put their tiny hands in yours, watch them sleep and listen to them breathe. Put everything else out of your mind and think what it would be like if it were either of them out here, lost…alone…afraid. Would you want a dog and handler team searching who couldn’t work together; who didn’t trust each other, who couldn’t read the other? Would you want a guy out here with his nose to the ground trying to find the scent from their baby blankets on a single leaf or would you want a nose a million times more powerful?"

Danny opened his mouth but no words escaped.

"Every search you’re ever going to be on, for as long as you do this, those people are your children Danny. They are your babies, your mother, your wife, your sister, your brother, your father… Who would you trust to find them?"

Danny nodded without acknowledging who he was thinking of, but Melissa thought she might have finally gotten through to him.

"The best isn’t you, it will never be you. The day when you can admit that and give Buster the lead role in your team…that’s the day you’ll succeed."

"I’ve worked so hard," he spoke softly, afraid he’d be shut down again.

"You’ve only just started. Go home and think about everything I’ve said. Call me anytime. I’m not the enemy. I want to help, but you have to want this for the right reasons first."

Melissa could feel a headache starting as she drove, it waited to really kick in until she and Kona pulled into the driveway. In a bit of fog, she swallowed a couple of Motrin, grabbed the phone, and rolled into the hammock to let the drugs begin to do their job. Doubt started to wash over her no matter how hard she fought it. Had she let her frustration dominate? Could you she have done things differently or stayed calmer?

While her mind reeled, the phone rang and she answered it without looking. "Hello, you’ve reached the Christensen’s. Hayden is traveling the globe and Melissa has cocooned herself in the hammock, refusing to come out until he returns…but please, feel free to leave a message at the beep and we’ll return your call sometime before Christmas. Thanks and have a wonderful summer, fall, and winter. BEEP!"

"Rough day?" came a very welcome voice on the other end of the line.

"Oh Love," she sighed. "How do you do that?"

"My ‘Melissa needs me’ alarm went off. It’s like the bat signal only more reliable and uses less electricity," Hayden laughed. "Plus, it works outside of the city limits. I do love that you’re staying in the hammock until I get back. I wonder when the next flight home is."

"It’s not the same here without you," she sighed.

"Here either Beautiful, but I have all the time you need. Tell me what’s going on."

By the time she had run through the events of the day and her blow up with Danny, the sun had set. Watching the sky turn to gold, she waited anxiously to see what Hayden would say. The line stayed quiet long enough for her to start to worry even more and then, in a soothing voice that only he could muster, he spoke softly. "Finally."

She wasn’t sure what to expect but she knew that wasn’t it. "What?"

"He’s had that coming for a while. Your patience impresses me though. I never would have made it half as long as you did."

"So, you don’t think it’s because I’m frustrated not having you here?"

"Well gosh," he teased. "I do that to you?"

"Hayden!"

"Sweetheart, you’re frustrated, but at him and rightly so. I know you want to ask, so before you do, he needed to hear everything you said and I think you handled it the best way you could. He doesn’t have the best track record for listening." He heard her sigh in relief over the long distance line.

"But, what if he quits?"

"Then he quits. It’s not a life for everyone and asking him to evaluate that, to examine the dedication it requires and to decide if it’s really for him…that’s a difficult conversation, but a necessary one."

"I don’t think what we had could be classified as a conversation," she laughed slightly, feeling better.

"Everyone on that team has tried to get through to him, no more so than you. I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as it feels and hopefully it will make a difference."

They each held onto their phones and listened to the silence before she spoke again. "I miss you."

"I miss you too," he whispered back. "Stay strong, it will all work out. Two and half more weeks and I’ll make you forget everything but me."

Her smile returned as she watched the last glow of the sun fade behind the mountains. "You’ve already done that."

They talked until the stars had replaced the sun, neither wanting to say goodnight. Melissa had some challenges before her, but talking with Hayden helped her refocus and find the strength to face them. Even a half a world away, there was comfort to be found in knowing he was never any further away than a phone call.