The radio on Darnell's hip chirp just a little after five, right when the sun was dropping behind Building A and he was thinking about a plate of red beans and rice with baked chicken.
"Maintenance, this is dispatch."
"Go ahead."
"Good evening, Mr. Barnes. I've got a tenant in 4D on the line with an emergency. Would you like me to patch her through?"
Darnell wiped his hands on a shop rag.
"Yes, please."
A click, then a little static, then a woman's voice, soft and shaky, with a Cajun accent.
"Hello? Is this the maintenance?"
"Yes, ma'am. You have an emergency?"
"Yes, sir. It's my dog. A neighbor's dog got loose in the breezeway and attacked her.
Can you come check it out, or whatever you do in this situation?"
Darnell rubbed the back of his neck. A dog attacking another dog sounds like a job for animal control or a vet, not a man with a ring of keys.
"Ahh, that's really not my job," he said. "But I can help you out if you need me to?"
"Yes, please." Her voice cracked on the second word. "Please."
That settled it. "I'm on the way."
He had took the stairs two at a time because the elevator was out of order.
He grabbed a clean towel and the first aid kit from the supply closet on his way to the fourth floor in under three minutes.
The hallway smelled like lemon fabreeze and somebody's dinner.
At the far end, 4D had its door cracked open.
He knocked twice. "Maintenance."
"Come in!"
He pushed the door open, and he couldn’t believe his eyes.
It was her.
The same ponytail, a little looser now.
The same black spandex, though the black tee was gone, replaced by a faded oversized college tee shirt that hung off one shoulder.
She was on her knees on the living room floor with her hands pressed to the side of a trembling little Shih Tzu mix, and her eyes were red and bright with tears.
Up close she was even more beautiful than he imagined. Soft brown skin, a tiny gold hoop in her nose.
She looked up at him and for a minute he forgot, why he was there.
"Thank God," she said. "She won't stop shaking."
Focus, Darnell.
"I got you," he said, and he set the kit down and knelt across from her, close enough to smell coconut shea butter.
"What's her name?"
"Pearl."
"Hey, Pearl." He kept his voice calm and low.
"Hey, sweet girl. I'm not gonna hurt you."
The dog's eyes rolled toward him.
Darnell had grown up with dogs in every yard on his block, and he knew how to hold his hands still.
He let Pearl sniff his knuckles before he touched her, then eased the towel under her belly and checked her over.
There was a scrape on her shoulder, a small bite on her hind leg that was bleeding but not gushing, and no sign of anything worse.
"Okay," he said. "Good news the bite doesn’t look deep.”
“She's scared more than she's hurt.”
“But that bite needs a vet to clean it, and she'll need to get a shot too.”
“I'm not gonna pretend I'm a doctor."
The woman let out a breath that turned into half a laugh.
"I didn't know who else to call. I just moved in, and I don't know anybody here yet."
Just moved in. That explained why he had never seen her around. It also explained why she had been walking the grounds like it was first time here.
"Well," Darnell said, wrapping Pearls leg gently in gauze, "now you know me. Darnell Barnes."
"Simone."
She wiped her cheek with the back of her wrist and finally smiled. Her whole face expression had changed.
"Simone Hartley."
"Nice to meet you, Simone. Wish it was a better day for it."
"It's a better day than it was ten minutes ago."
Their eyes connected for a second. Darnell looked down at Pearl.
"Emergency vet on Perkins Road stays open till midnight," he said.
"You got a ride, or you want me to carry her down to your car?"
"My car's in the garage, but my hands are shaking too bad to drive."
"Then I'll drive. Truck's out front."
Simone hesitated, looking him up and down a stranger with a ring of keys and steady hands. Then she nodded. "Okay. Yes. Thank you."
He scooped Pearl up in the towel, and she laid her head on his thigh.
Simone grabbed her purse and her keys and followed him to the door.
In the hallway, he heard a door open down the hall and a man's voice mutter something sharp about "that little dog should've been on a leash."
Darnell glanced back at the neighbor, a big man in a Dolphins jersey standing in the middle of the doorway of 4G.
"We'll talk later," Darnell said, quiet but hard. "You and me, and the property manager."
The man slam shut his door.
Simone looked at him sideways as they walked to the stairs. "You're different than I thought maintenance would be."
"How's that?"
She shrugged, and the oversized shirt slid a little further off her shoulder.
"I don't know. Just not what I expected."
Darnell kept his eyes in front of him, but a slow smile pulled at his mouth.
His clipboard was still sitting on the supply closet shelf, he could check off what was not on the list now.
Check, he thought.
To be continued…