Seeing Her Through The Eyes of a Dog. Chapter 10. Derek The Match Maker
Rudy was interested to know more about my stay with Teresa over the past few days and more about what I did and how much was influenced by the dog brain, vs. the human mind. Right after lunch the phone rang and it was Derek calling. He said Teresa had explained to them that the dog had a different mind in it for the past few days and was now back to the same mind it had before they adopted him. Then he went on to say that Teresa had been very disappointed that she could not have me over or come to visit me and that all we could do was dog-walks together. He explained that he had been going over the law regarding the lock-down in detail and had discovered that it did not apply if one person moved during the pandemic. It was okay for a person renting a room in a house to move to another house to rent a room in it and that they then changed which household they associated themselves with. I explained there were no more rooms in our house to rent out and Derek laughed and said, "No, Darin, we are suggesting you could come rent a room in our house. Darin, you see Charlene and I have been worrying about Teresa's lack of success in the dating area. There was that one boyfriend near the end of high school and then when it ended badly, she seemed to avoid trying again. But the way she talks about you, we think there is a real chance of her relaxing and finally moving on."
I said I was unsure how much notice I had to give at my current place to leave but that I would investigate and call him back. In fact I was absolutely going to take him up on his offer, but I wanted to think about this move for a while before jumping at it. After all, I had been spying on the whole family without them knowing, through the eyes of a dog. Without intending to, I had caught Teresa naked and her mother in her headgear. The parents had not indicated Teresa had told them everything about the human mind that had been in their dog the last few days. I went for a walk behind the house in the wilderness. I used to do that for a break from studying a couple of weeks ago but now it felt different. I noticed certain alcoves under rotten trees I had never noticed before. I spotted the feces of a number of forest creatures, which I seldom noticed in the past. But despite all these distractions, I thought hard about the opportunity in front of me. My own rental situation was irrelevant. Paying rent on two places for a couple of months was irrelevant to me if it meant I got to live with Teresa. In fact, maybe having my old place still available for a couple of months would be a good idea so that if living with Teresa and her family was not the heaven I felt it would be, then I could easily move back. I was still not sure of what the mother would say about me sitting in bed with her reading that trashy magazine and lusting after her metal work, and then there was seeing Teresa naked. Or would Teresa object to me putting my nose too close to the belly of her friend and learning things about her love life that she would not even share with her best friend. I returned to the house and discussed it with Rudy.
Rudy's response was ultimately very positive, but his reasoning for it was rather alarming. He explained, "Look, this place is not that large and we got along very well, but over the last few days, having you insisting on sleeping with me, snoring in my ear, fondling my chest, touching me in much more private places in the early morning, and doing even worse with your nose has been really, really hard to go through. Although you are back to your old self, when I look at you, I still remember what you did with Ralph's mind in your body and it makes me uncomfortable. I'm sure I'll get over it after a night or two. I tell you what, you take Teresa's Dad up on his offer. I'll cover your rent for the current month. If it seems to be working out then give notice next month and I'll cover the rent for the two months of the notice. And if it doesn't work out with Teresa's family and you move back, it'll just be everything back to normal. I then called Derek back and we talked over the many details. I would pay them a rent that included food and I would eat with them. He mentioned the guest room in the basement, assuming I would not actually be moving into Teresa's bedroom with her, which was reasonable. At least I could visit her up until lights out and upon rising in the morning.
Charlene was good enough to bring over the minivan so I would not have to carry all my stuff to their house. Rudy and I had rented a furnished house and Derek was renting me a furnished guest room. It was just all my boxes of clothes and so on that I had to move. Charlene wore a mask while we carried things out of my old house. She used the stretchy neck wrap she used for walking me as a dog. With Rudy, Charlene and I at it, we had the van loaded in about fifteen minutes. Once I had my seat belt on and mask put away, I looked at Charlene. She could take her mask off now since we were going to be in the same household from now on.
She hesitated until Rudy had gone back in the house. Then she said to me, "Darin, no doubt at some point in the school year you noticed Teresa got braces, right?" I grunted 'uh-huh' so she continued, "Well, I did at the same time. We both have pretty much the same dental problem and I could never get mine fixed as a child. In fact we couldn't fix Teresa's back then as we were not that well off, and then she got too self conscious until she started college. The thing is that in living with us, you are going to see that we have some extra braces that are horribly humiliating for adults to wear, let alone kids. I'm trying to wear mine as much as I can to rush treatment and get it over with and I'm encouraging Teresa to do the same. So, when I walk the dog or have to go somewhere in the car, I've decided to wear it." She paused as I waited for her to show me the headgear that I had seen her in the previous evening while we watched TV. It would be cool to see her driving so I could watch her from a profile view as she focused on the task of driving. She continued, "I'm trying to get up the nerve to show you. I have to get this over with and the sooner the better." I heard her take a big breath like she was going to jump into a big wilderness lake of cold water. She pulled the neck wrap down and it bunched up around her neck, leaving her entire headgear, face bow as well as neck strap, all revealed to me.
I hesitated as I cancelled what I was about to say, 'Yeah, I've seen it, but you look way better in it in a bathrobe than with that neck wrap all bunched up below it'; or 'Don't sweat it, you look as hot as your daughter in it, but you are little more brave about it than she is.' But in that moment I came up with, "Well the pandemic is probably the best time to go through that, for both you and for Teresa."
Charlene looked at me before starting the van and said, "You'll have to be very careful with Teresa. She is really hung up about it and wasn't even going to let her father and I see her in it, at least until last evening. I'm really hoping she doesn't try to wait until you've gone to your room before using it each night. She and I watched TV last evening wearing them. Starting right after dinner is a lot more time than waiting until lights out. If you can be sincere about it, maybe you could say something encouraging, playing down any aspect of her appearance that it hurts." I said 'okay', as if I had no idea what exactly I would say, but of course I was just going with something like I suppressed saying to her Mom.
After having backed the van up the side of the driveway that had a path leading around the side of the house to a basement entrance, she carefully restored the position of her face covering which her husband used to use to keep insects from much of his face and neck on wilderness treks over the years. I pulled out my face mask and put that on. We got out and met Derek at the back of the van. Derek made a comment upon seeing me, "Welcome Darin, but I hope you don't think we're all wearing face masks in this household. You're a tenant now. You don't have to wear one.
I looked at Charlene, who agreed, yet kept hers on. She laughed, "I'm not wearing mine because of the pandemic." And I laughed, realizing she was keeping her headgear hidden with it. And Teresa appeared at that moment and was also wearing a stretchy neck and face wrap like her mother, except that it was perhaps a more feminine pattern, looking almost attractive on her. She was presumably also not wearing it due to the pandemic, and anyway, her fashion face-mask was the more traditional kind that just had elastic going around the ears. At least that's what she wore when we walked Ralph earlier in the day.
My stuff was piled outside the guest room for me to unpack at my leisure in a very short time. I noticed Charlene did not remove her face covering once we had the back door shut. She could not be seen once she got around the back of the house. She made a motion with her head at Teresa once we had the last boxes put down. I realized she was not going to reveal her headgear to me in front of Teresa until Teresa had shown me hers. Teresa then asked her parents if she could talk to me privately. They went upstairs, saying they would call us when they were closer to having dinner ready. We went into the guest room and she got me to sit on the bed. I realized why she had not removed her face covering but she acted like I thought she was doing something strange. She started, "Daren, I know you spotted at some point that I wear braces." I smiled and nodded with a suppressed laugh, as I knew the whole thought she was having so much trouble confiding. She went on, "Well if you're moving in, my parent said I had to let you see me in a really horrible extra thing I wear on them in private."
It suddenly struck me how to put an end to this stressful conversation. I jumped in, "Your Mom had her mask off while she wore her headgear in the van driving over here. She told me that you and she were trying to wear your headgears much more than just in bed to rush treatment. She said she wanted to get that moment over with so did it in the car. Just take the face covering off and do the same."
Teresa pulled her face covering up and over her head, the method that Charlene should have used so she didn't have it all bunched up around the neck, looking stupid. She did this very slowly as if it was a kind of striptease act, but was really because she was trying not to snag it in the headgear. She then held the bunched up face covering in her hands against her face to hide the face bow. She said, "This is really embarrassing."
I said, "Just think how your Mom felt driving over here. She's even more mature looking than you." She slowly lowered the face covering as her face went redder. I said, enthusiastically, "Well it looks a lot hotter on you, though. Relax, we're going to get along fine." I was not faking that it was no big deal, nor any kind of surprise nor that it did not even make me feel at all uncomfortable, because I'd been looking at her in it for days. She relaxed and I stood up. She did the same preparing to follow me upstairs, but I turned toward her rather than the door and I put my arms around her and held her against me. I perhaps felt more like getting her into the position where I in Ralph's body had straddled her and lay on her and pressed all of me into her including a very unexciting doggy part. I realized that my non-doggy part would enjoy pressing into her in the future much more than Ralph's body had, and that my human chest was way better at feeling the firmness of her chest above the softness of the tummy as I hugged her. I then let us part enough so I was at the optimum distance to give her the usual lick over the mouth, lips and face bow. I stopped myself because humans press the lips together before parting them and letting the tongue out.
Teresa also stopped me, saying, "Darin, don't rush it. I haven't kissed a guy in a very long time and I certainly have never tried it with this headgear in the way." I let her go and we started up the stairs. Then suddenly she turned to face me a couple of stairs higher than me and said quietly so the parents could not overhear, "I'm sorry. I keep telling myself not to screw this up. It doesn't have to be any harder than it was getting close to Ralph."
She looked at me like she was going to let me kiss her and I said, "Teresa, don't worry about it. Just do the same as you did with Ralph and everything will work out great."
She reached her hand out and stroked my hair, then rubbed my chest, and then laughed and said, "Actually no. The hug worked way better than with Ralph but you're actually not nearly as pettable. Let's go help with dinner." I noticed she wanted to get used to wearing headgear in front of me while around her parents rather than alone. I guessed it was some kind of feeling of security she got from them.
Joining Ralph, Derek and Charlene in the kitchen, I noticed Charlene's headgear, not because I figured she would have taken it off, but because she was assuming Teresa had showed me hers. If Teresa had come up with her face covering still on, I guess the idea was that she would not let Teresa keep it a secret any longer. As we joined them, wondering how we could help, Derek and I were able to look at Charlene and Teresa standing side by side in headgear, both a little red faced as they glanced back at me. Derek said, "Darin, I'm hoping we can encourage them to wear those damn headgears a lot since we are in lock-down so it speeds up the treatment and we can stop paying those exorbitant fees sooner. You need to encourage them."
I smiled at him and said, "Well that's easy with Teresa but it may not be as appropriate to her mother. She's married and it would be disrespectful to compliment her appearance in front of you." He shook his head and gestured toward them for me to go ahead. I looked at them and said, "Well I see no reason either of them would restrict their wear in front of us when they look so gall darned hot in their pricey fixtures on their braces." I decided that had come out rather eloquently, if I did say so myself.
Derek said, "So there you go ladies. Our lodger is no reason to go getting shy about them." Then he looked around and said, "I think this calls for drink. Ralph, you have been doing the honors recently and you are right by the fridge. How about it buddy, can you still get me a beer?" Ralph bounded over to Derek for a petting while I instinctively headed for the fridge. I got a beer out and Derek said, "Well one for you as well, and could you get the wine out for Charlene, please. And Teresa, how about you, beer or wine. I think tonight calls for drink before dinner to celebrate our new lodger."
Teresa giggled at me and specified wine. As she reached for her neck strap to disengage it, her mother quickly said, "Honey, the drink is not meant as an excuse for us to take off our headgears. There must be a way to drink wine with these on." Teresa put her hands down, disappointed.
Derek said, "In preparation for you two wearing them more during the day I did some research and I found that people showed two solutions. One is to use a straw. That seems the most universal, but I did find two different places where it was suggested that for some people, it just means they have to use a glass that curls out at the top." Teresa looked through the glasses cupboard while Charlene went to the buffet in the living room and went through it. Moments later, both agreed they had no glasses that curled out at the top. Then Derek remembered something and said, "Wait, do you remember that cheap, old fashioned set of wine glasses my friend brought when we had our house warming party all those years ago? I seem to remember it was how they curled out at the top that led us to realize they were extremely old. Now where did we store them? Oh, wait, yes, I know, wait here."
Charlene continued to open the bottle of wine and then we all looked at each other, me taking a swig from my beer bottle. Suddenly the self-consciousness of me looking at the two ladies in headgear with a bottle of wine they currently could not sample due to a lack of correctly shaped glasses overwhelmed Charlene and she just tipped the wine bottle up to her lips in front of her headgear and took a swig like it was beer. She then handed it to Teresa who had laughed at that, but then, feeling the same as her Mom, if not more so, accepted the bottle and took her own swig. She said to her Mom after she had swallowed, "I would have expected to get in trouble for doing that normally."
Charlene countered as she laughed, "Well, normally we are not both being asked to stand around the kitchen in headgear holding a bottle of wine while our lodger drinks his beer."
Derek came back momentarily and had a box of wine glasses. He took two out and washed them, saying, "I was always convinced that my friend bought these at a charity shop where someone had hung onto them for a decade or so because they were an out-of-fashion style of wine glass, and then gave them to us as even more out of style and now, here we are over a decade later finally opening our housewarming present because we need wine glasses of this very shape." He dried the two glasses and then took the bottle from Teresa and asked the two ladies upon looking at it, "What happened? It was full when I left the room."
I snitched on them and said, "A wine bottle is a lot like a beer bottle and they have experience drinking from a beer bottle." I laughed, and then Derek laughed, remembering the previous evening.
But then Teresa cut in, "How do you know about that?"
Charlene looked at me and repeated the question. Derek looked at his wife and daughter and assured them, "I never mentioned it. Teresa you told me not to tell Darin anything at all about your headgear until you were comfortable showing it to him and that was just a few minutes ago." Both ladies took their glasses and started sipping on their wine and Derek took a swig of his beer, as did I.
Charlene said, "Ralph is the only one who could have known about that. So how did you find out, Darin?" I then realized how terribly I had miss-spoken. How would I explain that I had been the human mind in the body of the dog? Would I get told to leave immediately, and take my boxes with me? I had to explain it carefully to them. At least telling them both I had seen them in headgear would not come over as knowing something terribly private about themselves as they were wearing them now as I explained this.
