My heart broke as I watched her. Ever since Judy appeared in our lives, Dad kept berating Mom because of her. He kept saying that Mom was vicious and that she kept hurting Judy.
I really wanted to tell Dad, “I’m already dead. I can’t apologize in person to Judy anymore. Can you just forgive Mom?”
When Dad saw Mom wiping away her tears, he suddenly stopped being angry. His tone softened. “You slapped me in front of so many people. Do you know how many of them made fun of me?
“Alright, I won’t hold this against you, but Ray must go and apologize to Judy. She’s my pup, and I won’t let her embarrass our family.”
Mom finally looked up at him, and her voice trembled when she spoke. “Don’t you know that Ray’s allergic to raw meat? Whenever she touches raw meat, she’ll get a terrible pain in her stomach.
“When she was younger, she ate raw meat by mistake and almost died in the Healing Hut. Don’t you know about that?”
Dad was stunned. After a long moment, he started trying to defend himself. “There aren’t any pups who can’t eat raw meat. I’ve never heard of that allergy before. Your pup is just fussy with a weak stomach. She’ll be fine after she eats it a few more times!”
He had never believed that I was allergic to raw meat. He kept saying I was just fussy and that Mom had spoiled me.
Judy liked eating raw meat. Whenever Dad returned from her house, he would bring a large bag of raw meat with him and say that it was to nourish us.
Mom would cook the meat for me to eat, and every time she did, Dad would accuse her of wasting food.
“Cooking the meat destroys all the energy in it. You’re ruining the food!”
Mom had told him over and over again that I was allergic to raw meat, but Dad never believed it.
I was the pup of the First Warrior of the pack. How could I be allergic to raw meat?
