Julian Moves On

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Instant-YOU. Connect with the world

TEXT: Lisbon. Why not? Anywhere but Madrid.

MOOD: Hopeful.

* * *

'Shit, wrong stop,' thought Julian when he saw the small houses at the distance and the tall trees that surrounded him. He twisted the pencil scribbled paper full with directions, and realised that the “Hotel Praia do Golf” was not here.

In fact, there was nothing but gigantic trees and singing birds. He shuddered as the temperature was somewhat colder than in Lisbon. He switched his mobile on, but Google Earth strangely didn't work. 'No antenna. Great.'

The red rooftops he could see from the high slope he was standing in, seemed to be far away and he didn't feel like walking a kilometre or more. 'I'm in the middle of the fucking natural park she spoke about.' Frustrated, he briefly considered to sit and make auto-stop, but those were his good trousers and the earth was moist. 'Fucking Sintra.'

After walking some metres, a medium-sized path appeared in front of his eyes and he walked towards it. The sight of an old but well preserved iron bench made him think that maybe the path would lead to a house with people who could tell him how to get to the hotel. Slinging his backpack over his shoulder he walked to the bench and sat there to rest. With slow moves, still upset with the bus driver, he zipped it open and took the cheap salami sandwiches he had bought for lunch.

Slowly munching the first sandwich, his gaze wandered over the tall trees and ferns scattered around. The path was narrow and almost invisible for any car passing by the road. The sound of a dry twig breaking made Julian turn his head fast and accurately to the source of the disturbance. Peering his eyes he caught glimpse of form hidden among the bushes and ferns and he stood alarmed.

He sighed in relief when a big muzzle emerged from the leaves and loudly sniffed the air. 'A dog, not a lion,' he mocked his own fear.

“Wow, you're certainly big,” Julian exclaimed when he saw the wolfish dog half running towards him, with his powerful head slightly hunched between his withers. The black, glossy hair shone with a silvery shine and Julian couldn't help to extend his hand to touch it just to see if the hair was as silky as he imagined it would be.

The dog growled and Julian's hand stopped its move in mid-air. He let it dangling so the dog could sniff it as much as it wanted and waited till the animal closed the distance between them. He patted the head with great care and the dog came closer even so he could thoroughly caress its back and strongly pat its flank.

“I never saw a dog like you,” Julian spoke, mesmerized by the large size of the animal. “I bet that if you stand in two legs, you're taller than I. You look like a wolf I saw in the zoo,” he said, now strongly patting the fur of the powerful back. “Wow! Your eyes are yellow. You'd make a bust if you were in a Comic-Con.” His hand found the animal's collar buried in its thick fur, and it was made out of a simple chain steel chain with no tags attached.

“Your master must be looking for you,” Julian commented as the animal continued its inspection of the boy. “Did you escape?”

The dog sat on its hinges and looked at Julian's backpack with pleading eyes. “Do you want some?” the boy asked as he removed the second sandwich, wrapped in plastic foil. “It's good,” he said as he unwrapped it and showed it to the animal.

Only one sniff at the salami made the dog recoil its head, trying to hide it. “Come on! Don't be so delicate! It's my lunch too!” Julian huffed deeply offended as he cut the sandwich in even parts. “One for you, one for me. Deal?”

Reluctant, the dog delicately took the offered piece from Julian's hand and swallowed in two bites.

Sighing as the dog had finished its part but didn't go away, Julian began to eat his sandwich, watching how the dog made itself comfortable at his feet, stretching its back first.

“Do you know how to get to Hotel Praia do Golf?” Julian asked with a smirk. “Got off at the wrong bus stop and I'm looking for some people in this God-forsaken place.”

The dog lifted its head and stood in his four legs before it started to walk away, in direction of the houses. Julian gaped at the figure wearily walking away, uncertain if he should follow the animal. 'What the f..?' he thought and the dog stopped and turned around, fixing his piercing eyes upon him.

'Well, at least it goes in direction of the houses. Maybe it's lost. Seems to be a valuable animal.'

* * *

“No, no, you got me wrong. I want to go to the hotel,” protested Julian and immediately wondered why he was speaking with a dog, especially with the one standing in front of the battered entrance of a convenience store.

The dog only cast a glance at him before it went through the multicolour fly-screen. “Wait, you can't enter in there!” Julian said, but the dog was already inside.

Fearing that the large size of the animal could frighten anybody, Julian entered in the chipped-walls shop and grasped when he saw an old man putting a copy of the The Economist magazine inside a leather canopy before he laced it around the dog's neck.

¿Posso ajudá-lo? The man asked the stranger who certainly didn't look like a tourist.

“Oh, Bom dia,” answered Julian and he felt very uncomfortable as his Portuguese lessons finished there. “Is the dog yours?” he asked in English.

“No. Espanhol?”

“Yes, I am,” Julian answered and the man smiled tiredly. “I'm looking for the “Hotel Praia do Golf”. Is it near here?”

“Some five kilometres away if you continue this way,” another old man sitting among the newspapers answered him. “Turn left on the first road you see and drive straight from there.”

“So far away?” Julian asked with a sigh.

“Why do you want to go there? It's half-closed now. Better get a room at the “Axis”. Larger spa.”

“No, I don't want a hotel, well not one so expensive. I'm looking for a job.”

“A job? Here?” the man behind de counter asked sounding astonished. “There's nothing. People are leaving this town nowadays.”

“Someone at Manpower in Lisbon told me I could get a job here. People with good English are always needed here.”

“Yes, during the holidays, but not now.”

Julian was heartbroken and overwhelmed. Nothing seemed to be turning out well. First, the plane, then the bus driver, the disagreeable woman at the employment company and now this. Was his bad luck never going to end? He felt someone tugging at his new sweater.

“Hey, you!” protested Julian, but the animal tugged harder from the sleeve, encouraging him to follow it. Not willing to get the fine wool tore, Julian followed the animal towards a large message board filled with handwritten old, discoloured, looking about to fall down cards. One ad, written over a thick cream card with a gold trim, using black ink, caught his attention.

“Dogsitter needed

“Spoken English or French required

“Monthly allowance and lodging included

“Dois Leões. Rua da Santa Eufémia.”

“Do you know if this job is taken?” Julian blurted out.

“Which one?” asked the man, lifting his gaze from the magazine he had restarted to read.

“The one for “dogsitter”. What is that by the way?”

“Ah, that one. Six candidates so far this year. No luck at all.”

“Do you know if it is still free?”

“Would be very surprised if someone has taken it,” the man mumbled.

“Pay isn't good?”

“Nowadays any pay is good. Besides Senhor Koiranos always pays on time. No complaints from me.”

“Too many dogs?”

“No, only one that I know.”

“Where is the trick then?”

“Nasty dog, but it seems it likes you.” The man pointed to the black dog, now demurely sitting at the entrance.

Julian looked at the animal in shock and the dog wagged its tail, brushing the dusty stone floor with it. He gulped. “Where is this Rua de Santa Eufémia?” he made up his mind.

“It's from where you came from. Follow the dog. It knows.”

“How about the owner?”

“Fine. No troubles at all. He bought that property some six or seven years ago. Never comes around here. The dog comes for the magazine once per week, and I get my money every month.”

“The dog buys the magazine?” Julian asked in total disbelief.

“Probably, he reads it too,” chuckled the old man.

“Father!” the man scolded him. “He's getting too old,” the shopkeeper mumbled. “We have a system. The dog gets the magazine in that tube and Pedro or Lucia bring it back the next day. Senhor Koiranos says the dog needs something to do,” the man explained Julian, lifting his eyebrows. “Rich crackpot,” he added in a whisper, but the dog growled menacingly from the entrance.

“Seems to be a clever dog,” Julian said, impressed by the animal's reaction.

“Cleverer than my son, that's for sure,” the old man chuckled again and openly laughed when the irritated shopkeeper shouted something back in Portuguese. Still ignoring his incensed son, the man said “this dog is not an ordinary one. If it likes you, the job is yours. One could say, it found you,” he laughed, finding something terribly funny.

* * *

Instant-YOU. Connect with the world

TEXT: About to get an easy job.

MOOD: Confident.

* * *

Still dazed about what the men had told him, Julian turned off his mobile, the minute he had typed the message on his board, slightly concerned about the roaming costs. Before he could put it back in his pocket, the dog stuck his wet nose in the screen and loudly sniffed it. “It's a Samsung Galaxy. Be careful,” slightly scolded it Julian. “Cost me 50 Euros.”

“Leave it alone!” he shouted when the animal's dark tongue almost licked it and rose his arm to hold it as high as he could. The dog rose on his hind legs, supporting all its weight on Julian's shoulders, almost knocking him down, as the wet nose continued to sniff the gadget, not caring at all about the boy's earlier protests.

Shocked by the animal's swift reaction, and slightly afraid that it could bite him, his hand automatically offered the phone to the dog and it took it with its long and sharp teeth, jumping back to the floor, dropping it over the street.

Julian held his breath as the animal continued to sniff and turned it around with his large paw. Suddenly, the dog lost its interest on the device and turned around to continue his walk home.

Fearing to find his beloved phone broken, Julian crouched and switched it on, but the phone worked fine. He took it in his hand and was relieved to see that there were no scratches to the case or the screen.

“You certainly have an attitude problem,” Julian mumbled, putting his drooled phone back in his pocket.

The dog looked back at him and Julian buffed, only to show it how displeased he was, but animal ignored his frown and continued to walk along the road, back to the bus stop. 'Your master should give me a bonus if you're so nasty.'

Still following the black animal, Julian missed when they abandoned the route and took an almost hidden gravel pathway that lost itself among the tall trees, covered in ivy and moss. He shivered and stopped to rummage in his backpack and get an old wool scarf made by his grandmother. Crouching on the wet earth he rose his eyes to the sky and held his breath at the beauty of the dark branches silhouettes set against the striking blue sky. He couldn't hear any other sound but the sound of his breath, but instead of frightening him, he felt in peace and part of something greater than himself. He rose to his feet and walked a few metres to touch a large stone covered in moss and the soft, green velvety tapestry made him smile with true delight, feeling the small drops left by the morning mist.

“You have it very nice here,” he told the dog, watching him from a distance. “Looks like that place in Pan's Labyrinth,” he spoke even softer.

The dog came closer to him and Julian patted his big head again. “One could live here forever,” he whispered and wondered why he had done it.

“Let's go and meet your master. Perhaps he has a job for me. I really need one as I'm totally broke.”

“Even if I don't get it, I would rather a hundred times sleep under a tree here than at my mother's flat. I'm sick of them,” he told the dog busily scratching his head behind the ears. “In fact, I'm sick of everybody,” he admitted. “But don't tell anyone or I would lose all my friends.”

“Got to write something,” he sighed, rising and taking some steps away from the animal. “Have to,” he added as he switched on his mobile.

“No antenna,” read the screen and Julian didn't panic as he would have if something like this would have happened in Madrid. “Well, that solves the problem. Doesn't it? No phone, no photo, no post,” he shrugged as the phone got lost inside his pocket.

The dog wagged his tail and restarted his walk, followed by the youth. They reached a clearway and the small path transformed itself into a large gravel road for several hundred metres flanked by a stone wall. Very tired, Julian walked uphill along the meandering road until he saw how an unexpected artificial deep-green lake appeared at his right.

“Wow,” he buffed as he contemplated the duckweed covering the waters, washing the feet of the artificial island decorated with a palm tree in the middle. He turned around and the trees were no longer there. They had been replaced by a series of large ferns, palm trees and luscious plants and bushes, mindfully and strategically planted to create a controlled wilderness.

The dog waited patiently for the gaping young human. He waited until the boy came out of his shock and remembered to follow him.

The gravel road transformed into a one covered in cobblestones and after the last turn, Julian could see the large mansion pink mansion with balconies and large windows and terraces.

He felt immediately overwhelmed and attracted at the same time for the huge size of the house and the floor size windows with black iron balconies. The white frames around the windows and house squares balanced well the deep pink shade. Julian liked the gigantic planters containing small palm trees or araucarias placed at the windows sides of the first floor. The dog, instead of walking towards the main entrance, standing atop a series of white stairs, circled the house and got lost behind a large pot. Julian, without knowing what else to do, rushed after it.

He came to a halt when he saw the dog insistently scratching a white window panelled door. An old woman, wearing an apron opened it and the dog lazily rubbed against her legs before he entered inside the big kitchen.

“Are you lost?” she asked in English to the tourist. “This is a private property. You must follow the road from where you came from and it will lead you back to the N537,” she said without waiting for the boy's answer.

“Is this your dog?” Julian asked, feeling very stupid.

“Oh, has he done something to you?”

“No, no. I'm here for the ad. I saw it in Sintra.”

“The ad?” She blinked several times.

“For working here. To take care of the dog.”

“You want to look after Lýkos?” She asked with clear shock written in her chocolate eyes.

“Who?”

“The dog.”

“Yes, I do,” Julian answered with a confidence he didn't feel.

“Come in please. I'll tell Senhor Koiranos of your coming,” she said, moving aside to let him in.

Inside the modern and spacious kitchen Julian caught sight of the dog drinking water from a white porcelain tureen. 'We never had something like this,' he briefly thought as he left his backpack where the woman told him to. He stood nervously, pacing around the kitchen as the woman disappeared and left him alone with the dog.

'Hope your master hasn't changed his mind,' he thought as the animal returned to him and buried his muzzle between his hands, thoroughly sniffing him all over again. “Hey, don't dirty my trousers,” he whispered. “Got to leave a good impression.”

“Mr. Koiranos will see you now,” the woman announced with a warm smile when she returned and the dog dashed through the door, almost knocking her down. “He always does the same when he hears the master is free. I think the poor dear is bored,” she added.

Julian followed her through a narrow corridor that ended in a much larger one that went through the house. She stopped in front of a semi-opened door and knocked before opened it and turned around, leaving him alone. Still clueless, he felt ridiculous to stand there and entered in the room.

He almost gaped when he saw that it was a large library, all its walls, from floor to ceiling, covered with closed mahogany bookcases and a large fireplace in front of which the dog dozed comfortably.

For a good expressions' reader as Julian was, the man sitting behind the desk was a riddle. His body belonged to a man in his mid-thirties, informally dressed with grey trousers and a beige jersey, mid-long reddish brown hair, a head large like a lion's, grey eyes powerfully built man with a regular face. Yet his rectangular eye orbits were unsettling and gave a cold air to the blue-grey eyes they sheltered. The prominent but thin nose contrasted in an unsettling way with the way his jaw was built; square and almost as wide as the skull.

“What is it that you seek in this house?” the man asked with a deep but hoarse voice that almost made Julian jump backwards.

“I don't know. Your dog brought me here,” Julian mumbled sheepishly, letting go of his confidence as soon as the man sitting behind the desk fixed his eyes on him. He gulped, standing in the middle of the room, watching how the dog trotted towards the chimney and heavily sat in front of the fireplace, burying his massive head between his legs.

“My maid says that you want to apply for the position,” the stranger stated and Julian gulped again.

“I... saw the ad at the town. I mean, the dog showed it to me,” he said and bit his lips when the words were out of his mouth. 'Great, I screwed it up.'

“Lýkos is not a dog, but a wolfdog,” the man said unperturbed after he briefly looked at the large animal's direction.

“Wolfdog? As in wolf?”

“Will that be a problem?”

“I don't know. Wolf as wolf? Like in the fairy tales?”

“Yes, they demand to be treated with the utmost respect and can be quite violent if you don't know your place. Wolves are not able to read humans' expressions as well as dogs, therefore Lýkos' temper is short. Otherwise, wolf-dogs are wonderful companions.”

“I've seen it has a temper,” Julian gulped again as Lýkos encouragingly rose his head and watched him, slightly crooking its head.

“He. Lýkos prefers that you refer to him as “he”. He is not a thing,” the man mildly corrected him. “Your duties will be to walk him every morning and keep him away from my visitors. Some of them are not... capable of standing next to him.”

“Does he have much of a temper?” Julian couldn't help to ask and immediately regretted his words as they could ruin his chances to get the job.

“He has a lot of temper and despises weak people. His wolf nature makes him to assign a rank to every person he meets. Sadly, being granted with an important position in this society does not necessarily mean that you are an alpha, and he hates that humans' ranks are so mixed up nowadays.”

“Ah,” Julian replied, without understanding much of the man's explanation. “Does he think I'm his boss?”

“No, I don't think he believes you are his alpha. It's more that he has taken an fancy on you.”

Slightly more relaxed, Julian let a sigh out and the man asked “how did you meet?”

“I... got at the wrong bus stop and he came out of nowhere. I thought he was lost but he took me to the town. I saw the ad there and decided to come here,” Julian said, gaining some of his confidence back.

“Is that so?” the man asked returning to his papers, ignoring him again.

“Lýkos showed me the card,” Julian admitted, blushing in the meantime, well aware of how ridiculous everything sounded. “He took me by the jersey and showed it to me.”

“Tell me about your past working experience.”

“I finished high school and worked in a restaurant,” said Julian proudly but the piercing stare from the man made Julian admit the truth: “It was a night-club really. As cloak-boy. I can speak English.”

“Yes, that is quite obvious. We are speaking English,” the man noted with an edge to his voice. “No previous experience with dogs? Any veterinary studies, perhaps?”

“None,” Julian admitted.

“The last veterinary graduate we had lasted three hours before Lýkos bit him. It was a fortunate coincidence that I was near them and could hold him. You must understand that his kind were always warriors, and he has trouble to accept that an inferior dares to give him an order.”

“I see,” gulped Julian.

“But he seems to be happy with you. What is your name?”

“Julian Santos Pardo.”

“Strange that you bear a Spanish name,” the man frowned. “You look more like a Dacian.”

“A what?” blurted out Julian.

“Getae. I think Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria are part of it nowadays. The people living at the south of the Danube. How old are you?”

“Nineteen, well, I'm almost twenty.” Julian gulped at the way the strange blue eyes took a yellow side. “I'm twenty, really.”

“You will have to spend the day with Lýkos, take him for a walk in the forest, perhaps run some errands with him, keep him clean and out of trouble. You will also have to keep me company at dinner time.”

“Nothing else?”

“All the other tasks in my house have been already occupied. If it is not an indiscretion, how much were you making in your previous position?”

“About six hundred including tips,” Julian answered after deciding to tell the truth after feeling so uncomfortable with the way the man had glared at him.

“Will that amount be enough for you? The lodging is included.”

“Yes, it's all right.” Julian couldn't believe his good fortune.

“I will ask you to sign a standard confidentiality agreement. I value very much my privacy and my guests' too.”

“No problem.”

“It is thus with particular pleasure that I receive you in my house,” his interlocutor switched to a clear and educated Spanish but Julian couldn't understand more than two words of the sentence.

“We might well continue in English,” the man said. “My Spanish lessons may be well rusted after all this time. Look for Lucia in the kitchen, and she will tell you what to do,” the man said and returned to his papers, forgetting that Julian was still standing there, unable to believe that his luck might have changed for good.

* * *

“Did you have lunch today?” the lady, well over her fifties, asked Julian as he entered in the large kitchen, following Lýkos.

“Yes, I mean no. The dog... Never mind,” Julian babbled surprised she could speak so well Spanish.

“Did you get the job you wanted?”

“I guess so. Are you Lucia?”

“Yes, that's me. I'm the housekeeper and cook. Pedro works in the garden and sometimes drives the car.”

“Oh. I'm Julian and the new dog-sitter.”

“It looks like,” she answered with a smile and pointed to the large animal returning to the kitchen with an antique silver brush in his mouth. “He wants that you brush his hair. I can't do it any longer as my hands are bad and Pedro won't do it.”

The loud clank of the brush, thrown at his feet, was a clear sign of the animal's designs for him. Letting a long sigh out, Julian knelt down and his hand took the brush, noticing the complex pattern of leaves and flowers on the back and handler. He briefly touched the bristles and was surprise to see that they were made of a natural material.

“With long, soft moves,” the woman explained him as she returned to her cooker.

In complete silence, Julian began to brush the animal thoroughly, liking how soft and shinning his hair was.

“I never saw a dog as beautiful as this one,” the boy commented, enthralled by how the hidden silver hairs enhanced the black colour of the animal's back.

“Once you are finished, I'll give you some tea and cookies.”

“I don't know if I'm allowed to take it.”

“What did Mr. Koiranos say?”

“That you will explain me what to do and that I have to look after Lýkos and keep him away from people.”

“Then, keep Lýkos out of trouble as you drink your tea.” Lucia answered with a warm smile. “Dinner is at nine.”

“Do I have to have dinner with him?”

“With Lýkos? No, no, he eats before you and goes out to watch over the property. He will come back late. Don't wait up for him.”

“Does he go to a disco?” Julian chortled very amused at the thought and the “dog's busy agenda”.

“One could never tell,” she chuckled back. “This property's forest is around 21.000 square metres.”

“So big?”

“Yes. The last kings of Portugal spent their honeymoon in here.”

“Here?”

“Not really here. At the small villa next to this one. It also belongs to Mr. Koiranos but he has still not made up his mind about the restoration. All the blueprints are ready, but he's still thinking about it.”

“Must be awfully expensive.”

“Probably,” she answered. “I don't know. Maybe he hates the idea of having many construction workers around. This house is over seven hundred square metres and frankly, he doesn't need more space.” Lucia answered as she served some hot cocoa and cookies to Julian. “Don't feed Lýkos with this. He only eats bio-meat.”

“Bio-meat?”

“The regular one has too many preservatives and hormones for his taste. If he does not like his dinner, he goes hunting, and that could pose a bit of a problem with the neighbours and passing by people. He's very territorial and does not like strangers.”

“Oh.” Julian sat at the table impressed. “This is a large house for one person to clean.”

“Three girls come in the mornings to clean. That's another reason for Lýkos to be outside. He sniffs around them and sometimes knocks things down. I'm afraid one of these days, he's going to get poisoned with all these chemicals. He hates the vacuum cleaner too and tears the tube to pieces. Five down only this year.”

'Lucia cares more for this dog than my mother for me.' In silence, he contemplated how the woman sliced a big piece of red meat in even sizes and put them in another china deep dish. 'Rich people are weirdos.'

“When will your luggage arrive?” Lucia asked, frowning at the battered duffel bag, forgotten in a corner.

“That's all what I have,” Julian answered embarrassed. “I travel light.”

The critical look from the woman dedicated to his clothes didn't go unnoticed. “We must get you something more. The people who come in the mornings are very prissy. Do you have a tie?”

“No, nothing.”

“I'll get you one tomorrow,” she crouched in front of the dog and left the china dish in front of it. “Eat, my dear. No hunting or getting your paws dirty tonight. We have visitors and a new carpet too.”

Julian watched how the animal devoured the meat at a very fast pace and wondered if he had ever tried “bio-meat” in his life. 'Probably not. Sounds expensive.'

“I'll finish cooking dinner and then, I'll show you to your room. Pedro and I leave at seven. You have to warm the food in the microwave and serve it at nine. Put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher, will you? Mr. Koiranos won't give you trouble at all.”

“Don't you stay?”

“No, we live in the city. We drive away at seven. What you have to do is very simple. We come back tomorrow at eight. I'll show you to your room.”