EPPINGTON: THE GUARDED SECRET

done to that boy back in grade school. Years ago, I told Rob and Jase about the incident after I introduced them to Sam and the guys instantly had the utmost respect for her.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Rob had a slight crack in his voice.
I gathered he wanted to go, nonetheless, but his fear of getting on Sam’s last nerve and of the bizarre situation we were witnessing just ahead, prevented him from taking the plunge like Jase did.
Jase recoiled a bit after the Rottweiler approached him. “What...is this?” He turned and asked all of them. “What’s going on here?” Then he looked back at his mom, who was only staring in his direction. “Mom, what’s happened? Are you okay?”
Her silence was unnerving, even for me. On a regular day, Jase’s mother didn’t know how to be quiet. Even though the two were close, they argued like every other Italian family I know. Jase’s mother had lips that went a mile a minute and legs to match. Everything she did was as if she was running a marathon and just had to win every time. But now, there was complete, utter silence. Her lips didn’t move and Jase clearly looked worried. He gently shook her as if to wake her up, but she didn’t even as much as blink.
“What’s wrong with you, Mom?” he demanded. He then turned around and looked at the crowd again with that Rottweiler standing nearby. “What’s wrong with all of you?”
“Young man…” I heard a voice that had drifted from somewhere within Jase’s vicinity. “Look at me…”
Jase turned and looked at the Rottweiler, and in that instant, I knew that’s where the voice had come from. The dog was the one who had spoken!
Jase seemed compelled to look, but then I noticed that look turned into a gaze—one that was eerily similar to what had apparently overwhelmed the others. Suddenly, he too was silent and immediately, all eyes returned toward the area where the dogs were gathered. The Rottweiler went and reclaimed his spot before the crowd.
Jase had either willingly or unwillingly yielded to whatever control that dog had over him. He now stood there with the others, looking straight ahead through those lifeless eyes of his.
“Oh, man! Jase…” Sam muttered.
We all sighed quietly as we’d witnessed what none of us could’ve ever imagined would have happened to our friend. My heart was racing even more now as I assumed my folks were in that exact, same position as Jase and his mother were.
Hartley Mays, our town’s police chief, was at the back of the crowd and his poodle Dolly-Ann was up front next to where the Rottweiler who’d spoken to Jase, stood.
Dolly-Ann was a rather tall poodle and certainly the prettiest I’d seen in these parts. She had a silky white coat with streaks of black, and Mrs. Mays, before she passed, always made sure her dog was properly groomed. Since she died though, Chief Mays seemed to have fallen down on the job. I personally witnessed how carelessly he treated Dolly-Ann a couple of times when I was passing his house—lashing out at her for the slightest thing. I once heard him complain that she was eating him out of house and home, but honestly the poor animal looked to have dropped a few pounds since Mrs. Mays had left the scene. I felt the chief was only keeping Dolly around on the count of his wife’s love for her—not that he had any love himself for the poodle.
Dolly-Ann remained on all four legs as she addressed the crowd. All the while, I was looking around to see if I could spot my folks, or Sam’s or Rob’s, but I wasn’t so lucky yet.
“In case you didn’t know,” Dolly-Ann started in an authoritative voice, “the town of Eppington is now under our control.” A smile stretched across her face. “It’s been under yours for far too long. And needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway...the majority of you treated us like crap! Let’s look at this as clean up time and a bit of karma, shall we?”
“Can you believe this?” Rob whispered behind me.
I shook my head.
Dolly-Ann continued, “Until our ultimate mission is accomplished—a mission you are not yet privy to—you will be subservient like we were to you and I dare say today that Eppington, as you know it, will never be the same again.”
Dolly-Ann stood up on her hind legs and with her right paw, waved before the crowd and dismissed them. The guys and I watched as they immediately parted ways, all returning to their respective homes—humans and pets alike. That’s when I spotted Uncle Charlie. He unknowingly walked right past us toward his house at the southern end of the street. As much as I wanted to call out to him, everything inside admonished me not to; I wasn’t sure why. And within a matter of minutes, the street was empty.
“What the hell!” Sam exclaimed. “Talking dogs? And I wonder what that poodle is really trying to get at.”
“We have to find out more,” I stated.
Rob looked at me incredulously. “How do you suppose we do that? You saw how easy it was for Jase to fall under their spell. I’m not about to join him.”
“Neither am I,” Sam said.
“Me neither,” I added. “But our families are out there and we have to help them any way we can.”
“Of course,” Sam replied. “So, what’s the plan?”
The guys often turned to me and sometimes Jase for all the so-called plans. That was a lot of pressure for a teenage boy who couldn’t even manage to keep his room tidy for more than an hour at a time. Mom constantly threatened to lock me out of my room and make me sleep on the front room couch. She said I needed to be more responsible and to be a better example for Carl since I was older. She certainly made being the older one seem like