Day One _should_ have ended
              at 11:30 p.m.,
          Candlewood Suites,
         Pearl, Mississippi.

Instead, Candlewood had one more scene.

Been through that lobby
     with Orca enough times
     that the front desk knows
     the usual configuration:

     me,
        road-tired,
                   with dog.

This time, her absence checked in first.

“Is your dog with you?”

“Nope, I just have my daughter this time.”

And there it was: the gap.

They hadn’t asked
     whether there was _a pet_.

Hadn’t asked
       whether Orcus contained
                anything small,
                         furry,
                   opinionated,

      and difficult to explain
        on a registration form.

They asked about a dog.

The answer was no.

Between the question they asked
    and the question they meant,

    one little strip of unmonitored language
    opened just wide enough

    for four pounds of Bubbles.

He wasn’t a dog.

That was the full extent
     of our legal strategy.

Then came fifteen minutes
     in which a Candlewood Suites
     in Pearl, Mississippi,

     acquired the stress level

     of _Mission: Impossible_.

No ceiling wires.
No elaborate disguises.
No exploding gum.

Just Ava and me,
     four pounds of classified cargo,
     and the sudden conviction

     that every camera
     had been installed
     specifically for this moment.

Turns out,
      trying to look like people
      with nothing to sneak

      is _exactly_ how people look

      when they are sneaking something.

Every casual step
      felt rehearsed.

Every glance at a camera
      became a confession.

Somewhere between Orcus
          and a safely closed hotel-room door,
          four pounds became

          the heaviest thing in Mississippi.

Fifteen minutes later:

       Bubbles inside,
   operation complete,
     stress returning

     to non-cinematic levels.

Success.

No lie told—
   just one small truth
   asked to carry

   four extra pounds.

Orca wasn’t with us.

They never asked who was.