After Jennifer let the dog into her apartment, she sat down on her blue couch.
Now Jen had a problem on her hands: this dog. What would she do with it? I mean, she'd never had a pet before, it wasn't like she knew what to do in this situation.
She decided to take it to Mrs. Nolton.
Jen tried to pick up the dog, and finally succeeded after the third time. She also realized in that moment just how out of shape she really was.
After opening her door, Jen tried to hold onto her grip of the dog as she tried her best not to stumble down the hall, which was easier than she expected. The hallway was empty, which didn't surprise Jen much, considering that it was the middle of the day and the people were too old to be out of their rooms in the first place.
Thankfully for her, Jen didn't have that to worry about.
When Jen got to the front desk for the second time since she moved, another short girl with straight red hair was at the desk.
She raised her eyebrow slightly: that was how Jen knew that Ron had told everyone about her.
Great.
"Hello, I'm here to see Mrs. Nolton," Jennifer said while holding onto the dog.
"One minute, she's on her tea break," the girl said, and before Jennifer could catch her name tag she was gone behind the mysterious door again.
Tea break? Jen thought while she looked down. The dog was looking up at her again with that same smile on its face.
After a couple minutes, Jen was relieved to see Mrs. Nolton as she hobbled out from the same door that the girl went into to get her. That day she was wearing a bedazzled hat that said "I Love Cats" and another one of her signature track suits, this time in a bright seafoam green color.
"Hello love," she said in that small quivery voice of hers.
"Hello Mrs. Nolton. I was just gonna go to the store, and there was this dog sitting right in front of my door."
"Oh, well let me see here," she responded and reached out her hands.
Jennifer gave the dog over to Mrs. Nolton and she took the dog, which made Jen nervous.
Mrs. Nolton held the dog and inspected it, looking at its ears and mouth.
Why? Jen had no idea.
"Ok, this dog seems healthy," Mrs. Nolton said, and handed the dog back to Jennifer.
"Well, that's good, but Mrs. Nolton? I don't have a dog. This must belong to someone else."
"Do you want me to make a PA call?"
"A what?"
"See here," Mrs. Nolton replied.
She got out a handheld speaker and pressed a button. A loud sound came from the ceiling, like a speaker turning on.
Suddenly, the sound of Mrs. Nolton's voice came from the ceiling, and Jen suddenly understood what Mrs. Nolton meant by 'PA call.'
"Excuse me, but does anyone have a dog that is lost? A d-o-g that is lost? If you do, buzz the front desk and we'll gladly return it, thank you."
When no one responded for the rest of that week, Jen got to keep the dog.
She named it Marci.
