Teri couldn't quite understand the importance of that fog. For a while, after the fog lifted, nothing looked different across the river, but then, over the last few days, fewer and fewer lights were on over there. Another odd thing was that the regular programming for her favorite TV show,, Chopped which was a cooking competition, had just stopped. Ma was complaining that her favorite, a locally filmed talk show, was not on either. The newspaper had quit coming around every day. The neighbors were complaining about the lack of it also.<br/><br/>Today, Teri decided to take a walk to clear her head. She had been living in Ma's head for days and she needed the peace and quiet.<br/><br/>"I'm going out for a while," she called from the open front door.<br/><br/>"Take Baby out with you," Ma called back.<br/><br/>Teri grimaced. Baby, their pit bull, was not a good leash walker. She pulled the leash to go investigate everything. But Teri knew that Ma really didn't need to take the dog out because that pulling against the leash hurt her arthritis.<br/><br/>"Sure thing, Ma." she called back,, "Come on, Baby, Wanna go bye bye?" Teri invited while she got the pink harness and leash from the nail on the wall.<br/><br/>"Yep, yep,. I wanna go bye bye. Wanna see Squirrel. Wanna chase Cat. Maybe mama will give me a corndog. I won't bite nobody cuz I'm a good doggie. Yep, yep."<br/><br/>Teri stood with her mouth open as the dog bounced all around her before finally sitting prettily at her feet.<br/><br/>"Oh my God," she whispered. " I can hear you too ? Did you just say a corndog?"<br/><br/>"Yep, yep. I likes corndogs." The pit grinned a doggy grin at her with her tongue lolling out of her mouth.<br/><br/>"Oh, brother," Teri groaned. "Let me get my purse."<br/><br/>Once out the door, Teri was amused at the dog's view of the world and was finally able to tune it out a little, the way adults would a child. She was brought up short by Baby going into full alert growl. The pit came and parked herself in front of Teri's feet, blocking her from moving further up the street. People were streaming down the street, acting, ...oddly, was the only way that Teri could describe it. No one really walked around here, most people had a car. Only random individuals or small groups of kidss took to the sidewalks, but what was a large group of adults doing. The dog was going into full growl alert now, which made the hair on the back of Teri's neck raise.<br/><br/>"I wanna go home, mama," the dog said as she pressed against Teri's blue jean clad legs. A cold chill ran down the girl's spine, freezing her in spite of the red hoodie she wore. Suddenly she wasn't thinking of how cute her short glossy black hair looked with the brilliant red but was completely aware of how the red stood out against the whites, tans and beiges of the neighborhood.<br/><br/>"I think you are right, Baby," she answered aloud, tugging the leash around. "Let's jog."