White Dog Page #3

on that wild cat deal...

but he's got to be ready on the 16th.

And you're gonna need a hell

of a lot of time to crack him.

Good morning, Mr. Keys.

Good morning, Miss Sawyer.

Good morning, Mr. Carruthers.

- What's good about it?

- Keys letting me watch him work.

That old dog of yours

is unusually powerful, Miss Sawyer.

You can call me Julie, you know.

Well, Julie that means

that I'm gonna have to be...

stronger and meaner

to wear him down.

That's just the rock bottom beginning.

I got to wear him down till he realizes

it does him no good to attack me.

- And then he's cured?

- Oh, no.

Then comes the permanent

reconditioning of his brain.

Now we move into step two...

of the procedure.

What was step one?

With the muzzle.

You better get in that cage next to him.

He would never hurt me.

Would you, huh?

Get in the cage, please.

I'm gonna make you learn...

that it's useless to attack black skin.

All right. There it is.

See, it's not your enemy.

Sniff it.

Not yet?

I don't understand.

One minute he...

he's gentle as a lamb,

and the next minute he's a monster.

He's not the monster.

No, he was made into one

by a two-legged racist.

You know, I don't understand

how that can happen. I really don't.

How can someone

turn a dog into a racist?

Well, over a hundred years ago,

they raised dogs to catch runaway slaves.

Then they progressed -

to track down runaway black convicts.

What about runaway white convicts?

Well, almost overnight...

they graduated to a vicious breed

of watchdogs...

trained to tear apart

any blacks within sight.

Does he attack any other color?

No. Dogs live in

a black-and-white world.

Unlike ours, they live it

visually and not racially.

- The man who owned him...

- Yes?

- How did he turn him into a racist dog?

- It's simple.

Find a black wino

who desperately needs a drink...

or a black junkie

who'll do anything for a fix...

and then pay them to beat that dog

of yours when he was a puppy.

A puppy?

The younger the better.

And as the dog grew up,

those methodical beatings by blacks...

planted that seed of fear in him.

And that fear became hate,

and that hate...

conditioned him to attack

the color black before...

Before black can attack him.

Well, can't the sick part

of him be cut out?

- Like a cancer?

- Oh, yes.

But, to me,

lobotomy is a barbaric recourse.

You see, Julie, I'd like to develop

a foolproof method of reconditioning...

so that anyone, anywhere,

within a matter of weeks...

will be able to eradicate

that racist poisoning permanently.

Maybe that way that'll stop bigots from

investing hate and time into dogs like yours.

Has anyone ever tried doing that -

without surgery?

Oh, yeah. A number of

animal experts, you know...

but they all stop when they reach

that same danger zone -

that crucial instant where tampering

with a dog's twisted mind just boomerangs.

And then what?

Homicidal maniac.

He could turn on... anybody.

Even me?

Twice I've gotten into the brain

of a white dog.

Twice I've come that close...

to cutting out that savagery

without using a knife.

And both times the experiment failed.

Ah, she's a beauty.

You sure you got the right one?

Ask Teddy.

It's a big molar.

Yeah. Be nice to add to your collection

on that necklace.

Did I ever tell you about the time

I pulled the tooth of a billy goat?

No, Carruthers,

I don't believe you ever have.

Well, I had this billy goat,

and he was mean as a striped-ass spider.

Hi, handsome. Look what I got for you.

Look at that.

You're gonna like this.

You like the bun, huh?

Juicy hamburger.

No one but this color black

feeds that dog! No one!

He's got to know he's stuck with me.

What happened to

that pretty face of yours?

You like you got caught

with your hand in a cookiejar.

Keys caught me.

Doing something naughty?

Yeah, something real naughty.

Something really stupid.

Did he chew you out?

He should have spanked me.

What did you do?

I fed Mr. Hyde.

Hell, that'll set Keys back

a full week of work...

trying to change that dog

back into Dr. Jekyll.

Keys.

Hey, Keys.

That damn mutt of yours

bit his way out through the roof.

He'll probably try to climb over

the fence, like that bobcat.

Well, if he does, he's gonna

have an electric hangover.

It'll serve him right.

The dog busted out of the compound.

I think he must have hit a branch

and set off the electrified fence.

Now, as soon as it's light,

we'll try to find him.

He killed a man.

In a church.

And I'm sure it's not

the first black man he's killed.

Why didn't you kill him?

I wanted to shoot him at the church.

Why didn't you?

how I wanted to put a bullet

in that son of a b*tch!

Then why the hell didn't you?

Because there's still

a chance to cure him.

Cure him?

He just killed a man.

There is no way you can cure that dog!

I want you to shoot him now,

before he kills more blacks!

So you finally joined the club.

That club of horrified people who raise

holy hell about that disease -

that racist hate - but do absolutely

nothing to stamp it out.

That dog is the only weapon we have

at least to remove a part of it!

If I cure him.

If?

"If" is not gonna stop him

from killing people!

Yes, Julie. I can't guarantee the result.

But if I fail...

I'll get another white dog...

and another, or another,

or another, and another...

and keep on working till I lick it.

Because that's the only way to stop

sick people from breeding sick dogs.

And goddamn it...

I can't experiment on a dead dog.

I'm gonna break you.

I'm not through with you... yet.

This Romanian caviar

is too good to go to waste.

Well, I feel like

all three of us are conspirators.

We are.

Well, we'd better get ready

for the pokey then.

Now look. That dog could have snapped

off this black enemy hand.

But look, it's intact.

And that's a spark of reconditioning.

To our first breakthrough.

To the hamburger.

How did he get into all this?

- What?

- All this.

All of what? Oh.

That's breeding.

Keys was suckled on anthropology.

His mother teaches it,

and his father writes about it.

Keys drives a Mercedes-Benz

while his classmates...

teaches grammar

to little knotheads.

That must be Tom

with the serum for those Kodiaks, huh?

- Yep.

- Don't you miss what your parents do?

No. They're welcome to

their academic world.

I can live where I want and go where I please

and work where I live.

You know, and every cage

in that compound is a test tube.

I mean, to me, Noah's Ark

is like a laboratory...

that Darwin himself

would go ape over.

These smell good.

While it's hot.

Sour cream.

- Love it.

- Fattening.

Come on in, Tom.

Sorry to bother you folks.

I'm from San Berdoo.

I'm looking for Yakima Crossing.

Oh, it's about 10 miles

further up the road.

It's the second turn on your left.

There's no sign.

Thank you.

Enjoy your dinner, folks.

We all know that...

in the long run, what we're doin'

with this dog is proper.

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