Loyalty

 

He was an attractive dog, as dogs go, with a short red coat and the sleek build of a greyhound.

The clerk said he’d been hanging around the gas station for a few weeks, but they’d been directed not to feed him anything.

People would see him as they gassed up their cars or trucks, and some would try to tempt him into their vehicles with gas station hot dogs and the promise of a life of luxury.

He ignored them all and waited patiently for that same clerk who surreptitiously snuck out the back door with food and water.

Thanksgiving

In the tiny bedroom, the mustiness of damp grownup coats and gloves mingled with the scent of roast turkey and pies.

Cousins and second cousins were hunkered down on the floor, by the heating vent, shushing each other.

None of them could remember how it had happened, only that now this was a Thanksgiving ritual here at Aunt Nora’s house.

Because this was where they could hear the adults talking around the big table set up in the basement, and it was a delicious thrill to know they were spying on them.

They also learned how damn boring adults are.

  

Morning Chores

 

He knew he was being observed, so he stayed very still, watching the hose fill the horses’ water tank. Beyond the fence, the forest stretched for miles without any interference from civilization.

Slowly he let his gaze wander up and into the trees, and there they were.

He couldn’t see anything but their eyes, and he was careful not to make eye contact with any of them. There were at least twenty; some on the ground and more in the branches.

He heard the jangle of his guard dog’s tags coming, and as one, all the eyes blinked and disappeared.

 

Sprayers

 

They drove up the driveway in a golf cart, and they smelled vaguely of some sort of chemical.

It was their job to notify landowners that they were spraying herbicide under the electrical lines.

She asked what plants it would kill, and they said, “Everything. That’s the point.” Then, she asked if it was safe for animals, and they said, “Oh, yeah. We’ve been doing this for three years and it gets all over us.” And they laughed.

She signed the “No Spray” form, and watched them leave, one with an extra arm, and the other with a snazzy tail.

Dream

 

She woke up from the strangest dream.

Looking around, all she could think of was, “We’re not in Kansas anymore” which was weird, because she hadn’t been in Kansas.

The big old house was sweetly familiar, yet vaguely different.

There were people in the house, but they walked right past her like she didn’t exist.

An old man entered the room and reached out his hand to her. “Can they see you?” she asked, and he smiled and shook his head. Then they went out to work in his garden, just like they had when she was a little girl.

Plane

 

They were flying in his small private plane, and they were arguing.

Well, she was arguing, and he was just glowering. And piloting the plane.

She was intolerable at best, and a monster at worst and he could not remember why he married her in the first place.

He glanced over at her hateful profile and asked, calmly, “Would you rather I was dead?”

She turned her head, and, looking deep into his eyes, whispered, “Yes.”

Staring at the now-empty pilot’s seat, the door flapping in the wind, she suddenly realized she did not know how to fly a plane.

Sandwich

 

He liked whole grain bread for toast and sandwiches. It added a nutty and robust flair to a meal.

Good deli meat and cheese, fresh greens and real mayonnaise- there was a sandwich to write home about.

On days when he was feeling especially daring, he had a handful of kettle chips alongside.

The only downside was that the crust of the bread tended towards bitterness, and it made him sad that it ruined an otherwise perfect lunch.

One day, he realized…he was 60 goddamn years old and did not have to eat the crust if he didn’t want to.