Guard Dog

 

Guard Dog

 

The sun set and his people were tucked into the house.

The dog started his perimeter check, head and tail up, sniffing and listening.

He began to bark.

Inside, the family shook their heads. He was a great dog, but good lord, the barking.

“What is he barking at?” the little girl asked, nervously.

Her mother laughed and said, “He’s such a big goofball, it’s probably a turtle in the pond or leaves on the trees.”

Alone in the dark, the dog did what he did every night, and stared down the very real monsters who would harm his family.  

Clouds

 

Clouds

They loved sunny afternoons like this, with nothing to do but relax and use their imaginations.

“That one looks like a seahorse!”

“Which one?”

“That little one there shaped like a seahorse! Next to the one that looks like a balloon.”

“Oh. Now I see it! A seahorse holding a balloon!” and they both laughed.

They laughed so hard, they started to cry, and then others around them started to cry, too.

Far below, the surprised humans looked up at the clouds that had been white and fluffy a minute ago and ran inside to get out of the rain.

Hair

 

Hair

 

I was going to compliment her on her hair.

The woman in front of me had the most beautiful silky silver hair pulled back into a high sleek ponytail, and I started to say something when I saw the look on her face.

She was angry, really angry.

“May I help you?” the nice lady behind the counter asked.

“Yes! You can stop putting other people’s mail in my post office box” the woman snapped, throwing an envelope across the counter and stomping out the door.

The postal worker looked shocked.

“Your hair looks wonderful today” I told her, smiling.

Noise

 

Noise

 

“What is that noise?” she thought to herself. It only happened during the day, and the nights were peaceful and quiet.

Stealthily, she crept around the tiny, renovated church, trying to pinpoint its origin.

People had warned her that the building was so old a bulldozer would be a mercy, but she had ignored the naysayers and turned it into a cozy, perfect little home for herself.

Climbing the narrow stairs to the steeple, she poked her flashlight through a crack in the door and sighed.

They had been right, after all.

She really did have bats in her belfry.

Crows

 

Crows

 

She left cookies out for them, and they brought her shiny things.

People annoyed her. She preferred the company of the crows.

She left her doors and windows open, and the crows came and went like Family.

Eventually, she withdrew into herself, depressed.

“My family is gone” she told the crows perched around her. “Why the hell am I still here?”

The day she decided to drive her car off the bridge, she left cookies out for the crows, but then couldn’t find her keys.

She never thought of looking up in the tree, where the crows had taken them.

The Road Home

 

The Road Home

It was late, on a dark and stormy night.

The wiper blades were brand new, but it was still damn difficult to see the road.

He loved working 2^nd shift, but nights like this could be tricky.

As he approached the long narrow bridge, he instinctively slowed down, just a little bit.

He’d lived in this swampland his whole life; grown up hearing the folklore that outsiders thought of as silly or quaint, but never true.

He felt its eyes on him, and he gazed back as steadily as possible.

They nodded to each other politely and he drove on.

Nose

 

Nose

She sat, stunned, as the entire family acted like nothing had happened.

They had all seen it. In fact, they’d laughed.

Her grandfather had reached across the table and taken her nose.

Just like that.

She hadn’t even been aware that it was removable.

Horrified, she’d clutched at her face. It didn’t feel any different, but clearly there was her nose in between her grandfather’s fingers. 

As she started to cry, her grandfather quickly put her nose back, chuckling and tousling her hair.

And now, everyone had moved on.

But she had not.

And she would have her sweet revenge.