A good boy.

It’s 2:36 am. The 10th of July. There aren’t enough stars in the sky tonight. It’s a clear night, no clouds, not even a breeze. The only stars I can see arc in a line across the void, like the seam of one of those toy capsules. I find myself facing a path of trees that quickly open into a field of untrimmed grass. As I walk down the path, the edges of the field go past what I can see in the 3 directions in front of me. One line of telephone cables runs through the vast openness. To my left there’s a picnic table and to my right a Little Library. Being lit by the moon that appeared to be an inch closer every time I looked, I opened the door to the box and found an old note. It smelt like a fairly aged book, like carpet and leather, but had no indication that it had ever been bound. The paper read only 2 lines of text.
“He likes head pats. And can run farther than you can throw.” I looked back the way I came to find that now, it was just more open fields.
No trail.
No car.
No road home.
I walked over to the table and took a heavy seat. Resting my left arm on the tabletop, the other headed for the seat but stopped shorter than I had anticipated. Instead of feeling the slivers of wood ready to puncture if I moved across them, my hand was greeted with a wet sphere. A baseball. Partially chewed but resembling those of the 1900s brown leather. Putting the pieces together, I got up and chucked the ball a fair distance into the open plain. The sounds of heavy panting and grass rustling filled the space in front of me. Within a few seconds, the ball was back at my feet. I threw it again, aiming a little to the left. Again, back at my feet. When I threw it the 3rd time, I noticed a faint silhouette travel towards the ball and then back to me. Throwing it a few more times, each with a bit more might than the last, the shape became clearer. By the time and hour had passed, there, sitting patiently at my feet was a wispy blue Retriever with a collar that read, “To those that need me most - Echo.” I scratched behind his ears and rewarded him with a couple good head pats, each one puffing off like smoke even though I could feel a solid dog beneath my hand. Pumped up and ready to go, Echo was raring to run. Another hour passed, lobbing this ball as far I could in every direction. I was feeling it now in my shoulder but seeing the smile on this lad was all the motivation I needed to push through the pain. This time when I threw it, the ball fell into the tall grass, Echo was about halfway to it when it returned to me with the same arcing motion as it had been thrown. I caught the ball with shock as the grass indented towards me around 2 footprints instead of the 4 I was getting used too. Appearing a lot quicker than Echo did, a woman formed out of the same smoky essence.

“Thanks” she laughed “my arm was getting tired.”

“A lovely dog you’ve got there” I coughed thinking about the rest of my life, and maybe more, being filled with dog talk.

“He’s quite the champ. Helped a lot of people in his life and then next” she said while rubbing his belly.

“I really didn’t know what to expect after I read your note, but this was a nice treat. And besides, if I’m here forever,” looking past the box and table, the path of trees was there again. “I- uhh, might as well have some fun. Uhh, when did th- It was there the whole time. You just didn’t seem to need it yet. A good workout with Echo tends to take people’s minds off whatever is chasing them-Oh-It was nice to see another smiling face. Comeback anytime, it doesn’t work here anyways-Uh, thanks. Can I throw the ball one more time?

With a grin on her face, she hands me the ball. Giving a good shake, I hurl the ball past the telephone poll with Echo dashing behind.

Heading back to my car, I look back to see her waving while echo drops the ball at her feet and barks. They wisp away as the forest closes around them returning the hiking trail to its original form...

C05

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