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A Boy and His Dog by C.L. Bledsoe I don’t remember why I looked outside, but there Dad was, his beaten-down, once-black Ford pulled over in the tall grass, up the road toward the top of the ridge. I went to meet him, thinking anything would be better than the boredom inside. When I was closer, I saw he had his snake rifle aimed at a dog running across the far side of the valley. I knew what he was thinking: the dog had been spooking the cows, might incite them to hurt themselves or at least raise worry. So he was taking the practical solution. A rise blocked him from seeing the boy climbing the other side of the ridge, up from Aunt Mary Bob’s trailer, chasing his dog that’d gotten out. And I ran, trying to beat that crack of thunder that travelled miles faster than I ever could. Sailing the Seas of Carpet I’m working when she asks if I’ll get down on the floor to play with her. I have to get these grades in. I’ve explained that I have to work to make money. Also, everything will fall asleep if I do get down there, including me. But I do it because no one ever did for me. She hands me a doll. I’m Anna because she wants to be Elsa. I don’t have a preference. They’re sisters but they’re not really sisters but they live in the same castle that’s actually a boat but still a castle and the carpet is the sea and they’re both princesses. And they’re actually sisters. But Anna is the daddy. The shoes won’t stay on my doll. My daughter jumps up and runs to her bedroom to make a potion to turn them both into fairies that are mermaids but still princesses. She’s already calling for me. I crawl to my feet. As soon as I get settled on the floor, she’s finished the potion, which consists of a bucket of beads and all the little hard things I tend to step on scattered around the floor with a few having landed in a small bucket. Then, we run back, well, she runs back and I limp, to the living room, carrying the potion which means she’s spilling beads on the carpet. I decide to crawl and scoop as many as I can, but she’s calling for Anna to come rescue the prince who was captured by pirates. I remember when I was a kid, playing war even though I wasn’t interested in war, but I’d seen other boys doing it. Mostly, I wanted to take everything apart and put it back together. I’m thinking about that deadline, the grading. She dumps beads out and sorts through them, finds a quarter in the potion and hands it to me. “I’m the boss,” she says. “You work for me. Now play.” |
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