Noah and the Dog That Wasn’t There

Noah walked out of the village proper, over the tiny bridge that connected the first of the village’s islands with the mainland, and up a hill. There he sat on a rock and looked back. Taking a biscuit in the shape of a bone from his pocket, he held it out in the palm of his hand.

“Barky,” he said, “now that you’re not here, I don’t know what to do sometimes. Here, chew on this while I figger it out.”

He dropped the biscuit in the tall grass at his feet.

“I can’t go out with Betty all the time. It’s just too much. It was different with you. All I had to do was let you come along. That was all you needed. And yes you barked a lot, Sir Barks-a-lot, but you didn’t expect me to answer you back.”

He looked up at the darkness that was gathering and lowering.

“Might rain, I guess. Wish it would. Then I could just get wet. I wouldn’t have to do anything.”

He heard a mower buzzing somewhere off among the houses. It wasn’t a loud sound. It made the quiet seem quieter, in fact.

“They’d call that boring. All they want to do is play their noisy games. They think I’m strange.”

He took out his phone. He put it back.

“Nope. There’s nothing there I’d rather see.”

He picked up a stick. He looked at the biscuit.

“If you was here, you’d be watching me close. Which way would I throw it? Would I throw it all? It got where I couldn’t fool you.”

He dropped the stick. He shook his head.

“Barky, I miss you, you durned ol’ nuisance.”

After a while he went back to the village and down to the dock and he sat in his boat where he kept it tied up. He looked out to open sea where the big rollers were white-capping.

“Not today, I think.”

He lay down and napped. He dreamed of his dog. It was a good dream.

He went back to the house and made bacon and eggs. It was an odd choice for supper, but his mother was out with her boyfriend, and he was fond of odd choices. Afterwards he laid the plate with its crumbles and egg slick on the floor. He would clean it in the morning. He owed Barky his chance.

2 June 2024
Texas Jim
Prospect, Nova Scotia
www.granitecoast.ca