yet another story...'dog'

The dog died.  His daughter wouldn’t go to school.  His wife wouldn’t go to work because she was worried for their daughter.  He drove the dead dog to the vet.  The vet said the dog had died of old age.  He asked what he should do with the body.  The vet replied that they could cremate it, but it would cost.  He didn’t have a great deal of money and he thought pet cemeteries were corny, so he decided on the way home to bury the dog himself.  The dead dog was in the boot of the car wrapped in the same blanket it always used to sleep on.

At home he found his wife sitting with his daughter at the dinner table.  They were writing something together.  He kissed them both and asked what was going on.  ‘We’re writing a poem’ said his daughter. It was a poem about the dog.  ‘We’ll read it to you when it’s done’ added his wife.  He went and hung his coat up, then stood at the window for a while.  He was thinking of places he could bury the dog.  There was a stretch of woodland not far from where they lived that was pretty unfrequented.

In the garage he kept his shovel.  As he entered the garage and walked around the car to get to it, he had a sudden and very strong urge to open the boot and look at the dead dog again.  He stopped and felt in his pockets for his car keys.  He took them out, put them in the lock, turned and then opened the boot.  The dead dog still lay there, a bundle of useless limbs.  He paused for a while and could hear himself breathing, then he rolled up his sleeves and went to pull back the blanket.  He couldn’t remember which end the head was, and he was sweating a little and wondered why he was doing this.  It was dead, full stop.  But the eyes – he wanted to see the dead dog’s eyes.

Back in the kitchen his wife and his daughter were waiting so they could read the poem about the dog to him.  He washed his hands thoroughly in the sink, dried them on a tea towel and sat down at the table.  His daughter came and perched on his lap, at least she seemed to have recovered.  His wife smiled curiously.  ‘Where have you been all this time?’ she asked.