9/15/2010

The Memory Beneath the Bed


Watching her dance with joy, he clenches his mind tightly and vows to hold onto this moment. He reminds himself that the day will come when she’s no longer here and he will want to take the memory out like a cherished amulet carried in his pocket and feel its beauty in his hand.

And then, inevitably, she is gone.  Because life distracted him and he forgotten to pay attention, to appreciate her devotion and reward it with his grateful touch, he was taken by surprise by her departure.  Alone, he walks paths they once walked together and he tries to conjure up her presence.  He reaches into the pocket of his mind, but all he finds is a void filled with nothing but lint.

It seems that she was always there, a part of his life for so long.  Learning to “be” without her seems impossible. He expects her to come around the next corner, breaking into a big smile when she sees him.  He sees her out of the corner of his mind, and turns to find emptiness.  

Eventually he forgets to look for her. He's on his hands and knees one day, looking under the bed chair for a missing sock and thinking that he can’t blame her for losing this one.  When he shines his flashlight into the darkness under the bed, he doesn’t see the sock.  Instead, the beam catches sight of one perfect brown curl of hair, laying on the carpet.  Suddenly his mind unclenches and she is there, dancing with joy, and slurping moist doggy kisses all over his face.

11 comments:

  1. oh i thought this was about to make a very scary turn there at the end...smiles. woof woof.

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  2. You got me! Loved the ending; I didn't see it coming.

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  3. Oh ..that devotion is unmatched by man...nice write...bkm

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  4. Aw... I'm gonna go hug my pets now. :P

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  5. Brian and Janice: Great. I was hoping to introduce just a note of 'scary' there.

    bkm: And they love you even when you have bad breath and scary hair. How great is that?

    Jeff: And you know they totally deserve it.

    (psst... over here, in the corner of her mind. Was that Jeff saying "Aw..."? Way cool.

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  6. G-Man: Yeah, that would be me. (wink, wink)

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  7. Nicely written Patti, long time and i liked the ending :)

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  8. Wild Rose: I'm glad. Moving from sad to slurpy happiness is fun.

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  9. Stop by been missing your face haha...

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