Will Find You Out

The weather in these mountains is very unusual these days. The heat is absolutely tropical, with moist, saturated air — still air, with no breeze at all — and the sun feeling closer to the earth, the way it feels in Texas. Thunderstorms every day and every night, and the insects are thriving and the frogs are practicing for their annual Dog Days oratorio.

Speaking of frogs, this morning a fine specimen was perched atop the rail around the back deck. I’ve heard that when one sees a turtle on top of a fence post, one can be sure that someone put him there. The frog is probably a lot more capable of ascending a deck railing than a turtle is a fence post, but it still seemed a neat trick. When the sun rose from behind the trees in the woods, I took him down and put him beneath the Japanese stone lantern, where the sun rarely reaches and the ground remains damp.

After my little rescue mission, I scrubbed my hands thoroughly. Because who knows if those old wives tales are true or not?

***

Yesterday evening, Jinx and I were out for a walk while the thunder grew closer. Up ahead, I could hear a vehicle approaching, and I called my dog to come back to me. In a moment, the vehicle came around the curve in the road and I recognized it as soon as I saw the red paint.

It was Jinx’s original owner.

The dog and I stood on the side of the road and the truck glided up to us and stopped.

“How’s ‘at dog a-doin’?

I allowed that the dog was doing fine. As I spoke, I felt Jinx lean against my leg. I looked down and saw him pressed up against me, almost trembling. He was watching his former owner closely, and his tail was down, curved under his belly. I looked back at the man and my dislike for him intensified just a bit.

“Hey, puh-peh. Hey, puh-peh. Yore better lookin’ than yore sister.”

Jinx never moved, never looked away, never wagged his tail. He was as still as one of the tombstones a few yards away, as immobile as one of the stone lions outside of a big-city public library. The man shook his head and managed a dry laugh. Beer fumes wafted over to me. I peered into his bleary eyes. He seemed different from the last time I saw him. Diminished. Hollow. He looked from me to the dog and back to me.

“I was just thinkin’ about you t’other day. Ain’t nobody I’d rather see ownin’ this here dog than you. I’ve driv by several times and always see y’all out playin’ and havin’ a good time. I’d say he’s got a good home.”

“I like to think he does,” I said. “He’s happy here. We enjoy each other.”

“I’d say you do –” He broke into a fit of coughing.

“You all right?” I asked.

He grimaced, waved his cigarette at me. “Ah. Still weak from layin’ up in that hospital.”

“Hospital?” I said. “What were you in the hospital for?”

He laughed and then fell into coughing again. When he stopped, he wiped his eyes and pointed at himself. “My woman. She stabbed me.”

I gaped at him. “Stabbed –the woman who was with you when you came by here the first time?”

He nodded. “Yep. Run a steak knife up in me here and drug it acrost over to here, and then stabbed me again here.” He gestured with his free hand at his abdomen.

I glanced down at a Jinx, who was still frozen. “Well. Man. I mean…why’d she do that?”

“No idea.”

“You weren’t in an argument? Nothing like that?”

He shook his head and took a drag off his cigarette and tossed it out the other window. “Nope. Just walked up to me and started a-stabbin’. And on Father’s Day, of all thangs.”

I stared at him. “Well, you’ve been down the rough road for sure.”

“Tell me about it.”

“So what happened to her?”

“She’s in jail. Probably be in there for a while, ‘cos ain’t nobody gonna bail her sorry ass out.”

Thunder right above us, and a slight breeze moved through the weeds at my feet. “Are you the one who called the law on her?”

He nodded. “Damn right. Wuddn’ gonna let her just stab me in my own house. And now I got to wear this bag.” He pointed at a bulge higher on his abdomen.

“So you’ve got an ostomy bag now?”

He nodded.

I shook my head. “Man. What a mess. I hate that happened to you.”

He shrugged. “Ah, well. No sense cryin’ about it.” The thunder boomed again, deeper, like a tympani just above us. He looked down at Jinx one more time. “Well, I’d better get movin’. Gotta go get them cats fed.”

I stepped back and Jinx stepped back with me. The man raised his hand and I raised mine, and he drove down the road, around the curve, and out of sight. Jinx stayed right against my leg until I said his name. He looked up at me as if coming out of a trance and nuzzled my hand, then wagged his tail. He lifted a paw as if pointing, then started out at a trot in the direction of our house.

“Glad you weren’t around for any of that, boy,” I whispered to him as he trotted.

~ S.K. Orr