AN ENTIRE LIFE IN FOUR ACTS
THREE
As he headed home he believed with all his young heart that he could best honor the memory of his friend by continuing to memorize and deliver those great speeches, those stirring words; he could honor the memory of that which was gone by remembering that which was past and delivering it with the conviction and passion he imagined to have been within the breast of those who first penned the words. While he peddled his bicycle, a quick, silent harbinger of death came down that same street, missing his left shoe by inches. An old dog of mixed ancestry and dubious ownership wandered off the curb at exactly the wrong moment and screamed out in pain at the fire in her hip. He watched this event both in real time and slow motion as he superimposed the face of DeVon onto the poor animal.
He stepped deliberately off the bike beside the panting, prostrate dog and knelt beside DeVon, his friend. Through tears of anguished release, the first tears since DeVon died, he stroked the bloody fur, rocking back and forth on his knees, whispering “I will save you; I will save you.” He lifted the almost-limp dog in his arms, laying her over his shoulder as a mother would a baby. He mounted his bike, sweating his way home through the hot city afternoon. As he peddled, he began reciting the funeral oration delivered by Pericles for all the dead at the end of year one in the Peloponnesian War. It was DeVon’s favorite. The animal’s natural inclination toward devotion bubbled to the top as she withstood the stinging pain in the large muscle of her back leg. She let her head hang over the shoulder of this strange new person. Amazingly, she drifted off smelling the boy’s clothing which still carried the delicious orders of last night’s two-day old gas-station pizza. He had devoured it while striding back and forth delivering Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address to absolutely no one. With the dog, he rode the bike into what would be a garage to those who had ever owned a car. It had become a spare bedroom washroom repair shop and storage room for the collected automobile parts and household junk slated for the next yard sale.
When the ride ended, she was lifted again. The kid slid her body onto a soft pile of clothing among the boxes in the garage. He pulled an old coat over the top, creating a cave that emanated the sweetness of old ladies who often powdered themselves—a light rose motif that played ironically well in the deep recesses of her ancestral brain. The pizza kid lifted her head to help her lap water from a hubcap. He broke bits of pepperoni and crust into bite-sized pieces and left them where her tongue could reach them. Much later, she heard him practicing his orations like songs, like monks chanting in the distance. They were a comfort to him and her.
A creature of habit, the dog did not understand how her old life was dead, her old name never heard again, her cold and hungry existence over. She had no idea her lonely wandering in the city streets ended the moment the pizza smelling kid touched her. The orations were enough comfort for now.
He strode the floor, raising his fist, his voice, his spirit, until the easy rhythms of long-practiced speeches soothed his heart, his mind, his reality, bringing back DeVon. As his performance wound to a flourishing close, he recalled his new DeVon, laying just on the other side of the kitchen door. He checked the cabinets for some different food for her. Finding none, he simply offered his hand. It was enough.
She licked it for a long time then slipped into an uneasy sleep, twitching the injured back leg occasionally. He sat with her, wishing he had a book so he could begin to memorize new passages, new speeches, new talismans, new chants. He began to rock back and forth whispering old orations. Without the freedom to move he believed the performance to be flat and lifeless, but a comfort just the same. Finally, he slept beside her. Boy and dog together amid the ruins, peacefully asleep.
Hey! I saw your post on my homepage and wanted to drop by and send you some good vibes. Whenever you have a moment, I’d be grateful if you could do the same. I’m always happy to support and lift each other up!