A Sandwich Short of a Picnic by Felicity Price

Author:Felicity Price [Felicity Price]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781869796389
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2011-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

I got up an hour early to fit everything in, phoning the dog home to warn them I’d be out to get Tigger shortly, while eating breakfast, scanning the paper to see if there was anything in it about funeral homes (not a thing, fortunately), and listening to Morning Report for the same item (nothing there either).

Tigger just about knocked me over when he came bounding out of the kennel area, jumping all over me and covering me with sticky wet slobber. Knowing him well, I’d worn an old pair of jeans and my dog-walking polar fleece. My work clothes were stowed safely in the boot away from his dirty paws. Then he tore past me and leapt into the car, installing himself firmly in the back and refusing to budge. But no sooner was I in and the door closed than he started to lick my ear and breathe his awful doggy breath all over me.

‘Get in the back, you silly dog,’ I laughed, fondling him. ‘Come on, we’re going into town and you’ve got to behave all day.’ He’d been into the office before and knew the etiquette. As long as nobody left their lunch or anything edible in their handbag at Tigger level, he was okay.

It was quite a hike back into town and, before we got to the built-up area, I let him out in a grassy lay-by, where he repeatedly stamped his mark on the shrubbery. But as soon as I headed for the car, he streaked after me and beat me through the door, determined not to be left behind again.

By the time we got back into town he was happily asleep. I parked in the hospital carpark, opened the tops of both windows to give Tigger some air, and found Dad’s ward. He was sitting up in bed looking pale and wan, with a tube coming out of the back of his hand and an oxygen mask across his face. He tried to take off his mask to speak but I put up my hand to stop him.

‘Don’t try to talk, Dad. The nurse has given me strict instructions not to tire you.’ He looked as if he were about to protest. ‘No, please, Dad. Let me talk for a minute.’

I held onto his hand and, for the first time in ages, told him how much I loved him, how much I’d been depending on him lately and how I could see now the toll it had taken on him. I told him that all was well at home — a slight exaggeration I admit — and I told him about the tramping trip and how good it had been to get away from things for a while, to see my life as if in a fishbowl, looking in from the outside and examining myself swimming round and round endlessly chasing my tail, pursuing a goal that seemed to change daily. I told him that Mum would be well looked after at the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.