Did You Find Everything You Were Looking For? by T. W. Bristol

Author:T. W. Bristol [Bristol, T. W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Quixote Publishing

I waited by the kitchen window to watch Suzanne drive up and park after work. She was late getting home. Jasper rallied and pushed through the dog door probably about when she turned onto the street before the alley. Animals are truly telepathic; there’s no way he could have heard her car then. By the time she parked, he was standing on his hind legs with his paws looped into the wire mesh fence, bark-bark-barking at her. She had all her windows up and I know she rocks out to old music, but I saw her chin rise so she could peer through her rearview mirror. Then her head turned around and I could see her white smile from my distance. She talks to herself a lot and I saw her start a conversation at that point. She got out of the car and pulled her purse and tote bag out behind her, then opened the back passenger door to retrieve a Cap’n Jack’s bag.

“Gad, we are so not remotely alike,” I muttered. I was beginning to think she’d take everything inside and put the groceries away before greeting Jasper. Jasper raised his barks several decibels and upped the pitch at least an octave. I laughed—and at the same instant that Suzanne laughed, dropped all her stuff in the parking lot and ran over to Jasper with her arms out wide. So maybe we’re not so different, after all.

He was hopping on both hind feet, like a giant bunny. When Suzanne got to him, he covered her face with kisses—as if she were the one who’d gone missing. Suzanne was grinning so wide, Jasper licked her teeth, and she didn’t mind at all. Jasper has the cutest thing he does when he’s ecstatic—his body tucks and ducks and curls until his wagging tail is literally whacking himself in the face. He did this with Suzanne, then suddenly became overwhelmed and broke away to run around the yard. Then he couldn’t bear to be away from her, so he returned to the fence, and they started the reunion all over again. They repeated this sequence several times. Finally, Suzanne let herself in the gate, flapping her hands at him to back up so she could come in, and she sat on the ground, and he fell over in her lap like a fainting goat. Fifty-five pounds of love, right there. He began to run out of steam, and she stroked him and murmured to him. I could see his chest rising and falling. Suzanne secretly examined him for sores and wounds, rubbing and patting him. He was so happy. And she was, too. I do not understand Suzanne at all, but Jasper really does love her. This, in a place like Los Angeles, makes us friends.

“This is a scene I can play in my head when I’m feeling down,” I thought to myself. Therapists, all of them, tell you to go to your “happy place” in times of stress. And sometimes I have a hard time finding mine.

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