The leaves were thick on this trail in the woods outside my
sister’s house. It was an October weekend, and my sophomore year at Lake State
wasn’t going any better than the one before it. I took Beth’s black Lab along
for company; he was a good listener to my complaints. Wayne sniffed at a tree
ahead of me, then thought about chasing a squirrel before trotting back happily
to my side, tail wagging gleefully. He was Beth’s dog, but her boyfriend Johnny
claimed Wayne was mine, as he always seemed happier on the weekends I’d come
over. He asked if we were planning on going any farther, or turning back
towards the house for pretzels. “I don’t know…we’ve got time to go a few more
miles before leaving for the game.”
We’d planned on going to see the Greyhounds play Sarnia.
Last time I’d been to a Greyhounds game they lost to Sudbury, the Wolves
scoring four goals to our two. I’d been at that game with David and Melanie…It
was a long time since January. Wayne popped his nose up under my hand, saying
as plain as he could, “It’s okay, Callie. You’ve got Beth and Johnny and me,
and besides; there’s so much to explore!” He didn’t really understand, but
then, can a dog ever really understand what we people say? Still, I don’t guess
I really understood it either, if I was being honest. And that made me really
mad. Which is part of the reason I was taking this hike; to get away from
everyone and everything. And it was calming to be in the natural world of
nature, the familiar world of the wild animals and trees. I watched as a raccoon crawled along from his
secret hiding place behind a pine where he’d just stashed his latest shiny loot.
I snorted at my use of the word “shiny” in that sentence. The Firefly connotation wasn’t what I’d
meant - the raccoon for real took a shiny metallic object – but he’d probably
thought the watch or whatever-it-was was cool. I knew where that reference had
came from…
The wind was blowing in from Lake Superior; I zipped up my
jacket a little higher. Melanie was the one who gave me this jacket, come to
think of it….We’d grown up at Newberry High, were pretty much inseparable. It
was our little group, our own little tribe. The three of us just clicked. David
and I went on to Lake State, and Mel found a job as a hairstylist in town. That
made things different. I’m not sure what was so foreign about the change; but I
really didn’t handle it well. Maybe none of us did. Maybe nobody ever does.
David seemed to handle things better than I did. He’d always gotten along with
people the best of our clique; I was more at home with nature and Mel was the
one with imagination. We both went Greek, and my grades settled into a steady
parade of C’s, with the occasional B thrown in at random intervals. I really
missed living with Beth and Johnny and Wayne; so I came out here as often as I
had a few hours. There was a lot of stupid trash stupid unthinking careless
people littered up the world with; even in my patch of trails. I dug out the
trash sack I usually carried in a pocket reserved for pickup like this. Kind of
weird, since Mom and Beth had/have such a hard time getting me to clean my
space. But that’s indoors, it’s different.
If you find out that he’s cheating on you with your best
friend….well. What do you do? That “Greek community” thing didn’t work out too
well – I had one sister, and that was enough, didn’t need any sentimental fake
chicks doing that whole routine. I started drinking more often. That seemed to
work. I ran into them at the Snowman Burning in March by mistake; it was
disgusting the way they were fawning all over each other selfie-ing.
Wayne was busy marking a tree. I’d rather not see that, but,
hey, he’s a dog, and that’s what they do. And he’s helped so much over the last
couple months, just…by being himself. I can overlook poor manners this once. Beth’s
cat Scraps has been sweeter than usual to me, too. That proves I must be pretty
low.
Beth had named him after Gretzky; we’ve always been rink
rats, our family’s always followed the Greyhounds, Mom remembered seeing him
play in ’77 as a kid. As for NHL teams, I’m a follower of the Red Wings, Beth
pulls for the Jets.
We kept going along the trail; I was cleaning litter from
the highway, Wayne was chasing squirrels. A hawk sailed overhead. Things were
pretty silent; not many cars going down the road; most of the noises were
natural. The wind whipping along. A chickadee whistled its tune. A purple finch
stared at me, trying to figure out what I was doing in his world. It was
peaceful.
There was old beer cans and the remains of Chinese takeout
in some dead leaves over there; I started to clear it away. Several
rice-containers coated in sweet-and-sour sauce later I figured I had it all
picked up. Then I noticed a runaway fortune cookie skittering along the path.
It was still in the wrapper, not even eaten. If you have Chinese food, how do
you not eat the fortune cookies, too?
I popped the left side of the plastic prison open and tossed the entire thing
into my mouth. One good crunch, and then I felt the paper on my tongue. I
fished it out and looked to see what the fortune said. Not that I believe in
them or anything; they’re masterworks of vague generality. Like Zodiacs or
whatever those are called.
“The love of your life will appear in front of
you unexpectedly,” the slip of paper read. Yeah, right. Then I noticed a pair
of joyous brown eyes and a cold, pointy black nose over a lapping, licking
dog-tongue. I grinned, shaking my head. “Maybe they work, once in a while.” He
barked he was ready to go home. “All right, boy. Let’s go.”
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