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It’s Shaping up to be a Good Day

Here’s another short story from the old fiction department. I like writing stuff like this sometimes. Forgive me. This is a light-hearted tale and I hope you enjoy it.

I got up pretty early. I hadn’t slept well. I dreamt a lot. I dreamt of rabbit hunting for some odd reason, when actually I had never even seen a rabbit. But you know how dreams can be. The last glimpses of my dream quickly evaporated into daytime reality as they usually do. I yawned.

I decided I would go out since it was looking to be a nice day. I checked out the kitchen to see what was lying around but I was the first one up and nobody had begun cooking breakfast yet. I don’t cook for myself so I slipped out the back door. Those silly kids left it open again. Thankfully there’s a dog in the house to protect them. I headed outside.

Usually I go to town in the car, but since the day was shaping up so nicely I looked forward to a nice walk so I started towards town. I meandered actually; I was in no hurry. I walked about a block when one of my neighbors came out of their house, waving nicely at me, to collect their morning paper. I gave my typical nod and kept moving. My neighbors can be weird sometimes so I try to stay uninvolved. They can be waving at me one minute, then taking a tone with me the next. Some people are crazy, I sometimes think to myself. I avoid most of them.

The Neighbor’s Trash

About three-quarters of a block later I spotted something that really got my attention. This may sound strange, but one of my neighbors had something interesting in their trash. I just had to investigate — you know how it is, perhaps. “Curiosity killed the cat,” as they say, but it never hurt me. I crossed the street walking diagonally towards their trash cans, which were lined up by the curb. I checked them out casually — I didn’t want anyone taking a tone with me — but it ended up being nothing but paper goods and your general trash, plastics, cans, glass, you know. I re-crossed the street to walk under the trees again and kept moving towards town.

I walked for about five minutes when something up in a tree caught my eye. It looked like a cat stuck up there. My suspicions were confirmed as I was treated with a scared meow. Not being a big cat fan, I was sort of amused by the sight. I knew it wouldn’t be long before a firetruck showed up to get the stupid cat down from the tree. Wasting tax dollars, which seems foolish even though I don’t deal with that stuff. The missus does that. I kept walking.

The Wooded Way

The street bisects a patch of woods. I love this part my neighborhood. I left the sidewalk and decided to cut through the woods for a bit. It was quite shaded from the canopy of pine trees over head and I walked on a carpet of fallen needles. Oh the smell, love it. I stopped to relieve myself for a minute and explored a bit but all good things must come to an end as I was getting quite hungry. When I got out of the woods and saw the sign for the “Sammy’s Deli Delights” near the edge of town, my heart began to pound and my stomach gurgled.

Sammy’s Deli Delights is a great place that I had been to often. It’s owned by Sammy Delatore and he’s one of those people who’s a waver. At least towards me. He’s alway happy to see me and I’m always glad to see him. This guy likes me so much that he will actually come around the counter and give me a big hug. It’s a little uncomfortable but can’t say I mind. Sammy’s got the greatest deli meats in the world, so what’s a hug among friends I figure.

Inside Sammy’s

It was warming up and the door to the deli was already blocked open with a cinder block so I walked right on in. As predicted, Sammy was happy to see me and bounded around the display case to grab me and give me a bear hug. Ha, gotta love this guy. He asked me if I wanted a menu, laughed out loud, then headed back around to his side of the counter. He washed his hands — required by law after hugging customers he once told me — then asked me what I wanted, interrupted himself, then said never mind, he knew… “the usual” and laughed again just delighted with himself.

I may sound like a pig saying this, but I’m not, I swear, but my favorite deli food is the “ends.” That’s my usual. Sammy always has a few ends around, which he gives to me for free. If he does put them on the family account its never been brought to my attention. The missus handles that stuff. He told me he doesn’t want to cut his fingers on the slicer so he saves them for me. He says they’re for me, but I can’t imagine I’m the only one who loves them. A minute ticked by slowly.

Sammy turned towards me and put a paper plate full of ends in front of me and said “buon appetito.” It was a great breakfast and I think I ate a little to quickly but what can I say, I had no excuse and I don’t apologize for being me. Never have, never will. I didn’t linger around and began to walk out the door.

Forgetfulness

As I was leaving Sammy called out to me. He wanted to know what I was going to do on this fine Saturday… actually he said Sabito but I knew. As soon as he said that I thought to myself, shit! I completely forgot it was Saturday. The kids would be home. I didn’t even look back at Sammy, not that I would have been able to find the words anyway. Even though I was grateful for the reminder, I was at the same time also quite dismayed I had forgotten. I rushed off.

I didn’t go through the woods this time, I stayed on the sidewalk. I didn’t look at my neighbors, and as bad as this sounds, I didn’t let myself be distracted by their trash. I wanted to be home when the kids got up. It was Saturday and they weren’t in school so I wanted to spend the whole day with them if possible. In fact, if they weren’t up I’d probably go upstairs and wake them up.

Home Again

I got home and went around to the back door. I’m no better than the rest of the family as I didn’t close the door either so I walked right in. As soon as I got inside I realized I wasn’t going to have to wake anyone up. I could hear little Joey coming down the stairs. He tries his best to be quiet, but at six-years-old, it’s marching band quiet. I went to greet him at the bottom of the stairs.

Joey’s my best friend. Just like Sammy did, he gave me a big hug, but it wasn’t as strong as Sammy’s. It was the hug of a loving six-year-old; just right. I was absolutely delighted and began to lick Joey’s face. He giggled and backed away, then came forward and hugged me again, harder. I licked his face some more then fell over onto the carpet and rolled onto my back, tail wagging furiously. Joey began to rub my belly. It was shaping up to be a good day indeed. I barked once with joy.

The En…

Oh, hey, before you go. That thing about the cat in the tree, um, my attitude. I’m sorry about that. I was just being a dog. I like cats, really I do, but I have to protect my image. Understand?

The End

Filed under Beast Ramblings, Fiction Dept. —

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