The Back Road (Final Entry)
Ahh, it feels good to reach the end of a journey, don;t ya think? I hope you all enjoy finishing this one with me in the final pages of this story. I still haven't gone through it completely, I was waiting until the last entry to read it, and now we're here. From the snippets I've gone through it doesn't seem as bad as I remember. What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know. And now, enjoy the end of this true story.
“Yeah, we’re good,” said Spencer.
“Just cold,” I added.
The old man smiled a little, “I believe that. Why don’t you just sit in your cars and warm up?”
I stepped forward, “We’d love to, but we salted the road a bit over here,” I gestured to the turn behind him and he glanced at it through the side mirror, “and we’ve been trying to guide people through for a while.”
“Well that’s mighty fine of you boys. Good job.”
“Thanks,” we shivered out of our mouths.
Spencer asked, “Do you know where the salt truck is?”
The old man looked up to try and remember, “I believe it’s making its way through all of these back roads. Shouldn’t be longer than two hours.” My face lit up with utter terror, but I don’t think anyone noticed it. I stood frozen trying to keep myself from jumping into the bed of the police truck and shouting I’m with them, later bitches! “Don’t worry about it, we’ll be back in an hour or so to check back up on you guys.”
“Sounds good.” Said Spencer, which is good because I couldn’t move my face to say anything. When they drove off Spencer uttered a small, “shit.” And kicked at the asphalt driveway. At the same time Mustachio was walking back up the hill.
“That wasn’t the salt truck was it?”
“No.” answered Spencer bitterly.
“Who was it then?”
I calmed down enough to speak again, “It was just some stupid police truck. They said that the salt truck probably wouldn’t get here for another two hours.”
“Oh, what the hell. We ought to just leave right now. I think some of the ice is melting,” He kicked at the ground to test this, “It feels like it’s getting warmer.”
Spencer crossed his arms and rubbed them with his gloved hands, “You’re high right now if you think it’s getting warmer.”
“I just want to get home. I’ve been here for,” he raised his arm to glance at his wristwatch, “almost four and a half hours! I’m cold, and I’m tired. Let’s just give it a shot.”
I turned to Spencer to see that he was actually considering this. I had no chance of making it without a whole road of salt. I had to interject with something, “If I do have to sleep in my car tonight. I’d rather do it up here on a driveway then down in a ditch.”
This got Spencer’s attention, “Yeah, that’s a good point I’m with him.”
Mustachio just stood in front of us looking defeated yet again. He crossed his arms and walked past us to his truck, but before he could reach for the door another bright white light was driving to try the turn. These lights were tall and belonged to a large white truck similar to the old man’s that was still face down before the left turn. My legs were frozen stiff so I let Spencer and Mustachio talk to the guy inside. After a couple minutes they backed away from the truck and we all watched as he approached the hill. He made it look easy the way he glided over the road with no indication at all that it was slick. It was like watching a professional driver at work. The way he seamlessly moved the truck to the adjacent shoulder and climbed the second hill with complete ease. He drove off and the bright lights dimmed until we were standing in utter blackness again. Mustachio was the first to speak up, “Hot damn! Did you see that guys? I told you we could make that turn!” I wasn’t sure if he was shaking from the cold or pure excitement. “All we have to do is follow his path and we’re home free!”
Spencer decided to be the first to rain on Mustachio’s parade, “Yeah, except did you see his truck? I think it was bigger than yours. Which is already twice the size of mine.” He glanced at me and opened his eyes wider to signal me to join him.
I wasn’t sure what to say. I mean he did make it up the hill, but he was driving a massive truck with 4-wheel drive. Yet, he didn’t need to use it because he just stuck onto the shoulder of the road and he was good. That’s all you would need to do to make it up, but in my experience one little deviation away from the dirt and it’s bye-bye with a one-way ticket to Ditchtown. As long as I’m careful it’s definitely worth a try. What am I thinking there’s no way I was making that turn. The conflicting thoughts were making my head hurt. Spencer kept staring at me. Waiting for me to back him up. “Maybe,” I finally spit out, “Maybe, if a car or two was able to make it out I’d go for it.”
“You’re in luck pal,” said Mustachio as he pointed behind us down the road we came in on, “because it looks like we’ll have plenty of chances to see that.” It looked like the sun was trying to light up the night sky with the amount of cars, trucks, and vans, rolling along in a crooked line.
I blew as much heat as I could into my hands and followed Spencer toward the line of lights. The lead car was a silver Mazda that looked brand new. Same routine as before: Stay to the left, Go slow, Switch to the right, and you’re good. The driver looked a little confused but sped off anyway. To my surprise the little Mazda cleared the turns almost as fast and easy-looking as the truck. I swiveled my body to look at Mustachio who was smiling so big his mustache took the shape of a hairy letter M. The Mazda was enough proof to me that I could make the turns, but now we had to deal with this line of what looks to be seven, no eight cars. More were coming around the corner now and I sighed at the thought of how long it would take to help all of these people.
An hour, maybe longer passed before we were talking to the last car in the line. More cars had made the climb, one being a Buick almost the same as mine, and a few trucks big and small also conquered the two terrible turns. All three of us were satisfied that we could push through. Which is good because we all looked like we had Parkinson’s Disease with the ferocity we were all shaking. As the blue Toyota made his go at the hill we huddled together and Mustachio spoke first, “Okay dudes, are we doing this?”
“Let’s get the hell outta here.” I chuckled out of breath. I raised my head and smiled as the Toyota’s headlights disappeared behind the trees over the second turn.
“Finally! Now, this might be a little-” His victory speech was cut short as the steady sound of rain roared down the road from us. We all shot up and stared, wide-eyed, as a great monster of a truck came thundering around the corner. The beast was orange with a shovel wider than the front of my car attached to the grill and hanging inches from the ground. I could see the peak of a small mountain towering the back of the truck as it came closer. As the truck went by I saw that it was not rain making that noise. Hanging from the back of the truck was a long rectangular prism of metal that widened at the end to resemble an upside-down funnel. The funnel’s mouth was blasting salt and rocks across the entire road. I could feel a new found heat flowing through my veins as I glared at the salt pebbles bouncing over the asphalt.
Spencer and I cheered and started running to our vehicles before hearing a, “Wait a second guys.” From Mustachio. We stopped and stared at him, then each other, and back to him again confused to this sudden interruption. He waved his arms toward himself to lure us back in to the huddle. “We’ve waited long enough. Might as well wait a couple of minutes to make sure the salt can do its job.” We nodded at this and watched the salt as if we could see the ice melting. “So, as I was saying earlier. Here’s our game plan: I’ll lead the pack,” he pointed to Spencer, “You can follow behind me in the middle,” his finger moved to me, “and then you can take the rear. We can call each other if something happens. What’s your all’s phone numbers?”
Spencer shook his head grimacing, “My phone’s at like 2% man, sorry.”
“How about yours?” asked Mustachio to me.
“One sec.” I held up one purple finger and started walking toward my car. I opened the door and the dome light inside lit the interior so I could easily see my phone laying in the driver seat. I snatched it up and turned on the lock screen. 35% showed in the top left corner of the screen next to a battery only filled a third of the way with yellow. I shut the door again with the phone in my hand. As I walked back to the group I said, “I’ve got 35%. Should be enough hopefully.” I clicked on the contacts list and tapped the little blue plus sign at the top and a screen appeared that looked like a small application sheet with name, number, email, and workplace listed below with blank boxes next to them. I handed my phone to Mustachio.
“Awesome,” He tore off one glove and placed one of its fingers in between his teeth as his own fingers tapped away on my phone. A few seconds later he handed the phone back and I saw a series of numbers in a box next to Mobile Phone.
He and Spencer began walking to their trucks when I shouted, “Hey wait,” they both turned to look, but my eyes were on Mustachio, “What’s the name you want me to put for this?”
Mustachio grinned and strode back to my spot and held out his hand, “The name’s Tim.”
I gripped his hand and shook it. It felt cold, but at that point I was lucky to feel anything. “I’m Van.”
“Alright Van, you ready to do this?”
“More than you know.” We returned to our vehicles. I started the engine again and cranked the air to blow heat, but I was only blasted with strong icy winds. At least it would’ve felt cold if I wasn’t already a popsicle. I watched in my rear view mirror as Tim moved his truck onto the driveway and drove onto the road down the hill immediately followed by Spencer.
I shifted my car into reverse and rolled back onto the driveway. “Here we go.” I turned to the hill and starting rolling forward. I wasn’t far behind Spencer, but I wasn’t going to jeopardize all that waiting by trying to catch up and fail at the first turn. I applied a little brake down the hill as my left tires gripped hard onto the dirt shoulder. The road was much easier with the salt covering it. I’m just glad that Tim talked us into waiting for the salt to take effect. I felt my car straighten out as I made it to the bottom of the hill. My vision was stuck on Spencer’s back tires again as I copied every move he made to the inch to ensure that I’d make it through this. Every tiny turn or shift in direction he made, I made.
The only problem was I noticed that as we started coming up the left turn that Spencer was almost slowing down, which worried me greatly. “Come on man not this again.” I repeated to myself as I sped up to his bumper. I was now in a dangerous position. If I tried to speed up closer and he kept slowing down I would also have to slow so that I wouldn’t rear end him, but if I slowed down too much I might not have enough speed to make it up the hill. I trusted whatever Spencer was trying to do and tried my hardest to match his speed.
Somehow, we made it up the hill. That rock salt is some kind of magic I don’t understand. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually made it over the hill. Now, I just had to make sure I knew where I was going. Earlier, Tim said that we were about a mile and a half from the Gillespie bridge so it won’t be long before we get there. I couldn’t spot Tim’s truck in front of us anymore. He probably sped off because Spencer drives like a snail, I thought to myself.
Over a couple smaller hills and it seemed like everything was going smoothly. I was getting too excited as the feeling returned to my fingers and toes. Then, at the bottom of the last hill before a fork in the road Spencer applied his brakes. Luckily, the salt gave my car more traction so I didn’t slide right into his truck. I could see that Spencer rolled his window down and leaned his head out, so I did the same.
“Is the bridge over on the left?” he asked loudly over the wind.
“I’m not 100% sure.” I replied.
“I think it’s on the left.” He didn’t sound very confident, “Screw it let’s give it a shot.” We pulled our heads back into the windows and drove off again. Turning left down a dark road.
A sigh of relief shot from my mouth as I saw Spencer drive onto a small bridge. My headlights brightened a green sign next to a tree that read, Gillespie Bridge. I smiled as the road following the bridge turned us left into a fairly nice looking neighborhood. I thought to myself curiously, I think I might know this road. I continued to follow Spencer’s truck as the road made us turn left again into a main road with modern looking houses lining up both sides of the street. I perked up at this sight. I Do know this road. I was shaking again only this time it was excitement. I smiled as I passed under the streetlights shielding me from anymore of the cold blackness.
My smile twitched a tiny bit when I noticed the amount of salt covering the street in front of my car. Piles and piles of the stuff. Almost like the first salt truck just emptied out his entire load right here before getting to us. I didn’t let that annoy me too much because I was far too happy to be headed home finally. I took another glance at the digital clock in my car. 7:36PM. “Five hours.” I whispered to myself.
Two streets away from my apartment I stopped behind Spencer at a stop sign. He had turned his left blinker light on and took off in that direction. “Adios amigo.” I said to no one as I pulled out past the stop sign. I could almost see my neighborhood from here.
Finally, I turned right at the large wooden sign that read, Welcome to Tiger Ridge Apartment Complex, Your Home Away From Home. I drove down the dark bumpy street and took the first turn on the right. Two houses down and there it was. An average looking house with two front doors on either side (House-A and House-B). I parked my car in the driveway, jumped out, and merrily skipped to the door on the left. I almost dropped my keys on the ground I was so eager. Barking erupted from inside in short bursts. I flung the door open more dramatically then what was needed.
threw my head back and a hard breath exploded from my lungs as I slammed the door shut behind me. I was met with various yelps and barks from the wall left of the front door. I flipped the light switch up to illuminate the living room. In the corner beside an upholstered love seat was a large kennel barely holding an overly-excited and overly-large black and brown Australian Shepherd. The shadows of the kennel bars made Aspen look like a furry inmate on their last day in the clink. I ran over to grant his wish and unlock the cage door. Aspen kicked it open and in the same instance knocked me on my back. His powerful paws pinned my shoulders flat and I was soon glistening in saliva.
When I was able to catch my breath I said, “Yes, yes, Aspen, I missed you too buddy alright. I’m sorry I’m so late.” I found the strength to shove off the 40-pound puppy and stood up again, “Looks like the easy way isn’t always the right way I guess Aspen.” He lead me into my bedroom and jumped onto the bed. I grabbed his leash to take him outside, which took twenty-five minutes and nothing to show for it. It wouldn’t be until morning that I would notice the multiple piles of neglected parenting left for me in his kennel.
I used the rest of the hot water in the county during my shower and put on three layers of clothing before finally nestling myself into bed with Aspen at my feet and turning on a movie. I didn’t make it past the opening credits. My frozen eyelids thawed and fell heavily over my eyes.
The Back Road (Part 5)
When the truck finally stopped in front of the driveway it was clearly not full of salt. It was just a normal white police truck sporting large metal chain links covering each tire. We approached as the passenger window began to roll down. Inside was an overweight balding man driving the truck and an older man that was both graying and wrinkling. He poked his head out a little, but quickly retreated after feeling the brisk wind. I tried not to fall into the window as the heat spilled out and surrounded my body. The old man squinted through the dark to see us better, “You boys okay?”“Yeah, we’re good,” said Spencer.
“Just cold,” I added.
The old man smiled a little, “I believe that. Why don’t you just sit in your cars and warm up?”
I stepped forward, “We’d love to, but we salted the road a bit over here,” I gestured to the turn behind him and he glanced at it through the side mirror, “and we’ve been trying to guide people through for a while.”
“Well that’s mighty fine of you boys. Good job.”
“Thanks,” we shivered out of our mouths.
Spencer asked, “Do you know where the salt truck is?”
The old man looked up to try and remember, “I believe it’s making its way through all of these back roads. Shouldn’t be longer than two hours.” My face lit up with utter terror, but I don’t think anyone noticed it. I stood frozen trying to keep myself from jumping into the bed of the police truck and shouting I’m with them, later bitches! “Don’t worry about it, we’ll be back in an hour or so to check back up on you guys.”
“Sounds good.” Said Spencer, which is good because I couldn’t move my face to say anything. When they drove off Spencer uttered a small, “shit.” And kicked at the asphalt driveway. At the same time Mustachio was walking back up the hill.
“That wasn’t the salt truck was it?”
“No.” answered Spencer bitterly.
“Who was it then?”
I calmed down enough to speak again, “It was just some stupid police truck. They said that the salt truck probably wouldn’t get here for another two hours.”
“Oh, what the hell. We ought to just leave right now. I think some of the ice is melting,” He kicked at the ground to test this, “It feels like it’s getting warmer.”
Spencer crossed his arms and rubbed them with his gloved hands, “You’re high right now if you think it’s getting warmer.”
“I just want to get home. I’ve been here for,” he raised his arm to glance at his wristwatch, “almost four and a half hours! I’m cold, and I’m tired. Let’s just give it a shot.”
I turned to Spencer to see that he was actually considering this. I had no chance of making it without a whole road of salt. I had to interject with something, “If I do have to sleep in my car tonight. I’d rather do it up here on a driveway then down in a ditch.”
This got Spencer’s attention, “Yeah, that’s a good point I’m with him.”
Mustachio just stood in front of us looking defeated yet again. He crossed his arms and walked past us to his truck, but before he could reach for the door another bright white light was driving to try the turn. These lights were tall and belonged to a large white truck similar to the old man’s that was still face down before the left turn. My legs were frozen stiff so I let Spencer and Mustachio talk to the guy inside. After a couple minutes they backed away from the truck and we all watched as he approached the hill. He made it look easy the way he glided over the road with no indication at all that it was slick. It was like watching a professional driver at work. The way he seamlessly moved the truck to the adjacent shoulder and climbed the second hill with complete ease. He drove off and the bright lights dimmed until we were standing in utter blackness again. Mustachio was the first to speak up, “Hot damn! Did you see that guys? I told you we could make that turn!” I wasn’t sure if he was shaking from the cold or pure excitement. “All we have to do is follow his path and we’re home free!”
Spencer decided to be the first to rain on Mustachio’s parade, “Yeah, except did you see his truck? I think it was bigger than yours. Which is already twice the size of mine.” He glanced at me and opened his eyes wider to signal me to join him.
I wasn’t sure what to say. I mean he did make it up the hill, but he was driving a massive truck with 4-wheel drive. Yet, he didn’t need to use it because he just stuck onto the shoulder of the road and he was good. That’s all you would need to do to make it up, but in my experience one little deviation away from the dirt and it’s bye-bye with a one-way ticket to Ditchtown. As long as I’m careful it’s definitely worth a try. What am I thinking there’s no way I was making that turn. The conflicting thoughts were making my head hurt. Spencer kept staring at me. Waiting for me to back him up. “Maybe,” I finally spit out, “Maybe, if a car or two was able to make it out I’d go for it.”
“You’re in luck pal,” said Mustachio as he pointed behind us down the road we came in on, “because it looks like we’ll have plenty of chances to see that.” It looked like the sun was trying to light up the night sky with the amount of cars, trucks, and vans, rolling along in a crooked line.
I blew as much heat as I could into my hands and followed Spencer toward the line of lights. The lead car was a silver Mazda that looked brand new. Same routine as before: Stay to the left, Go slow, Switch to the right, and you’re good. The driver looked a little confused but sped off anyway. To my surprise the little Mazda cleared the turns almost as fast and easy-looking as the truck. I swiveled my body to look at Mustachio who was smiling so big his mustache took the shape of a hairy letter M. The Mazda was enough proof to me that I could make the turns, but now we had to deal with this line of what looks to be seven, no eight cars. More were coming around the corner now and I sighed at the thought of how long it would take to help all of these people.
An hour, maybe longer passed before we were talking to the last car in the line. More cars had made the climb, one being a Buick almost the same as mine, and a few trucks big and small also conquered the two terrible turns. All three of us were satisfied that we could push through. Which is good because we all looked like we had Parkinson’s Disease with the ferocity we were all shaking. As the blue Toyota made his go at the hill we huddled together and Mustachio spoke first, “Okay dudes, are we doing this?”
“Let’s get the hell outta here.” I chuckled out of breath. I raised my head and smiled as the Toyota’s headlights disappeared behind the trees over the second turn.
“Finally! Now, this might be a little-” His victory speech was cut short as the steady sound of rain roared down the road from us. We all shot up and stared, wide-eyed, as a great monster of a truck came thundering around the corner. The beast was orange with a shovel wider than the front of my car attached to the grill and hanging inches from the ground. I could see the peak of a small mountain towering the back of the truck as it came closer. As the truck went by I saw that it was not rain making that noise. Hanging from the back of the truck was a long rectangular prism of metal that widened at the end to resemble an upside-down funnel. The funnel’s mouth was blasting salt and rocks across the entire road. I could feel a new found heat flowing through my veins as I glared at the salt pebbles bouncing over the asphalt.
Spencer and I cheered and started running to our vehicles before hearing a, “Wait a second guys.” From Mustachio. We stopped and stared at him, then each other, and back to him again confused to this sudden interruption. He waved his arms toward himself to lure us back in to the huddle. “We’ve waited long enough. Might as well wait a couple of minutes to make sure the salt can do its job.” We nodded at this and watched the salt as if we could see the ice melting. “So, as I was saying earlier. Here’s our game plan: I’ll lead the pack,” he pointed to Spencer, “You can follow behind me in the middle,” his finger moved to me, “and then you can take the rear. We can call each other if something happens. What’s your all’s phone numbers?”
Spencer shook his head grimacing, “My phone’s at like 2% man, sorry.”
“How about yours?” asked Mustachio to me.
“One sec.” I held up one purple finger and started walking toward my car. I opened the door and the dome light inside lit the interior so I could easily see my phone laying in the driver seat. I snatched it up and turned on the lock screen. 35% showed in the top left corner of the screen next to a battery only filled a third of the way with yellow. I shut the door again with the phone in my hand. As I walked back to the group I said, “I’ve got 35%. Should be enough hopefully.” I clicked on the contacts list and tapped the little blue plus sign at the top and a screen appeared that looked like a small application sheet with name, number, email, and workplace listed below with blank boxes next to them. I handed my phone to Mustachio.
“Awesome,” He tore off one glove and placed one of its fingers in between his teeth as his own fingers tapped away on my phone. A few seconds later he handed the phone back and I saw a series of numbers in a box next to Mobile Phone.
He and Spencer began walking to their trucks when I shouted, “Hey wait,” they both turned to look, but my eyes were on Mustachio, “What’s the name you want me to put for this?”
Mustachio grinned and strode back to my spot and held out his hand, “The name’s Tim.”
I gripped his hand and shook it. It felt cold, but at that point I was lucky to feel anything. “I’m Van.”
“Alright Van, you ready to do this?”
“More than you know.” We returned to our vehicles. I started the engine again and cranked the air to blow heat, but I was only blasted with strong icy winds. At least it would’ve felt cold if I wasn’t already a popsicle. I watched in my rear view mirror as Tim moved his truck onto the driveway and drove onto the road down the hill immediately followed by Spencer.
I shifted my car into reverse and rolled back onto the driveway. “Here we go.” I turned to the hill and starting rolling forward. I wasn’t far behind Spencer, but I wasn’t going to jeopardize all that waiting by trying to catch up and fail at the first turn. I applied a little brake down the hill as my left tires gripped hard onto the dirt shoulder. The road was much easier with the salt covering it. I’m just glad that Tim talked us into waiting for the salt to take effect. I felt my car straighten out as I made it to the bottom of the hill. My vision was stuck on Spencer’s back tires again as I copied every move he made to the inch to ensure that I’d make it through this. Every tiny turn or shift in direction he made, I made.
The only problem was I noticed that as we started coming up the left turn that Spencer was almost slowing down, which worried me greatly. “Come on man not this again.” I repeated to myself as I sped up to his bumper. I was now in a dangerous position. If I tried to speed up closer and he kept slowing down I would also have to slow so that I wouldn’t rear end him, but if I slowed down too much I might not have enough speed to make it up the hill. I trusted whatever Spencer was trying to do and tried my hardest to match his speed.
Somehow, we made it up the hill. That rock salt is some kind of magic I don’t understand. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually made it over the hill. Now, I just had to make sure I knew where I was going. Earlier, Tim said that we were about a mile and a half from the Gillespie bridge so it won’t be long before we get there. I couldn’t spot Tim’s truck in front of us anymore. He probably sped off because Spencer drives like a snail, I thought to myself.
Over a couple smaller hills and it seemed like everything was going smoothly. I was getting too excited as the feeling returned to my fingers and toes. Then, at the bottom of the last hill before a fork in the road Spencer applied his brakes. Luckily, the salt gave my car more traction so I didn’t slide right into his truck. I could see that Spencer rolled his window down and leaned his head out, so I did the same.
“Is the bridge over on the left?” he asked loudly over the wind.
“I’m not 100% sure.” I replied.
“I think it’s on the left.” He didn’t sound very confident, “Screw it let’s give it a shot.” We pulled our heads back into the windows and drove off again. Turning left down a dark road.
A sigh of relief shot from my mouth as I saw Spencer drive onto a small bridge. My headlights brightened a green sign next to a tree that read, Gillespie Bridge. I smiled as the road following the bridge turned us left into a fairly nice looking neighborhood. I thought to myself curiously, I think I might know this road. I continued to follow Spencer’s truck as the road made us turn left again into a main road with modern looking houses lining up both sides of the street. I perked up at this sight. I Do know this road. I was shaking again only this time it was excitement. I smiled as I passed under the streetlights shielding me from anymore of the cold blackness.
My smile twitched a tiny bit when I noticed the amount of salt covering the street in front of my car. Piles and piles of the stuff. Almost like the first salt truck just emptied out his entire load right here before getting to us. I didn’t let that annoy me too much because I was far too happy to be headed home finally. I took another glance at the digital clock in my car. 7:36PM. “Five hours.” I whispered to myself.
Two streets away from my apartment I stopped behind Spencer at a stop sign. He had turned his left blinker light on and took off in that direction. “Adios amigo.” I said to no one as I pulled out past the stop sign. I could almost see my neighborhood from here.
Finally, I turned right at the large wooden sign that read, Welcome to Tiger Ridge Apartment Complex, Your Home Away From Home. I drove down the dark bumpy street and took the first turn on the right. Two houses down and there it was. An average looking house with two front doors on either side (House-A and House-B). I parked my car in the driveway, jumped out, and merrily skipped to the door on the left. I almost dropped my keys on the ground I was so eager. Barking erupted from inside in short bursts. I flung the door open more dramatically then what was needed.
threw my head back and a hard breath exploded from my lungs as I slammed the door shut behind me. I was met with various yelps and barks from the wall left of the front door. I flipped the light switch up to illuminate the living room. In the corner beside an upholstered love seat was a large kennel barely holding an overly-excited and overly-large black and brown Australian Shepherd. The shadows of the kennel bars made Aspen look like a furry inmate on their last day in the clink. I ran over to grant his wish and unlock the cage door. Aspen kicked it open and in the same instance knocked me on my back. His powerful paws pinned my shoulders flat and I was soon glistening in saliva.
When I was able to catch my breath I said, “Yes, yes, Aspen, I missed you too buddy alright. I’m sorry I’m so late.” I found the strength to shove off the 40-pound puppy and stood up again, “Looks like the easy way isn’t always the right way I guess Aspen.” He lead me into my bedroom and jumped onto the bed. I grabbed his leash to take him outside, which took twenty-five minutes and nothing to show for it. It wouldn’t be until morning that I would notice the multiple piles of neglected parenting left for me in his kennel.
I used the rest of the hot water in the county during my shower and put on three layers of clothing before finally nestling myself into bed with Aspen at my feet and turning on a movie. I didn’t make it past the opening credits. My frozen eyelids thawed and fell heavily over my eyes.
THE END
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