Fiction: Miles to go before I sleep

(I like to play with fiction every once in a while. It’s a nice break from my personal essays. Let me know what you think of Bella and her efforts to protect her human family.)

Bella jumped up on the couch and let out a wince. The pain in her legs was a constant now, she felt every jump and landing that she made. The pain would start at her rear legs and spread out throughout the rest of her body. Some days it hurt just to walk.

Bella didn’t like to admit it, but she couldn’t help but feel that her days were numbered. A Bichon Frise and a Shih Tzu mix, Bella, had lived a good life. She had gotten a chance to live with a great family. They had more than their fair share of sadness, but they always took great care of her. She had a few pups of her own and — outside of the twins grabbing her tail a couple of times when they shouldn’t have and originally trying to name her Rover, a stinking boy’s name — she always felt loved.

Despite everything, Bella knew the Grim Reaper, a little Chihuahua named Fifi, who weighed no more than 4 or 5 pounds and lived five streets away, would be coming for her soon. Like the Grim Reaper in the Human World, Fifi escorted dogs from the here and now to the here-after. While Bella mentally understood the concept of death, she still felt an obligation, a drive to complete the chores on her list. She felt it in her bones.

Image by Castorly Stock by Pexels.

A list of chores a mile-long

A dog and her chores. Yes, I’m sure you might be asking: What kind of chores does a dog have?

Bella needed time to protect her brood, John, the head of the pack and a widow, and Jenny and Jamie, the girl and boy twins, whom she loved with all her heart. Jenny came first by three minutes, followed soon after by Jamie. Bella needed to make sure they were well-cared for and ready for her to cross over the Rainbow Bridge to the Great Beyond.

She wouldn’t fight death, but she needed to make it as easy as possible for the family. They were tough as nails, but she didn’t want her death to add more weight onto their tired shoulders. Despite all that, Bella was ready to go, her body was starting to give out on her.

She was ready to meet up again with her father and mother, Romeo and Juliet, and well, she couldn’t wait to meet up again with Rebecca, her human mother and John’s wife. John and Rebecca had adopted Bella when she was only a few weeks old. The twin were just entering the terrible twos. They figured they all needed a playmate.

The friend they never knew they needed

Bella came at the best time. She helped the twins first in the early years and then later in elementary school, mid-school school. The whole family loved her and she loved them. They came to count on Bella even more when the twins went off to high school.

Rebecca and Bella got along famously until three years ago when Rebecca started having to run to the bathroom. Bella thought Rebecca might be pregnant, but unfortunately it turned out to be a fast moving tumor and she was dead within the year.

Rebecca’s death was hard on everyone. It took everything Bella had to keep the family together, but she gave each of the family a part of herself, helping them adapt and carry on. John was the toughest. He had lost his soulmate.

For that reason and so many others, Bella felt responsible to make sure she got the family into a good spot. She knew Fifi would be coming, but she would be ready for her. Bella wasn’t a fan of Fifis. She found the little dog, always strutting through the neighborhood like she owned the place, to be a little too hard to take.

Bella wouldn’t have it. She would let the little Chihuahua know who was the boss.

Image by Belen Capello by Pexels.

An idea takes shape

The idea came to Bella after her afternoon nap on the veranda, the one right after her mid-morning nap on the second-floor couch in John’s bedroom and her early morning nap next to her water dish and food bowl. It was really several different ideas that came together and made up her plan.

She made up her mind to launch Project Lassie later that evening. After dinner, Bella scratched on the door to go for her evening walk. “Yes, yes, Bella I know,” John called from the kitchen. He came out with the leash and yelled up to the twins. “I’m taking Bella for a walk, anyone want to come?”

Jamie came walking down. With the sun slowly starting to recess for the evening, the three of them went for a quiet stroll. John tried to start a conversation with Jamie, asking him about school, but Jamie wasn’t having any of it. Bella tried to nudge Jamie, to trip him and force him to talk to his dad, but Jamie quickly stepped out of the way.

“Darned dog, what’s wrong with her tonight Dad?”

“I don’t know,” John said, just as surprised by Bella’s behavior as Jamie.

Bella was upset. She couldn’t get the two to talk, nothing was working, but then things took a break for the better. Bella saw Julie Winslow, the nice widow lady who lived at the end of the street. She was out for a walk too. This was Bella’s chance. She made a run for it, ripping the leash out of John’s hands and made a beeline for Julie. She raced up to her, being sure to smile a nice friendly grin, her tail wagging a mile a minute, and nuzzled Julie’s leg.

The trick worked — Julie purred down at her, “Oh, look at you precious. Where do you think you’re going this evening?”

Of course, John came running up behind embarrassed and out of breath. “I’m so sorry Julie. I don’t know what’s gotten into her. She’s acting really strange tonight.”

Julie shook him off, “she’s a beauty.” The two were awkward at this conversation thing. “C’mon on John, this is your chance. I can’t wrap my gift any better,” Bella barked. But John continued to stammer about Bella sleeping most of the day and had moved onto silly talk about the weather.

Bella decided she needed to help things along. While John continued to jabber, she pranced in a circle around the two of them, tangling them in her leash, and sending them down onto the grass with Julie landing on top of John.

The collision was awkward, but the two couldn’t help but laugh at the craziness of the situation. John stuttered some more and Julie laughed out loud, “Oh look at us.”

“Yea, look at you” Bella thought to herself. “And dogs are the one’s who are supposed to be dim-witted.”

Image by Dennis Bautista by Pexels.

Can’t go yet!

Later in the middle of the night, while Bella sat up on John’s bed keeping guard duty, she thought about her day. She had more work to do with John, but needed to move onto Jenny and Jamie. They were back in the same routines, but they were having a tough time of things. They would be visiting colleges soon, but wouldn’t have their mom. They needed to rely on each other and right now they were individual ships in the the night.

The following day, with the twins in school and the house empty, Bella walked first into Jenny’s room and grabbed the small picture frame of her mother and her that sat on her desk and carried it to the laundry room. She was careful to grab the frame with her mouth and not leave a bite mark. She moved next onto Jamie’s room, grabbed the picture he kept of him in his baseball uniform hugging his mom. Bella carried it to the back room too. Finally, she took the biggest chance of all.

Bella rarely if ever poohed in the house anymore, but desperate times, called for desperate measures. She let out a huge wet pooh, you know the kind, one that would smell up the entire house and get the whole family holding their noses. She was counting on the twins coming home first, smelling the poop and needing to take care of it before their dad got home from work.

Of course, the twins were fighting when they came home, they fought every day, but they smelled the mess right away.

“Bella what did you do,” Jenny said.

“Damnit Bella, what’s wrong with you,” said Jamie.

Grim reaper comes a knockin’

When the twins saw the pics, however, the two were quiet for a second and then both let out tears. They hugged and called for Bella to come to them. They just assumed Bella was getting into their things, but the mission worked nonetheless. They spent the rest of the night talking about their mom and promised that no matter what they decided in the spring, to go to the same college or separate schools, they would be there for each other.

“Yes, I’ll take my thank you in dog treats. Seems only fair. You owe me, big time,” Bella barked to John, who was just happy to see the twins talking to each other and to him.

Several days later, Bella was woken in the middle of the day by a knock at the door. But this knock was different. Somehow Fifi was able to open the door and come in by herself.

“Go away Fifi, I’m not going with you,” Bella said.

Fifi didn’t respond like normal. No prancing, no arrogant smile, all she said was that it was time.

Bella shot back right away. “I can’t go yet, I have my family, they need me.”

Before she could say another word, Rebecca came out from the kitchen and got on her knees up close to Bella. She looked exactly like Bella remembered. “Oh girl, you’ve done well. You’ve been a faithful and caring friend. You’ve kept this family going through thick and thin. Your work here is done. “

Bella couldn’t believe that she was seeing Rebecca again and she certainly couldn’t believe they were talking. Rebecca rubbed behind Bella’s ears like she had hundreds of times in the past and Bella’s tail swung back and forth. Bella forgot how much she missed Rebecca’s rubs. “My sweet, sweet girl, you’re the best dog ever. Thank you for taking care of the loves of my life. I’m so grateful, I love you so much.”

Mother and dog were hugging now and tears rolled down both their eyes. “It’s time for us to go home now,” Rebecca said.

“You’re job is complete.”

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