Faith of a Friend

Tom is my favorite person. He’s my person! He likes working on his gizmos while listening to opera scores. He likes doing that a lot.

I wait on him. Wagging my tail whenever he turns to look at me. He pats my head, and goes back to work.

He doesn’t do much else. Never really has. But he’s my person. And I love him. I’ll guard him with my life!

But I’ve started to wonder about something. Tom doesn’t eat much. When he does eat, he eats stale chocolate cake. I’m looking at the leftover slice on his desk right now.

He says I’m not allowed to have any. And that’s what I’ve been wondering about. I can only think that it’s bad. That HE’S protecting ME too! But why does he eat it then? Isn’t it bad for him too?

That’s why I stay here. To love him. Just in case. Just in case that is the case. Then maybe he’ll know one day that he doesn’t have to do anything bad anymore.

But that isn't the case. This is Tom we’re talking about! He works on gizmos and stuff. He’s really smart. That couldn’t be the case. But… just in case I guess.

I mean, I eat things off the ground; how much could it really hurt me? It smells like food but my tummy doesn’t rumble when I smell it. I think about chocolate cake a lot now. I wonder what it tastes like.

Oh, last night was weird. I can’t believe I forgot until now. It’s the whole reason I’m thinking about it anyway!

I saw myself from the future. Tom was asleep. A big light showed up really fast and went away and I was standing there. I knew it was me because only I know how to get around without waking up Tom.

While he was sleeping at his desk, I got up from under his chair and walked over to future me. Future me told me to wait a little longer. Tom was gonna build a gizmo that lets dogs eat chocolate!

He was protecting me! I KNEW it! Future me told me that when Tom builds a time machine, to come back here and tell past us to wait too.

Without doing that, we go rogue and eat the chocolate cake. We get sick and then Tom never finished the time machine and the world can’t go back to fix its problems!

Or something like that. I’m just proud of my person. I knew he was protecting me. Plus, he’s looking out for me. He wants me to try the chocolate cake. I hope he lets me listen to opera while we eat.

Last night was very weird. Like, I don’t know if that WAS really me. I wasn’t gonna eat that cake. I couldn’t do that to Tom. But I guess it’s hard to know when fate takes the chance away from you.

"ugh..." Tom groans.

Oh no! Master's groaning! I should jump on him to see if he's okay!

"Ah! ah... down boy" Tom muttered. The plate with the slice of chocolate cake falls to the ground in the tussle. Tom stands and leaves.

The cake. Where is he going? *urination* Oh. Is the cake still there? It is. Oh... I see. That's why we have to time travel. Oh! I'm so proud of myself! I found a way to not eat it! I'm so smart! I'm just like Tom!

*BARK!* *BARK!*

"Calm down boy. Let's just go to bed." Tom picks up the plate and cleans up the stale chocolate cake.