Man's Best Friend Until The End

A bitter breeze raked his neck, soaking the chill in the air into the denim of Johnathan’s new heavy blue sherpa lined Levi jean jacket, causing a shiver to shoot through him and he buttoned it up. He hated the cold, but he also hoped this meant they’d get snow on Christmas as well. His apple watch came to life, and he saw that it was December 13th. Even now he was excited for Christmas to arrive like when he was a kid hiding downstairs waiting to meet the Jolly guy and tell him his present he wanted. That meant, just twelve days until it was here. Unlike most people, he shopped early and had gotten his parents gifts and a gotten lots of gifts for his girlfriend Alice who didn’t understand the whole yay Christmas is here attitude but still loved him.

The jerk of the leash in his hand jolted him from his thoughts about Christmas to just how cold outside it was and to his dog Felix who was restless; beautiful snow-white Border Collie with a scattering of dashes and spots of black throughout with painted light grey around his crisp blue eyes. Johnathan pressed the flashlight button on his iPhone and scanned the rocks at the edge of the man-made beach which crawled down to the edge of a lake. Nothing, he still had yet to do a number one or two. Sighing he shook his head, “Come on Felix…take a constitution and let’s get inside”. Last week his girlfriend Alice had told him to take him out so he could do a constitution and apparently as asinine as he had thought it sounded at the time it had secretly stuck inside his brain ready to burst out when it damn well pleased. Someone somewhere was no doubt rolling on the ground dying from laughter.

Felix huffed at him; he was nine going on two. A big old lapdog who clearly believed he ruled the roost. He did get special food delivered and boxes of special toys, so hell maybe he had a damn point. Lifting his head, he turned those blue eyes on him and added in a pathetic cry for good measure. Some people would wonder what he possibly meant but that was pretty clear to any parent.

I don’t wanna! I won’t! You can’t make me!

It wasn’t just his imagination; he swore he felt something watching him and looked up and spied the neighbors all white cat with that grey stripe going to his pink nose watching him. His neighbor once told him when he was caught outside, he named him after the great Jerry Garcia the lead singer of the greatest band ever. That was one of the longest conversations that he couldn’t escape. Something about his neighbor being a roadie and following the band all over the states in an old beat up mother home. Fuck responsibilities man, just live life! His neighbors last words burned into his brain. A smirk crossed that cats face, he was here for a good time. He was here to see a battle of wills. Human Vs. Child and he had no doubt that cat probably bet on the dog.

“Come on Alice will freak out if you shit on the floor again. This girl is a good one and I know her and she says she loves me. She’s smart and funny and gorgeous and nerdy. A combination that comes along once in a cold day on Tatooine”. It was now two months and going on about two years that they had been together, and they had moved into an nicer new apartment complex. With their credit together they we’re a shoe in, technically they owned something together which made his little hopeless romantic heart a tad bit happier. Last week, he woke up to her screaming and he turned to see her trying to kick poop off her foot which was useless. Hobbling into the bathroom she turned on the shower and didn’t wait until it warmed up to wash off. She was already running late for a meeting with an interested buyer in one of the homes she was sitting on as a relator. He jumped up and scrubbed it up and meanwhile the culprit stayed out of the way hiding from the wrath. That is until the shower stopped and she came out getting dressed for work and then he bounded excitedly into the room and that’s when she put him in his place sexily half quoting Luke from Star Wars, “Scruffy looking nerf herder”, he turned tail and trotted out of the room.

Felix apparently liked her as much as he did because that’s when he did his business. Yes, he had won this round and looked up to gloat to the cat, but Jerry was nowhere to be found. He’d clearly believed that the likelihood of him winning was the likelihood of a salmon truck tipping over in front of his apartment and him getting to eat like a king for years to come feasting on delicious fresh Alaskan salmon. It wasn’t happening, that was some Garfield day dream bubble. Before he could bask in the victory he’d achieved, Felix shook his head free of the leash and bolted like he’d seen a ghost! He up and ran leaving him behind.

A devastating woman’s cry ripped right through him, and he looked up to see a woman leaning on the edge of the dock, she was dressed simply in a frilly white night gown her long red hair falling in curls to her shoulders. Before he could ask her why she was dressed so simply for this Idaho winter, he heard the frantic sound of splashing and a boy’s voice echoed from possibly five feet from the edge of the dock just outside the range of where the bright Winter moon skated. Clearly freaking out, hell it was cold outside, and, in that moment, he tried to recall what he’d learned in boy scouts about just how long it takes for hypothermia to settle in, but he drew a blank.

“Mommy…Mommy…its so collddd…helppp me”, Johnathan dropped Felix’s leash on the ground and bolted across the sand, acting decisively after he saved the boy's life he’d talk to his mother. No doubt he probably didn’t have long until hypothermia settled in, and the boy vanished into the inky black lake. Stripping off his shoes and socks he hit the water and instantly felt like someone stabbed him all over his body a dozen red roses. For a moment there he forgot how to breathe and focused on breathing and swimming hard and used the sound of splashing as a guide.

In order to assure the boy, he was coming he called out, “My name’s Johnathan Graves I am coming. Its going to be okay!” forcing the words from his throat, damn it was cold. It took everything for him to keep on swimming. Out of the blackness he heard a boys voice, “Over here, save me” and loud splashing and he followed those sounds. He was getting closer, he’d save him and get him back to the beach safe and sound. Do a good turn daily, was a motto from Boy Scouts that he truly tried to live by in life.

Damn that cold water was biting and slowly worked on his energy so much so that he turned from a stroke to doggy paddling to the spot he’d heard the boy. But there was nobody. Just silence, and he turned around looking towards the dock and the beach it was so far away. He couldn’t see the poor mother’s face, but he watched her rise from the dock and walk away into the night. One minute she was there, and another minute gone.

Where the fuck are you going?

Before he could contemplate any of what he’d seen and just how far away from the shore he actually was he felt one hand wrap around each ankle and wrench him under the water. He was too damn cold to fight it, this is what hypothermia must have been like paralyzed literally forced to accept whatever fate met him. He glanced down to see a curly brown-haired boy who looked up at him and he shivered as he peered into a pair of the emptiest eyes. Like two deep black holes. All he could barely do is move his hands at his sides because even his arms felt like lead weights.

Inside his head he heard a young boys voice, “Thank you for saving me. I’ll be able to use your body and be free for a while until I must return again”, a comforting feeling washed over him, and all thoughts simply felt like they washed out of his mind, and he floated in the water the top half of his head surfacing just enough that he saw Felix return to the dock looking for his master. Oh how he wanted to cry out and tell him he loved him and that he would never forget him but language was foreign to him now. Something of his old self.

A young boy walked out of the darkness the moonlight illuminating his smiling face, his brown eyes appearing to glow with life. Dressed simply in a green lined shirt, a pair of jeans and pair of white tennis shoes. Felix turned and walked over to him and accepted him letting him scratch him behind the ears and licked his face all over practically knocking him over. Then he let the boy lead him away.

Man’s Best Friend Until The End.