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Laika

The stray dog that brought the truth

By RicardoPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
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Laika
Photo by jules a. on Unsplash

It was the end of a hard day working at a cooperative farm. My nails were full of ground even after washing them a hundred times. We were starving, wanting to eat something as fast as we could.

Everything in a new town is a delight; every moment, every corner, is like magic. You turn right in a different street and ‘baam’ you discover a park, a library, a museum. This day we wanted a Subway restaurant to eat everything we could.

I parked the car; Larissa was on her new phone trying to login into her accounts. It was her mom’s birthday present, but she didn’t know. Laura left us when she was five to live in a travelling community. At that time, we were starting our path in a new office in L.A. Today I do not blame Laura because we do not know if we are here in this world just for once, so we need to do what we want to do.

In the beginning, everything was so hard. Being with Larissa by myself and trying to find my way as an Architect sounded impossible. The worst of me appeared, I told Larissa that her mom was dead, one of the worse regrets of my life, but I needed to make Laura disappear like dust from our lives.

The restaurant was nearly empty. Two road maintenance workers were eating and laughing, mocking each other. When Larissa passed in front of them, they stopped talking. She was a stunning seventeen-year-old girl, which was so annoying sometimes, but I was getting used to this. At some point, your kids grow up, and it is so scary—life changes in a minute.

I remember well when I came to this country, just like those boys at the restaurant I used to work the whole day. We used to eat at a cheap restaurant near the construction site, I could barely speak English, but that was enough to make one of the best friends of all my life.

When the waitress was coming with the bill, we heard an intense crash noise. A pickup truck bumped at my car. I ran to see what happened and when I arrived outside it was too late. The driver flew from the accident scene. One of the boys offered me to go after the fugitive with him using his car as mine was severely broken. For a second, I thought about the offer, but I was not twenty years old anymore. And then, the moment that changed our lives happened – Laika was there, staring at us.

She was a mixed cocker spaniel with a chestnut and white fur crying like there was no tomorrow. Larissa grabbed her. I didn’t care about it at the moment. I was furious, calling 911 and trying to explain everything that happened. After half an hour talking to the police, I spent one hour and a half with the insurance.

Why can life be so hard with people who are just trying to do things in the right way? We spent the whole day volunteering at a farm because Larissa asked me to do so, and then what is my reward? A useless car destructed by a moron. But things can always become worse, or at least, it was what I thought.

The whole time I spent making calls to fix disastrous actions done by other people in my life, my daughter used to talk with Marco, one of the road maintenance workers, the one that offered me to chase the pickup using his car – they looked like a happy young couple with a dog in her arms.

Great, that was everything I wanted for her future – to waste her life falling in love with an unskilled immigrant and a stray puppet. Marco – the chaser – offered me coffee. What could I do? He was funny, and we needed to wait for the tow truck anyway. He stayed with us. I tried to make him go away, but it looked like that the roads were not needing any maintenance that evening.

When we were finally going home, the taxi driver told us that dogs were not allowed in his car. I looked at him, asking with my eyes, “ And I what I have to do with that? I am not a dog. I don’t even have a dog.” Of course, things can become more complex. Why not? At my back, Larissa was with Laika in her arms.

- Dad, we need to take her with us!

-Ohh, someone bumps at my car, and now we have a dog. Can you explain to me the connection between these two facts?

- Dad, we cannot just leave her here

- Yes, we can! And that’s what we are going to do

- Mum would never do that

And then, I said to my self - Do what? Abandon someone like if they were a stray dog?

Then silence prevailed. I could not say anything about the perfect ‘dead’ mum that I helped to create. The chaser interrupted, offering us a ride home. What could I say? He drove us home.

The new town was nice and quiet, apart from the hit and run. Funny thing, we came from Los Angeles to live in a better and safer neighbourhood. A few days after we saw the restaurant CCTV, the same person that bumped my car left Laika. The driver intended to abandon her and run without being noticed - Well, it did not work.

I felt so good to get back home and tell Larissa that the police identified the driver – the juicy taste of revenge. When I told her, she started to cry, she didn’t want to return Laika, but that was too much. I could not let her take out my pride in seeing that driver in big trouble for abandoning a dog and hitting my car. No, not that day.

Never saw my daughter crying that much. But I was determined to give Laika to the authorities. She was crime proof. What was going to happen after was not my problem; hundreds of dogs go to public facilities every day. The dead mom argument was not working until I entered the rented car I was using.

- I know she is alive! The least you can do is letting me have Laika.

I was muttered.

I simple opened the door and let the dog return to the house.

How come? Is that true? She knew that Laura was alive, or she was just trying that on me.

We didn’t talk for the whole evening. The next day I was having breakfast when she arrived. I could not avoid the talk anymore.

- You better take care of Laika and remain silent about how we got her.

- I loved her since the first time I saw her at the parking lot.

- Haha, you are not funny! Do you wanna say sorry for what you told me about mom?

Then we talked for hours. I explained to my daughter the pain I passed through and how hard it was to accept that we were abandoned. The most challenging conversation of our entire life was not that hard. She discovered everything when she was thirteen.

I thought that her mum appeared just to me, but I was wrong. When Larissa completed ten years old, Laura showed up at my office in L.A wanting to see her daughter. For two months, I rehearsed how to tell Larissa the truth, and when I was ready, Laura just vanished again, not returning my calls.

One year after, she was at my door asking me to give our daughter a present, a Leica camera that her parents left to her before dying in a plane crash. Laura had no one for many years until we meet each other. We agreed on not telling Larissa the truth as she was such an unstable person. Larissa never cared too much about the camera - that she called ‘The Laika’ – until her 13 birthday, and I should have noticed that.

Actually, between twelve and thirteen, she developed the bad habit of listening to my calls using the other phone in the house. Kids are more intelligent than we think. She discovered that her mom was alive and called her back. Since then, they have been talking; apparently, Laura had a difficult moment trying to gain her daughter’s trust again.

- And why you never told me?

- I didn’t want to waste this ‘card’ for nothing, and also, I care about your feelings.

- Thank you! That’s good to know. So, you traded your special ‘card’ for a stray dog?

-Not just a stray dog but a boyfriend also!

- What!?

- Marco is coming tomorrow to talk to you

Ten years after, I am here with Laika. This house became too big after Larissa moved out to live with Marco. End of the day, the chaser had no personality to choose another profession and became an architect like me -they went to L.A.

Now the house owner is demanding me to go walk with her, but I can’t complain. It seems that a man with a dog is more attractive than those with expensive cars.

humanity
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About the Creator

Ricardo

Non native English speaker, native Human Being..

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