The Present
Copyright© 2019 by Mark Randall
Chapter 5
The next day was a confusion of activity. Mainly just folks were stopping by to say goodbye and to exchange contact information. I made sure to get Marsha’s recipe for scrapple, two copies. One for Mabel, the other for myself. I was also able to pry a copy of Bruce’s apple pie recipe from him. I had never had a use for ‘Everclear.’ But now I was going have to stock up. Or find a moonshiner.
One of the things that I had feared was realized. When Donny found out that his newest, bestest, friend in the entire world was going away, his little heart was broke. The poor kid went through the grief stages 3 or 4 times. He was a trooper, though. He didn’t throw a tantrum or whine. Quietly crying, however, was definitely on the menu.
That was when I realized what the problem really was. Even though he had a loving family, mom, and dad, brother and sisters, ranch hands, and animals galore, he had no friends. When Shadow showed up, here was a warm, friendly, and cuddly buddy. Willing to jump and run and roll around in the hay.
It damn near broke my heart, and I blamed myself. I could have stopped this at the very beginning. Calling Shadow out and stopping the playtime. But what was done was done. I called Bruce over, and he was well aware of the problem.
“Bruce, I know this isn’t an immediate solution, but I think it’ll probably work out for the best. Here is the name and phone number of a dog trainer I know in Washington. He’s the guy I got Shadow from. Give him a call, tell him you’re a friend of mine, and he’ll set something up with you. My suggestion is that you take Donny with you when you go to pick up the dog. Take the time to do a little extra daddy-son bonding. It’ll take a week or two of training for both Donny and the dog he picks out. But it’ll be worth it in the long run.”
“Damn Matt, you are putting quite a burden on me. You’re suggesting I leave this place unsupervised for two weeks?”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.