These vignettes are short, and not as detailed as the script might be, but it does reflect my feelings toward my first pet. A year has passed from the last vignette, more or less.
Vignette 11
Jake came home from
2nd grade one day to the sound of barking in the back yard. Jerry,
who walked with him, though not on purpose, raced into the house and
then out the back. Jake followed him a bit slower and looked out the
back window. He saw his stepfather and mother bending over and
petting a black puppy. He went through the door Jerry left open and
stepped out.
His mother waved.
“Jake! Look what we have now. A new member of our family. A sweet
buppy!”
His mother always
used that word around dogs and he just rolled his eyes. He came up to
the puppy, who was tied to a tree in the middle of a yard. The dog
was licking Jerry, then saw Jake and jumped up with its paws on his
chest and licked his face. He giggled slightly, but moved out of her
reach after a moment..
“Oh look, she
loves you already,” said his mom. “Her name is Cleopatra and
she's a Labrador Retriever. She's purebred!”
The dog was bounding
back and forth on her leash, letting out a bark every now and then.
Jerry came to his
mother and hugged her. “Thanks Mom!”
Jake sighed quietly.
“Yeah, thanks, Mom!”
Jake found his way
back into the house and put his homework on the desk. Gradually the
rest of the family came home from school and made a giant fuss over
the 'buppy.' He heard that word so many times that day that when
night came he covered his ears to block out the sound – of that and
the dog barking.
Vignette 12
Over the next two
months several things happened to Jake. Thanksgiving came and went.
Christmas was on the way. Cleo had grown, both physically and on him.
The dog showed great enthusiasm for both him and Jerry and greeted
them when they got home from school.
The dog was kept in
the back yard for the most part. She refused to be paper-trained and
was not let in the house very often. Jake's step-father and Jack had
started to build a doghouse for her, and she was often chained to the
tree.
Sometime after his
birthday, but before Christmas, Jake and Jerry walked to where the
school bus would meet them, a few blocks from their house. They heard
a barking behind them and turned to see Cleo running after them. She
jumped at Jake's chest and slobbered all over him.
“Cleo! You
shouldn't be here! Go home!”
Jerry turned and
continued to walk toward the bus stop. “Take her back home!”
“But I'll miss the
bus! Cleo, go home, please!”
The dog kept
following them, though, wagging her tail
They reached the bus
stop and Cleo stayed with them. Jake was worried that Cleo would try
to get on the bus. He made her sit down as the bus approached and
looked her in the eye. “Stay. Go home when we get on the bus,
okay?”
The dog let out a
woof. Jake held out his hand to her in a 'stay' position as the bus
came up and kept it out until he was aboard the bus. The dog stayed
where she was until the bus door closed, then got up and barked. Jake
looked down at her and tried to tell her to stay. As the bus passed
her, he heard a 'thump.'
“Wait! Stop the
bus!” he cried.
The driver ignored
him and the bus went forward. Jerry and Jake both tried to look out
the windows but Jake could not see anything through the other kids.
He spent the entire
day in class worried about Cleo. Jerry said nothing to him.
When the bus let
them off late in the afternoon, Jake could not see Cleo at the bus
stop. He ran all the way home. He burst through the front door and
saw his mother. She was on the phone. Her eyes were red.
“Cleo?” Jake
mouthed.
His mother put her
hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. She hesitated for a moment,
then shook her head.
Jake went to the
backyard and the half-built doghouse stood empty. Tears began to well
up and he ran to his room.
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