No More Suns and No More Moons!

Two more suns, two more moons, then finito! It was not as if I had accomplished anything untoward, well nothing serious that I could recall. Apparently, my time was expiring! What does that actually mean, and how very dare they organise such a predicament on my behalf? I do not remember agreeing to that! I gazed at the trees across the yard. Just standing there, swaying gently in the breeze. Every now and then a few yellowing leaves would hurry down to the ground where they would scuttle along the tarmac, looking for a place to rest. A bit like me really. That was all that I had ever wanted. To be honest, I cannot even fully recall how I began, how I traversed to here and where I would be departing to, next. As I declared earlier, it has all been determined for me now. Someone in authority, had deemed it so. The breeze enveloped me and I closed my eyes letting it gently caress my face and my ears.

I was back in a different time. Such noise filled my ears, and familiar scents wafted into my nostrils. I was groping around in the darkness. I attempted to open my eyes, but they were stuck fast. It felt warm and safe, so I was content with that, for now. Those heady days of being warm, safe, and always having a wonderfully tubby belly, flooded back. Why couldn’t it have stayed like that? Life can be so cruel!

I am not sure how or why it happened but one day, everything changed. The morning had started like any other morning. Wash, breakfast, exercise, wash, nap, lunch and then just before my afternoon siesta, BANG! Everything turned upside down. I was grabbed and thrown into the back of a van. ‘What the hell?’ The van shuddered down bumpy roads, flinging me from one side to the other. By the time it came to an abrupt halt, I was decidedly bruised and battered.

When the door to the back of the van opened, I could not focus. It had been so dark in there, my eyes needed to adjust to the light. But they physically could not. The flinging around in the back of the van, had severely damaged one of my eyes. A ruptured socket the nice gentleman in the white coat had said. His voice was kind, and he bathed my eye gently.

‘I’m afraid you will never get full vision back in that eye again, but you might see some light through it’, he put his hand on my shoulder as if to reassure me.

Nobody else around me was happy about it, however. Firstly, they objected loudly at the nice doctor’s fee…Secondly, they decided that I would be unable to carry out the duties required, whatever they were?

‘Bloody hell, he’s not worth us shelling that amount of cash out on him already! ‘The older gent said, ‘He hasn’t even done any work for us yet.

‘Thought that was the whole point in having him around in the first place?’ The young man looked equally aggrieved.

I just sat there with a swollen eye socket, covered in bruises and nobody had even mentioned dinner. What kind of establishment was this? They must have both been very anxious to be somewhere as they jumped in their van and sped off, leaving me sitting there on their verandah. It was dark when they returned. The smell oozing from them made me recoil. It was as unpleasant as their behaviour. But I was optimistic that things would improve. They retired for the rest of the evening, leaving me hungry, sore, and extremely disappointed on the front porch. I sat looking up at the stars. There was so many of them, you could never count them all, I tried. And had I had a full belly, it would have been a perfect evening. I laid down on an old rug, better than the uneven wooden slatted verandah, and tried to sleep.

I must have dozed off, as I awoke to find someone or something nudging me, whispering in my ear.

‘Hey, what you up to out here?’ A smiling face was beaming at me

I sat up, feeling a bit disorientated. ‘Sorry old chap, I dozed off, I do beg your pardon?’

My new friend repeated his question, as I looked him up and down. He looked like he could do with a good bath, he smelled something awful. His black and white outfit was, however, very striking. I remarked about it. He looked pleased, but was still waiting for an answer, I could tell.

‘Well, kind Sir, the gentlemen who abducted me and hurled me into their van, brought me to this decrepit old cabin in the woods, I believe for nefarious notions, and still, I have had no repast!’

I feel aghast to say that my new companion, looked a little startled, a rabbit in the headlights one might observe.

‘Do - you - speak - any - English?’ He asked slowly

‘Why sir, I only converse in the Kings native tongue’

‘Nope, not a dickybird. Try again in more plain language, maybe?

I looked at my new friend with a little pity. He was obviously not accustomed to being addressed in such a civilised manner.

‘Come now, my old chap, surely you can comprehend my vocabulary?’

‘Not really. Why do you have to use such unusual words?’

I contemplated carefully before replying.

’Well, when I was much younger, I came across a book of words, a dictionary, I believe they had called it. I am sorry to say that knowing no better, I ate it! Every single word. To this day my language has been thus.’

My acquaintance fluffed his stripy tail up into the air. ‘Well, I do find you quite confusing, but you seem like an okay guy!’ and with that he wandered off towards the woods. He was leaving a strong and pungent scent behind. It was so easy for me to follow him. I had already decided that it would be better all round if I skedaddled. I had gathered that the two gents back at the cabin had something unpleasant in mind for me in the morning. I was not going to hang around to find out what.

For the next few weeks, I thoroughly enjoyed the company of my smelly friend and his family, who also emitted the foulest of scents, but were equally as charming. I did, however, choose to sleep outside their small abode. The air was much more refreshing.

I did not want to outstay my welcome, and so eventually, bidding my adopted family a fond farewell, I headed off towards the bright lights. I had it on good authority that there would be plentiful opportunities for me in the town. Lots of shops and fast-food restaurants just waiting for me. On one particular stifling day, I had been rooting around in a back alley, behind Chucky Cluck Chicken, when I saw a white van slowly driving towards me. I was unfortunately distracted by the discovery of nearly a whole box of deep fried, very cold, and much nibbled chicken wings, such was my undoing. I should have realised that the smooth talking, leggy blonde smiling at me was up to no good! I surmised, wrongly that she liked me. She just wanted to accost me and put me in the back of another van. How humiliating!

Now, I am sitting looking out across a barren yard with a few trees and lots of yellow patches of grass. When the wind blows my way there is a faint whiff of ammonia in the air. But inside here where I must wait for my impending doom, the smell that surrounds us all is of fear and despair. Some of my fellow inmates have been here for much longer than me so they could disappear any day. The sun is going down. This means two moons and just one more sun for me now.

I awoke to a hearty breakfast, always a pleasant and positive start to one's day. I instantly saw that my neighbour had vanished in the night. I hope he had found what he was looking for, wherever he went to. The place had seen better days to be honest. I had stayed in much better establishments. The paint was peeling off the walls and there were questionable stains on the floor and a few on the bits of paint that remained. The bedding needed a good wash and the décor and entertainment was lacking. I settled down for a nap, which I expected, could last a while.

In the morning, I realised that this was my last sun and that my last moon would follow shortly after. Everyone seemed to vanish by the morning, like the twinkling stars that captivated me every night. I envisaged my calling would come in similar circumstances. I did not feel so hungry this morning and when Doreen came and took my plate away, she looked at me with a knowing pity. How I hated that look!

I had relegated my self to the farthest corner of my cell, and faced the wall. I did not want to make any eye contact, easier when you only have one eye that works properly, and certainly was not going to engage in any meaningless conversation either. I had been sitting like that for what seemed like an age when I heard a little voice. I did not turn around immediately, I stood, or rather, sat, my ground.

The voice belonged to a young girl; her name was Ivy. She stood directly in front of my room, staring in at me. It was like being in some kind of zoo. Very undignified.

‘Why do you like this one?’ I heard a different, older female voice.

‘I can only see him from the back but if he turns around, I bet he’s real cute!’

With a slight sigh, I turned around. There was the prettiest young girl with long curly hair, and bright blue eyes, beaming at me. Her mum was smiling kindly at me too. I knew as I turned that they would see my lifeless eye and walk away, repulsed. But something untoward occurred. They didn’t. They bent down and called me over. I gingerly walked closer to the bars. They tried to touch me, but it was too difficult through such narrow bars.

‘Shall we see if we can spend some time with him?’ The mum said

‘Ooh, yes please mum. Look at his beautiful face, he is so super cute. He has a poorly eye too, so he needs lots of looking after,’

Well, my flabber was gasted! I could not believe my moth-eaten ears. They liked me!

We spent the rest of the day together running and playing in the yard, it was lovely, until they locked me up again. I had a restless night. It was difficult to sleep when one was waiting to be whisked off at any moment. I must have eventually dozed off because before I knew it, the birds were singing their morning chorus. There was not a cloud in the sky and everybody was tucking into their breakfast. I was too nervous to even contemplate food. Doreen came along to collect my full bowl.

‘Oh dear, I do hope you’re not ill Spot,’ she said sadly, ‘Not when you could be going to a new home today.’ I had a small black mark on my pink nose and that is the best they could come up with! My fur was a mix of white, brown, and black patches. I had heard the description on my room plaque read out by people that wandered by;

‘Breed: Jack Russell Terrier’

Age: Unknown

Temperament: Docile

My ears pricked up and my nose began to twitch. I wolfed the food down and wagged my tail happily. My time had not run out, yet; there was still some hope for me!