The neighbor stood on the deck of his back porch one night to take in a breath of the cool summer air. Yes, he thought, there is no better way to end the day than by breathing in some fresh air and having a late night smoke as well. He thought it was a long day, but a good day, the type of day that made him feel satisfied, no, content, quite content before going to sleep. His restaurant had a busy night, his business couldn\u2019t get any better, and he considered how lucky he was to find a woman who loved and lived with him so soon after his divorce. The neighbor flicked his ashes with dramatic flair as he wondered about recently divorced people who made such a fuss about going through a painful transition in their lives. He prided himself for not going through such a transition and proudly summarized, it is best to stay active, one should be busy with little time to think!<\/p>\n
The neighbor crushed his cigarette under his heel and stretched his arms over his head with a loud yawn. He was ready to peacefully retire for the night when from the corner of his eye something strange began to happen. He turned to look into the yard next door and to his surprise, he saw the dog next door dancing on the railing of its master\u2019s porch. The dog danced on its hind legs, skipping from one end of the railing to the other as its front paws flapped in the air. He even swore that the dog had a smile on its face when it began to perform an Irish jig.<\/p>\n
Rubbing his eyes with disbelief, the neighbor took another look, but the dancing dog didn\u2019t disappear from his sight, in fact, it just danced faster on its nimble paws. He ran into the house and closed the door behind him. In his kitchen he stood, while trying to reassure himself that he was only imagining things, after all, it was a long, busy day, and besides, who ever heard of a dancing dog? The neighbor
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\nthought of telling the woman who loved and lived with him about the strange spectacle that he had just seen, but when he went into the bedroom, she was already asleep. Yes, she would have laughed if I told her, she would have told me that I was out of my mind! He concluded it was just his imagination and shook his head with amusement. Feeling relieved, he let out a yawn. He was totally amazed at how creative his imagination could be after such a long and busy day.<\/p>\n
But the neighbor was so very tired that he found himself being over-tired. He tossed and turned, and couldn\u2019t fall asleep. He listened to the snore from the woman who loved and lived with him, and he got so angry about his sleepless plight that he threw his pillow to the floor.<\/p>\n
His thoughts sped faster and faster. He thought about sex, his parents, his old grade school teachers, about the different menus his restaurant had used, he even remembered a girl from his third grade class and felt certain that her name was Lydia. When he began to think about baseball cards that he had collected as a boy, he became astonished at how his thoughts went off on such wild tangents.<\/p>\n
Somehow his thinking led to the dog next door, and he became angry at himself for thinking about that dog. He wondered why he saw the dog dancing in front of him. Oh, how he hated that dog. It was an ugly dog, with wild black hair over a wide body supported by legs that looked too thin and short for its size. He not only thought that the dog was ugly, but stupid as well. That dog always barks at me. It barks when I park my car in the garage and it barks at me when I take the garbage out!
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\nThat dog barks at every little thing! If you\u2019re going to have dog, he figured, then the dog should be disciplined, obedient, and refined in stature. The neighbor thought of his two English Boxers and was pleased at how well trained they were.<\/p>\n
After thinking so much, the neighbor felt a throbbing tension in his legs and also felt hungry. His stomach growled and his legs ached, but he forced himself to stay in bed while trying to fall asleep. He began to relax when he pictured his favorite breakfast before him. He envisioned a tall glass of milk and a plate of french toast dripping with syrup. The breakfast picture steadied his mind and ceased the thoughts that had been troubling him. His leg muscles relaxed, his breathing deepened, and off he drifted into sleep.<\/p>\n
The next morning, the neighbor felt refreshed though he didn\u2019t realize that he had only three hours of sleep. He sat in bed and smelled eggs cooking in the frying pan that the woman who loved and lived with him was preparing for his breakfast.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, this is the best way to start a morning,\u201d he said, \u201ca good night\u2019s sleep and hearty breakfast gives me the energy that I need to have a productive day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The neighbor felt so good that he didn\u2019t change into his suit, but came down to the kitchen to eat his breakfast with his pajamas on. He even forgot the episode with the dog next door. He drank his tall glass of milk, no, two tall glasses of milk, and ate a plate of scrambled eggs because the woman who loved and lived with him didn\u2019t know how to make french toast.
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After breakfast, the neighbor went to the back porch to watch his dogs frolic in the yard. Like a proud father he watched them show their strength as they played tug-o-war with a rubber bone. It was a beautiful morning, not a cloud in the sky, and the neighbor felt himself blush when he heard himself say, \u201cIt is a morning like this that makes me feel good to be alive!\u201d He lit a cigarette and leisurely stretched out his arms over his head. But the good feeling that he thought he had began to fade when he saw and heard something move on the porch next door. To his horror, once again, he saw the dog next door. It was standing on its hind legs as it swept the deck of its master\u2019s porch with a push broom. The dog was handy with the push broom as it swept eagerly, conscientiously around the corners of the porch, gathering the loose debris into a small tidy pile. The dog next door even stopped sweeping for a second to give a mock salute with its paw as a greeting to the neighbor.<\/p>\n
The neighbor\u2019s cigarette dropped from his mouth as he stared with disbelief at the dog. He ran with hysteria into the house and shouted to the woman who loved and lived with him what he had just seen. The neighbor was so upset that he pulled her out to the porch telling her to see the dog next door sweeping with a push broom. When she came outside to look, the dog was no longer sweeping, but was asleep with a gnawed rubber ball at its side. The woman who loved and lived with him began to laugh, for she thought his hysteria was a practical joke. She even complimented him for his silly sense of humor, she never knew that he could be so funny. The neighbor couldn\u2019t tell her that he was serious. He worried about his state of mind, but did feel flattered when she told him that he had a silly sense of humor. The rest of the day he felt so ill that he stayed in bed to rest. He couldn\u2019t get his mind off the strange occurrences with the dog next door. The idea came to him that maybe he needed a vacation, to take a break from working such long and busy days.
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But the weeks went by, and the neighbor never did take a vacation. In fact, he completely forgot about his vacation plans because he was busy with his restaurant and was also involved in opening a second restaurant as well. He felt happy with his work and would even go to some social function at least once a week with the woman who loved and lived with him. The neighbor was pleased to be with her. Now she is a good woman, he thought, and a pride grew within him when he logically concluded that he must be a good man. He didn\u2019t think about the dog next door because the dog hadn\u2019t appeared to him since that morning with the broom. He chalked it up as being a mere hallucination and never tried to analyze it any further than that. For a few minutes one night, he did ponder on how mysterious the mind could be. He remembered reading some article about the feats that can be accomplished through the powers of positive thinking.<\/p>\n
Summer had passed and the neighbor woke up one morning and discovered that autumn had arrived. He stood on his back porch smoking a cigarette before breakfast as he felt the chilly air cut through his pajamas. He was surprised to notice a change in the seasons and he boasted to himself about his sensitivity in observing the changes in nature. He though how his sensitivity may lead him to write some good poetry, what the heck, why not give it a go?<\/p>\n
As he continued to muse about himself, he saw something move on the porch next door to him. He turned to look and didn\u2019t want to believe what he saw, but all the same, it was the dog again. He watched the dog next door leap on the porch railing and begin to dance on its hind legs. The dog high stepped in chorus line fashion, and even began to do spins on its flat paws. The neighbor tossed his cigarette down with anger.
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\u201cStop it! Stop it!\u201d he pleaded with the dog.<\/p>\n
But the dog paid him no attention and did a graceful spin in the air like a ballet dancer. The neighbor quaked with fear when he realized he might not be imagining this dancing dog. The thought scared him. It gave him a bitter taste in his mouth when he reluctantly concluded that the dancing dog was real.<\/p>\n
The neighbor knew there was only one thing to do. He stormed into the house and went into the bedroom to get his gun. I must kill this dog and stop this nonsense at once, he thought. He was convinced that the dog was purposefully trying to drive him crazy and ruin his peace of mind.<\/p>\n
The neighbor thought he was too intelligent, had too much business savvy to let a stupid dog put a strain on his mental health. While loading the gun with bullets, he seethed with anger on how the dog next door would always bark at him. Why doesn\u2019t that dog like me? I tried to be nice, but it always wanted to bite me when I tried to pet it a couple of times! The neighbor began to suspect that the dog next door was having a bad influence on his two English Boxers. They haven\u2019t listened to my commands as well as they used to, and it seems they have been barking in the middle of the night about absolutely nothing and waking me from my sleep! The neighbor thought he was too busy to be bothered by a stupid dog. There was a business to run, a house to upkeep, and a woman to love and live with. He was certain without a doubt that the dog\u2019s death would bring him peace. It was the dog and only the dog, he reasoned, that caused a problem in his life.<\/p>\n
The woman who loved and lived with him came into the bedroom to tell him that his breakfast was ready when she saw him with the gun. With her hands to her cheeks, she asked him who he was planning to shoot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to shoot the dog next door!\u201d he raged. \u201cIt\u2019s been making a fool out of me for too long now!\u201d
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The woman who loved and lived with him knew this time he wasn\u2019t joking. She tried to hold him back as she pulled at his arms and grabbed a handful of his pajamas, but he pushed her aside and walked out the door.<\/p>\n
He breathed deeply trying to relax himself because he had last shot a gun 30 years ago when he had gone hunting for fowl with his father. It flashed back to him on how he killed a quail with one crisp shot from his father\u2019s rifle. The shot from the rifle echoed through the forest as the quail fell from the sky and rustled among some bushes. If I did it before, he thought, I could do it again! Nothing succeeds like success!<\/p>\n
The neighbor stood on the porch, but the dog next door was no longer dancing on the railing. With his finger on the trigger, his eyes searched around for the dog. The neighbor heard some rattling from the few leaves that were left on his apple tree, and looking up he saw the dog next door perched on one of the branches. The dog sat with its hind legs on a narrow branch, but was able to balance itself quite gracefully. Like a robin it sat and like a blue jay it chirped as the neighbor steadily pointed the gun with careful aim.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Copyright Wawzenek 2012<\/em>\u200e<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The neighbor stood on the deck of his back porch one night to take in a breath of the cool summer air. Yes, he thought, there is no better way to end the day than by breathing in some fresh air and having a late night smoke as well.<\/p>\n …<\/span><\/p>\n