Two Suns

 

What do you do when a sentient dog goes missing? When he said he would stay put?  Well, Lou cried a little.  I sat with her on the bus stop bench with my arm around her back.  I guess Lou really loved the talking dog. It had already been a long day and we were all tired.  Roops was fun but rather exhausting to hang around with.  For a fat guy he had a lot of energy.

Doug and Elvin ran into the alley behind the store and up and down a couple blocks.  Bubby was not in any of those places.  I knew because I could hear them still calling him. He wasn’t doing what dogs do in alleys, or anything.

While Lou and I sat there I noticed that there was something funny about the back of the bus stop.  The back wall wasn’t “exactly clear.”  There was a funny not there quality to it that I had not noticed before. It had no color, but that is really not possible.  It seemed to be too deep somehow, or clear.

I said, “hey Lou, turn around.  Look at the back wall.”

She rotated in her spot on the bench.  We both stared at what used to be part of a normal bus stop, we thought. Imagine two sisters, transfixed by what they are seeing and not knowing what to think. One dark and one light.

The not there area became larger, maybe four feet wide and cloudlike.  It seemed deeper and deeper as the seconds passed. A strange little cold wind passed through. It was just like that little cold breeze you feel when a door opens.

As small as a fly, there was a dark something moving in the hazy opening. It became larger.  It seemed to be leaping and running, nearly mouselike. It seemed to be running on air, like the snowman in the song.

His ears didn’t flop, because he was no hound, but it was Bubby, about the size of a rabbit, coming on strong and fast as he could. Behind him and high up deep into the haze there was a sun, a bluer sun than ours, but just as bright and searching.  He didn’t flee the sun he was just running along under its bright pale blue light. He must have been very far away. The running took a very long time.  It gave us a little time to gather our minds.

Doug got there first, then his brother.  They took a long look at the hazy tableau in the bus shelter, but they once again did not look as surprised as we felt.  I briefly noted that.  Maybe it was part of being male.  All cool. Hands in pockets.  No excitement.

All at once Bubby was there.  The hazy opening was closing slowly as if dissolving in the late afternoon light. Soon we were as we had been.  Four kids and a dog and nothing strange about it.

Bubby sat on his haunches and smiled.  He looked very large right then.  His eyes shone, as did his big white teeth.  He was panting too. Afte a bit he said, “I have a message for you.”

“Wait a minute Bubs” I said, “where were you?  What was that thing….? You can’t just tootle back into the real world after being in the cloud thing like that and pretend it was normal and just give us a message! Why should we trust anything coming out of a cloud bank?”

“And who is the message from?  Why should we care?” I was a little hot.

“Rupert said it was OK.” He smiled at us.  I would have sworn that he was larger and sleeker somehow.  Like he had been fine tuned.  He wasn’t so much like Muttly now.

“Look, Rupert talks to them, and he says they are OK.  They haven’t lied to him about anything. Oh, that thing?  It’s a door.  It opened so I ran into it.  Generally, you don’t see one unless it was sent for you.  That place has a blue sun!

“I was talking to some lights. Yeah, I know.  Sounds crazy.  The lights want to talk to you guys.  I can only guess why.” His tail waved slowly as he spoke. "Well, I know, but I will let them tell you."

Doug said, “let’s walk back to the house. We’ve had enough for today.”

As usual, I thought Doug knew more than he had said.  Elvin too.  But we walked the same two miles, down the same old road, back to our parents’ house.  Bubby veered off when we passed Mrs. Steele’s house and pawed the side door until she let him in.  We kept going.

We had the wieners for dinner with baked potatoes.  I already had potatoes in the kitchen.  There was butter this time, so it was nice.  We also had instant coffee with milk and sugar.  Almost dessert.

I sent the boys upstairs to shower.  I could see we were going to need to do some laundry soon.  Towels and clothes.  I wondered if any of my dad’s stuff would fit either one of them.  Maybe just to wear while the laundry was washing and drying. A job for tomorrow.

They came down in their same outfits and we went up to clean up and go to bed also.

All of it so far: In the tenth year of the pandemonium.docx