~ The Journey from Dread to Balm ~
Well… here I go looking for an opportunity to do two things I don’t want to do. Well, it’s the tasks themselves… the possible total waste of time, or worse yet everything going off the rails that I’m dreading.
Dad gave me a slight nod of encouragement as I relocated from musing in the bedroom to an unseasonably warm outdoors and a possible sun nap.
My two tasks, while waiting for the youngest of the pack to appear, is to present an idea to her that I’m pretty sure she’ll reject and… then… convince her to do it anyway.
Some months ago, I proposed a sabbatical or a vacation, or some thing different to do. The idea was kind of ignored, everybody thinking I was just in some kind of funk and would snap out of it.
Dad brought it up out of the blue on my birthday and asked me to really think about what I wanted to do.
“I want Prudence to fill in now and then, you know, maybe take over one day,” I blurted out hoping to forego thinking about it anymore.
“Why not Keira?,” Dad asked, out of a sense of fairness I guess.
“C’mon Dad, the light in the attic doesn’t always work, and all she’d write about is how beautiful she is and how it’s been proven that Golden Retrievers are the best breed to ever pad around the earth.”
After that talk, Dad and I would break away from everyone now and again trying to figure the best way to broach the subject. All we came up with was, well, just winging it.
So here I am waiting for the Maxi-Pin to come out to sun herself and then see what happens.
I have to say, as I lay here basking, that I enjoy running stories past Dad or Mom and getting feedback from readers. Sometimes Dad reads one of the stories from the past and I’m amazed how full our lives have been, and are.
Maybe I should put them all together during what ever vacation I get out of this possible arrangement.
“You’re mumbling Hazel.”
Pru has several habits that tend to annoy, and one of them is her habit of ninja appearances, followed, (every single time), with a snarky comment.
“I was deep in thought, Pru.”
Pru sniffed in my general direction, “So… you’re telling me your brain leaks into your mouth?”
“It’s called speech, if you must know.”
Pru circled her spot and plopped down on her port side to sun one side of her hairless belly. Giving a sigh of pleasured satisfaction Pru countered, through an extended yawn, “So what were you deep in thought about that you couldn’t form proper words?”
Without much thought or restraint, I poured out all the musings, wondering, second guesses, fears and dread of enlisting Pru’s help and allowing her to mess about in a tradition that meant a lot to me.
Another Prudence yawn. Silence. Then, “Will I have super powers and be the hero and stuff like that?” she asked while stretching all her legs straight out while effortlessly rolling over.
My first thought was I might have just created a monster that is about to tear up my Tokyo in a roaring rampage and stomping over all my work and my heritage, so to speak. My second thought was the near sinful delight I would have as Mom and Dad read Pru’s work and scrambling to figure out what to do.
“Sure Pru, I don’t see why not,” I managed to say with a straight face.
“..and maybe I could be the victim of an inalienable abduction, but I escape their clutches and do loops over the house in their flying saucer?”
Pru rotated onto her back with all fours pointing to the sky while reciting a fairly long list of ever more outlandish story lines while I decided she could carry on without me and raised up to shake my fur straight.
On the way into the house while Pru continued on, I passed Tuck. He stopped for a second.
“How’d it go Haze?” he asked.
Tucker was headed to the front door where his kit and leash waited for Dad to gather up and take him on a trip.
“I may have just released a Pandora’s box of trouble to be honest Tuck.”
Tucker shifted nervously waiting for Dad. “Tell Mom to give you some pro-biotics and a little pumpkin with dinner.”
I answered over my shoulder as I left him to find solace, “Yeah, got it Tuck… probiotics, pumpkin.”
Pru and Keira passed me at a trot in the hallway. Pru was hot on Keira’s heels and pitching more story lines. This time, they centered around saving Hawaiian school children and their pineapple patch from an avalanche.
There’s only one place to go when I wonder if I’ve made a mistake and need help. That one single special place. Mom.
I found her in the office offering stern advice to her computer screen about how it would be in its best interest to do what it was told.
I squeezed in between her feet and the legs of her chair and plopped down hard with an obvious sigh.
She pushed back her chair a bit and rubbed my back with her stocking feet for a moment.
“I take it, Haze, that you talked with Pru about taking a turn at writing for your column, and now you’re wondering what that means for you and if you made a mistake.
“Let me remind you, Haze, that both you and Pru are Rez dogs with curled up tails and pointed ears. You both started out in very difficult and dire circumstances. And… you and Pru have a very athletic heritage, Miss Rocket Dog. You will see in the seasons ahead that it’s the right time for the white mask girl to hand part of her responsibilities to the young black mask girl. Trust me on this Haze.”
There is nothing in this world like a loving Mom, trust me on this.
~ Hazel Bazel Rocket Dog ~
