The Dog's Red Eyes

The dog’s red eyes

In an urge to do a roundabout spring cleaning in her apartment Mary attacked her old trunk, which had doubled as a closet for two years and stood forgotten for the last three years. She sorted through the clothes, deciding what to donate and what to throw away.

At the bottom of the trunk was her old hideous pink coat she wore the day Jesse saved her from her father. The coat was years old, but so little worn it could have gone to donation. She glared hateful at it and was about to roll it up to stuff it into the garbage bag when she heard a clanking sound from a pocket.

Searching through the pockets she found a roll of film in its plastic canister. She chuckled to herself. A smile grew on her face. There weren’t a lot of nice memories from her teenage years, but she had managed to pursue old fashioned photography for a hobby and even gotten her dad to pay for a darkroom in his house.

Spring cleaning was forgotten. Mary went straight to the drugstore in high hopes the film could be salvaged. An hour later she paid for a bag filled with unknown memories. Clutching the treasure to her chest she ran home. She was excited and worried at the same time. What would it be like, to rediscover what used to bring her pleasure? Would it hurt? Would it make her happy or melancholic?

Five years had passed since she took those photos at seventeen. So much had changed in her life. Mary put the treasure on the side table of the couch and went into the kitchen to make tea. While she waited for water to boil and the herbs to infuse she stood lost in thought leaning against the refrigerator. She heard the apartment door open and close, Jesse and his twin brother Jake’s light steps.

The two night-elves entered the kitchen, their size of 6’6” not at all reflected in the near silence that they moved with. After living with them for so long Mary knew their small sounds, which to others didn’t sound more than the light rustling of clothes. Already reminiscing on the past, Mary was transported back to her first morning here when Jesse wanted to kick her out and Jake had talked him out of it.

As always Jake was the one to read her mood faster than Jesse. He walked up to Mary and made her lift her face to him. “Are you alright, little one?”

“I found a roll of film in my old pink coat. I got the pictures developed.”

“Oh,” Jake released her face, “What’s on them?”

“I haven’t looked yet.”

Settling down on the couch with Mary in the middle the trio slowly flipped through the photos, admiring a duck in midflight, a dragonfly over a pond, a mouse running with all fours off the ground and more pictures of animals or vehicles in motion.

Jesse smirked, “Now I know why you’re such a great shot. You trained your hand-eye coordination from early on.” He sat on the left and had each picture first, handed it to Mary, who gave it to Jake. Jesse paused and held one picture longer than the others before.

Mary asked, “What is it?”

Jesse handed it wordlessly to her. Mary’s bright blond hair was visible from beneath covers. A Doberman lay relaxed but with open eyes, which showed red in the picture, next to her. Whoever took the picture was known to the dog.

The last five pictures in the stack were more shots of things in motion, taken by Mary.

Jesse held up the shot of her asleep. “Who took this one?”

“My brother, no doubt. Just another of his pranks to scare me.” Mary wrapped her arms around her torso.

Jake made an attempt to take her on his lap, but Jesse stopped him. “Give her to me.”

Normally Mary detested it when they spoke of her in third person. But to be reminded of her brother and the things he did to her was worse. And it was nice to get tender affection from Jesse. Mary’s petite figure, a whole foot smaller than Jesse’s, fit snug in his warm embrace. For minutes she enjoyed his strong arms around her and the comforting weight of his chin on her head. Finally she moved and said with a firm voice, “How about we go to the range? We need to finish the fine adjustments on your new rifle.”

“That’s my girl,” Jesse praised her, getting up and already with his mind on his favorite past-time.

774 words without the title