The Golden Retriever

An unnaturally bright light shines across the pane of a window placed high up and nestled on a brick building’s face. What could it be?

Teddy had his palms placed on two walls, cowering on the floor in the corner of his apartment. Happy barks and airborne paw swipes seemed to take up more space than they should. The golden retriever was luminous to the point of becoming gigantic. Instead of aging like a normal dog, the pup in the room with Teddy grew brighter as time passed, putting off death altogether. While remarkable, the dog’s compounding vibrancy made it impossible for Teddy to get any rest, leaving his nerves in a knot. Teddy reasoned that the dog may dim somewhat should it fall asleep, but his golden fur was too dazzling to lull with a brush or petting. Teddy decided to share a scene from his week; not a full story, but a setting, one that had left an impact without a lesson, to put the golden retriever to sleep. Still cowering before the dog, Teddy spoke:

‘Well, old puppy, the other day I went to my niece’s college graduation party. There was a group of children and toddlers going from grass to cement and back, chasing a turtle. One of the kids fell away from the group. He stood there looking in the air with a cupcake in his hand. Gradually the frosting atop the dessert fell with the heat of the sun onto the driveway. The father appeared from the young boy’s shoulder and bent down to scoop the frosting up with his knife. It was a sharp knife that would have matched a hunter’s belt. A blade meant for field dressing was then covered in blue sugar, a mess. At the sight of such a knife, some of the other fathers reached towards their belts and revealed their own knives in approval of the first knife making an appearance. The young boy took no notice of any of this. After a few moments, I saw that plenty of blue frosting was left behind on the ground. Dozens of ants swarmed the sugar hills.’ Teddy cleared his throat.

The crazy golden retriever was undeterred and panted happily, attached to nothing. It wasn’t just the dog’s brightness that deprived Teddy, he also didn’t really understand dogs. They frightened him. Bark! Bark! What the hell? In spite of Teddy, the puppy’s lumens rose like the meter outside a house in slow motion, never fulfilled.