THAT DOG

I’m from Arkansas, but my best friend Dickie Drinkwater is from Brewer, Maine. We were roommates in college, see. Both of us got scholarships to the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Seemed like a funny place for a Yankee to go to school...

... but Dickie was a funny guy.

He kept a framed picture of his dog by his bedside. Pal was the dog’s name.

Dickie talked about that dog all the time, too. Like the dog was a person. A relative even.

Dickie’s mother used to call every week and sometimes I’d answer the phone.

She wasn’t too happy about Dickie going to a Southern college, and she let me know it. She said it would lead to no good. Told me folks in Arkansas “got funny notions.”

You know, it was me, back then, who introduced Dickie to his wife, Kathleen.

They courted awhile, fell in love and got married. Married in Kathleen’s home state of Florida. Didn’t seem like much of a surprise to me when Dickie’s mother refused to go to that wedding.

After a nice honeymoon on the Keys, Dickie asked Kathleen to go back home with him to Maine, to live. Thought, in time, his Mama would get used to him marryin’ a girl from away.

But mostly, he wanted to introduce Kathleen to his good ol’ dog, Pal.

I came to visit that first summer and they all seemed pretty happy. Kathleen and Pal got along famously.

Dickie’s mama was still standoffish, but it seemed Dickie, Kathleen and Pal were doin’ just fine in the pine tree state.

Unfortunately, Kathleen didn’t make it through the winter.

She thought Dickie was joking when he told her how harsh the Maine winter could be and, well, once the snow melted, Kathleen took off.

Took everything with her, too.

Took the furniture...

...the television.

She even took Pal.

Dickie was heartbroken, so he turned to his Mama for advice.

She looked him straight in the eye and said, “Son, you need to go after her. I want you to get in your vehicle right now and chase her down.”

Dickie was a little confused and rightly so. “But, mama,” he asked, “I thought you didn’t like Kathleen?”

Dickie’s mama wiped her hands on her old print dress, then she held Dickie’s chin up and said, “Honey, I don’t like Kathleen, but that dog’s been in our family his whole life.”

That Dog © Mark Scott Ricketts