muchtooarrogant | The Games We Play

LJI Week 5: Oubaitori
The duck pond was bounded on three sides by a gravel trail, but the fourth was a rocky slope topped with several sizeable boulders. At the pond's center there was a small island with two scrubby-looking trees and an assortment of leafy bushes. Later that summer, Kara knew the water would be choked with lily pads, but at the moment it looked fairly clean and no ducks were visible.

"Go!" The shout rang out from the hilltop's boulder strewn summit, and a yellow tennis ball arched over the water below. As the ball fell, a black and tan German Shepherd charged down the grassy side of the hill, its bushy tail streaming behind like a proud flag. When it arrived on the gravel path, the shepherd noted her presence with a quick glance, and then hurled itself into the water, swimming swiftly towards the floating ball.

"Damn!" Garrett appeared between the two boulders closest to the hilltop's edge overlooking the pond, and smiled down at her, as though totally unsurprised to find her standing there. "I missed. He likes it best if I can make it reach the island."

She hadn't seen Garrett or Mac while approaching the pond, so they must have been sitting behind one of the boulders. People watching? The park was almost deserted at the moment, except for a little league baseball team on the far side practicing plays.

"I'm surprised he takes the time to run down the side of the hill," she commented, "instead of just following the ball over the edge."

Garrett chuckled. "We brought him to the park when he was a puppy, and the first time dad threw the ball from up here I think he thought about jumping after it for a few seconds, but Jamie was about halfway down the hill on that side," he gestured with his right hand, "and I was about where you are now. We just kept yelling his name until he got it." He glanced at Mac, who was now rapidly approaching the shore, the retrieved tennis ball firmly clamped in his teeth. "You, uh, probably want to step back a bit."

"What?" She turned to look at Mac as well, not understanding.

"He's going to …"

Mac arrived at that moment, leveraged himself out of the water, and began to shake.

"Shit!" She scrambled backward, her feet sliding unhelpfully in the loose gravel, and ended up sitting down hard on her butt. The German Shepherd, still shaking, stared at her bemusedly, no doubt surprised to find her so suddenly at eye level.

"Mac, stop. Sit." Garrett appeared beside her, and rested a hand on her shoulder. "Kara, are you okay?"

He had to have sprinted down the hillside to have arrived so quickly, and yet, looking up at him, he seemed completely at ease. His hazel eyes were concerned, although there was a hint of amusement there as well. Mac, now sitting, was also focused on Garrett. Awaiting further commands?

"I'm fine," she said, dropping her eyes and willing herself not to blush. "I just slipped."

His hand left her shoulder, but remained in front of her, offering assistance. Some guys, even boys she had gone to school with since kindergarten, had grown increasingly shy around her as they grew older, but Garrett had always projected an easy self-confidence. Someone who was, in her mother's words, "comfortable in their own skin." She gave him her hand, and he smoothly lifted her to her feet.

Turning to Mac, Garrett crouched and scratched the shepherd's damp head. "You're a good boy," he told the dog, "but you really shouldn't shake on pretty girls." He grinned at Kara over his shoulder. "It's rude!"

He straightened, and gestured at the boulders above them. "You wanna sit up there and dry off for a bit? There's plenty of sun today, and I promise Mac only shakes when he's down here."

Not trusting her voice, Kara nodded, and from across the park there was a chorus of cheers, as though the entire little league team endorsed his idea and her acceptance.

When they reached the hilltop, Kara noticed a backpack tucked between two boulders. "Snacks," Garrett proclaimed, following her gaze. "You want a Dr Pepper? I think they're still pretty cold."

"Uh, thanks."

Now that she had found him, she was unsure of exactly what to do or say next. Her father would probably be furious if he knew what she was attempting, but the decision Garrett had made affected her too, not just her dad. She wanted to understand, assuming she could untie her tongue long enough to ask the question.

Garrett bent, unzipped the backpack, rummaged inside for a minute, and then handed her a can. As he had promised, it was still cold. Mac, who had trotted behind them up the hill, sprawled out at Garrett's feet, the ball still firmly gripped in his teeth.

"Look at you," Garrett said, laughing and kneeling beside him, "You used to keep me throwing for hours, and now you stop after one toss?"

He started scratching Mac's muzzle, and Kara noticed that both it and the shepherd's ears were completely gray. She opened the can, mostly for something to do with her hands, and asked, "How old is he now?"

"Almost nine," Garrett answered. "It feels like we've had him forever, and Jamie and I were in elementary when mom and dad brought him home, so …" His expression was wistful. He scratched all the way down Mac's back, and the shepherd instantly flipped over for a belly rub. "I try and spend time with him now whenever I can."

The unspoken words, "Because he doesn't have much time left," hung between them.

Kara felt a bit like an intruder, as though she had forced her way into his shared time with Mac. But, he had seemed to welcome her company. He had smiled when he saw her, and instantly started talking to her. Would he have done that if he wanted to be alone?

"I wanted to ask you," she blurted, and then horrified, stop speaking. She had panicked, and now Garrett was looking up at her.

"Yes?"

Her face was hot, and she couldn't meet his calm gaze anymore. Staring out over the pond she said, "You quit band and I …" She couldn't say missed you. She couldn't say her father, their school's head band director, had been in a foul mood for weeks. She couldn't say that every piece of music they played without him felt incomplete.

After a moment, when it was clear she wouldn't continue, Garrett tapped her foot. "Hey," he said softly, "look at me."

Steeling herself, she looked down, and was relieved to see that his reassuring smile from earlier had returned.

"You're okay," he said, "I'm not going to bite your head off for asking." He patted the ground next to him. "Come on, sit down and I'll tell you what happened."

She hesitated, and then forced herself to sit. This was why she had sought him out, chickening out now would be stupid.

"Do you remember that junior ambassador thing Principal Sikes was pushing at the beginning of the year?" He leaned back against a boulder, dug in the backpack for a second, and then removed a can of his own. "Adopt a freshman, show them around, be their big brother/sister for the semester."

"Uh, yeah," she agreed. "I mean I never signed up or anything, but you did, right?"

"Ha!" He opened his can and took a long swallow. "I think it would be more accurate to say mom signed me up. 'It'll look good on a college application,'" he mimicked. "Anyway, the kid they assigned me to was Eric. I knew most of the teachers he had, told him which ones were good, and one where he should try and stay under the radar, Mrs. Felps."

He glanced at her, and Kara smiled and nodded in agreement.

"So, he was in freshman band, and …" He drank again from his can, and seemed to be gathering his words. "Talking to him about band, explaining stuff, I started noticing things. We would be running out to take our positions on the field, someone would miss their dot, and we'd all have to stand around for two or three minutes while … one of the directors chewed them out."

Had he been going to say, "Your dad?"

"Or, I'd walk by where the color guard was practicing, and Mr. Hoffmeyer would refer to them all as sluts." He covered his eyes. "Just, stupid shit like that."

She waited, breathless for a second, but when he didn't move, Kara stretched out a hand and touched the one covering his eyes. "But Garrett, you weren't responsible, you didn't do or say those things."

He sighed and dropped his hand. "This is going to sound really arrogant. Whenever we did well, whenever we placed first or came close to placing first, it felt like I was validating their behavior."

"But …" she started.

"He called me out, Kara! Right there in front of everyone he said, 'If you're looking for a fellow band member to model yourself after, Garrett's the one you should pick.'"

Kara's breath caught. As he had said the words, her father's voice had overlayed with his, saying the same words. Saying the same words to her.

There was iron in his voice when he spoke again. "I won't be a party to that! I won't be used to glorify one person over another, or to validate repulsive behavior." He took a deep breath, and smiled at her over the top of his can. "It's driving me a little crazy because I loved the playing, I loved the competitions, and I really loved you guys, but …" he shrugged helplessly.

"We miss you too," she said. Then, forcing herself to say the words, "I miss you every day you're not there."

He held her gaze for a long moment, then leaned forward and gently brushed his lips against hers.

Author's Note
The Mac in this story is based on my own very first Seeing Eye dog with the same name. I got him shortly after I started college, and he was a superb guide. The only problem was, it didn't take him long to memorize my class schedule, and when it changed the following semester, I'd spend days trying to convince him that I hadn't lost my mind, and yes, now we needed to go to this new building/lecture hall. LOL

Although he took guiding very seriously, I really think his first love was fetching tennis balls. The duck pond in the story is also taken from my past, and I spent many an afternoon there after class, or sometimes instead of going to class, throwing tennis balls for Mac.

RIP Mac, I wish we had been given more time together.

Dan

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roina_arwen

A sweet story. I’m sorry to hear about Mac. Hugs!

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Only 7 Chromosomes

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