“Where does this energy come from?” Polly asked himself.
“Hours ago, I was lying helpless waiting for death and now?… Wow!”
There were times when he felt so confident about himself. He walked with a swagger to the beat of the music in his head. His mother liked it when he walked like that. She thought that walk made him even cuter.
The song in his head was Roam by the B-52s, another band from the 80s. If there was one thing good about Mr. Santos, it’s the music that he played in the farm. He remembered seeing everyone’s head bobbing to this tune, much like those toy dogs in people’s cars.
Sometimes he imagined himself wearing sunglasses as he danced to this.
Boy Mercury shooting through every degree
Oh girl dancing down those dirty and dusty trailsTake it hip to hip, rocket through the wildernessAround the world the trip begins with a kiss“Oh, the best part -” as he walked to the beat.
Roam if you want toRoam around the worldRoam if you want toWithout wings, without wheels
The lyrics went over and over in his head, so apt to what he was doing that moment.
He turned off the music in his head when he realized where he was. He had taken a number of strolls with his mother and brothers but this was the first time he was seeing that side. His mother avoided this place. There were plenty of people she said and lots of nasty street dogs, too.
So far, he had not seen nasty dogs, just lots of people passing by - by foot and in wheels. It looked like everyone was in a hurry to get to their destinations, their brains set on where they were heading.
Right now, destination was the least of his problems, survival was.
It was fascinating to him watching people pass by one another. Some of them managing to say hello or nod their heads to acquaintances and some just minding their own business.
His senses got filled with new stimuli - new sights, new sounds, new smells but it got overwhelming as the day progressed.
He stopped in a corner to rest. He’s been walking for what seemed like forever. His stomach was rumbling, his throat dry.
But it’s not that he didn’t eat. He was able to eat the food that fell on the floor when he passed by a store and he was able to drink from a puddle of water on the side of a street at noon.
Ka-boom!
"Wait that’s not my rumbling tummy!…It is thunder!”
And for the first time in his life, he was hearing the sound of thunder and seeing the flash of lightning without a roof on his head. It was amazingly frightening. “What contradiction!” exclaimed his head.
He noticed a spot under a parked car that’s still dry. He hurried to get there. There he hid for hours waiting for the rain to stop. The dry spot under the car got smaller and smaller but he was happy it didn’t get small enough to reach him.
It was deep into the night when the rain stopped. He got out from under the car and he was welcomed by the cool night wind that blew away all the confidence he had earlier that day.
Electricity was out. It was a dark dark night that even with his dog eyes, he couldn’t see all that clearly.
He found his way behind a thick bush. He circled a spot three times, as dogs would always do before settling on a place to sit or to lie down. He remembered the stories that his brothers would tell him about monsters and ghosts that come out in the dark. He covered his eyes with his paws, not wanting to look around. But his ears! His ears could hear almost everything and he wanted to cover them, too.
His head was filled with thoughts of monsters that kill dogs, monsters that eat dogs, monsters that dress up dogs - oh, monsters! His head screamed.
He covered his eyes for as long as he could until his forearms felt numb.
Slowly, he opened his eyes. The sky was clear and the moon and stars had all appeared. “What a beautiful sight!” he says. It looked like the postcard he saw in the trash one day. It said “The Starry Night by Van Gogh,”… “Whoever he is, I now know what he means.”
And there he fell asleep while trying to count the stars in the sky.
“Polly! Polly! Wake up!”
“Mom, is that really you? You found me!”
“Yes, dear!”
He hugged his mother so tightly. “Oh, mom, I really miss you!”
“I miss you, too!”
“Where are my brothers? Where are Basil and Bitok, and Wacky?”
“They’re out waiting for you… Come, Polly!” his mother called.
He saw his mother running away. He ran after her.
“Mom, wait!… Wait for me mother!”
But she didn’t stop. She disappeared….again.
It was just a dream.
The street that used to be abandoned during that thunderstorm of the night before was waking up to a brand new day. Somehow the rains had brought a deeper hue to the surroundings - the leaves are more green, the flowers are more red, more yellow, more orange - the earth more brown - “Hmmmmm” as he inhaled the smell of the morning breeze, coupled with various scents from all over - people, food!“Food, Oh my God! I feel like I have forgotten how food tastes like.” “Shoo! Shoo!”coupled with a mild whip of walis tingtingon Polly’s small frame. He cried with no sound walking backwards away from an elderly woman who was doing her early morning sweep of the frontyard. “I didn’t see that coming!” Polly sighed. While that was not the first time he felt a whip on his body or being shooed away, it still did not lessen how it felt deep in his chest. But it was not the time to be sad. There was
It’s been almost a week that he’s out in the streets but it felt longer. It was starting to feel like fulfilling his first mission - to eat, was more difficult than he had originally expected. Of course, that’s discounting the bits and pieces of food he would find on the street - the ones covered with all sorts of dirt or the ones left at the bottom of a can that’s just so difficult to reach no matter how much he extends his tongue. Polly never noticed how far he had gone until from out of nowhere, a pellet fell in front of him. He was looking at it at the corner of his eyes and was fighting himself not to get close to it but it was just too tempting. “It smelled like chicken…no, no… it smelled like pig meat… no, wait, it’s turkey! Wow, turkey? Where did that come from?” He moved a step closer avoiding not to look at it directly. For a while he thought he was hallucinating and then he jumped onto that piece covering it with his paws. He teased himself by loo
“First mission - to eat, check!” There so much fuss about dog food at the farm but Polly had always preferred human food because it was more tasty and he thought that the different textures gave food an added flavor. The texture of dog food was monotonous to him - the dry one, because they were pellets but the wet kind was a different topic altogether. For three consecutive days, he ate, thanks to Pete who kept on sharing his food with him unbeknownst to the attendants of the shop. He had not seen the woman that picked him up from the box and separated him from his family but some of the pet shop boys, he saw at different times. He did not know what to feel about them, anger was a feeling that he had not explored before. It was a feeling that his mother never encouraged. He had seen anger though. It was one afternoon at the garage, Basil and Bitok fought over a piece of bone. At first, they were just growling and showing their fangs. He saw their ey
“Wow! That was fun!” Polly said followed by deep long breaths as he stood looking at his reflection through the glass enclosure of the salon. He was eye to eye with himself, quietly asking his reflection whether the effort was worth it. Although deep inside he knew the answer did not lie on the image before him. “Hey, Reggie, what are you looking at?” Sonny noticing Reggie’s amusement. Sonny and Reggie were both hairdressers at Charlie’s Beauty Salon and Spa. They were taking their lunch at the cafe just beside their salon. They were seated by the window where they had a view of the busy street and of the passers-by. Reggie’s attention was not on the street nor on the passers-by, it was focused on this tiny dog that looked sick and dirty. The dog wasn’t just sitting around waiting for mercy, it was twirling in front of their salon many times as if dancing to the music. The owners of the salon placed two large speakers just outside the
Polly walked away backwards eye-to-eye with Sonny who could only whisper - “I’m sorry, little doggie, I’m sorry.” Polly only stopped walking when he hit a wall. There was no more space to move any further at least along that strip. He felt like he broke a leg or some of his ribs. He licked the part that still hurt hoping that it would have the same healing effect like that of his mother’s. He learned to endure pain in silence. Nothing good could come out if he cried or screamed. No one cared. How could there be such contradiction? How could humans say they love dogs? On the one hand they dress up their dogs or puppies like babies, give them food and treats, buy them expensive toys, bring them anywhere they go - to malls, to salons - allow them to sleep in their beds, chew up on their favorite shoes or slippers and find all that cute. And on the other, kick, laugh at, sneer, do nothing to dogs that were sick, hungry, alone - “Wait, that’s me!”
It was quite odd that Reggie went home the previous day looking and acting differently. He was unusually quiet and only managed a forced smile and a raised pair of eyebrows when he bumped into the family next door. On regular days, he would go home tired from more than eight hours of work but he still found time to crack jokes…yesterday, he did not. “Blag! Blag! Blag!”now there were more people knocking, kicking, and banging the door calling, “Reggie! Reggie!” the sound of their voices panicked. Their reaction was understandable. It was 10:00 in the morning. Reggie was supposed to be at work by now and he was not. He was still in bed sound asleep. Polly slept late the night before. Something wasn’t quite right with his human. After feeding him, Reggie went straight to bed without taking his usual late night stick of cigarette or a cup of coffee. Polly would sleep on the doormat by the foot of the bed. From there, he could hear
Polly hid and sulked behind a plant, his body folded for as small as he could. His eyes were closed, his mind awake, ears open - eavesdropping for every possible sound that’s Reggie-related. Stuck in that position for hours, Polly realized that aside from his nose, his ears have got some great power as well, like he knew who had been coming and going within the vicinity just by the sound of their walks and their voices. Reggie barely lifted his feet when he walked. The friction of his slippers or shoes against the floor produced a much louder sound than someone who walked on a heel-toe, heel-toe motion. The daughter of Reggie’s landlord and landlady walked like that. Her walk had a certain beat to it especially when she wore those stilleto shoes that made her look even taller than she already was. “And I know Reggie’s voice very well.” His voice got a deep timbre that one would think it was coming from a tall bulky man. Reggie was neither
It’s been only a few days with Bridgette but it feels like forever. “How can I begin to describe what it feels like to be with her. Ahmmm, It’s been far from heaven and almost like hell. Not that I have experienced hell… but heaven? I think I have.” Bridgette didn’t really like Polly. He could tell she didn’t like animals in general. She had a certain smell that told him that. That smell that also told him she was not the usual 60-something woman. She had also been through a lot. She was raising three children from three different fathers all by herself and was taking care of her sick mother in that small house she’s been renting only for a few months. She’s been house-hopping since her teenage years when she dropped high school to pursue a career in music. That decision broke her parents hearts. They had hoped she would be the one to bring home a college diploma and maybe make their family’s life a little easier. What she brought home however, was a