The blue moon made me pleasure – 4

When I got up, she was gone, but she’d left me a note. “Sorry I couldn’t stay to say good morning to you, but I had errands to run…busy day. Already called about your van, Dave said it would be ready around nine or so. Have a safe trip back home, and again…thank you, I enjoyed myself. Love, “B”. She’d signed it.

With that I finished dressing and wandered over to the shop, which was just around the corner. Sure enough Dave was just then pulling my van out into the lot to park it.

“All done,” he said smiling, and then looked at me. “Where’d you end up sleeping anyway?” He asked. “Don’t really have any accommodations around here anymore, so I was kind of wondering about that.

“Oh yeah, well,” I said a bit sheepishly. “You know that older gal that lives around the corner from here in that red-bricked house? Her name is Bernice? I spent the night at her place.”

He considered that for a moment, thinking. “Don’t know the name…can’t say I’ve ever heard it. And the house doesn’t sound familiar either. Where’d you say it was?”

“Just around the corner, almost on the corner in fact. A small white house with a picket fence around it, and then next to that one, Bernice’s place.”

Once again he looked at me a bit oddly. “Sorry, for as long as I’ve lived here, there’s only been a field next to that old place. Certainly no red-bricked house that I remember!”

I paid for the repairs on the van, and then immediately drove back around the block. Sure enough, it was just as he’d said. Big field, no redbrick house. I sat there staring, looking around, trying to see if I’d somehow gotten confused and lost directions or something. But no. As I sat looking back where I’d come from, it was the very same view I had seen as I walked down the porch, only there wasn’t a porch any more to have walked down from. Shivers ran up and down my spine as I put the van into gear and headed off at a brisk pace down the road.

**

I’ll be the first to admit it, I was suddenly scared as hell. I’d either been hallucinating, or I was suffering some sort of delusional brain aneurysm. That…or I’d actually entered the Twilight Zone, which I was beginning to believe I had. Especially after everything I had now experienced, which was starting to pile up. Starting with all the women I had met whose names all started with a B!

I knew there and then, I would drive my ass straight home, no more stops except perhaps to pee, and even then, only at a rest stop or restaurant where there would be other people. Even then, I wasn’t sure who or what I might actually run into!

I had been driving for several hours and was just starting to calm down and convince myself I was fine, and that nothing else weird was going to happen to me, not before I got home anyway. Which is when I created the rise on a hill starting down the other side. Ahead of me in the road, it appeared that someone had hit a dog, which was simply lying there in the middle of the road. “Now what?” I thought, though feeling sorry for the dog. I had plenty of time to correct my course and drive around it, which I began to do, when I suddenly saw it lift its head up.

“Fuck! Someone hit a dog and just left it to die there!” I thought to myself.

I’d always had a soft-heart for animals anyway, and I sure as hell couldn’t leave one sitting there in the road dying, and have some other car or truck come by and hit it again. If nothing else, I’d at least move the poor creature off to the side of the road, and then if it didn’t look like it could be helped, I’d at the very least put it out of its misery myself, though I wasn’t looking forward to that.

I slowed down, pulling over and stopping. Once again seeing the dog lift its head looking over towards me. It appeared to be a Golden Retriever, advanced in age perhaps by the look of it. As it had either been hit by a car, or so old and feeble it had gone off somewhere to die. I’d heard how many animals did that when it came to be their time. Maybe it hadn’t made it as far as it had wanted to before collapsing just where it lay.

I wandered over, but noticed immediately there wasn’t any sign of blood anywhere. And even more strangely, the dog lay there wagging its tail.

“What’s the matter girl? You hurt? Lost? Are you dying?” I asked and then let her sniff my hand as I held it out to her. She licked it in addition to that, and then lay back down again. “Well, we can’t have that now can we?” I said. “I have to move you sweetheart, or someone for sure will come by and hit you with their car. If you’re too weak to move, how about I help you?”

Once again she lifted up her head, looking at me almost appreciatively. I picked her up, considered briefly moving her off to one side, and then knew immediately that I couldn’t do that either.

“Shit,” I said to myself. “Sure as hell can’t leave you here either!” She wore no collar, had no identification on her at all. Perhaps she did have one of those chips embedded beneath her skin however. So if nothing else, if I could find some sort of an animal hospital in the next town, maybe they could locate her owners. If nothing else, at least she’d have someone who’d perhaps be able to do something for her, if not for humanely putting her down at the very least. Better than me having to do it anyway.

I then carried her over to the van and sat her down in the passenger seat next to me. She seemed to curl up, even giving off a relaxing sigh as she settled down there on the seat. I walked back around, got in the van and headed off down the road once again, wondering if the next town I came to might indeed have some sort of veterinarian.

We’d been on the road for a while when she actually sat up in her seat. I was surprised by that for one thing, as she actually looked a hundred percent better than when I’d first seen her.

“It’s ok girl…next town, we’ll get you some help,” I assured her, reaching over to pet her.

“Antony, I need to talk to you while I still can.”

I nearly ran off the road. I stared at the radio, but the song I’d been listening to was still playing. I turned it off, staring at the dog.