RATIONS
These are times when you really appreciate your rations. A stale chowder cracker is a mighty tasty and full o' nutrients when you're lost at sea. We are on the foldout couch, Angie and me. It's in the upstairs living room at Dad's Middle Channel house. Down the street is a witch-lady's house with an evil statue outside her door that can do bad stuff to you. We hold our breath and run past when we go to the store for extra-good rations like Lick-M-Aid or a can of frosting or beef jerky.
There is another evil-statue house on the island, with a lion statue. This one has proof of evilness because Duchess, our dog, barks her head off at it and growls, and she is a very good judge of character. She's like our smarter big sister sometimes. One time I am so ashamed of, me and Duchess were sitting on the seawall in town, and the water's pretty wide there---it's North Channel, and freighters go by. Duchess loves like crazy to chase birds of any feather. There were ducks floating way out there that day, and Duchess knows how to understand humans very well, so I got her all riled up about the ducks and kept saying, "Go get them, Duchy!" And finally she jumped right off the seawall and into North Channel and started swimming toward those ducks. I got scared right away and called her back, but she was on the single-minded dog mission that I told her was a good idea. She trusted me very much.
I kept calling and she was getting so small out there and I knew there was no way she would have the energy to swim back from as far out as those ducks were floating. I couldn't swim that good for that far and I didn't have a life jacket or anything. And we already had a dog once who drowned, Baron, because Baron liked to get in the water and swim with us, but we always had to help him out because his toenails would keep sliding off the slippery seawall and back into the canal, and my dad left him tied up while he was at work one day, and Baron's rope could reach the water so he decided to swim. But we weren't there to help him back out. He was a St. Bernard puppy, only six months old.
Finally, Duchess did turn around (maybe I ran and got my dad?), and she made it back to shore.
What's wrong with me to do something that mean and stupid and evil? Why am I sick at the core? I love Duchy so much.
She's getting extra rations today.
There is another evil-statue house on the island, with a lion statue. This one has proof of evilness because Duchess, our dog, barks her head off at it and growls, and she is a very good judge of character. She's like our smarter big sister sometimes. One time I am so ashamed of, me and Duchess were sitting on the seawall in town, and the water's pretty wide there---it's North Channel, and freighters go by. Duchess loves like crazy to chase birds of any feather. There were ducks floating way out there that day, and Duchess knows how to understand humans very well, so I got her all riled up about the ducks and kept saying, "Go get them, Duchy!" And finally she jumped right off the seawall and into North Channel and started swimming toward those ducks. I got scared right away and called her back, but she was on the single-minded dog mission that I told her was a good idea. She trusted me very much.
I kept calling and she was getting so small out there and I knew there was no way she would have the energy to swim back from as far out as those ducks were floating. I couldn't swim that good for that far and I didn't have a life jacket or anything. And we already had a dog once who drowned, Baron, because Baron liked to get in the water and swim with us, but we always had to help him out because his toenails would keep sliding off the slippery seawall and back into the canal, and my dad left him tied up while he was at work one day, and Baron's rope could reach the water so he decided to swim. But we weren't there to help him back out. He was a St. Bernard puppy, only six months old.
Finally, Duchess did turn around (maybe I ran and got my dad?), and she made it back to shore.
What's wrong with me to do something that mean and stupid and evil? Why am I sick at the core? I love Duchy so much.
She's getting extra rations today.
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