I havent posted anything here in a long time. I havent written anything in a long time, which isn't like me at all. For whatever reason, these characters started talking today and I had the time to write it down. Enjoy...
I played with the bow on the
Christmas present as I walked down the path toward Jamie’s house. My dog, Bear,
loped ahead of me, begrudgingly sporting a bright red bow around his shaggy
giant neck. My mother often criticized me about Bear, asking why I stopped at a
Newfoundland instead of just getting a pony. Bear ate her couch when he was a
puppy and she had never forgiven him for it. I claim to this day he was making
a statement with that couch, seeing as he never chewed anything else.
I walked Bear in the woods every
morning just outside of town. The first time I realized Jamie was following me,
I had been understandably frightened of him. Jamie was a big man, and if I
hadn’t been with Bear, I probably would have run screaming. It was lucky I
didn’t, because if I had screamed, Jamie would have curled up in a ball and
started crying. He was two hundred pounds of harmless. He ran from me the first
four times I tried to say hello. I stopped trying to coax him closer and
pretended not to notice him. Three months of that ended with him stepping out
of the woods and introducing himself to Bear. He spoke slowly, the words of a
child in a deep baritone. He petted my dog for a while and I watched until he
looked at me.
“I think you are a nice lady,” he
said. “You have a nice dog. I’m allowed to play with nice people. Are you
nice?”
After being assured I was nice, he
walked with me every morning. He had a hard time saying Cassidy, so he called
me Kitty. I wasn’t sure why. He loved to talk. He showed me how to identify
every kind of tree and flower that grew in the area. He brought me back to his
house after he declared me ‘The best kind of nice person,’ where he showed me
his garden.
Jamie lived alone, but I knew
someone frequently stopped in to care for him. I never saw anyone, but there
were always fresh tire tracks in the dirt driveway and Jamie didn’t have a car.
He said I couldn’t come inside because it was against Big Dog’s rules. I didn’t
know who Big Dog was, but I had a feeling he was Jamie’s primary caretaker.
I learned early that he didn’t like
being asked questions, but he revealed a lot when he talked. He used to live
somewhere else with Big Dog, but he liked being on his own. He said that Big
Dog needed alone time too. He never mentioned anyone else, and I had a sad
feeling that I was the only other person Jamie talked to. He was always so happy
when he ran up to join Bear and I for our walks. He loved to read National
Geographic magazine and he loved Discovery channel and Animal Planet. He had
recently taken an interest in birds. That was why I was walking to his house on
Christmas Eve with a book on Northeastern Birds wrapped in bright red paper.
Jamie had been acting strangely in
the past few days. He had asked me some very direct personal questions. Was I
single? Did I live alone? Did Bear want a sister? I answered yes, yes, and Bear
would love a sister but I would need someone to help me take care of two big
dogs. Jamie nodded seriously and asked me to come by in the afternoon on
Christmas Eve because he had a gift for me. I had no idea what he was up to.
Bear erupted in his hello barking as
Jamie bounded off of his back porch, arms spread wide in excitement. He wore
red sweatpants, a green sweater, and a Santa hat. His big round face split with
a grin that had stolen my heart. He dropped to his knees as Bear careened into
his arms, licking his face and wagging his tail.
“Merry Christmas, Bear,” he said,
ruffling the dogs ears.
He stood up as I approached. At five
four, I didn’t consider myself short, but I always felt small around Jamie. He
was a foot taller than me and brawny. He had brown hair someone buzzed off
regularly and warm brown eyes with flecks of green in them. He was clean shaven
but usually sporting a few nicks and cuts from the razor. He was a few pounds
overweight due to his love of cookies, but his hobbies of walking and gardening
kept him in good shape. He wrapped his arms around me and picked me up off the
ground.
“Merry Christmas, Jamie,” I said
into his sweater.
“Merry Christmas, Kitty,” he said,
not putting me down.
“Jamie, where do my feet go?” I
prompted.
“But it’s Christmas. I want an extra
long hug.”
I smiled and rested in his arms. He
was so gentle that his size had never scared me. He had cried for five minutes
once after stepping on an anthill. He boasted that the squirrels and chipmunks
would eat from his hand.
“I’m glad you came today,” he said.
“Glad enough to put me down?”
He set me on my feet. I held out the
wrapped present but he shook his head.
“I can’t open it until tomorrow.”
“But I want to see you open it,” I
frowned.
An odd look came over his face and
he bit his lip. He glanced toward the driveway and looked at his Batman watch.
“Let’s walk Bear,” he said. Without
giving me time to respond, he took off down the path, calling the dog. I set
the gift on the porch and went after him. As had become my habit, I slid my arm
through his while we walked.
“What did you ask Santa for?” I
asked.
He snorted. “Only little kids
believe in Santa.”
I smiled. Despite his limitations,
Jamie wasn’t a child. Sometimes, he was a lot smarter than me.
“Are you still going to sit alone
and drink wine tomorrow?” he asked.
I shoved him gently sideways. “Hey,
don’t pick on my Christmas plans.”
“No one should be alone on
Christmas,” he frowned.
“I won’t be alone. I have Bear.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “Bear is a
dog.”
“He counts.”
“Not really.”
“Did you hear that, Bear?” I called
to the dog. “Jamie here doesn’t think you count.”
“Dog’s can’t count. They don’t have
fingers,” Jamie said.
I looked up into his brown eyes to
see if he was joking with me. He winked and put his arm around my shoulder,
pulling me against his side. We kept walking as he started telling me the name
of each tree and shrub. He repeated himself often, but he seemed to find
comfort in routine so I never interrupted him.
As we finished the loop and
approached Jamie’s house, Bear stopped walking, his entire body going stiff. He
sniffed dramatically before erupting in a booming bark and taking off like a
bullet. He ran into Jamie’s yard just as a monstrous Saint Barnard came
charging from the other direction. I had a moment of panic, producing an
embarrassing girly squeak and gripping Jamie’s hand so hard he grunted.
“It’s only Moose,” he said. “Moose is
nice. She won’t hurt Bear.”
I relaxed as the two giant dogs
collided in tail-wagging ecstasy. They howled and barked, tossing up grass and
dirt. I wished it had snowed. The sight would have been even more comical.
“Hey, Moose, come here girl,” Jamie
called. He glanced down at me. “Moose belongs to Big Dog.”
I noticed the truck in the driveway
and the man standing in front of it. I didn’t have time to take anything in
other than that he was big and wearing a black jacket before Moose collided
with me. I was thrown backward like a toy under the dog’s over-eager head-butt
and landed on my butt with the dog on top of me. Bear and Moose proceeded to
stand on me, licking my face, oblivious that nearly four hundred pounds of dog was
making breathing a challenge.
“Moose, get off,” the man I assumed
was Big Dog yelled. I could hear him running toward me. Jamie grabbed Moose’s
collar and pulled her back. I squirmed out from underneath Bear, wiping the
slobber off of my face. I looked up at two large hands offering to help me up.
I blinked as I took in Jamie standing beside Big Dog.
“Am I seeing double?” I asked.
The two men smiled and I wiped the
last of the dog spit out of my eyes so I could see them better. I wasn’t seeing
double, but if Big Dog wasn’t Jamie’s brother, I’d eat my shoes.
“I’m sorry she jumped on you, miss,”
Big Dog said. “She’s still a puppy.”
“She was just testing my reflexes,”
I said, taking Jamie’s hand to help me up. Big Dog was the same height as
Jamie, with the same brown hair and skin tone. But his eyes were more green
than brown, and his features were sharper, harsher.
“Her name isn’t miss,” Jamie said,
dusting me off. I winced as he brushed the dirt off of my bruised butt. “Her
name is Kitty. She’s nice. She’s really nice. She lets me hold her hand when we
walk Bear, and she brings me cookies.”
Big Dog frowned, and I wasn’t sure I
deserved the suspicious look I got.
“She’s my friend,” Jamie continued.
“Why are you glaring at her? I told you she was nice. She’s the nicest person
ever.”
I stuck out my hand. “I’m Cassidy
Michaels. Jamie has been keeping me company on my morning walks with Bear.”
“This is Big Dog,” Jamie said as the
man’s large calloused hand enveloped mine. “He thinks he takes care of me, but
I take care of myself.”
The man blushed a little at the
introduction. “Ah, what did I tell you about that nickname?” he asked Jamie.
Jamie frowned. “That only I could
call you that and that I couldn’t tell anybody.”
“So why did you tell Cassidy?”
“She’s not anybody, she’s Kitty. She
brought me a Christmas gift. I wanted to let her put it under the tree, but you
said I can’t let anyone in the house unless you say it’s ok. So is it ok?”
Big Dog still held my hand. He
seemed to be unaware of that fact as he studied Jamie. I twitched my fingers to
get his attention and he blushed again and let me go.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just a
little surprised. I didn’t know he had a friend. He doesn’t normally talk to
people. I’m Jason Braylo.”
“My baby brother,” Jamie said,
reaching out and ruffling Jason’s hair.
Jason gave his brother a look and
grunted. “Why don’t you take the dogs inside and give them some water and
biscuits? I want to talk to Cassidy for a moment.”
Jamie frowned and poked a finger
into Jason’s chest. “You have to be nice to her.”
“I promise I’ll be nice. Go get warm
inside. Tell Moose and Bear a story.”
Jamie called the dogs. “I’ve got a
really great story today, Moose. I hope you like stories, Bear.” He herded the
dogs inside, walking past his present that still sat on the porch.
Jason turned his full attention to
me as soon as the door was shut.
“How did you meet my brother?” he
asked, his tone a lot harsher than it had been.
“He started following me in the
morning when I walk my dog,” I said, trying to keep the bite out of my voice.
Jason was looking at me with open suspicion that I respected, but resented. “I
tried to say hello but he ran away. So I just let him follow me. Eventually he
came around and started walking with me. He’s been my walking buddy for months.”
“He didn’t mention you to me,” Jason
frowned.
“He barely mentioned you to me,” I
shrugged. “He just said that I needed your permission to go inside. Look, I’m
not sure what I did to piss you off. Jamie is a sweet guy. He needed a friend.
I’m not a psycho who is going to hurt him or take advantage of him.”
Jason sighed, giving me an
apologetic look. “I’m sorry. I’m just protective of him. I’ve had problems in
the past with people taking advantage.”
“I walk with the man in the morning
and he teaches me about the trees,” I said. “I bring him cookies because he
said they are his favorite food. My dog likes him. He makes me laugh. He’s my
friend. That’s it.”
Jason sighed, running a hand through
his hair. The motion opened his jacket and gave me a glimpse of the black shirt
that clung to a muscular chest in the best way. I had never really thought of
Jamie as handsome because he was completely non-sexual. Jason was the kind of
man you walked into sign posts while staring at. He smiled at me, and my heart did a little
flip.
“Can we start over?” he held out his hand. “Hi,
I’m Jason, Jamie’s overly protective little brother. It’s nice to meet you.”
I laughed and shook his hand. He
held on to it a little too long again, but this time I had no doubt he was
aware of it.
“Can she come inside for some milk
and cookies?” Jamie asked from the porch.
Jason and I jumped.
“How long have you been standing
there?” Jason asked.
“I just came out when you shook
hands again. Can she come in, Big Dog? Please. She’s my friend. She bakes
really good cookies. And she’s pretty. You like pretty girls. She’s prettier
than the other ones you know. Please can she come in?”
Jason turned a new shade of red and
closed his eyes while I stifled my laughter.
“Yes, please come in and join us,”
he said without opening his eyes.
“Should I have found an ugly girl
instead?” Jamie asked.
Jason frowned, opening his eyes.
“What?”
Jamie winked and dashed inside with
a giggle. Jason smiled after his brother in a way that did dangerous things to
my heart. He glanced down at me.
“I kinda have a thing for pretty
girls who are nice to my brother,” he said.
“I have a thing for dogs,” I said,
startled at the directness of his look.
He smiled and held the door open for
me. As I passed by him, he leaned down and whispered “Woof,” in my ear.
