by Lori Lipsky
When she moved in on Saturday, Penny positioned her office desk to allow her a view out the window. Her new neighborhood is an active one. Every few minutes a neighbor passes by walking a dog on a leash. It seems everyone owns a dog, but that can’t be true. Maybe only dog owners make the effort to walk around the neighborhood on wintry days.
From the side office window of her corner lot home, she views the back door of the charcoal gray house behind hers. Her new neighbor, whom she hasn’t met, lets a fluffy white dog out the back door. Penny names the dog Oscar until more accurate information comes to light. He sniffs around happily for five minutes after first doing his required business.
An attractive four-foot cedar wood fence borders the entire backyard of the gray house neighbors. The slight elevation of her lot allows Penny a clear view of the neighbor’s property, even with the fence. She notices that Oscar stays away from the lot line. He keeps near his home and glances at the door every few seconds.
Now, Oscar stands on the stoop, his nose to the door, tail wagging. Penny wishes she could open the door for Oscar. He looks cold and eager to be allowed back inside.
Penny takes a bathroom break and refills her coffee mug before returning to her desk. Oscar still waits. Poor Oscar. His paws must be cold on a day like this.
Should she walk over and knock on their front door? But she’s the new neighbor and doesn’t know Oscar’s people. Penny hopes for kind souls she can live next door to in peace and safety. She checks the temperature, and when she sees it registers not much below the freezing point, she relaxes a bit.
“Step on the mat,” she says. “Step on the mat, Oscar. It might help your little paws.” He steps on the thick jute mat and seems to find comfort there. Penny knows he doesn’t want to block the door in case it opens, so he paces back and forth, nose to the door.
Penny yells. But no one hears. Not even Oscar.
“Bark, Oscar, bark!”
She unlocks her window, looks both ways, and yells once again for the dog to bark. Oscar doesn’t respond. Penny barks. Oscar still doesn’t respond. He paces. She notices his tail no longer wags.
Penny knows her friend Sheila would have been over there by now, pounding on the door, scolding the people to take better care of their precious dog. Penny can’t help being more reserved and cautious. After all, she may still live next to these people ten years from now. Ten years is a long time—she decides she must proceed with caution. Since Oscar wears a good coat of fur, she decides against the aggressive Sheila-like approach.
A long-time client has a call scheduled with Penny. She receives the call and knows she won’t need her computer for the next ten or fifteen minutes. This particular client likes to chat about personal matters and tends to enjoy lengthy conversations.
Thinking that a watched pot never boils, she stands up and paces the living room and kitchen area as she listens. Penny gets more steps in for the day and avoids the two windows in her home that face the gray house.
By the time her long-winded client finishes and says goodbye, she’s resolved to put on her coat and gloves and walk over to meet the neighbors.
She steps cautiously into her office and peers out the window for the fluffy white dog but doesn’t catch sight of Oscar. Yesterday’s snowfall covers the ground with a clean blanket of white, so she takes extra time to be sure Oscar is no longer outside.
She exhales the big breath she didn’t realize she was holding.
At the end of her workday, Penny spends a half hour rearranging the extra bedroom she’s converted to an office for her work-from-home job. She moves her desk so it faces the other window. This gives her a new view—now she’ll look out the front of her house toward the red brick home across the street. She wishes Oscar well, but until further notice, she closes the blinds overlooking the charcoal gray house with the cedar fence.
“Poor Oscar” and 36 other short fiction stories can be found in Turquoise Parade: Stories, published by Bamzyl Books and written by Lori Lipsky.
Turquoise Parade may be purchased at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, BooksaMillion.com, and Walmart.com.
© Lori Lipsky