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Almost immediately you feel sticky. Even in May the North Texas air is thick and
warm like grits. It just feels like you
smell. Malcolm stepped out the front door with his best buddy on a blue leash. He’s been in
so many climates around the globe, from the North Pole to Death Valley, he no
longer complained about Texas heat. This was home, he had an appreciation
for it.
Walking his dog was a little thing, really. But this
simple act was a Godsend. He was on a short leave before
deployment. His wife was twenty weeks into their first
pregnancy. Malcolm would miss the birth of their first
child. It made their time together extra valuable but also foreboding. He
wasn’t angry with the Army. He knew what he signed up
for. Heck, if it weren’t for the Army he would have never met
Lily. The Army changed him from one to two, and soon, three.
The two strolled onto the cracked sidewalk and skipped over
the floating section of concrete supported by a renegade tree
root. Gotta love old neighborhoods. Mature
trees. Imperfections. Houses aging together. A
lot of history here. Now their suburb is mostly construction from
the past ten years. Nearly identical homes, row after row of the
same. No charm. Matching mail
boxes. Boring. Malcolm’s neighborhood could be described
as rundown but it had soul. The kind an HOA and half brick, half
whatever color siding was made in bulk that season can’t
imitate. His street wasn’t a predesigned neighborhood from a
catalog. It was decades of community melding into a living
organism. Yes. The neighborhood was alive.
Lily and his baby and his dog would be
together. They’d miss him to be sure, but they’d have each other and
the neighborhood. Malcolm would be in the desert. He’d be
with his other family but his heart would be in their little cubby in a Dallas
Suburb thousands of miles away.
These weren’t just short walks for the dog to relieve
himself. Malcolm liked to unplug and go out usually an hour or
more. He left his wallet and phone behind. Total comfort
and distraction free. Malcolm really cleared his mind. He
genuinely didn’t think about anything on those walks. This walk was
no different. No thoughts about Lily’s new warm weather haircut or
her smaller shoes. Her feet weren’t swollen—oh no! The
shoes were shrinking. No thoughts about “fat pants” or the crib he
promised to assemble later that afternoon. Not even a thought about
their putting off coming up with names for baby. Just him and the
dog and the rain drop that just landed on his head. It began to
rain. Great. Should have checked the forecast before
leaving the house.
They were at least a half hour jog away from
home. The two ever increasingly damp friends began to run, to look
for cover. Up ahead at the corner was a tiny bus
shelter. “Bus? In this neighborhood? Since
when?” he thought. Never mind that, it’s getting
wet. They got there and cuddled on the surprisingly dry
bench. Malcolm read some advertisement for a tough, take no nonsense
personal injury attorney and rolled his eyes. This guy had the
cheesiest commercials with special effects that would embarrass the folks that
made movies for SciFi Channel back in the day. The thought of it made
him laugh.
Laughter turned to brief alarm as a squeak and the sound of
air getting pushed out as a bus door opened startled him. “You
coming on?” asked the bus driver.
“What?”
answered Malcolm.
“Need a
ride, sir?”
“Ah, nah man. I don’t have any money
or a pass.”
“It’s alright, I’m empty. Get
on. I can get you a little farther before I turn around and head
toward Blanchard.”
“Hey, I
live on Blanchard.”
“See? It’s
fate.”
“I got my
dog though. Can’t.”
“Looks
like a service animal to me.”
“Alright. Let’s
go then.”
Malcolm knew better but the driver worked for Transit and
seemed nice. And Malcolm could handle himself. He sat
down in the front across from the driver.
“We’re a brand-new
route. Want to make a good impression on the community
here. Guess this is what people call quaint. What’s the
dog’s name, son?”
”Jay
Novacek. Just call him Novy though.”
“Jay
Novacek? You a little young to know about him, ain’t ya?”
“Yes
sir. But my daddy knew him. Huge fan of him and Emmit and
the boys. Used to talk all the time about Jay. My dad
passed away a year or so before I got him so I kind of named him in honor of my
daddy.”
“That’s
about the sweetest thing I heard in a while son. Name’s Steve.”
“Malcolm.”
“Well,
Malcolm. Your stop’s coming up in a few blocks.”
“Stop? I
thought you were turning around and heading back toward Blanchard?”
“Don’t
worry, son. I’ll get you home. You’re gonna wanna get off
at the next stop though. Trust me.”
“Huh? I
guess, man.”
Malcolm was annoyed. He got out of the rain for
a few minutes, sure, but the rain hadn’t let up and he was now further away
from home. And he wasn’t quite sure where they were exactly.
The bus pulled over next to a shabby convenience
store. “Ji-woo’s Market” was printed on a sign above the
door. Another sign that hung on the door read “American Owned” lest
one give their money to the wrong type of people, whoever they were.
“Give
them a look, they may have what your need, Malcolm.”
“Man,
Steve, I told you I don’t have any money on me.”
“Give
them a look anyway,” reassured Steve, “You can always come
back. You’ll stay dry at least.”
“Alright
man. Thanks for the ride.”
“You take
care now, and watch out for Jay Novacek too.”
The bus hissed and drove off. Malcolm, leash in
hand, went into the store, a ding dong announced their arrival. A
lady, presumably Ji-woo, was behind the counter watching rugby on satellite
TV.
“Welcome
to Ji-woo’s. We got what you need. Service animal?” she
asked skeptically without looking away from her TV.
“Uh, yes
ma’am.” Malcolm said and began walking the store. For
such a tiny store it seemed like it was chock full of stuff. Mostly
candy and canned goods of questionable age and origin. There was a
section of K-pop CD’s. The prerequisite rack of Dallas Cowboys
hats. Cell phone accessories.
Malcolm was in no rush. He could hear the rain
unforgivably pouring outside. He came across a row of
junk. Secondhand items. Did this place also serve as a consignment
store? Old shoes, shirts, pants and toys. Why not look to see if
they had anything for baby? The toy section was just
random. Power Rangers. Loose Lego
pieces. Troll dolls. Beanie Babies. Bob the Builder. Whatever. Lots of everything. Plenty of
nothing. A hodge podge of classics from the 90’s, 2000’s and
2010’s. Three decades of forgotten fads and forever treasures turned
junk. What was once many children’s whole world were relegated to
a random toy aisle in a bodega gathering dust. People didn’t
come here to buy toys. They came in to get a quick sugar rush or
escape the rain. Only there was something special. It
caught his eye and Novy’s leash hit the ceramic floor.
Twenty years ago Malcolm had a plush white dog with black
spots on it. The spots were in a specific pattern. One
over his left eye. A lima bean shape on the back and a star
shape on its right side near the butt. He named the toy
Toby. Toby went everywhere with Malcolm. Toby sat in his
lap at the kitchen table. Toby slept with Malcolm. They
even went to church together. Malcolm had Toby for two years when
his mom took him to the laundromat while Malcolm was at school. She
returned home and realized she lost Toby. Malcolm was devastated and
refused to eat or bathe or go to school for two days. Eventually
daddy got tired of that nonsense and whipped Malcolm. It
worked. Things eventually got back to normal and life moved
on. It always does.
So Malcolm stood there crying at a plush twin of his long
lost Toby. He looked down at Jay Novacek and realized the two were
nearly identical. Jay had whiter fur. And the lima bean
spot on his back was more of a wobbly heart. But
still. In his subconscious that had to be the reason he adopted Novy
from the Humane Society. He picked up new Toby and said to himself,
“This is exactly what I need.”
“Can I
help you with something?” yelled Ji-woo.
Malcolm picked up Novy’s leash and walked to the register,
“Yes ma’am. I don’t know how much this is, and I don’t have money on
me, but can you hold this for me. I promise I will be back later to
buy it?”
“That is
not for sale.”
“What? I’d
really like to buy—”
“Not for
sale. You can have it. That is the lost and
found. My mother once owned a laundromat next door before she died
and we closed it. That was left next door with a lot of other
junk. I don’t know why I never threw it away. I just hold
out hope that old people from the neighborhood will come in and recognize stuff
they lost. That dog has been here for almost twenty
years. Nobody picked it up. Keep it.”
“Thank
you so much! God bless you Ji-woo!” Malcolm, Toby in
hand, left the store with Jay Novacek. The cashier said, “My name is
Karen!”
They got outside. The rain had
stopped. It was crazy humid, but Malcolm didn’t care. The
bus was there waiting. Steve smiled, “Did they have anything?”
“Yes sir,
just what I needed,” answered Malcolm.
“Heading
to Blanchard, need a lift?”
“No
thanks. You have been a true blessing. You showed such
grace to me. I appreciate it, but I need to walk home just me and
Novy. Thank you so much!”
The bus shooshed and Steve drove toward
Blanchard. Malcolm smiled. He would leave an awesome
Yelp! review for sure.
He headed back in the direction they had come
from. Mind not cleared. Mind was racing. Twenty years
ago, when Toby had gone missing, a piece of Malcolm had been lost. Now
that he was found he would give Toby to his baby. He would ask Lily
to take Toby to the hospital when she gave birth and to bring him home to keep
the baby company in the nursery. Of course, it could never make up
for him not being present, but he had a piece of himself there looking over the
baby. He was so happy.
All of this was so surreal. All of this was so
familiar. They were at the corner where Steve had picked them up but
the bus shelter was gone. What was going on? Malcolm was
a man of faith. He knew that if in his heart he was open and had complete
trust, he would be given what was needed. But let’s pump the brakes
here. Malcolm would not go so far as to consider this a
miracle. All of this was…serendipitous. It was
amazing. And it hit him. He knew what to name their
child.
Malcolm
believed now, more than anything, his child would be a girl. Home
was right around the corner. He would talk to Lily. Tell
her everything. He’d tell her what he wanted to name their baby
girl. Grace.
###
This is an adaptation of a story I made up on the spot. I was putting my sons to bed and turned off the lights not realizing I needed them on to read a story. I opted to tell a story instead of getting back up. I just asked Julian (my now eight-year-old) to give me a career and a name. After a couple rejections (he said things like space ranger and intergalactic fighter) we settled on soldier. The first name he picked, Malcolm, was accepted. I just winged it and got through the story having no idea what would happen past the sentence I was in the middle of. By the end I guess it was a good story because Julian had a big smile and wanted to draw pictures from it. Of course I didn't talk about HOA's or things like Suburban sprawl but this is probably 80% in tune with the original story.
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