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Spud

  By: C. T. Raye

  Copyright 2014 C. T. Raye

  SPUD

  Chapter One – A Cough In The Night

  It was almost that time, as I lay in my bed just waiting. I knew it could backfire and things could get really messy, and fast. It had been quiet in the house for some time, my Dad and Mom had already turned in for the night, but my parents were very light sleepers. All that it would take was just the slightest noise and they would be in my room, and then the fun would just start. I laid there just staring at the ceiling for the longest time; it was like I was dreaming.

  I slowly got out of bed, letting my feet ever so lightly touch the floor. I crept over to the window, looked out at the dark sky. It was a beautiful moonlit night. I could hear the night sounds. The crickets chirping, and the frogs by the creek bellowing there majestic song, and I could hear the faint hoot of an owl.

  I looked out over the yard, tried to look farther into the night, but couldn’t. My eyes slowly began to adjust to the night, and I could see better after a few minutes. I looked out and could make out the chicken yard. I could see slightly into the field where my dad would work, tilling the ground, planting corn to sell. As I took all this in I almost forgot what I was about to do, when I was brought back into reality.

  The whimper outside the window was so light, but I heard it, and I knew what it meant. I slowly stuck my head out looked down at the ground, would tonight be the same as any other? Would he be waiting? Yes, he was waiting, “Spud, you there?” I whispered as I tried to make out his drab, black form.

  All I heard was a more excited whimper, which meant he was there and waiting. I tried to twist my head to see him better, it worked and I could see him now. The silhouette of a dog to some, but to me it was the silhouette of a friend.

  You see he wasn’t pretty, he didn’t smell the best, but he was my dog. I remember the day that my dad had brought him home. Mom never was crazy about him from the time Dad got him out of the truck. As soon as Dad put him down he ran straight to my feet and just sat there like he was waiting for me to give him a command. I knew from that day we would be the best of friends.

  Back to the matter at hand, Mom never let him come in the house, NEVER. She never did understand that you cannot just leave your best friend outside all night, it just isn’t right. No amount of explaining could convince her of this.

  So as I looked down and nodded to Spud, to let him know that it was time for him to make his grand entrance. He crouched, just like always, and then he sprung through the air toward the open window. I reached out and grabbed his two front paws as they crossed the window sill and drug him into the bedroom. He then would squeeze himself under the bed, where I would always leave him a few scraps from dinner. I would crawl back into bed, pull the covers over my head and listen to him smack his lips as he ate the scraps. My heart would then start to race as I knew what could happen if Mom caught him in the house.

  Tonight something different happened that I could not explain. I heard him cough, not once, but twice, three times. “Oh no” I thought to myself. Here it came he threw up, under my bed, in the middle of the night.

  I tried to think fast, jumping out of the bed I could hear him hacking, and coughing. That wasn’t the worse he started to wheeze, then I guess he was arching his back. The bed began to jerk, with each cough. All I could think is, “I am cooked.”

  Then I heard it, the squeaking that my parent’s bed made as my mom got up. Spud had quit coughing, but what was I going to tell mom. Sure how was I going to mimic a dog hacking. That might be the easy part, the wheezing, bed jerking. There was no way, I could mimic that.

  Putting all carelessness away I jumped up ran to my bedroom door and flung it open. There she was standing there in the dark with that little what I called granny bun hairdo. It felt like an eternity, but I knew it wasn’t. I ran pass my mom to the bathroom and pretended to cough and hack, as if I were throwing up in the sink. I tried the wheezing part; I could not believe I was doing this. Like my mom was going to believe that was me in the bedroom losing my lunch.

  I heard mom come into the bathroom and she looked at me. There I was standing there coughing, jerking, and wheezing, I could feel her gaze staring through my back, as I prayed that this would work.

  She stared for a minute and as if nothing was wrong, “Poor Baby, are you nauseated? Let me get you a cold rag,” she said as she began to nurse me back into artificial health. It had worked to perfection. I quit the wheezing and jerking that was dumb. Stupid dog, see if I ever leave him any food under the bed again.

  Chapter Two – School Incident

  It was just a little before daybreak as I rolled over to look out the window. To hear Spud barking out the window, old mister choke in the middle of the night. He had already made his grand exit. It still amazes me how he could choke on a piece of hamburger steak. I was a little worried about facing mom, which was going to be fun. I jumped down off the bed, grabbed my overalls, put them on and out the window I jumped. This might sound strange, but it was my normal routine. Out the window to start my day, why not it’s a hole in the house just like a door, just smaller.

  I hit the ground and ran out to the barn to do my morning duties. First was to get the eggs out of the hen house, and then to milk the cow. Spud always sat outside during this operation, because the cow did not like him. I enjoyed my chores, and as long as I did what was expected of me I did not get into trouble, and I got my free time. I don’t understand some of my friends that I go to school with. They will put off their chores off as long as they can, just to be at home after school and doing chores. No sir, give me one hour before daylight and I will have them finished in no time. Plus its dark and mama can’t see you cutting a few corners.

  After I finished the chores I went into the house to get my lunch and grab a bite to eat before school. Mom was working at something in a pot on the stove. I walked up to the table to grab my things and was going to sneak out the door, when she hit me with questions.

  “How are you feeling today?”She said.

  “Great, ready to go to school.” I said hoping she had forgotten about last night.

  “You sure, after last night I didn’t know if you wanted to go see Dr. Cooper.” She hinted at me.

  “No Ma’am, I am fine just got a little sick last night, no big deal.” I told her as I made my way to the door.

  “I just have never heard you wheeze like that, go ahead and go to school. If you get to feeling sick, here is a note you can get out early.” She said. I ran out the door, happy to be through with all the questioning. Dumb dog!

  It was a Friday morning, let me rephrase that a beautiful Friday morning, the sun was shining and I was on my way to school. Yes, Spud was with me, as usual. He went with me every day to school; he was just as much a part of the class as any kid that attended.

  Although he did have to learn to be quiet, and Mrs. Sunni would not let him into the classroom. He would always just sit outside the door waiting for me to get out of school, so we could go do whatever we had planned for that day.

  We would arrive at school that morning, and file into the classroom and have a seat. Mrs. Sunni was very, very stern on quietness in the classroom. She says, “It improves the atmosphere for learning.” Our class was small it included five boys, and five girls. All my classmates were very down to Earth, except Isabella. She thought she ruled the schoolhouse, and the more I think about it, I guess she did.

  Her father either owned, or had some stock in everything in our small town. She was a snotty, better than everyone, brat, but I would never say that to her. She made me kind of nervous. I got his little fuzzy feeling when she was around, I would start to stutter and was kind of tongue tied.

  We started school every day with a pledge to the Bibl
e, the United States of America, and prayer. I always enjoyed this part of class, there was always something majestic about standing there with your hand on the Bible, or your chest. It just had that special feel, like God himself was smiling down on you. Who knows maybe someday I would be President, or better yet, a Preacher. That was a thought for a later date.

  After devotions the class would then be seated to follow with Math, English, Science, History, and Public Speaking. The day would always seem to fly as Mrs. Sunni would teach us step-by-step addition and subtraction. She taught us how to tell the difference between an adverb, and an adjective. All about the creation of animals and their attributes to nature, and why the revolutionary war had happened.

  On this particular day Mrs. Sunni had just started talking to us about public speaking, we were learning to talk in front of a crowd, an imaginary one. Since the class was so small. When the fun had began, Spud starting barking outside the window of our class. I tried to ignore him, but since I was the only boy that brought his dog to school with him, and the fact that he would not quit. All eyes turned on me. Mrs. Sunni looked and told me in a nice way if I could get the dog to hush.

  I said “Yes Ma’am,” I walked to the window looked down to see spud sitting there. That goofy grin he always had on his face. I was still mad at him for the hacking incident. Looking down at him through the window seemed to bring back those memories.

  I told him in a hushed voice, “Spud, would you hush we are trying to have class.” He hushed and just looked at me, with that hurt look. I said, “Good boy,” and nodded my head to him.

  That was the WRONG thing to do, that was all he needed to see. I watched his hind legs crouch, and seen him lift through the air. I hollered “NO” too late; he made it through the window completely.

  He hit me in the chest and I fell backwards, I hit a desk, and it toppled. Then I stopped to realize whose desk I had toppled, it was Isabella’s desk. If that wasn’t bad enough I had knocked her down and Spud was standing over her licking her face. “Oh no,” I thought, the whole class was just staring, in shock, but also fear of what her reaction might be to this. Even Mrs. Sunni looked scared. Isabella then shoved then dog off of her and started to laugh.

  Everyone sighed with relief. I then brought Spud back outside to his original post. Vowing next time to go outside and talk to him, instead of having the window incident happen again. Next time I would have to remember not to nod at him. Although Mrs. Sunni did let us out of school early, mainly so Isabella could go home and change. Who knows I might try the window again.

  Chapter Three – It Backfired

  School out early, all the kids began to crowd around Spud. Congratulating him on a job well done, he didn’t realize what he had done, but if he could have realized. We would probably have to board the windows in the schoolhouse.

  Pete, one of my best friends in school ran up to me after he stopped to talk to Spud. “Hey, Tom what about going to the other side of the Rawlings farm to pick some berries?” He said.

  “Sounds good to me, although I figured you would have too many chores to do.” I said jokingly knowing he was one of those buddies of mine that liked to put things off.

  “Well . . . on a normal day I probably would, but see we got out about an hour early. So I figure I have that much time to be . . .” He was in the middle of saying.

  I cut him off. “Save it, I don’t want to know, that way if I am asked; I can honestly say I didn’t know. Let’s Hurry.”

  I struck out down the road towards the small trail that led to the Rawlings farm. With Pete close behind, he was always a little slower than me. That was due to the excess weight that he carried. Spud seemed to know where we were headed and shot out in the front of us running full blast. He loved to run and was good at it.

  We ran until we reached the small trail that cut off the road and turned into it. Spud was just waiting there as soon as he seen us turn off he took off down the trail barking. He would run off in the woods to our left or right, and then he jump out in front of us, panting with his pink tongue hanging out.

  We finally reached the open pasture to the Rawlings farm. It was a beautiful pasture, covered with open grass waving in the wind to us. We just stood there staring at the field.

  We could see the farmhouse a ways off, there was clothes on the line today, and the garden was beautiful. A group of live oaks surrounded the house, and we could see clothes waving in the wind on the clothesline.

  A group of live oaks surrounded the house and we just stood there staring at the field and the house beyond. It was a sight to see, but we were not staring at the house, the trees, or the garden. What we seen was a gigantic bull, just standing about an hundred yards from us. Just staring, like he knew what we were going to try to do.

  I leaned over to Pete and whispered, “What now?” He gulped and said, “Maybe we should just look for berries some other place, somewhere far from here!”

  We both saw him move toward us and he trotted about fifty yards from us, and started throwing his horns around.

  “I haven’t ever seen him around here before; he has got to be Mr. Rawlings new bull he just bought.” I told him.

  I didn’t know God made them that big!” he exclaimed.

  Pete never was one for facing his fears; he was always the last one to do something. He never did get hurt though, now that I think about it.

  “Pete I think we could get across this pasture, we just need a decoy.” I told him.

  “Decoy, I am not running out there and using my tail end as a bull’s eye as you go across the field!” he said.

  “I am not talking about you we just got to get him distracted, get his attention off of us and onto something else.” I said.

  We had forgot about Spud who was somewhere out in the woods running around. Then it happened, we heard the rustling, and we seen it jump out from the brush line about fifty yards from where we was standing. It looked around and hopped out toward where the bull was standing. When it got about twenty-five yards from the bull it just stood on its back legs and looked at him.

  Spud had obviously caught the scent of the rabbit and flushed him out of the brush. When Spud stuck his head out of the brush and seen the rabbit. He took off like a streak of lightning.

  “Spud, Stop! Get back over here,” I yelled trying to stop what was fixing to happen. It didn’t work; he lost all common sense when it came to rabbits.

  The rabbit, who obviously lost all common sense when he seen a dog, turned and ran straight toward the bull. He ran straight between his legs causing the bull to kind of stagger a little.

  There went Spud, barking his head off running after the crazed rabbit. He took straight to the rabbits trail, following him under the belly of the bull. The bull was shocked by the rabbit, but outraged by the dog that just used his belly as an underpass.

  He tried to turn and go after the two, but turned to fast and fell to the ground, which in turn just made him madder. He kicked and rolled trying to get up, but he was a big bull. He finally got up and got turned in the right direction and there they all went the rabbit, the dog, and the bull all in perfect formation. They ran around the field a few times, the bull was slowly closing the gap on Spud, I was getting worried. He never noticed he was being followed, he just knew there was a rabbit in front of him. Then something happened unexpected. Something that was bad, real bad.

  The rabbit turned and ran through a hole in the fence, which spud could not fit so he just jumped and soared through the air and landed on the other side. The bull was a different story. He could not go under or over the fence, so he just plowed through the fence, causing the fence to splinter. I cringed to see this happen and knew if Mrs. Rawling was to catch Spud in her yard she would have a fit. So I jumped the fence running toward the place where they went under, over and through the fence. As I jumped the fence I heard Pete moaning about being dead meat when Mrs. Rawlings caught them.

  When I got there I looked through the f
ence and what I seen made my stomach do some flops, and a big lump came in my throat and I had to swallow.

  They had made a few laps around the yard, and the crazed rabbit ran straight through one of the rows in the garden. In which Spud followed, never touching a plant. The bull was a different story, he ran through blazing a trail and taking out two rows with him. I cringed again, realizing I had to get Spud out before she came out of the house, then she would just think the bull came in the yard to eat her garden. He just mowed his food in rows before he ate it.

  At the sound of the bull mowing down two rows of the garden, the rabbit kicked it into high gear. He crossed the yard going under the clothesline, and gracefully slid into his home, a small hole underneath the chicken coop.

  Spud followed and ran up to the coop sniffing under it and started to half heartily dig, as if he knew he was beat.

  I knew this was my chance I whistled and said, “Bacon.”

  He turned and started to jog toward me, that always gets his attention. That’s when I seen the bull coming our way and I started to laugh. I laughed until it hurt.

  The bull being a little slower, do to having to plow through the garden. Came running toward the coop, only he caught some clothes off the clothes line. He got the clothes all tangled in his horns. He never stopped running and shook his head only to get the clothes over his eyes. Spud had loped toward me, when the bull ran straight into the side of the chicken coop; his head went through the side of the coop. He sank to ground, it must have knocked him out I thought. I stopped laughing and got worried, the big thing was dead.

  Spud turned looked at the big thing sticking out of the side of the coop, without a head. He still never realized a bull had been chasing him.

  He is one to never back down walked back to the bull. He sniffed the bull a bit and then he bit him on the rear. The bull went crazy, jumped up and pushed himself all the way into the coop. He started to bellow, and I heard him collapse to the floor of the coop.

  Spud turned and ran toward me wagging his tail, as if to say he was happy about what he had done. We ran back across the field to rejoin with whimpering Pete, who had started to cry when he seen we were ok. I was crying to but it was because I laughed so hard.