In this excerpt, Colt first meets Sam, his golden retriever, when he, Meg, and Franny, his girlfriend, spend a morning volunteering at a local shelter:
"By the end of the morning, Colt is exhausted. Franny and Meg laugh at him. But twelve dogs have had a bit of individual attention and playtime. Zoey, in alliterative allegiance to her name, spent her recess in crazed zoomies that made them dizzy, crossing and recrossing the yard, stopping only for one bowl-draining drink of water. Pepper preferred listening, head cocked, as Meg sat with her on the grass and talked to her. Colt tried throwing the ball, but the dog ignored it, preferring instead ten minutes of belly rubs, ear scratches, and being told she was a good, good girl. And Sam broke his heart. He didn’t want to play or retrieve the ball. There was no tail wagging. To Colt, the dog gave the appearance of someone on the verge of giving up on trying to figure out a really tough math problem, one involving subtraction with the subtrahend taken permanently away, and Colt himself unable to help. When asking the universe to mitigate a situation or, at the very least to explain much less justify it, more and more he hears only its implacable silence. “Thirsty work for all of us,” Colt says, upending the last of the Dr. Pepper he’s just purchased from the machine in the office. “Please tell me, what brings a beautiful golden to a shelter anyway?” The person behind the counter answers, “You die leaving no plan for your pet, so your kid who lives in Seattle brings Sam here before he leaves for home after the funeral. Still, not the worst ending this story could have." And Franny adopts two greyhounds in this excerpt: "The Saturday after school begins, Franny brings home not one but two adult greyhounds, recently of the dog track, a male and female. Besides the shelter, she’s also been searching rescue sites since May, finalizing this adoption without telling anyone just before she moved. Their names are unknown. She tells Colt she’s going to call them Heloise and Abelard. “That’s a terrible idea,” he says. “Hell and Abe? You want literary, we can do better.” “Okay, let’s hear it.” “Romeo and Juliet?” says Colt. “No,” says Franny. “Wait! Bonnie and Clyde!” “Really, Colt? What next? Simone and Garfunkel?” The two graceful animals, having almost immediately discovered and claimed as their own Franny’s well-loved, ancient (versus antique, she specifies if asked) damask sofa with its down-stuffed seat cushions, are intertwined thereon, deeply uninterested in human conversation, fast asleep. Colt and Franny finally settle on Lucy and Desi. “Not a very literary choice after all,” Franny says. “No,” says Colt. “But what was left after we eliminated Leonard and Virginia, George and Martha, Scott and Zelda? Come on!” “If you look closely, Lucy’s coat does have a reddish tinge.” They are lovely dogs, and smart. They learn their names quickly and respond to them." You can pre-order "An Invitation to the Party" at https://regal-house-publishing.mybigcommerce.com/an-invitation-to-the-party/
1 Comment
Tina
2/26/2023 12:22:53 pm
I want to read your book again! Can’t get enough of your writing, my friend.
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