Walk While You Have the Light Lest Darkness Overtake You

by Matt Boylan

Through the windowframe I saw it rise from ditch to road, its nose to the ground goin back and forth along the dirt, back and forth and smellin the ground and coursin its way sideways along the track of some animal scent dead or long gone since, watching it slink its way into the distance until it took the bend to the main road and disappeared. That was bone dog. I’d see him walkin around our property almost every night since as long as I could remember. He would sniff around the house but whenever he’d sense you lookin or if you made some noise he would slink away. He’d know when he was bein watched. He couldn’t run none but he would go. I saw him almost every night from my window. I’d take some dinner in my shirt and leave it out on the deck and after I’d go up to my room and wait and sure enough bone dog would come by sniffin and I’d crouch and hide so he wouldn’t see and I’d wait there until some time passed and sure enough when I went down later and checked the food was gone. I think bone dog appreciated that. Downstairs for dinner one night I asked Ma if we could feed bone dog and she told me to hush about it. She didn’t like when I brought it up because it upset Daddy. I know we’d go to Church every Sunday and Daddy always said I had to pray to God and pray good because that was the way to salvation for all your burnin sinnin. That night while saying grace I prayed for bone dog that he would find what he was lookin for. I got sent to my room without dinner. Daddy said that I was takin the lords name in vain prayin for some stray dog. I spent a long time lookin out my window that night lookin for bone dog. There were rows of poplar lining the driveway leading to our house that went out pretty far before the main road where they suddenly ended and the road split and the picket fence started. That main road went off both ways left and right into the distance as far as your eye could see. Bone dog always came from there. I waited for a while and my stomach was grumblin fierce. I couldn’t see bone dog. He came every night but this night he was nowhere to be found. I thought maybe he heard my stomach grumblin and maybe he knew I didn’t get dinner so there’d be nothin for him either. I thought bone dog must be pretty smart to know that from all the way down there. I wondered where bone dog was if he wasn’t gettin food here. My stomach was grumblin fierce and now it was night and I could hear Ma and Daddy goin up to bed. I pretended to sleep and heard them go into their room and close the door. Waitin there with the window open I could hear the wind whistle. I waited for a good bit until I thought Ma and Daddy would surely be sleepin. Then I snuck out my room and walked out the front door. It was darker than dark and when I looked up there was no moon. I was kicking up dust in big grey clouds and I could taste clay in the air. It was windy and the poplars were shivering. Maybe bone dog was hidin from the cold. I could see the outline of the picket fence in the cool dark. Looking back to the house there were no lights on. White and plain as always. A home like any other. I turned and kept to the side of the driveway. I almost called out for bone dog before realizin he didn’t know his own name. Sometimes I had dreams I was running along the road off into nowhere with bone dog at my side. So I went out lookin. In the dark I couldn’t see a thing. Everything was all grey and dark. I walked off our property out onto the main road and the moon was hiding behind some big clouds but I could see some stars. Some were bigger and brighter than others but the biggest one was North. Anyway I knew where I was goin. I saw one of the dippers holding a circle cloud. I walked along the road until I saw the cut in the trees. I was goin without seein but I knew this way good enough. Walkin through the forest at night scared me some but I remembered bone dog was probably out here in the dark too. I followed the path in the dark through the trees until I got to a cut and turned left. After that it was just a little bit further up a hill and then down again before you arrived at Fisher Pond. I walked up toward Fisher Pond and there wasn’t a single ripple. It seemed the whistlin wind wasn’t here and everything was just still. I walked up toward the edge and looked out and couldn’t see a thing until that circle cloud in the dipper moved and the moon came out and everything lit up. My it was a sight. Fisher Pond was shinin like pretty silver and I thought this must be what bone dog came to see. People saw Fisher Pond during the day and it was fine enough but surely no one was out here by Fisher Pond at night. My what a pretty sight. I walked a bit to my left and up back to the path because I knew that Fisher Pond was like a bog at some points and you didn’t wanna step in the muck. I saw the milkweed just sittin there lazy. I walked a bit along the shore admirin the moon sitting in the water. I could see the craters it was so still. Walkin a bit farther I passed the muck and got to the sandy bit. There were some coals from a day fire and I kicked em and they hissed in the wetness. I kicked another but it didn’t make any sound when it got to the water. I looked and there was somethin there dark that stopped it. Somethin sittin right at the edge of the water. I walked up to it and looked close at what was there floatin. It was bone dog in the shallows with minnows swimmin through his eyes. I knew it was bone dog because it was him. I started cryin until I couldn’t see at all and I ran and ran and ran all the way back through the trees scrapin my arm and leg and I ran and ran back up the road back all the way along our fence and to the cut in the road and around the corner and up the driveway and back all the way home cryin up to the door and when I got inside Daddy was waitin there. He started yellin sayin why would I go out into the dark and to never sneak out of the house and I was cryin and when he saw he stopped yellin. He asked what was wrong and I told him I found bone dog in the shallows with minnows swimmin through his eyes. Daddy hugged me and I was just cryin and cryin.