Tailed by a Dog

I am taking a "Lowfat" writing workshop (Lowfat referring to short and very short stories) at the local college. The following is my latest keep-it-to-under-300-words tale I thought I'd share.

"Tailed by a Dog"

I climbed into my run down red Saab, fastened my seatbelt and realized I wasn't alone, or not exactly alone, anyway. Sitting smack in the middle of the backseat, facing forward, was a medium sized shaggy blond dog. Her tongue hung down, the tip like a round pink Necco wafer, and she panted quietly. I saw her face in my rear view mirror and her calm taupe eyes looked back at me. I could swear she smiled. Then she was gone.

I didn't think too much about her until she reappeared a few days later. This time I was walking in my neighborhood. I spotted her head as she poked it out from behind the corner of a hedge a few houses up the block. Of course, when I got there, she had disappeared. She began appearing more regularly over the next few weeks, often in the neighborhood, when I was walking, or in the backseat of my old car.

"I think we have a dog coming into our life soon," I announced to my husband one morning after another canine encounter.

"We don't need a dog."

"I know that, but I think one's coming anyway." I told him of my recent sightings.

"We don't have a car big enough for us, the kids and a dog," was all he said. But he hadn't seen this dog's smile.

A week later, out of the blue, we received an unexpected check in the mail. It was just enough for a down payment on the used minivan we'd been coveting. The following week, while running errands, I inadvertently drove past a pet fair. What the Hell, I thought, as I stopped to investigate. No surprise. There she was. She smiled as I approached and slyly offered me her paw.