Member-only story
The Authentic Eclectic
The Black Puppy
An article appeared in the newspaper one day that reported the mysterious disappearance of a puppy. The black lab had been a birthday present for a seven-year-old boy. He went to sleep in his bedroom with the door shut and the puppy snuggled in his arms.
In the morning, it was gone.
The journalist had interviewed both parents, who insisted that the door had been firmly shut and that the mother, a light sleeper, would have awoken if she heard a creaking on the steps, for the prevailing theory was that the little boy had sleepwalked downstairs and let the puppy outside. None of the neighbors ever saw it, and the parents bought their son a robot instead.
I read this article when I was eight years old. The words “mysterious disappearance” combined with a photograph of an adorable puppy piqued my interest, and I sat down in my father’s great, soft armchair to read the details, by which I was deeply disturbed.
On the bus to school the next day, I watched out the window with singular attention, looking down every alley and through every open window in search of the lost puppy. Where had it gone? Was it alone? Was it afraid? Was it alive? I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I searched all around the building during recess, and was disrupted by a teacher from walking three miles home…
