Hello, all: this story was written for the June “Let’s Write Together” activity by
, which involves 1,000 words in response to a prompt they provided.Further details about the prompt and Fictionistas can be found here:
Prompt: Your dog has dug a large hole in your backyard and is losing their mind about what’s inside. You look in the hole and know instantly that you will be on the news.
“Man oh man,” Clyde said as he looked down into the hole. “What on earth are we gonna do about this?”
Immediately Carla flinched and whined. Clyde had momentarily forgotten her.
“Ah, I’m sorry, girl,” he said, bending to one knee and giving her the scritches behind her ear that she loved so much. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. You were just digging around like you always do, yeah? Good girl.”
Carla wriggled happily, relieved to know that he wasn’t mad at her. The Labrador’s goodwill lasted only a moment, however. Once reassured, she promptly went back to barking at the object in the hole she had uncovered, determined to let her human know that there was a Strange Thing in the hole and it needed to be Investigated and Dealt With Now Now Now. Clyde had heard her first alarms clear inside the house and had come out to see what was the trouble. At first he’d assumed it was some animal she’d cornered, or maybe something wrecked-up and long-buried by whoever had lived on the land before Clyde had gotten there.
He’d been wrong on both counts. Now there it was, and there he was, and his sister Angie was coming over in an hour with her kids to visit, and Angie and the kids all had followers on some social media thing or other, and so inevitably this would spread. He’d probably have crowds of people, plus news choppers and who knew what all here by nightfall, if not sooner. Clyde had moved out here to get away from people, and now thanks to his dog (again, not her fault, he assured her), he had something that was sure to bring everyone from here to St. Louis. And that was just normal people; who knew what kinda crazies would come with them?
Not to mention the government guys. Clyde hadn’t seen the movie on point but he knew enough to know that government guys would want to come look at this and maybe cart it off and study it or do whatever they did with it. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he objected, and he didn’t think he’d like the answer.
“So what do I do with the dang thing?” he said to himself. There was a slight humming noise from inside the hole. Clyde quickly crossed himself. “Sorry,” he said. He wasn’t planning to go look inside, he knew that much, but he didn’t want to take chances either. The humming subsided.
Carla barked at it again, and made a little rush as if she meant to attack it. Clyde managed to keep her back. “I don’t think you want to do that, girl,” he said, not unkindly. He didn’t think she’d be harmed; she was just a dog that didn’t know better after all, but then again, who knew? He didn’t really know the rules here; he just knew from bits and pieces, things he’d heard his friends say, and the times his pastor from way back happened to preach on a particular passage from 1 Samuel (which wasn’t too often, the reverend being concerned with more relevant passages involving loving thy neighbor and whatnot).
Still, as Clyde looked down upon the sweeping golden wings of the carved angels atop the Ark of the Covenant, while his Labrador Carla resumed barking frantically behind him, he couldn’t help wishing he’d seen the movie. He knew Harrison Ford had played the main guy. How had he handled this?
“Well, Carla,” he said at last, standing up and brushing dirt off his jeans, “What say I go get my shovel and get you some treats and we just forget this whole thing ever happened, yeah? Bet if I start now I can get that covered back up before Angie gets here.”
Carla wavered between the thought of the Danger! in the Hole! and the prospect of treats, and then decided that treats were the better choice. She barked happily as Clyde headed back towards the house for his shovel. Some things, he decided, weren’t meant to be dug up anyway.
I love that he just buried it again! Always fun to read a bit from the dog POV too. Thanks for joining us this month!
Nicely done - and it did end pretty much like ROTLA