Sparkie

With a growl that could rival Sparkie’s, I went to check on him, let him out in the backyard, but he quickly came back in.

Maxim Trevelyan
Writer, Ravenclaw

Barking woke me up in the middle of the night. Again. Five times in a row.

"Go to sleep Sparkie!" I yelled from the bedroom, knowing that the dog wouldn’t heed me one bit.

My husband and I had a normal nightly routine of having a mug of hot cocoa, brushing our teeth, checking doors and windows, and then putting Sparkie to bed.

Do not get me wrong, Sparkie was not a bad dog. He was simply just not the dog I wanted. I fought hard against getting him, but I acquiesced to my husband, because really, how bad could a mutt be compared to a purebred?

His barking kept waking us up though. My husband would defend him, “He just gets scared sometimes.” Really, a dog scared of the dark? Usually, if you settled him in his crate, that would be it, though. Gave him a boop on the snoot, told him “nighty night”, as my husband would say, and then he would calm down.

Tonight was different though. Tonight he just wouldn’t quit. Frankly, it was starting to grate on me. I resented my husband a little, since he could sleep like a log. Gosh, even now he slept calmly by my side.

"Sparkie, enough!" I scream, defeat slowly creeping up on me. He just wouldn’t stop. With a growl that could rival Sparkie’s, I went to check on him, let him out in the backyard, but he quickly came back in.

Oh, now you are quiet, you mutt, I thought angrily, glaring at the four-pawed beast. For a moment, I thought about just locking him out of the house to get some peace. But, I put him back into his crate bed seamlessly. He was rather anxious still when he went in. As soon as I stepped into the bedroom, the barking started again. I yelled in frustration and turned back to the hallway, but something made me pause.

I stared at the figure at the end of the hallway, taking a step back when it took a step forward. “Now, now, don’t yell,” it, no he, whispered with a hoarse voice. “It’ll all be over soon. Can I tell you something though?”

I couldn’t do much at the absurdity of the request, just nodded. “Quite a mutt you have there,” he said, walking faster towards me.

“You should listen to it more, man.”