The Great Adventure

Peewee and Tabitha sat by the side of a ditch. Across the ditch was a road. It was a busy road and dusty ditch. They were both looking emaciated, ragged and miserable. They’d been sitting on the same spot for more than two days now. It was all Tabitha’s fault. As soon as they had arrived on that spot she had whimpered, sniffed around and then sat down and refused to budge. Peewee wasn’t sure why, exactly, this spot was so important. They had endured a long hard journey to get here, but as far as Peewee could see, there was no ‘here’ here. Just this miserable road. Occasionally someone would stop their car and say some nice things to try and coax the animals into coming with them, but Tabitha would have none of it. She always ran away, and returned to the spot only after the car was gone. Peewee was sorely tempted to leave Tabitha behind and take his chances in a car. Perhaps there would be a new family. At least there might be good food. But in the end he always stayed with the dog. They’d been together through far too much for him to just leave.

The Old Man was sitting and sipping a cold beer on an old and rusting lawn chair in a small back yard in Mississippi. It was a lazy hot afternoon. The yard belonged to his sister Faye, and next to him, in another old and rusting lawn chair sat Joyce. Joyce, as usual, was shuffling her cards. The Old Man was feeling sad and empty because he really missed his two animal friends.

“Them cards, all they got is bad news,” said the old man, as much to himself and his beer as to Joyce.

“Now that ain’t nothin’ to do with me,” replied Joyce.

“Well who then is to do with?” asked the Old Man, “you be the one tellin’ me that there ain’t no going back home no more.”

“I ain’t tellin’ you that. The cards is tellin’ you that,” replied Joyce a little testily as she shuffled some more and pulled a few cards out of the deck. “And they ain’t changin’ their mind neither,” she added after examining the ones she pulled out, “they tellin’ me clear as daylight that the old ways is gone and the new ones is here.”

“That don’t necessarily mean we ain’t going home,” said the Old Man.

“Yes it do,” said Joyce.

“Why you always arguin’?” asked the Old Man.

“I ain’t arguin. You are. I’m just tellin’ you like it is,” answered Joyce.

“Well, like I says, them cards is all bad news.” The old man sighed and took a sip of beer. Joyce continued shuffling her cards, pretending she hadn’t heard. Even Joyce sometimes got tired of arguing.

After a while Joyce spoke up again.

“I’d like to go home too,” she said, “and besides, it ain’t all bad news, you know.”

“So where’s the good news?” asked the Old Man, “We gotta stay here with my sister ‘cause we ain’t got no home. At least you got the couch. I gotta sleep on the floor.”

“You volunteered to sleep on the floor,” said Joyce. “we can switch if you want.”

“No, that’s OK,” replied the Old Man as his eyes welled up with tears, “I’m sorry I’m being hard on you. I guess what’s botherin’ me is that I miss my animals so much. I can’t stop thinkin’ about where they are and what’s happened to them. I wish I knew if they was OK, if I will ever see them again.” He paused to dry his eyes out with a handkerchief. “We been here at Faye’s a while now and I know I miss my house, but I also know I can live with loosin’ it and all my stuff. All them’s just things. I still have my harmonica,” he tried to hold back a sob, “but Lord I miss my Peewee and Tabitha. I wish I didn’t have to loose ‘em.”

“They’s comin’ home,” said Joyce, “For days I couldn’t read about them animals in them cards. I never seen anything like it, it was very strange, the cards sayin’ nothing. It was like them animals was lost to this world. But then the cards they got a talkin’ again. ‘Today as in the beginning’, is what they say. Clear as can be. I didn’t wanna tell you in case something went bad, but now I see they really is comin’ home.” She showed the Old Man some cards.

The Old Man looked at Joyce blankly and then at the cards blankly. Nothing Joyce had just said made any sense. And he was afraid to let her and her cards get his hopes up. It would be too painful to be let down. He loved Peewee and Tabitha too much.

Just then the back door flew open, and a mangy scruffy dog and a mangy scruffy cat came barreling out into the back yard, followed by a winded Mississippi Sam. The dog threw herself on to the Old Man, knocking him off the rusty old lawn chair and tumbling him down on to the lawn. Her tail was wagging round and round like a propeller, and she proceeded to lick the Old Man’s face like it was the best ice cream cone ever. At the same time the cat jumped up on to the Old Man’s chest and purred almost as loud as a motorcycle.

“Found ‘em just where Joyce said I would,” explained Mississippi Sam as he helpfully offered the Old Man a hand and helped him up.

“You see, Tabitha went to the same spot I found her at the first time around,” continued Mississippi Sam a little later, adressing what was now a small garden party. The Old Man had settled himself in his lawn chair again and Tabitha lay contentedly at his feet while Peewee sat in his lap. Faye had joined them, and they were all sipping drinks and talking about what had happened. The Old Man couldn’t remember when he’d last been this happy.

“They was waiting for me there,” Sam carried on, “they was hungry and real well worn out. Fed ‘em as soon as I got to a mart. They ate like they was horses and then slept in my truck the rest of the way.”

“The dawg must have figured it was her lucky spot or something,” observed Faye.

“Well whatever it was, that was damn good thinkin’ on your part,” said the Old Man to Mississippi Sam.

“Wasn’t my idea. Joyce figured that out,” said Mississippi Sam.

“Wasn’t me,” said Joyce, “the cards said so. ‘Today as in the beginning’ they said.”

“I guess I gotta take what I said about them damn cards back,” replied the Old Man, “even if what you just said don’t make no sense to me.” He took a long loving look at his two animal companions and added, “but I do wish they could tell what they been up to. Must have been some adventure.”

“Kind of like ours, I suppose,” said Joyce.

“They still need a good washing,” Sam said (unnecessarily because it was so obvious), “but I’ll be darned how you gonna wash a cat. I’d like to see that one!”