Dogdays

Otto Toocker hadn’t any reason to be upset. Except his name, maybe. There was always his name. But I’m talking about him and Brooke at the bicycle shop. Brooke was buying a bell, and Otto didn’t like it. She could forgive him for lots of things. She had already forgiven him for changing her name to Brooke Toocker. But she could not forgive him for trying to bend her in this. “Dammit, Tuck, I put up with your damn rubber ducky!” she said. Brooke was basically ladylike, but she could swear. She still remembered the day the dog ate that rubber ducky. She had marked her calendar with a red circle.

“I’m going to make black toast for supper,” Otto said. What it was that Otto had against bells I don’t know, and I don’t imagine Brooke did either. He was never a talkative man unless he was drunk. He kept on sliding his glasses back on up his nose.

“Brilliant, and I’ll give it to Henry.” Henry was their dog. He really was a favorite of both of them. Folks used to joke that Henry kept their marriage together.

Brooke bought the bell.

The two of them walked home in the twilight, and I don’t think they spoke. The mosquitos and gnats got busy as the air cooled. The streetlamps were full of them--just flying and buzzing around as they pleased. It was one of those rusty sunsets that reminded Brooke of graham crackers and honey. Anybody who was out could smell the barbecue from Weyland’s yard and the cut grass all around. There were plenty of crickets too. Brooke and Otto just walked, and her bell jingled a little in her hand.

Naturally, Henry was the first to test out the bicycle bell. Brooke had him in the basket with his ears tucked under him and she rode all over the road in front of the house. She made sure to wiggle the handlebars enough so that Otto could hear the bell. Brooke was a nice sort, but she and Otto were having it out over this one. Otto was sleeping on the couch. He couldn’t help but hear her out there.

They had a son called Travis. He was eight years old and he lived with his nana in Royville because he liked her better than them. Sometimes Brooke got very sad about this. Then she thought she might like to have Travis in her basket instead of Henry, but mostly she just liked Henry a lot and didn’t even think about Travis. Once Otto had asked Brooke to have another kid. I guess he forgot she had her tubes tied after Travis. She was only nineteen then, but she said, “I never want to do that again.” Sometimes I think that every fight they have is really about Travis.

Otto didn’t mention the bell, but he made black toast for breakfast. Brooke ate it, because she secretly liked black toast if she could put peanut butter on it. And she really loved Otto. She said, “Do you want me to go to the supermarket today?” Otto told her he needed tennis balls. “I’ll pick you up some,” she said. And he left for the town center, because he worked there helping people find jobs.

After he left, Brooke knelt in front of the window for an hour, then got up and called her sister, Anne. She invited her to dinner, and pedaled to Weyland’s Market to buy corn on the cob and canned chili. She didn’t take Henry, because she needed basket space for the watermelon. The market wasn’t crowded, so she took her time in the produce section. She selected firm, orange tomatoes because she hated squishy ones. She knocked on at least seventeen melons before she found one hollow enough to satisfy her. On the way home, Anne passed her in her car and offered her a ride. “I’ll race you,” Brooke said, but she lost. The black tires of her bicycle rolled over gravel and broken glass and came out all right, but Anne pulled into the yard first.

The sisters took the groceries into the house.

The afternoon turned windy around four o’clock, so Brooke called Henry in and shut him in the basement. A thunderstorm made its rapid way over the town and was gone. The house was dripping when Otto came home, it’s grey paint sparkling with droplets in late sunshine. Anne was seated at the table trying to play rummy tiles by herself, and Brooke came out and kissed him. “How was your day?” she said.

He took off his glasses and went into the house. He said, “Now, it wasn’t too bad.”

Anne said, “Why don’t we eat on the porch, huh Tuck?” And so they did. The chain link fence shone out pink with the colors of the sunset and Otto ate four ears of corn with lots of butter and salt. Afterwards he said he thought he might go play some tennis with Jed Weyland, but decided against it when it really started to get dark.

“Oh dear--I forgot the tennis balls anyway,” Brooke said. But everything was all right that night and Otto didn’t mind. The sisters were friendly to Otto, and Otto was friendly to them. The whole night sky full of stars could be seen from the porch.

“If we weren’t so far west there’d be fireflies out on a night like tonight,” Otto said just before Anne went home. Otto was born and raised in Missouri. The sisters agreed and said they just might like to see something like that someday, and they just might have to plan a trip to the east sometime pretty soon. Brooke was just a bit prettier than Anne, and Otto thought she looked like a fine sort of woman as she nodded her head in the starlight. He thought she looked as pretty as the day he met her.

He said, “Maybe the boy will have to come with us if we go on that trip.” Right after he said it he wished he hadn’t. He had thought maybe talking about Travis would make Brooke happy, but her shoulders only went a little limp.

“If he wants to,” she said. And Anne drove home, and when her headlights disappeared from the yard they left husband and wife in darkness.