A Man and a Mutt

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. Cold winds whistled over rooftop and chimney, never ceasing its mournful howling. Shadows lurked everywhere in the deepening gloom.

The people left were few, and those who remained hurried along the streets in silence, heads bowed. A horse-drawn cart rattled by.

No one stopped to pay attention to me, leaning against the side of the building, waiting. Watching. For what, I did not know. I just waited. What else was I to do? Where to go?

I pulled my tattered coat around me more, though it did not do much.

Finally, with evening fading away, twilight creeping its way into the sky, I sighed and slunk away. To where? Who knows. Just wandering the cold, desolate streets, among houses with lights shining from their windows, joyous laughter coming from the families within, and dark alleyways where no light seemed to be able to penetrate.

Snow dusted everything.

I pulled my falling-to-pieces-hat down lower.

The fresh, powered snow crunched lightly underfoot as I wandered the streets slowly, a sound I have heard countless lonely times before.

The falling snow slowly tapered off, and the clouds were starting to break. The last small ray of light faded away, the last silent person disappeared, and I was left alone in the deserted streets. I cannot truthfully say I was alone in the darkness, though, as there were the streetlights, but even those seemed dim and dreary.

The stars came out, tiny dots of white in an endless field of black nothingness. I stopped and gazed up at the stars. They seemed to be small pinpricks of hope in a world of darkness, and yet at the same time they seemed as cold as the snow that crunched underfoot, peering down at me contemptuously.

“The stars are beautiful tonight,” I whispered to myself. “As is the moon.”

The moon was full tonight, and hung low on the horizon, starting its ascent towards the heavens. It was a wondrous golden color, but I knew that it would change to a shining silver disc the higher it climbed in the dark sky. With a long, drawn out sigh, I pulled my gaze away from the sparkling heavens and continued on my way.

The bare, desolate streets draped in white were cold. My fingers were numb. I glanced down at them; they were blue.

The lights in the houses started going out, one by one, and the happy laughter faded away to nothing. The clock tower’s bell started tolling out the time: one… two… three… four… five… six… seven… eight… nine…

Nine o’clock. Another long night ahead of me.

After the last, ringing toll faded away, the streets seemed even more dead and silent then before. I shuddered in the deepening gloom and hurried on through the streets. I slowed my pace. At this rate I’d be out of the city long before dawn. Why rush, anyway?

I heard something from a dark alleyway to my right and I paused. Had it been a mew? A whine? A moan? I could not tell.

Cautiously, but curiously, I headed towards the shadows from where I heard the noise. Two large, soft, brown eyes blinked up at me in the darkness, and then a head came into view. It was a dog, a mutt. A thin, mangy dog.

It whined softly, and I crouched down and held out my hand to it. There’s a remnant of a once-blue collar around the dog’s scrawny neck. I was surprised it had even managed to stay on. There was no name on the collar, nor any address.

The dog pushed its matted head into my hand and gave a small bark, wagging its skinny tail. He looked to be white, even in the faint light, but was dirty, so it was hard to tell.

“Were you abandoned? Or are you just lost?” I asked it softly. “Left alone in the streets? Homeless? Unwanted? An outcast?”

The dog whined sadly again, putting a paw on my knee.

“I guess we’re on the same page then, aren’t we, little one?”

I knew I couldn’t take care of a dog, especially one in need of as much care as this one, even if I wanted too. I could barely take care of myself, it seemed.

I pulled my hand away, moved the dog’s paw off my knee, and stood up, tearing my eyes away from the begging eyes peering up at me.

I started to walk away, but the dog bounded after me. No matter where I went, what street I turned onto, the dog followed me, stayed at my heels.

I finally turned and crouched down to it. It started sniffing my hand, then licked it. I picked it up. It yelped joyously and licked my face, its long tail wagging again.

A smile cracked across my face. It’s been a long time since I’ve smiled, and it feels good.

The poor thing is shivering. I am too, but not as much as the dog.

I wrapped the tatters of my thread-bare coat around the dog, and he burrowed into my chest. I felt his tail thumping my stomach, and he licked my chin affectionately. I smiled again and petted its head. The dog laid his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes.

“What should I call you, little one?” I asked softly, petting the dog’s head gently. He whined in his sleep.

“I’ll call you Caspian. A grand name. That seems to suit you, doesn’t it?”

The dog lifted his head and peered at me with those soft brown eyes for a minute, then closed his eyes again and his head fell back on my shoulder.

“Good boy, Caspian,” I said, wrapping my coat tighter around both him and me, the only protection we had against the cold, unwelcoming night.

I could feel Caspian’s heartbeat next to my own, slow and steady. I walked on, through the cold, abandoned streets. But my loneliness has left me. I felt a peace that night, and as I wandered between the dark buildings rising up on either side of me, I somehow knew I was headed towards a new life, a new future. A happy one.

I had hope.

If anyone chanced to see this passerby cloaked in a tattered coat, with a scrawny mutt hugged to his chest, they would most likely have wondered why such a poor man would have as contented a smile as he did.

A lone man, homeless in the cold winter streets, would not have gathered much observation. But the smile on his face and the mutt in his arms would have attracted a decent amount of attention, as the pair wandered through the dark, lonesome streets.

Lonesome, that is, to anyone but a certain man and a mutt.