Dog Business

12 Months ago subscribers to my Patreon received this tiny piece of fiction in which a normal part of keeping a dog turns into some strange encounters. Now it is free to the rest of you.

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I was waiting for the dog to do his business. A moment of calm.

“What you doing mister?” Speaking to me was what looked like a shattered mirror, swept up and put back together in a vaguely humanoid form. Though on closer inspection each reflection showed a different place, subtly changed from the street…

I was staring. It was rude. “Oh, just waiting for Max to finish his business.” There was an uncomfortable moment of waiting. A car went by. “He’s not as young as he was.”

“Business.” They were short, their voice light. It was possible this was a child. It was possible that it was not a mirror that had cracked up.

“He needs to go to the toilet.” Max grunted, in effort, maybe recognising that we were talking about him.

“Oh. I see!” They shifted, for a moment I was blinded by a flash of light and I lifted my hand to shade my eyes. Max grunted again; I’d pulled his lead.

He was more disturbed by that than the figure staring at his back end. I was uncomfortable; Max deserved… well not privacy, out here on the street. His dignity? The courtesy of anonymity, to get on with his business without being a passing street entertainment?

Max didn’t care, finishing off, a remarkably small result for so much effort. He waited impatiently as I gathered it up in a plastic bag.

“Do you mind if I take that?” They haled out a shimmering hand that made my head hurt.

“It’s just dog mess,” I said.

“Please?”

They took it and folded and refolded themselves around it becoming a twinkling, shimmering star before vanishing. I couldn’t help thinking I’d made a mistake. “What do you think of that Max?”

He flicked his ears and led me down the street. Back to my moment of calm.

“Oi mister. What’s that on the end of the lead?”

I raised my gaze and saw an orange cat who stared back. “No not you. I’m talking to Max.”

I sighed. Somehow taking the dog out had stopped being simple.