A walk in the rain...

For the last two days I was constantly peeping out of my office window, waiting for and ardently wishing the guy at the top to cry and wet the warm earth with his flood of tears. There were clouds, and there was wind; trees were swaying nervously, leaves rustling in excitement; a pregnant pause in the scheme of things. I left early from office – she was waiting – and the weather was demanding.

25 minutes, a quick shower, and a sandwich later, we were ready to go out – for our daily long walk. Not one day in the last three years had we missed it, especially in such weather.  Both of us enjoyed our walk immensely, which was most often punctuated by long periods of silence – a kind of calm, yet strong silence that can only be between people who have been in love for 3-4 years.

It has grown dark, and the highway was quiet today. Every 5-7 minutes a truck or car would zoom past^, reminding us that it was a highway. And then it started to rain – huge drops they were as well. Within 5 minutes both of us were drenched, and ofcourse we were loving it. Enjoying the bliss together in this heavenly quiet, walking together endlessly on this black strip of winding road, lost in each other and in the rain.

Wind had picked up and rivulets had started flowing heavily all along the sides of the road. Avoiding little puddles, and splashing into slightly bigger ones, we were both like two happy children on a rare picnic. It completely slipped out of my mind as to what the time was, or where it was going.

Giggling happily, she was running ahead and I was chasing her, when she froze suddenly. I couldn’t see her face but instinctively I felt that she was horrified. I ran towards her, and straightaway saw the reason of her horror there in front of me on the road – A corpse of a dog – rather 2 parts of a dog’s corpse lying about 6 metres from us. Three ribs, broken at the edges, were clearly jutting out vulgarly, the other conspicuous by their absence.

The two back feet had been severed from the trunk and were lying separately a little way from the body. I was numbed for a moment, and then I saw the face – a sharp chill ran down my spine – the eyeballs had popped out of the socket, and a stream of water was running down the middle of the nose and disappearing at the end of his neck. But the eyes were alive – looking clearly at us, with a strange patronizing look, captivating and horrifying at the same time.

It was only now that I felt her staring me, not the corpse, and almost forced myself to look at her. I will never forget that look in her eyes – it haunts me in my dreams ever since – she was clearly and completely accusing me – it couldn’t have been more intense had I been responsible for the incident in front of us.

I recoiled, and started to explain, but her look made me swallow my words, and then I understood – for the first time in 3 years of living together – today it mattered that I was a human, and she, a dog.