Saturday, July 11, 2009

How to Slow Walk Part One

By Al Case

The first time I made time stretch I was jerked out of a sleep by a commotion outside my yard. I saw a couple of fellows trying to beat my dog when I looked down from the upstairs window. I yelled down at them to leave my dog alone, and they yelled something back at me, and the next thing you know I was careening through the house while pulling on my pants.

I took in the scene at a glance as I came out of the gate. My dog bouncing around, and the two fellows trying to get him while he danced around a frightened young girl holding a small dog, and I knew what had happened. My dog had jumped the fence when he had seen the little girls dog, and she had picked her dog up to protect it, and my dog had jumped around and barked at her, and the two fellows were really just coming to the rescue of a small girl.

This thing had turned into a problem for me. The two guys werent bad. How could I turn things around without hurting anybody?

I began walking slow, real slow, and the fellows suddenly started to worry. They were bigger than me, but my eyes were on them, and confident, and they suddenly had time for worry to foment and build within their minds. They began to sweat and perspire and even shake.

My dog suddenly stopped dancing around and sat down and looked at me, everything in the whole darned world had gone into slow motion, and I slowed my walk even more. The little girl, looked up at me, she was still holding her dog. Calmly, I asked what was going on.

It was beautiful. You could see the relief in the two fellows eyes that things hadnt escalated into physical fighting, and they both began to babble. Each wanted to be the one to explain what had happened.

I finally looked down at my dog, who was looking up with a rather guilty expression, and they stopped their babbling. So, knucklehead, it was you, eh? He flopped his tail on the ground a few times as he looked down.

The dog was renowned for ignoring me, but when I told the dog to get into the yard, miracle of miracles, he slunk through the gate. I looked around, and nobody seemed to be hurt. I petted the girls dog, smiled at the two guys, and left, and that was the first time I ever slow walked.

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