Black Friday Special

Friday, November 29 07:45:13

Abruptly, Caleb is awoken by paws tapping on his shoulder and a nose jutting under his chin. “I’m up, I'm up, Hope. Love you, too.” Sitting up in the bed, he dons his glasses and suddenly his nose, the last of the senses to come alive, note the particular smell of chorizo, eggs, onions and garlic wafting through the vent. “Well now I know why you wanted out. Guess Mom's up. Let's take a walk, shall we?"

Dressing himself, he sedately takes the stairs, while Hope sprints to the bottom and around the corner into the kitchen where he hears a third and “¡Ay Dios! Hope que no puedas comerlo, ¡todavía no!”

Reaching the kitchen, he sees his mother on the floor and Hope on top of her, licking the spatula in her hands. Caleb grabs her collar and pulls her back. “Sorry, Mom, she’s never like this. Let's go walking, Hope. Be back in a bit, Mom.” Picking herself off the floor, his mother starts washing the spatula in the sink.

After two circuits around the neighborhood in which Hope thoroughly investigates every tree, bush, and woodland creature, they arrive back just as his Mom is removing a casserole dish from the oven. Setting it to cool on the stove, she brandishes her spatula at the sneaking four-legged animal. “No Perrita, you better not touch that or you’ll be eating dog food for the rest of your life.”

Hope, caught between the fear of Caleb's mother and the temptation of the breakfast frittata, wavers back and forth for nearly twenty minutes until the arrival of Caleb's father and the coffee pot signal the start of breakfast.

As the four huddle around the table, no words are spoken, just the sounds of three people quietly eating and one dog going full ham on their meal. Afterwards, coffee in hand, they head to the den to watch the morning news and get started on online Black Friday Shopping, Hope resting at Caleb's feet.

“When are y'all heading back to the City, Caleb?”

“Probably in a few hours, wanna beat the traffic getting home. It's supposed to storm this afternoon into the night and that combination does not appeal.”

“Well make sure you stay down longer for Christmas, we barely get to see you these days.”

“I know, Mom. I already took off that Monday and Tuesday leading up.”

Around noon, Caleb and Hope say their goodbyes as the first few raindrops start to fall. Fighting past the Mall traffic, they make it back onto the highway and home after two hours of fighting obstinate, clueless, and out-of-state drivers. By the time they arrive, the rain is falling in earnest.

Dropping his accouterments in the living room, Caleb looks down at Hope as she shakes her coat dry.. “You need to go for a walk? I didn't think so. Let's stay in, game, and veg out on leftovers.”

Changing back into lounging clothes, Caleb makes himself a plate and puts a slice of turkey in with Hope's food and heads upstairs. As the day progressed into night, the storm did not abate, turning the windows into waterfalls and the thunder cracking put Hope curled up in the bed until Caleb finally called it quits around 11pm. “Good night Hope…I'm sorry the storm has you so worked up. It's gonna be okay.” With that, he falls asleep with his hand across her back, mid-pet.

Hope waited several minutes until Caleb's breathing became regular then slipped downstairs. Tonight was the night they could finally change. ‘Just have to use that bag of food Caleb purchased.’ Padding into the pantry, Hope stands on hind legs and shifts her paws into hands to grab scissors out of the drawer. Teeth would be faster, but would also be too loud. Cutting a slice into the bag, Hope dives in headfirst, unhinging her jaw to scoop huge amounts of food in each bite.

As her cells break down the pounds of dog food, the replication goes into overdrive, and she allows her previous size compression to slip. Bloated beyond imagination, she(they?) continue to grow into an amorphous furred blob with a dog head until at last, the bag is empty and job done, the head sinks back into the undifferentiated mass. Time to become a human, but who to pick? It had DNA from several people, including Caleb himself, but that wouldn't do unless they wanted to scare him. Caleb was clearly attracted to both Anita and Andrea, why not start there? ‘Yes, that would work.’