Man's Best Friend by Squalo DiTerra (web ebook reader .TXT) 📕

This all made him quite volatile. One morning instead of explaining why he hadn't turned in an assignment he opted to yell in his teachers face and storm out of the classroom. Indeed he was becoming a tortured soul. He had lost weight and lost interest in the things that once gave him joy. He was exhausted, mentally and physically exhausted.

Weeks pass and our friend is getting worse. He is spiralling out of controll and is barely passing his subjects. Self medicating with alcohol, and now marijuana, have accelerated his descend into madness. His days are spent battling irrational thoughts that cloud his mind. The demons are thriving.

After another restless sleep, morning has arrived and our friend forces himself off to class. He has been waking up tired every morning for the last while.

It is before dawn and the air is cold and crisp. Among the hurrying masses our friend takes a detour to dispose of his empty bottles when he is startled by a stray dog that is rummaging around the garbage bin. The dog aproaches our friend but is instantly shunned "go away". It was a beautiful German Shepherd and smart enough to know our friend wasn't in a friendly mood so it went back to rummaging in the dark.

Another day of uneventful classes ended and our friend is heading back to his room. A feeling of despair has washed over him. Apon arriving at his room he sees Tuomo sitting at his desk and just rudely walks back out of his room. No way did he feel like talking with his roomate and feigning interest in his latest stories.

He heads to the food court for an early dinner and hopes he can pass enough time until it's time to go to sleep. The food court is full of lively students and he is frustrated there too. He orders a burger and hastily leaves with his food and backpack for a quieter place. He chooses a park bench. It is very cold outside but he would rather eat there. He does not realise he is being led by other forces. Forces that want him alone and feed off his anxiety.

With barely an appetite and trying to eat his burger in the bitter cold he notices the stray dog from earlier. He imagines how nice it must be to be a dog as he watches it go about. Feeling sorry for it he whistles over to it and shows his food. The dog makes it's way over and our friend offers the rest of his hamburger. The dog glady devours the food and our friend pets it a few times. He decides then and there that he wants this dog as a pet. He just wonders what Tuomo would think. If he'd be fine with it. Odd how our friend suddenly considers Tuomos feelings.

 Arriving home with his new friend he sees Tuomo reading on his bed. "Hey man is it ok if I keep this dog here for a bit".

Tuomo looks up "what is this" he asks exuberantly.

"I found him in the courtyard. He's homeless as far as I can tell".

"For sure we can keep him. This is awesome". Said Tuomo exitedly as the two pet the dog. Smiles all around and the dog happily waging it's tail.

Tuomo, who barely stayed in his room and rarely slept there offered to walk it on occasion but joked that he couldn't afford to feed it. Our friend assured him that he doesn't have to worry and that the dog is not his responsibility. Meanwhile, the dog made himself comfortable in the room.

The two roommates talked for a bit catching up on things. Our friend was genuinly interested in his stories and how he was finding campus life so far. The two even decided a name for their new canine roommate. Felix.

After a while Tuomo gets up to get ready for a night out. He invites our friend who politely declines. But all seems good between the two of them now.

After getting some water for Felix our friend heads to bed. "Good night boy", he said to his new dog.

That night Felix was growling and barking in his sleep. Enough to slightly wake our friend a few times but not enough to wake him fully. This was the best sleep our friend had in quite a while.

Morning arrived and our friend wakes up feeling well rested for once. He stretches in his bed and then recalls his friend's restless night.

"Poor guy was homeless. I can only imagine what he had to deal with out there", our friend thinks to himself.

A week passes and our friend is doing well managing school and the responsibilities of having a dog. His sleep and appetite have gotten better and so have his grades.

One morning while walking his dog he met a girl named Aino and the two of them hit it off at once. They started seeing eachother and she got him to stop drinking. One evening in his room she found his marijuana and urged him to dispose of it. He did so gladly. "I don't need this anymore" he said and flushed it down the toilet.

That night sitting on his bed, with Felix fast asleep, the two of them were talking philosophically when they heard Felix barking and growling in his sleep and saw his leg twitching.

"I wonder what he's dreaming about" asks Aino.

"Probably chasing rabbits or something" laughs our friend. "Sleep well boy".

Little did he know that Felix was at work keeping the demons at bay having driven them into a corner of our friend's psyche and ready to pounce at the slightest advance from them.

They will not advance for they are no match and have no home in a mind at ease.

A mind that a dog can enable. A mind with man's best friend.

Text: Adrian Toffoli
Images: Adrian Toffoli
Cover: Adrian Toffoli
Editing: Adrian Toffoli
Publication Date: 12-23-2019

All Rights Reserved