Solutions: A Dog's Dilemma by James Gerard (book suggestions .TXT) 📕

“Good morning,” said Jack.

Rick smiled in relief.  “Good morning.”

“Just give me a moment to secure the building and we’re on our way.”

Rick slung his back pack over a shoulder.  He bent down to pick up the cardboard but laughed.  Why do I need this?

Rick ran to the car, threw his backpack into the backseat and hopped in.  The warmth of the inside felt good.  Sitting on a soft surface for a change was a pleasing sensation.  Not having to walk for miles during the day thrilled the feet.  Goodbye to the sidewalks, the streets, the garbage cans, the recyclables, ranting and raving, inconsiderate people, and to all the things that made his life bearable but not comfortable.   Hello to the bed, pillow, blanket, room, good food, and anything else that was not available in the lifestyle of the streets.

“Are you ready?” asked Jack as he sped down the street towards a highway’s onramp. 

“I guess.”

“By the way, this beautiful woman here is my wife, Amanda.  Amanda this is Rick.”

“Good morning ma’am.”

“You don’t have to be formal with me.  Just call me Amanda.”  She extended a hand. “So you’re the man my husband has spoken so fondly of?”

Rick smiled, “I guess….”

“We’ll be at the airport in a couple of minutes.  Is there anything you need before we get there like hygiene products, shoes, clothes, anything?”

Rick so badly wanted to ask for a carton of cigarettes and a large cup of coffee, but he did not have the nerve to do so.  “I’m good on everything.  Thank you though.”

Rick fidgeted about the back seat as he looked at the airport just ahead.  Butterflies flew about the stomach.  The palm of his hands were moist.  He wondered how it would be like to be on a continent he was vaguely familiar with, and among a people he did not really know.  Based on the experiences of the past, however, he knew that things would have to be different.  Thoughts about the different laws, customs, way of life that seemed familiar on the outside but as different as night and day crossed his mind.

He took the opportunity to think about the experience as an adventure like no other.  He thought about the different type of food that would be offered and the fun in figuring ways to get around language barriers.  Then again, he wondered, how would they think of him once it was revealed to them that he was nothing more than a homeless dog.  He began to worry if he would be accepted as much as Jack.

He saw Jack as a normal person.   Jack was a person with a job and money, a nice car, a nice home, nice clothes, and a nice wife.  There was nothing lacking from the fruits of his labor.  He saw his own shabby clothes and thought about how disgraceful he looked.  It didn’t matter to him if he had taken a birdbath in the warehouse’s bathroom, or shaved and brushed his teeth, or that he put on the clean pair of shabby clothes.  In his mind he was still a nothing.  He knew people would be able to see through the façade immediately and know that the inside was filled with nothingness as well.

“We’re here,” said Jack as he approached a gate that led to the outside of one of the airport’s terminal.

Rick listened as Jack presented identification papers and gave an accounting of his wife and him to the security guard.  The gate arm then lifted and Jack parked close to the small jet that had been awaiting their arrival.  Jack escorted his wife and him straight onto the plane as a porter rummaged through the car to unload the luggage to be loaded into the belly of the plane.

Rick noticed no other passengers on the plane as Jack led him to a seat.  He thought this had to be a charter plane or maybe even a plane owned by World Care Solutions.  When he took his seat he was facing both Jack and Amanda and was hit with the thought of actually having some kind of meaningful conversation, but the thought was temporarily displace as the pilot’s announcement blared through the cabin’s speaker.   Before he knew it, the plane made its way to the runway and off it went and quickly reached its desired direction and altitude.  The seatbelt sign went dark.

“This is a long flight Rick.  There’s lots of drinks and food stacked up if you get hungry.  Just let me know.”

Rick looked out the window to the ground below.  He knew they were flying high.  Everything he saw on the ground looked so distant while at the same time so vast.

“I got to let you know a few things Rick.  My wife and I have been on many of these relief efforts, so I want to let you know what to expect.  You got to remember we’re going to a foreign country so keep on your toes.  Everything has already been arranged.  We’ll be landing at a regional airport and then take a small commercial airliner to our final destination.  We all have to check in through their airport’s little customs office and provide our passports.”

Jack reached over and handed a paper to Rick.

“If they ask you about having received any required inoculations tell them that will be done at the village we’re going to.  We work with an emergency medical team and they will already be at the village awaiting us.”

Rick nodded.  “Will any of that food I packed be there?”

Jack laughed.  “No.  For this effort we’re using the available resources down there.”

“Do you have warehouse down there?”

Jack laughed again.  “No, but arrangements have been made to secure some of the vast amounts of emergency aid the government hordes in warehouses.  You see Rick, for the right price the right local official decided he could spare a little for the poor if you know what I mean.”

“In other words, anything good anyone tries to do someone tries to mess things up?”

“You have to understand the battle over resources hasn’t changed since the beginning of the Earth.  Corruption has plagued every continent and every government.  It is just the way things go.”

Rick rolled his eyes.  “Why do you even bother?”

“However you might think of it, we have to pay out bribes to whomever to get what we need to get done.  It’s just the way things are sometimes.  With the right offer we can get by every obstacle thrown in front of us.  We need a permit for that?  How much?  Oh, without permission we can’t release anything at all.  How much?  What if something was just misplaced or inventoried wrong?  How much?  Good or bad Rick, it’s just the way things work.  Just accept it and move on.”

Rick stopped fidgeting.  He then lumped into the seat and stared out the window.  He thought about his own life and how he used to be a thief as a kid but somehow, at some time, developed a conscious about it.  In his lifestyle he had both cheated and lied to get what he thought he wanted, needed, but stopped when he realized what kind of need could it be if you have to resort to lying, cheating, and deception.  Then again, he realized, everything he needed was basically a want.  His only true need was food, and that came easy enough.

He noticed this with his peers on the street, but had always concluded that their addictions, out of desperation, drove them to do such illegal deeds.  His addiction was tobacco and he knew he could always find cigarette butts lying around to fulfill his habit.  He knew he couldn’t walk the street at any given time to find the sidewalks littered with half empty bottles of alcohol or packets of various drugs.  Yet again, he knew he was no better than any of the others; it was just easier to feed his addiction.

Rick retrieved the Holy Bible Jack had given him and started to thumb through it.  He found it hard to read with all the “thees” and “thous” and other words he had heard before in his life but never really understood.  Though educated, a university degree that meant nothing, he stumbled through the readings as his mind could not logically follow the word order it was used to.  What did this word mean? he would silently ask himself.  How do you say this name, this city, this person, that person?  In between he was told there was a message there, but his brain could not manage to decipher the words, the sentences well enough to comprehend.

He put the book down and closed his eyes.  His head rested against the window and his arms were folded across the chest.  What have I gotten myself into? he thought.  As his imagination slowly began to ease, Rick let the worries pass.  But deep down he could hear the voice asking what the hell he was doing here?

As Jack and Amanda nodded off to sleep he called over the lone flight attendant and asked for a cup of coffee.  When she brought it to him he was desperate enough to ask if she, the pilots, or anyone else hidden on the plane smoked, but he could not bring himself to such begging.  Rick was unsure how long the flight would be.  All he knew is they were heading far south, much further south than he had ever been.  With that thought in mind he set the cup of coffee away into the armrest.  The eyes closed blocking out the bright, cloudless sky.

A hard thud rattled the plane.  Rick popped his eyes open and looked out the window. Screaming noise blared through the cabin as the plane shook violently.  His thoughts panicked.  Hands clutched the armrests.  But just as fast as the shudder started, serenity returned.  Rick eased back into the chair and allowed his heart to slow down and the pulse to return to normal.

Out the window were all sorts of vehicles whizzing about the perimeters of the runway.  People and vehicles of various sizes scrambled around another jet just a little bit away on the tarmac.  Familiar configurations of trucks about carrying fuel, others baggage, came in and out of view.  One truck was pumping out waste while another fed supplies of food and drink from the underbelly.  Another vehicle, with its lights flashing, slowly circled the area.

Rick could see the stairs coming forward to the cabin door.  A flight attendant made an announcement and he followed Jack and Amanda to and out of the exit.

Hot, Rick thought, as the sun beat down on his fair skin.  Jack and Amanda were talking to a man that could have been the pilot or airport official, but he could not tell.  Jack then motioned with a wave of his hand and Rick came running.  The sight of a plane just beyond sent cringes in the thoughts.  He only hoped that is was not the mode of transport for the next