Prince, by Name and Nature

by Edwin F. Kindler II

Slam! The car door shut, indicating another failure. Mark just couldn’t find his radio, and he needed it for his camping trip. Sighing, he walked across the lawn, back to his house, munching on the bagel that was his meager breakfast for the morning.

“Woof!” Mark spun around, just in time to see a strange, four foot tall, golden Labrador charging straight towards him. He jumped out of its path, and it whirled past him, circled around his brother. It came right back, like a boomerang, at him, and sat down at his feet. Emitting another bark, it stayed there while Mark tried to figure out what it wanted. Taking the dog’s hint, the fact that it was sniffing at the bagel, Mark tore a piece off of his breakfast, and threw it as far as he could.

“Fetch, boy!” The dog pushed off after the bagel, using its strong hind legs to cover a huge amount of space in a short period of time, grabbed the piece, ate it, and came back for more. Groaning, Mark threw another piece, this time deciding to run for the house. By this time, his whole family was watching the dog, and, when, regardless of the fact that Mark was running as fast as he could, the dog caught up with him, his dad whistled, and called the dog to him. While his family was fawning over the dog, which was having the time of his life, Mark made it indoors and finally finished his breakfast.

“Dad,” shouted Mark’s brother, Nathan, “the dog’s in the breezeway with you!” Mark’s dad laughed, and allowed the dog to follow him to the other side of their enclosed porch. When the Lab was on the deck on the other side of the porch, he attempted to get back, but found that, with his paws, he couldn’t open the door. To add to that, he also didn’t realize that he could just go around the house. So, Nathan went to go get him.

“Alright guys, time to get in the car,” their mom shouted, “Where is Nathan? Is he still back there with that dog?” At this time, both dog and boy walked around the corner of the house. The whole family jumped in the car, with the beast looking on wistfully.

“Hey, Mark, did you check the grey car for your radio?” asked the father. Mark replied that he had not, and eagerly jumped out of the car and ran to check.

“I found it!” Mark shouted as he victoriously jogged back to the car. As he jumped back into the vehicle the dog tried to get in with him.

“Dad, why can’t we keep him?” Nathan asked.

“Well, he has a collar, so he probably has an owner. Plus, I don’t think we’re ready for a dog yet,” came the reply. Then they zoomed away, and, looking back Mark saw the dog trotting away, presumably back to his owners.

“You may have a name,” Mark thought, “but I call you Prince. And a prince you are, in name and nature. You ruled our hearts.”

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