They say there is always a mean old person in every neighborhood. In our neighborhood, it was my grandfather. When people came to sing Christmas Carols at our door, he slammed it in their faces and told them to go away.
He went to church every Sunday and cursed at the people in the cars as he left the parking lot. He cursed at the people who walked in front of the car. At least the windows were closed and like so often, I prayed that they couldn’t hear him. I prayed that someway or somehow or somebody would help him to be happier and not so miserable.
I was embarrassed when the other kids talked about him and laughed about what a mean old man he was.
It was the same inside the house except that it was just Grandpa and me. He used to yell at me, “What’s wrong with you? Why can’t you ever do anything right? Stand up straight!”
He was so miserable as he walked around the house swinging his cane at me. He made me miserable too. I wasn’t afraid he would hit me or anything because I knew how much he loved me. I just hated that he was so unhappy because he made me so unhappy. My life just wasn’t great because my grandpa so miserable.
One afternoon when I was about twelve and was walking home from school, I noticed the dog walking behind me. He wasn’t a pretty dog, kind of shaggy and dirty. I kept looking back at him and he kept following me. When I got to our driveway, I noticed that the dog was limping.
The dog followed me to the front steps and as I opened the door, he walked in as if he lived there. My grandpa yelled at me. “Why did you bring that dirty old dog into this house? Get him out of here right now!”
As I turned to go back outside, the dog walked over to my grandpa. He sat down in front of him and just stared at him. My grandpa started to wave his cane at him and yelled, “Get outta here!”
The dog didn’t move. They stared at each other. I wanted to keep the dog. I had always wanted a dog but my grandpa wouldn’t let me have one.
My grandpa yelled at him again, “Didn’t you hear me? Get outta here!”
I called the dog to get him outside but he didn’t even turn his head toward me. He was still staring at my grandpa.
Then my grandpa yelled at me to do my homework. I was really surprised because he didn’t mention anything about the dog. So, I went to my room and peaked out from behind the door and listened as best as I could without my grandpa knowing.
They were still staring at each other. Then, the strangest thing happened. I strained to hear his words. “Hi old boy. So what’s wrong with your leg?” He walked over to his chair and sat down. The dog followed. My grandpa scratched his head behind his ears and I heard him say, “You’re old just like I am. I bet you’d use a cane too if you could. Do you know that you smell bad? Well, you do.”
Then my grandpa picked up the news paper and started to read it. The dog went to sleep at his feet.
Since there was nothing else to see or hear, I started my homework very confused. Sometime later, I heard my grandpa call me for dinner. His voice wasn’t as harsh that night as it had been before. I remember that he didn’t yell at me even once during dinner.
The dog stayed and my grandpa’s temper seemed to get better with each passing day. We never mentioned the dog or the fact that he had become part of the family. I didn’t know if my grandpa ever tried to find his owner. As far as I know, my grandpa never gave him a name and neither did I. I had no reason to name him because the dog didn’t really seem to know that I existed most of the time.
The dog never left my grandpa’s side. I am leaving to go away to college next week and I’m not worried about my grandpa’s being alone. It’s strange that I know he will be just fine because he has the dog. It’s weird because after all, he’s just a dog.
Then it hit me. We didn’t need to name the dog because he already had a name, “Godsent.”
Photo: Janos Szudi
