"Alone With Jill" Story by Anthony J. Gomez

 

Alone With Jill

Story by Anthony J. Gomez

Jill covers the eyes of her Border Collie, Cooper, rinsing his head. The bath water has become as muddy as his fur. This isn’t the first time he’s done something like this. Last Thanksgiving, when Jill was still with her husband, Cooper knocked over the dinner table, food and all. The day before Christmas, he dug multiple holes in the backyard and made the living room his personal muddy playpen with the Christmas tree strewn about the house. To this very day, Jill continues to find ornaments hidden in the strangest places.

And just like Christmas, muddy paw prints run across the kitchen tiles, the carpets, the stairs, almost everywhere. Her backyard and flower garden — unrecognizable. How can one dog be so much trouble? Jill couldn’t imagine how long this could continue. It was just her and Cooper now, and he’s only been a problem. Maybe not anymore.

Jill struggles to keep her eyes open down the highway. She drives with an antsy Cooper in the backseat, probably thinking it’s time for a walk. Jill rests her eyes at a red light. Sleepless nights time and time again carry her restlessness throughout the days. Jill clicks the radio and the strings of classical music drown out Cooper’s panting. Eyes back on the road. Green light.

Off an exit a handful of miles from home, Jill pulls over near an endless forest. She gets out and approaches the rear door facing the sidewalk, but turns her back to her dog at the window and looks into the dozens and dozens of trees that seem to go on forever. Birds chirping. A slight wind. It’s calm, almost serene, but Jill’s heartbeat overwhelms her. She turns to Cooper’s window and they stare for a moment. The traffic seems to grow louder. The birds. Her heartbeat.

She opens the door.

Cooper ventures into the woods, deeper and deeper, now out of sight. Jill struggles to breathe. Her scream, just a whisper.

“Cooper…”

The leaves crackling under her feet, Jill follows behind. Cooper sniffs at a tree stump not as far as Jill imagined and she drops to her knees and pulls him close. Tears stream down her cheek as she pets his somewhat muddied, rough fur. And then she notices it: her wedding ring, still where it always was — and yanks it off and thrusts it into the darkness. Cooper’s ears perk up as if he heard its fall in the brush. With almost a chuckle, Jill embraces the breeze brushing through her hair like mother nature has given kind approval.

The front door opens into Jill’s home and Cooper runs straight to his water bowl in the kitchen. Stains of mud and dirt on the living room couch discourage Jill, for a moment, but she flops on it anyway and stretches. Cooper saunters over to Jill with a red Christmas ball ornament in his mouth. She pulls it from his wet snout and tosses it down the hallway; something Cooper finds worth fetching. He hustles back and drops the ornament next to Jill, awaiting her next move.

About the author:

Anthony J. Gomez is an American writer originally from Phoenix, Arizona.

He studied Theatre Arts at California State University, Fullerton with a focus on acting and playwriting. He had two short plays produced a year post-graduation and went on to self-study screenwriting in Los Angeles.

In Hollywood, Anthony wrote movie reviews and interviews for online publication Latin Heat, partnered with a BAFTA award-winning movie producer as a social media manager and script reader, and worked as writer/director for Rapid Reelz, a scene and demo reel creation company. Anthony has also edited work for a Pulitzer Prize nominated author in exchange for mentorship.

He is currently writing his first novel.

He lives in Tucson, Arizona between travels abroad.