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TORN
Derek’s Perspective


I look down at the little rascal, soundly sleeping on the floor. I look around my extremely messy room with dirty clothes all over the floor. Carter happens to be sleeping on a few shirts of mine. My eggshell colored walls, which used to be white, are clearly covered in grime. There is a strong stench of wet dog, pizza, and some kind of rotting comida from underneath my bed. What a decision… I think to myself. I can’t believe that Jesse is making me get rid of him… I bend down to get Bailey, Carter’s old stuffed rabbit, so I can keep SOMETHING of his to remind me of him. I feel bad having to wake him up; he usually has nightmares and rarely sleeps well, but I have to if I am to do my girlfriend’s willing.
“Carter…” I whisper, “Wake up buddy!”
He slowly opens his one eye and thumps his tail quietly.
“That’s right! Today is a happy day!”
Today is happy day… I think, trying to convince myself. What a lie. He slowly and unstably gets up onto his three grayish brown legs. His floppy ears perked up just the slightest little bit. He walks up to me and looks up as if he is trying to say, “Hey! What’s up? What are we gonna do today?”
His story always makes my eyes well. He has been abused his whole life. His first owner had a spoiled son who wanted to own and know everything, so he naturally wanted a bow and arrow, as well as an instructor. However, the instructor was late to the first appointment, so the man put him out of business. He never did come around to getting his son a new instructor, so I suppose that the 13-year-old-boy tried to teach himself. However, Carter must have been walking around the yard with him and got in the way of an arrow. One eye left.
Another owner had one día accidentally left Carter outside when they were about to leave for Phoenix and ran over him with their car. Three legs left.
I can only imagine the pain he has been through, and I know I’ll be adding to it por abandoning him.
“C’mon Carter,” I mutter as I drag myself down the ratty stairs in my old apartment and into my kitchen.
My cocina consists of a lone island in the middle and a very crowded counter space. The only appliance I have is a microwave. Who needs an horno when a microwave is quicker and cheaper? There is some kind of red liquid, tomate sauce I believe, splattered all over the few cabinets I have. I open the cream colored cabinet and got out the Cinnamon brindis, pan tostado Crunch. I open up my leche and fix my cereal.
I sit down at my old mesa, tabla that I had to screw into the muro since it only has 2 legs. I whistle three times to Carter, a trick that I taught him, so that he will fetch my computer for me. Three minutos later after staring at my overly-soggy cereal, I pull up google Maps and try to decide where I should go to… abandon him. It should be pretty far away, so I don’t see him on the side of the road one día and pick him up…. I think. This place is perfect! I think. The Sonoran Desert… I think. Not too close, not too far! I then go onto google buscar and find out that coyotes live there.
Are coyotes related to wolves? I think so… And I know that lobos are related to perros be placing him with his long lost Great Aunt Susan! That’d be great if I was reuniting. So, por putting him in this desert with the coyotes, I might him with family. That’d be great. Now I don’t feel as bad having to drop him off there. I think, finally convincing myself that I could leave Carter in good hands, hands that might just be his family! What a delightful thought.
I realize that Carter is watching me, and I’m suddenly worried that he knows what I’m planning. Then, I realize that he’s just staring at my comida and that I had forgotten to feed him. I pull out his bag of dry kibble and pour it into his bowl that says “Bad to the Bone” with a little bone painted onto it. He happily ate his breakfast, unknowing of his fate-to-be…