Maggie falls to her knees, crooning and smoothing Yard’s ruffled fur.
Just when I think the chaos is over, a squirrel from a nearby tree decides to make a move. It goes bounding across the ground no more than ten feet from Maggie and the dog.
Yard lets loose with a happy bark, and the chase is on.
“No!” Maggie yells. “Yard! No!”
The dog’s impulse to hunt makes him deaf to her command. He’s gaining ground on the squirrel and doing it with a big, sloppy grin.
Thought mutts were supposed to be smart, safe from the idiocy that comes from too much inbreeding. But Yard proves he’s dumb as a box of rocks by getting himself out of one bind and straight into another.
Not that the squirrel he’s chasing is Bill Gates or anything, but still. What does Yard think he’s going to do once he catches the thing? He has to know it has teeth and claws. And yet here he is, opening his mouth to take a bite out of that fluffy tail.
The cute rodent, sensing imminent danger from behind, isn’t paying attention to what’s in front. It suddenly finds itself at Luc’s feet. Deciding between the lesser of two evils, human vs. canine, it wisely chooses Luc and scampers up his leg, does a diagonal across his chest, and finally uses his head as a springboard to launch itself onto the tree.
If you’re thinking Luc is standing still through all this, you’re dead wrong. He’s jumping and dancing and cursing so loudly I think the people across the lake can hear him. To add insult to injury, no sooner does the squirrel leave Luc’s head than Yard launches himself after the creature, hitting Luc square in the balls with a stiff-legged paw.
Luc collapses to his knees.
Three seconds later, Maggie is kneeling beside him. She has a hold of Yard’s collar, and now that the squirrel is safe in the tree branches, the silly dog thinks Luc is playing a game. That game is? Lick Luc’s face until all the skin falls off.
I. Am.Dying.
Tears leak from the corners of my eyes. Don’t even care that it makes my head pound. Haven’t laughed this hard in years.
“Keep yucking it up, asshole,” Luc growls, “and I’ll make you take over the digging.”
“Sorry,” I gasp, raking in great gulps of sunshine-scented air, forgetting for a moment that nothing is as it should be and that I’ve got a long row to hoe before it is. “If you could’ve seen all that from this perspective…”
“Luc, I’m so sorry.” Maggie makes a face when Luc winces and blows out a breath, still cupping his balls. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Get that damn dog away from me before I contemplate homicide.”
“Think it’s called canicide when you’re talking about a dog,” I inform him.
“You’re not helping!”
“Right! Sorry!” I do my best to control my laughter. And fail miserably.
Maggie pulls Yard toward the bench, sits down, and commands the dog tositandstay. Yard flops onto the ground at her feet and immediately starts chewing all the felt off the tennis ball she gives him.
“I sooo wish I had that on video.” My chest is shaking with suppressed laughter.
She nudges me. “Hush. He’s over there digging and working, and here you are laughing your head off.”
“You’re one to talk. I can tell you’re biting the inside of your cheek.”
When she turns to me, her eyes glint with humor, and I want to kiss her so bad all the air gets sucked out of my lungs.
I turn away before she can see the desperation on my face.
“Bazinga!” Luc crows, pulling a dirty rectangular object from the ground. He wastes no time dusting it off. Thumbing open his pocketknife, he cuts away the outer layer of duct tape and the inner layer of Cling Wrap we meticulously wrapped around the thing ten years ago.
Happy for the distraction, I sit forward when the extra-large cigar box is revealed. It looks as fresh and new as the day we put it in the ground.
“Bring it over!” I yell. “Let’s have a look!”
Luc’s wearing a goofy grin when he heads our way. It’s an old expression, and for a moment the years slip away. We’re eighteen again, gleefully deciding which things belong in the time capsule, laughing conspiratorially at the thought of bringing Maggie here sometime far in the future and watching her face as she finds out what made the cut.
