a completely decent day

sometimes it’s in the middle of a completely decent day a part of your world shifts below your feet.

fun face paint at school, fun plans for dinner and movie later. . . just a quick dog walk and routine swing by the vet to pick up some medicine.

sometimes you can walk into the vet’s office and come face to face with one of your worst fears,

i forgot.

there was a woman and her mother, and she was cradling a very sick dog. i couldn’t understand any of what the doctors were telling her. i have no idea what was wrong with her dog, and the dog wasn’t making any noises, but the woman was crying, sobbing and saying one word over and over. i understood that word, though the way she said it- i wouldn’t have to learn korean to understand it. over and over- “what should i do? how do i?”

her cracking voice was breaking my heart while the vet set up glitchy’s prescription. i glanced over and noticed that she wrapped her dog in a shirt. i imagined the frantic scene that preceded her arrival at the vet.

i looked up again and noticed something else in the room. fear, pain, and suffering stood there. it looked away from the woman for a moment to nod in my direction, as if to say, “cute dog. guess i’ll be seeing you later.”

i nodded back, as if to say, “i know.”