I glanced down at him. He seemed to be staring out over the land with a kind of far-away longing and I wondered where he’d been before me. If he’d had a family? If he’d ever had puppies, or what he’d been like as a puppy? I wondered if he’d ever been loved before and had slept in a bed? Three chickens suddenly walked past us and I quickly looked down to see if Harun had seen them. He had, but they didn’t seem to bother him. I heard Mark come up behind me and I turned and looked at him.
“You have chickens!” I stated, pointing at them as they wandered past, clucking and pecking the ground.
“I do!” he said with a smile. “So, you ready?”
“Ready for what?”
“Saturday,” he stated.
His statement confused me. “How is one ready for Saturday, exactly?”
“My Saturday hobbies,” he said, sounding full of cheer and pep.
“Hobbies?”
“Yes. Things you do for fun and enjoyment,” he teased.
“Aaaah, I see,” I teased back. “Those things.”
There was a small pause, a beat between us in which I felt myself getting a little closer to Mark. Feeling that I could talk to him openly.
“I don’t have hobbies.” I sighed. “You were right. I don’t do anything for myself. I don’t even know what I would like to do for myself. I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
Mark smiled slowly at me. “Well, let’s see if we can’t find something you like doing.”
“Okay,” I agreed. “What’s your plan for the day?”
“While the weather is still warm, I have to collect more fynbos for my gin.”
“Fynbos?” I’d heard of it, but wasn’t sure what he meant.
“It’s this vegetation that only grows in a tiny part of South Africa, nowhere else in the world. And it grows on our doorstep. I use it in my gin.”
I looked around. “Where is it?”
“I get mine from a small fynbos farm about an hour and a half away. You want to join me?”
“Um . . .” I hesitated. I don’t know why.
“You totally don’t have to though,” he said.
“No. I’d love to,” I heard myself say.
He smiled. Big smile. Contagious smile and I smiled back. That little tug in my chest happened again, the one where I swear, just for a second, he looked familiar. But then it was gone again.
“Let’s just get Harun comfortable, give him his medicine, set up some food and water, and then we can go,” I said.
Mark gave a chuckle.
“What?” I asked.
“It’s just cute the way you care about him so much.”
“Cute?”
“Yeah, a few days ago you were telling everyone and anyone who would listen that he wasn’t your dog, and now look at you. A dog mum.”
“A dog mum!” I let those words sink in. “I guess I am.” Was it strange that in a matter of only a few days, this creature had bloody wriggled its way into my heart in a way that I now couldn’t imagine him not being there?
