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“Haha, I guess so?” What anunintelligent response.Better jazz it up. “Yeah, I’m an antisocial who sits at a desk all day, researching old case laws to get our murderer clients off the hook.” I smiled but as soon as I realized my joke didn’tslap,my eyes went flat. “I’m just kidding. We do family law—no violent crimes. Just custody, mostly.”Long pause.“Sometimes it involves pets.” He looked like his hair had been blown back and he started laughing.
“These days, that doesn’t surprise me one bit. If my wife ran off with the milkman and wanted to take Carter with her, I think I’d bankrupt myself trying to stop it!”
I wasn’t sure if that was a reference to something or just a joke, so I nervously laughed until he continued.
“Tell me everything there is to know about you.”
Oh, wait. There’s the dreaded prompt that I couldn’t answer without tickingoff my dear 89-year-old friend. But I decided to be up-front and honest rather than mislead him with my own discomfort and spend the rest of my life training to hike Kilimanjaro and running marathons on Christmas mornings because I may have mentioned that I love the outdoors—as in,photographs of the outdoors—movies taking place outdoors—songs written about the outdoors.Not crawling through mud on my hands and knees, hiding my tears through the guise of “family bonding” when really all I wanted to do was distance myself from this family.
Not that something so extreme ever happened to me personally, but I had a classmate in college who was even more bookish and introverted than I was. We teamed up a few times on projects, and she confessed to me one night that the star player of the Rugby team had taken a strong liking to her, and she reciprocated the feelings, but she was worried he would expect athletic ability from her that she didn’t care for or have the talent for.
A year later, I saw their wedding announcement on social media. They were wed on a beach in Hawaii, which was convenient because their honeymoon would be spent doing an Ironman Triathlon together. But not just them—his entire family.And I wasn’t saying that people can’t change, enjoy exercise, and be bookish introverts, but it was just an odd pairing.
“Maybe he’s trying to kill her. That happens on a lot more honeymoons than you think, Katie.” My mom’s first reaction when I told her the news of her nuptials.
Eli cocked his eyebrow as if to say, ‘Well?’
I would give it to him straight. “I love reading, jigsaw puzzles, and Jesus. My social circle consists of my mother, who’s lovingly overbearing and an armchair detective, and my 89-year-old friend Judy, whom I see every Sunday for brunch after church. My perfect night is staying in, making popcorn, and watching some lame made-for-tv movie, then going to bed early. And I’ve always wanted to try one of those places where you paint ceramic pottery. It also seems I am painfully introverted at times.”
He smiled and nodded slowly, his mouth agape, but nothing came out. Though it looked like he was trying to say something.Anything.Maybe he needed the Heimlich.
“Wow.” He let out a laugh at the amount of information thrown at him. “That’s great. You are veryinteresting,Katie.”
I am? Well, that’s good. But I didn’t believe him because now I felt like Susan in our Monday morning meeting yesterday.Lame.
I stole a glance at him while he was looking at the dogs. His green jacket made his eyes light up like a Douglas Fir tree. His hair looked a little moregroomedtoday, and he smelled like soap. He was quite appealing to the eye, and glancing back at the dogs, they were getting along swimmingly.It felt right.
“They sure do like that squeaker toy you brought,” I broke the silence by pointing out the obvious.
Dolly and Carter each had turns with it in a game I wanted to know the rules of. They would each squeak it a few times, let the other steal it, and then back again. At one point they both had their mouths on it at once, but when the other would squeak it, the toy would inflate more, causing one to let go.
“I know it. I found this great new pet store downtown off 11th street. I should take you ladies there sometime. They have an epic squeaker toy section!”
Making plans?Very good sign, I thought.
“That sounds great. It seems like Dolly really likes squeaky toys!”
Eli grinned. “Oh, they are Carter’slife.He goes through them so fast. I’m always running out to pick one up at the store. The good thing is I’ve found that nearly everywhere except the gas station sells them.”
“So, you're telling me, Carter’s had you on late night squeaker toy runs? To the point that you checked the gas station?” I started busting up laughing at the thought. “What’s the difference between a dog and a baby? Because I can’t figure it out anymore!” We both cracked up, and it felt so nice to laugh with someone.
Eli went on to tell me about when he first got Carter and how he felt a little out of place having such a small dog. “I went to the shelter and asked for a Lab, aGerman Shepherd, you know—something with size. I pictured us camping, hiking—my dog fishing with his bare teeth. But I quickly found out that the shelter here doesn’t give you what you want, but what youneed.”
“Yes! That’s how it went down with us, too. They just handed her to me and told me where to sign!”
We were in stitches laughing as he told the rest of his story.
“So, there I am, walking out of Newtown with Carter, who was just 12 weeks old at the time, so he was too tiny for even a leash, but we made do. I was feeling a little hesitant, I’ll be honest—”
I interjected, “Same.”
Eli nodded, “It’s scary when you feel like you didn’t have a say in the matter on even which pet. There was another dog there that I’d seen when I walked in, but the staff insisted on Carter being my guy. And they were right. I just didn’t see it till a few days had passed and this hilarious little man personality came bursting through!”
“Dolly seems very sweet and feminine so far.” I smiled. She was, as far as I knew, an easygoing gal.
“She is adorable. And all those things I wanted in a dog? Carter has them. Except for fishing with his teeth, but he is known for trying. It’s just that his eyes are bigger than his mouth!”
We chatted a bit more about Newtown and the workings of adoption, when I told him the story of Samantha coming to my church, which he thought that was a great idea.
