From Panama to Providence: a Sunday story
I just got off the phone with my good friend Jim. I've known Jim for more then ten years. He and I met in Panama in the spring of 2000. We were two guys with similar interests who were pretty serious fish out of water in that land of rain forests and Canal Zones.
We struck up an easy friendship then, one which keeps to this present day. Of all of the people I've come to realize in my life, Jim stands proud. He's a massive among guys and I'm glad to call him my pal.
When he and I met in that land a long way away, he called Providence, Rhode Island domestic and I lived in St. Pete. When we stated our goodbyes in Panama I in no way thought I'd see him again. Kismet intervened but, and we stayed in contact once we lower back to america.
Jim had a few type of vague commercial enterprise career I in no way pretty grasped and approximately six months after we got here back to the USA he had an possibility to invest in San Francisco.
Jim called me one afternoon to ask if I'd be interested in joining him in a road trip from Providence to San Francisco. Jim had a greyhound named Alex and he didn't want to fly her to the opposite coast. Besides, he had a car he needed to get to California and he'd already decided to drive himself. Having me along would make the drive easier for sure. Further, if I were along we'd take our time and get a feel for the US as we drove.
Our plan was to drive south from Rhode Island, through Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania on Day One. We were going to head south before heading west. Day Two had us driving through West Virginia, Virginia and into North Carolina. Jim had friends who had a cabin in the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina and he wanted to spend a few days with them before we headed west in earnest.
We arrived in North Carolina with few incidents and were all ready to spend a great weekend in the mountains with Jim's friends.
Jim's friends were amazing and I'll keep them nameless here. They were gracious hosts and their cabin turned out to be so much more than what I'd expected. However, they had an old cat named Punkin and we had a greyhound.
Most retired greyhounds that get adopted can't be around small animals. Their chase instinct is too strong, when they see something smaller than they are and it's moving, they can't help themselves but to chase it down.
Knowing this as we headed into the weekend, all of us decided that we keep Punkin and Alex separated so that Alex in particular would never see Punkin, and Punkin would remain oblivious to Alex.
A first-rate weekend found out itself. The four folks played board games and cooked up a hurricane. There became no TV and no interference from the out of doors world; it turned into 4 human beings playing one another's agency within the center of nowhere. We ate, we talked, we laughed and we informed stories. It pretty plenty described my idea of an excellent weekend and the backdrop of the Smokies made it all of the greater ideal. The goodwill simply flowed and the 4 people bonded tightly.
The weekend become winding down with the aid of Sunday. Jim and I had to head west and our hosts needed to go domestic to their ordinary lives in Greensboro, South Carolina. Jim and I had a complete day of driving in advance folks and in order Jim packed the car, I determined to take a brief nap.
Within a half an hour I heard a wail from one of our hosts. He was beyond wailing actually, he was keening. His mournings were the sharpest calls from a man in pain I'd ever heard.
Just then, Jim came barging into the visitor room with Alex the greyhound in tow. I asked him what turned into taking place and he stated "Stay here and preserve onto Alex. She simply killed Punkin." He turned into long past in a flash.
Huh?
I shook off my sleep and walked out into the kitchen while leaving Alex in the back of within the visitor room. I grabbed Jim and asked him what was occurring.
Apparently, Jim changed into loading the auto and had Alex out of doors with him. Our hosts had no idea that Jim and Alex had been out of doors so that they allow Punkin out the side door.
As Jim turned into loading the car Alex walked up to him with something in her mouth. He assumed it become a squirrel but he realized (and to his horror) it was Punkin the cat.
Alex had just killed our host's cat.
How do you come from that? Alex turned into just being herself, a dog. However our hosts had simply misplaced a member of their circle of relatives. My heart is going out to them still but the relationships formed that weekend have been destroyed utterly.
I don't blame them genuinely. And how to deal with it from Jim's and my perspective was a complete mystery.
Really, what do you do when your puppy kills a pal's puppy? Miss Manners in no way addresses situations like that.
Our hosts were the very picture of graciousness after the fact and I have nothing however excellent things to mention approximately their response to the situation.
Jim and I didn't linger after Punkin's murder, in truth we drove twice the gap we had been speculated to that day simply to have some distance among us and the occasion that ended up defining that weekend. By the time we would reached Columbia, Missouri we figured we would come far sufficient and stopped for the night.
Alex the greyhound didn't seem to be suffering from what had happened in North Carolina though Jim and I had been torn. Alex changed into studying the way to be a canine after seven years of being a racer. Jim and I had been trying to explicit our condolences and store face on the equal time.
We mentioned not anything however via Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. Before we knew it we would crossed the Continental Divide and as super as the experiences we embraced have been, there has been a shadow over it all.
Our courting with our hosts that weekend never recovered and per week after the fact we were in San Francisco.
I don't honestly mourn the lack of Punkin, but I do mourn the lack of top people. I desire I may want to have the friendship lower back that we forged that weekend. But lamentably...
But virtually, what do you do in a state of affairs like that? What's an appropriate reaction? How do you bounce back from a murder amongst pets?