On the Curious Nature of Concerns

“He’s a pretty dog,” she said, reaching with her free hand to scratch my boy behind his ears. Her other hand she held away, behind her, a freshly lit L&M scissored between the fore and middle fingers. “What’s his name?”

     I’d forgotten how much I disliked the smell of cigarettes.

     “Bo,” I replied, trying not to wrinkle my nose as the wind carried the smoke my way.

     “Oh god!” she said, pulling her scratching hand back, revolted.

     Bo looked at me, then back at her, then me again. I knelt beside him and dug my fingers into the nap of his neck. He pressed close.

     “Not my choice,” I explained, having never much cared for the name myself. “It was the name he came with. He was abandoned—kind of a rescued-dog.”  

     “I’d have to change it,” she snapped, taking a long drag from the L&M to calm herself. She exhaled out the side of her mouth. “Sounds too much like Barack Obama.”

     Cancer, it seemed, was the least of her worries.