Last Night In Twisted River

For those November hunting trips, Da

And every winter, when Da

IT HAD TAKEN TWO YEARS for Da

There was a little park and playground, probably as big as a football field, near Da

In the park, Da

Other dog-walkers in the little park were disconcerted by Hero’s lean-and-mean appearance, and by the bear hound’s preternatural aloofness from other dogs. There were also the scars, the stiff-hipped limp-not to mention the wonky-eyed, baleful stare. “It’s only because Hero lost an eyelid-he’s not really giving your dog the evil eye, or anything,” Da

“What happened to that ear?” a young woman with a brainless breed of spaniel asked the writer.

“Oh, that was a bear,” Da

“A bear!”

“And the poor thing’s hip-those terrible scars?” a nervous-looking man with a schnauzer had asked.

“The same bear,” Da

It was their second winter on Charlotte ’s island when the barking began. Da

It had gone on for over an hour-Hero barking at himself on the dock. (If Ketchum had been there, Da

After that, the dog barked normally; he barked at snowmobiles and at the once-in-a-while airplanelike sound of a distant airboat out in the main cha

One could never say that Ketchum’s bear hound was normal-or even almost normal-but the barking did much to alleviate the sheer creepiness of Hero’s one-eared, gaping-eyed face. Certainly, Da

What the writer was realizing was that he hadn’t known what owning a dog was like. The more Da

Da

THERE’D BEEN AN ACCIDENT on 69 near Horseshoe Lake Road. A dipshit driving a Hummer had rear-ended a cattle-transport trailer, killing himself and a bunch of beef cattle. This happened the first winter Da

The young cleaning woman seemed to like riding in the Polar air-boat. Da

But the cleaning woman had a way with dogs. She told Da

The dog devotedly followed the young woman throughout her cleaning chores, the same way Hero attached himself to Da

There was an ongoing misunderstanding in regard to where the young First Nation person lived-Da