Small Secrets

The four year old girl in a sear-sucker jumper, carefully tip-toed across her rural home's front porch and hunched down next to her black Dachshund. She tightly hugged his head snug against her own in an embrace of strictest confidence. The child waited for her father to return from taking bushels of their garden’s vegetables to market.

A concerned look came over her face as she removed her pacifier and looked out off the plank-wood porch into the dandelion spattered yard. Crouching made the legs of her jumper deflate and completely cover her sandals. The stubby-legged dog's eyes widened and sparkled at the sound of the child's soft, whispering voice.

"Corky, shhh. Corky I loves you Corky" then quieter and quickly, "I love you." The pet shifted a front paw in response to her timid tone.

"Corky, I gots a secret I want to tell you." She went on, her eyes furtively scanning the yard and gravel road beyond. She nestled the neck of the Doxie closer.

"I don't want nobody but you and me to know it.”

Her home was a shingle-sided farmhouse, baked dry from years of southern exposure. Peeling window panes and grey, cupped porch boards revealed its long lifespan. Late summer temperatures seemed to melt the dog and child together, into a small huddled lump. Afternoon humidity curled the young girl's daffodil hair in damp wisps.

"I found sumpthin' Corky, I wants to share with you." The dog marched his front paws and perked his ears.

The young girl heard a muted buzzing and watched bumble bees bob between purple-topped weeds. Through the front screen door at the middle of the porch, the girl could hear the steady clicking of her grandmother's knitting needles mixed between the creaking sounds of her rocking chair.

"Com'on Corky, I found sum'pin' hiding behind the kitchen, com'on." The two waddled in tandem, past sloping, storm cellar doors and a faded brown rain barrel. There, on the back stoop, set out to cool on a chair’s woven cane seat, was a tin containing a massive cherry pie. Upon seeing and smelling the pie, the Dachshund released a short 'ruff'.

"SHHhhhhh, Corky, shush. Momma and Granny is gonna hear you." The little girl looked carefully around the corner of the house, then pulled the dog's head against her rounded cheek.

"This pie is just for us Corky."

With some difficulty she looped her arms around the dogs elongated middle and struggled to lift his front half to the stoop. Corky helped by hopping with his back legs.

"I'll feed you Corky, 'cause I loves you” She crumbled off a piece of flaky crust and let Corky’s bristled muzzle quickly gobble the morsel.

"Now it's my turn." The child broke a piece off that contained cherry filling across its bottom edge for herself. As she stuffed it into her mouth, cherry syrup dribbled down her chin. The eager Doxie quickly licked-up the dripping nectar, making the little girl giggle.

Hiding behind the kitchen window screen, the girl's mother and grandmother tried to stifle giggles of their own as they watched the pair of pie thieves at work.

#challenge_happy #short_story #flash_fiction #prose #childhood #pets #pie #simple_life #william_calkins