Mugger and Killer

Mugger and Killer
Short Story by Diana Weeks

Mugger felt hot July sunlight against his sleepy eyelids and slowly raised his nose and sniffed the air. He could smell Mistress Carol's "Shalimar" fragrance. Carol let them sleep in the big bed with her now. She wouldn't when her husband lived there.

Mugger hopped down, slowly heading for the kitchen, stopping in the hall to sniff his Master Cliff's faint scent on the coat rack. Yawning, he shambled along, his nails clicking on the shiny mahogany wood floors. He stopped in front of the curved bay window and looked toward the driveway.

His sister, Killer, stretched her lean golden retriever body and arguing, followed Mugger. "It doesn't matter how long you wait, Cliff''s never coming back. He strayed, got caught and POW he's gone".

"But Carol didn't have to throw his clothes in the magnolia tree", said Mugger, growling in displeasure, "Or pitch his golf clubs in the deep end of the swimming pool". Mugger howls and bared his teeth.

"She had to...", Killer said scolding Mugger. "That was the tree her father planted outside her kitchen window, when he gave them this house. Her Daddy wanted some sweet smells in her yard because he said she married a shit".

"He is charming". Mugger woofed he couldn't stop looking at the driveway where Cliff parked his car. "Every morning when he went to work he waved at us." Mugger's head drooped. "On Fridays he even tapped his horn, to tell us 'so long'. Cliff hugged me first when he came home!"

"Oh stop it"! Killer barked biting his neck, "Carol was the one who got up in the night to bottle feed us when we were tiny blind puppies...He didn't even fill our water bowls twice in the last year. Sometimes he stepped in my dish when he was drunk!"

Mugger ran to another window. "Hey, there's the bug van on time. I wonder where Carol went?"
Killer looked around the kitchen. "Well, she left out the empty coffee canister, and I see a Wild Turkey bottle in the trash ".
Suddenly a neighbor's alarm system goes off. Killer howls, "I hope she didn't urgently break into a neighbors for coffee."

Mugger heads back to the big bay window. "Here she comes, oh Killer, she almost hit the police car that just pulled up down the street."

Killer goes to look and walls her eyes at her brother, who is compelled to describe what they were both looking at... Mugger insists "She's wearing her jaunty red hat."

Both dogs watch as Carol turns the corner into their culdesac in the ritzy part of Phoenix. Mugger continues, "She made it into the driveway without cutting through the flower beds."

Killer licks her shoulder. "I'm glad she got custody of us when he ran off with his red headed dental hygienist".
Carol bursts through the kitchen door clutching a grocery sack weighted by a large bag of hazelnut coffee, she hurries to open. Mugger bolts and escapes to scare at the bug guy...because he makes the whole house stink. Mugger jumps toward their exterminator, growls and barks loud.

Carol sees the open door... tells Killer to "stay"... grabs a leash calling loudly, "Mugger! Mugger!" Suddenly two police officers run into her yard with drawn guns held with both hands...pointing straight armed, right at the bug guy. "Spread and prong," an officer calls. The bug man quickly parts his legs and leans his palms against the van.

"Wait...wait...no...no...wait..?" Carol yelled as Mugger ran a circle around her and leaps to lick her face. "He's not a mugger, that's my dog's name..." She made dimples at the cops and looks back at the other dog standing still in the kitchen door. "Her name is Killer".

"Lady," the Sargent who had gray hair said walking up, "You better give her a nickname", his tone filled with cynical empathy. Killer licked his hand and it tasted like a doughnut not the flat dull taste of bagel.

The officer pats Killer's head and frowns at Carol. "If you had run out calling "Killer, Killer!" there could have been bloodshed." He squats and strokes Killer's smooth satin head. "Good work". Killer wags her yellow tail at Carol, who smiles with engaging desperation, hugging Mugger and Killer.

That night Mugger licks his sister's ear and whines a whisper. "You're my hero, you saved the bug guy's life."
"Well yeah..." Killer nudges her brother, "I do know how to 'stay', but Carol knows if she lets Cliff come back... I'm running away!"

THE END
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED