A Quirky Rainbow Day (writing to a prompt)
by Barbara Sapienza
The dogs, eight of them, sit at her doorstep, come to visit her blue house with the wrap-around porch—come to say hello. She peeks out through the window. What is that? She calls to her partner, “Come and see.” No answer.
Am I hallucinating?
She moves the curtain aside to see the tall dog, black and skinny, turning its head toward her. His nose wet and shiny against a black silky coat. Is he smiling at me? She opens the window and pushes up the sash, bumping the lamp off the small wooden tabletop. Smash! She looks at the blue and white porcelain lamp, her mother's, in smithereens on the wooden floor.
The dogs aroused are at the window now—the black one with the wet nose leads the troupe. A blonde hazel-eyed dog sniffs through the window—her mouth opened wide in a voluptuous smile; her blonde fluffy hair looks recently quaffed, reminding the woman of Marilyn Monroe.
Am I hallucinating?
She wants to run her hands through the dog's flying hair. Will she let me? Am I hallucinating? She hears some padding on the sill and looks to see a red headed retriever—her hair smooth and reflecting the sun.
What! Front paws fall inside the room, close to the shattered shards of lamp. The woman yells, “No, Beauty, you will cut yourself,” but the dog jumps fully into the room and onto her lap for she is sitting on the Queen Anne chair now, wiping her face with a linen napkin. She doesn't see the spotted Dalmatian or the long-eared spaniel or the small poodle. She only has eyes for Beauty, her new lap dog, licking the tear below her eyes and then resting his enormous head on the woman's lap, one eye looking up into hers.
The woman unsure. Am I still dreaming or, worse, hallucinating? Is my house really filled with enchanting creatures?
Beauty stays quietly connected to the woman's lap, answering her in his own way, seeming content to let it be as it is—a quirky rainbow day.
PROMPT:
I used this image in an LGBTQ+ affinity group online write I facilitated, sponsored by Amherst Writers & Artists for Pride month. (A local owner of Clever Pets asked if she & her wife could take an Insta pic at the front steps to the house my wife & I rented.
Prompt: If you’d like, try writing from an animal’s point of view!