Dog Star

Giovanni

Gio was crossing the street even before the man had finished talking, nearly getting himself run over by a tricycle in the process. He didn't even notice the tricycle driver cussing him out. All his attention was focused on the small body lying in the street in front of the van.

"Excuse me, move." Pushing past the van's driver, he knelt down on the hot asphalt road and crouched over Yellow's body. Her brown eyes were still open and gazing blankly in front of her while blood pooled underneath her muzzle.

"No, no, oh shit, no," Gio chanted underneath his breath, the bag of caramel bananas swinging forgotten from his arm as he ran his hands over the dog's unmoving form, searching for signs of life. The feeling of broken bones and just the wrongness of her body made him draw his hand back, horror and a choking sense of loss spreading through him.

Where was she even trying to go? He followed the direction of her empty gaze toward the opposite street where he'd just come from, and the realization nearly floored him. She was coming to meet me. She was going to follow me back home like she'd always done.

"Look, I didn't see it, okay? It just appeared out of nowhere," the van's driver argued with some of the gawkers who'd witnessed the accident.

"We know what we saw. You cut that corner too fast," one of the lookers-on pointed out.

"Yeah, mister. Don't you know that children play in these streets? What if you'd hit a kid?"

"But it wasn't a kid. It's just some stray dog," the driver countered angrily, obviously feeling cornered by the half-circle of accusing looks.

The words pierced through Gio's stupor, and rage gripped him like a fist. He shot to his feet and glared at the driver, who took one look at his face and stepped back. His head pounded from what felt like a lifetime's worth of fury balled up into a burning sun behind his eyes, with all the things that had gone wrong in his life merging together and triggering nuclear fusion, and his fists clenched from the effort not to hit the man in front of him.

"She's not just some stray dog," he said to the driver, and for a moment he didn't even recognize his own voice. "Now get back in your van and drive. Don't ever let me see your face around here again."

"Wh-what? This punk—who are you, anyway? Is that your dog?"

Something about the man's tone and the contemptuous disbelief in his expression sent Gio's anger spiraling. "No, but she belonged to our town just the same. She's a Puláng Bató dog, and she didn't deserve to be killed by you."

What the hell am I saying? That doesn't make any sense, he thought the instant the words left his mouth. But claiming Yellow as the community's own seemed to spark a territorial feeling among the crowd of onlookers. They stirred and muttered amongst themselves, eyeing the driver with a tad more hostility than before. Sensing the change in the atmosphere, the driver sputtered indignantly then got back into his van, backed up, then drove around Gio as hastily as he dared.

Ignoring the line of vehicles bearing down on him, Gio knelt again, carefully lifted Yellow's body, and moved to the sidewalk, trying not to panic from the blood dripping from her head and the alarming limpness of her limbs. "A vet. Does anyone know where the nearest vet is?" he asked the circle of onlookers who gathered closer to examine his burden and cluck their tongues in sympathy.

"Nah, we don't have any vets here," one of them answered.

"There's that fancy place about five blocks from here. You know, the one beside the main avenue. But well..." The speaker finished with a shrug and the others shook their heads. Gio's heart sank even lower. He knew the pet clinic and grooming salon they meant, whose clientele were definitely not residents of their community but instead belonged to the other side. Not only would it take him too long to reach that clinic, he likely wouldn't be able to afford their fees, let alone the kind of emergency care that could save Yellow's life, not with his now little less than five hundred bucks and a plastic bagful of caramel bananas.