Inside The Walls

Chapter Two

All three children went to school and went to after school activities. Mr. Robinson worked in his home office, working hard to keep the money coming for the young and blossoming family. Mrs. Robinson taught her high school chemistry class at the high school on the St. Alexander's campus.

One night, after Kevin was picked up from soccer practice, Lucy was cleaned up from exploring the backyard, and Marie was called down from the reading loft upstairs, Borris was nowhere to be found. Usually Borris sits right at at David Robinson's feet but he was not there. Jane saw the basement door cracked and she knew where he was. "Excuse me," she excused herself. "We have to get a gate or something for Borris. He keeps going downstairs."

After she walked down the carpeted stairs, she heard a scratching. To nobody's surprise, she found Borris scratching on the wall in the laundry room, whimpering as he did so. "Borris, why do you keep coming down here?" Jane asked the golden retriever. She knew the dog wouldn't reply but she stood there with her hands on her hips anyway. Borris removed his paws from the now chipping white wall. Mrs. Robinson turned around, snapping her fingers in indication for Borris to follow as she walked back upstairs, turning the lights off behind her.

"Tomorrow can you go get a dog gate or something for Borris? He's chipping the paint downstairs," Jane asked David with a slight frown, picking up everybody's plates and bringing them to the kitchen.

"I would," Mr. Robinson called. "But I am swamped with papers."

"You're always swamped with papers," Mrs. Robinson pointed out with disappointment dripping in her words. David Robinson saw in her eyes how she wishes she would spend more time with the family. David tried real hard. If he didn't try so hard, the Robinson's wouldn't have been living such a wonderful life at the time.

Mrs. Robinson came home from work that day with all three children to find that Mr. Robinson had not gotten a gate for Borris. She even found that Borris was clawing at that spot on the wall once again. He must've been at it most of the day because the wall's boards underneath the solid wall were starting to show.

The Robinsons watched a family movie with pizza for dinner, making sure Borris stayed on the couch the whole time. When it was time to go to bed, Jane Robinson made sure to keep Borris in their room with a closed door so that he didn't wander down to the basement to start destroying the wall again.

At around three in the morning, Kevin arrived next to Mrs. Robinson's side of bed like the other night, complaining that he heard voices. Mrs. Robinson was done with everybody's nonsense so instead of comforting Kevin, she gave him a pair of his father's ear plugs, told him to plug up his ears, then sent him back to bed. In the process of this, Borris snuck into the basement again and clawed all night long. No one was able to hear it because Jane was in the deepest sleep anyone could possibly be in, David had his earplugs in, Kevin had his ears plugged up as well, and the twins were in just a deep sleep as their mother because they were so young.

When Jane found Borris asleep in the basement next to the destroyed spot on the white painted wall, she snapped. She yelled at David, accusing him of never doing anything. She yelled at Kevin when he asks to go over to his friend's house. She yelled at the girls when they ask her to play Barbies with them. After all of the yelling and her face had returned to its normal color and her veins had moved back to their original place, she went out and bought Borris a gate. She installed it herself and then yelled at the dog.

All day, Borris howled while he sat in front of the gate covering the stairs to the basement. Jane tried to yell at him some more but Borris' howls were louder than her frustration. David tried the calm approach, feeding him a treat if he stayed quiet. After he chewed the treat, the howling continued. Jane tried to take Borris for a walk but he didn't budge, no matter how hard they pulled. Mrs. Robinson gives up and takes away the gate and lets Borris destroy the wall.