Norman's Neighborhood

Twenty-two

Sam Ganas was relaxing. It was Sunday; the market was closed, and he was spending the later part of the afternoon preparing a meal for his family. Diverging from the usual Mediterranean dishes offered at his establishment, he was drawing from the Swedish side of his mother's heritage and constructing Smörgåstårta.

Beginning with a base of thin, caraway-studded  rye bread, Sam spread a mixture of softened, whipped cream cheese and smoked salmon - carefully covering the bread in an even layer of the pinkish-orange delicacy. After scattering bits of chopped pickled onion over the filling, he repeated the process with another layer of bread. Continuing until there were four neatly stacked layers of the savory bread, he smoothed on a lemon-infused cream cheese concoction that encased sides and top of the cake-like collation. Finally, the culinary artist made a beautiful fish design with thinly sliced hothouse cucumbers and lemons, interspersed with capers and olive slices.

'Looking nice,' Sam thought to himself, 'but still missing something... it's Swedish. Needs dill!' He didn't have any fresh dill in his home kitchen, but he kept little pots of fresh herbs in the deli kitchen. "I'm going over to the store for some supplies," he called up the stairs to Valerie. "I'll be right back."

Entering from the rear, Sam turned enough lights on to illuminate his path to the deli kitchen. As he walked up the side aisle, something caught his attention outside. There was a light-colored SUV parked near the entrance to the parking lot; a familiar-looking woman had just closed the driver's side door, and two children were climbing down from the back seat. He recognized the small blond boy - Zane's friend. What was his name...? Tom? Tim? Todd, that was it.

Sam continued to the front of the store while observing the mother and her children. They went up to the light pole at the corner, just on the other side of the driveway. They seemed to be attaching something to the pole - some sort of poster, apparently. Curious, Sam unlocked the door and went out.

"Mr. Ganas!" The lively little boy looked over just as the bulky man stepped from beneath the neat blue and white awning. Todd almost flew across the pavement, stopping short of colliding with the more sedately moving Sam Ganas. "Mr. Ganas!" he burst out again, grabbing the big man's arm and tugging on it.
"Please will you let us put up a poster in your window?" Sam chuckled a little as he replied,
"Well, let's see what you have!"

The market owner studied the poster intently, then looked over at Kathy.
"This must be the same dog that spent the night with us. He rescued my mother," he informed her, and told them of Norman's heroic act. "And Zane said something about that dog being the same kind that was in your yard yesterday... He watched over my mother during the night, and this morning he was on his way again." He took a poster, telling Kathy that he would put it up as soon as he went back inside. He promised to notify her if he happened to see the dog again, and they drove off.