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Basehor, Kansas
2018, AD
7:37 pm
The charcoal pencil glided across the thick piece of sketchbook paper. His drawings spoke the words his mouth could not fathom. Kai's leg bounced up and down as the charcoal scratched in his ears. His hand titled at an uncomfortable angle to finish outlining the raven's daggered beak. With his picture finished Kai tossed the pencil onto the table to his left and observed criticizing any and every detail.
Drawing a raven made sense to Kai. They were seen as a symbol of death and disaster. Even after Elly's comfort he still felt dangerous. He still viewed himself as a ticking time bomb that will leave disaster in its path. Then again he always felt like a bomb. It didn't help that people treated him that way. Everyone except for his dog, Ace, who sensed his distress from downstairs and ran through the house trying to find him.
Kai stood up and opened the hatch door in the corner of his room, headed down the ladder, and met his spirited dog with a hug. Ace's tongue glided across his owner's cheek. Kai chuckled, playfully pushing the dog off of him.
"You wanna see my drawing, boy?" He asked in a shrill, slightly soprano, voice. Kai waited for an answer and was disappointed when Ace showed no bodily indication of an answer to his question. "One second," He mumbled and ran to the kitchen sink to scrub his hands clean of dusty charcoal.
A gust of dusk wind blew into the house from a small window in front of the basin sink and chilled Kai's wrists and fingers as they emerged from the stream of warm water. He instantaneously shut the window and cut the breeze off from the further entrance. Ace brushed himself against Kai's long lanky legs and ended up pushing him off balance. Kai tried to catch his balance and reached to grab onto something near. Unable to find anything to grasp his hand fell back to help cushion his fall. Taking his opportunity Ace attacked Kai's face with his own personal army of affection. Kai didn't push him away this time and let the hefty dog climb over his smaller limbs.
He figured he owed Ace at least that much.
Ace had been adopted when Kai was ten. His cognitive schizophrenia had always made it hard for him to focus and pay attention but as he grew up his old medications and going to therapy weren't working as well. His parents surprised him on his birthday with a professionally trained psychiatric service dog to help him on rainier days. Ace's presence helped Kai even when he did small tasks like reminding him to take his medications, six in the morning two at night.
Elly had immediately connected with Ace as she did with many animals. Somehow the flame of her fiery hair always tamed the animal within people. Ace was trained to only follow his owners commands yet he would melt at Elly's every word. Kai and Ace were similar in that aspect. They'd do anything for her.
"Side!" Kai softly commanded the dog's affection. Ace immediately perked up and trotted over to Kai's right side. No longer barricaded by his pet, he stood up and rubbed his hand under Ace's chubby chin. "That's all."
