CHAPTER
TWO
SURPRISE—WAITING
TO TELL PRINCE CHARMING
(14TH
installment of Scruggs and Samantha by
Mary de la Pena)
When I returned to the law office,
Prince Charming acted as if he barely recognized my existence. When I entered
his office, he remained seated, not getting up to usher me inside as he usually
did. Worse yet, he immediately picked up
the conversation in Spanish, expecting me to follow along. Usually, as a courtesy to me, he gave me a
cursory explanation in English for background information to make it easier for
me to follow the Spanish conversation.
I caught the insult and filed it. I hated being made to feel inferior, and when
I struggled to understand the conversation it angered me. I quietly took the affront but also added a
few more bricks to my wall of discontent.
I wanted him to know I had only stopped by the Pomona Valley
Humane Society to do a “quick run-through” to look for a kitten. I had never expected to find a dog that would
capture my heart in such an urgent way.
I wanted to explain to my husband, friend, and law partner that I had
found a dog that spoke to my broken heart.
Yet, I knew he was not in a place where he could hear me. He was as walled off from me as I was from
him.
So, long after the clients had left the office and we had
closed the deal, long after I had finished the work on my desk, I kept silent
about Scruggs. I held the secret close
to my heart, afraid to say anything, afraid I would say the wrong thing and
risk my husband resenting my choice. I
needed desperately for him to want Scruggs as badly as I did. I needed my husband to tell me I wasn’t crazy
for wanting this dog. I needed him to
see the magic of the dog. But, most of
all, I needed reassurance that my Prince Charming could still see how deeply my
soul was touched by the scruffy golden dog, my gift from God. At that time, however, I was no longer
certain he would understand my need. Our
bond was breaking, and our team was coming apart. I no longer trusted him.
My father once said, “Marriage is like hitching two horses
in a harness; you need to pick two horses that are similar in size, breed, and
temperament. Otherwise, there will be problems with how they work in
tandem.” He said it was important to
have two people with the same work ethic, the same intelligence level, a
similar background, and the same attitude toward life. Without that similarity, just like with
working horses, there would be a tendency for the partners to pull in different
directions.
I also knew that for the last twenty years I was very
fortunate to have had a relationship with my husband that was like that
well-chosen team of horses; we worked well together, wanted the same things in
life, had enormous respect for each other, and both of us pulled our weight
without major complaint. After all these
years I knew when he needed a little slack in his harness and vice versa. We
also felt the tensions and occasional heartbreak that was part of living and
working closely with someone for more than two decades. In many respects, I
believed we embodied the true reason why God created marriage. He gave us this holy institution blessed Him,
so we humans would always have a partner with whom to share the loads of
life.
But the exceptionally long period of unrest and sadness
caused by the deaths of close friends, family and beloved pets, was dragging on
the partnership. My poor partner husband
had been left too long to “pick up the slack in the harness.” He had stopped trying to “fix it” and had
taken to leaving me alone to find my own way out of my abyss.
So I waited. I waited
all that afternoon and well into Friday.
I knew the time was getting short because we were going to be gone all
day Saturday, and Sunday the Humane Society was closed. Monday was the last day the officials would
hold Scruggs, and that afternoon they would surely carry out his sentence of
death if someone did not save him. That
happy, loveable dog was to draw his last breath if a home was not found for
him.
Time was
indeed short.
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