Short story: The Spirited Pup

‘Its so tiny!

'Why did you have to find such a secluded spot?' 

'This house is so dingy!'

They all complain and no one offered to unpack. Instead, all glued to their phones, they decided to leave him home and go out for lunch in their new neighbourhood. 
They forgot to ask him if he was hungry... yet again.. 

'Oh well..' he thought. He opened Zomato and called the nearest food delivery service... 
'Guess its a boon to be able to eat what one wants when the wants to?... or not." 
But who was he going to have this debate with now? He hardly had the opportunity to speak or have a discussion with anyone in his family. They seem to live together but no one seemed to really bother talking to him. 

But deep inside, today he was happy. He had the sense of accomplishment. 

It had taken all his saving to buy the house without a single rupee in a loan.
He was dead set against loans. 

This attitude seeded due to various family drama's he had lived thought as a child that had made him dead set against taking loans. 

This caused him to start working early, saving early on and being his family life late.
He married late when he was capable of earning enough to support another person and to provide for the two of them.
The having kids late, when they were ready to support the idea of having kids and providing them with the right upbringing.  

But the latest was to buy his own house. and when he finally did, his wife and kids didn’t seem to like it one bit. 

He was old and his office was starting to expect his resignation; pushing on him new medical test after test. He would often feel left out or out of place when commuting or working. At work.. all the same. This was probably because he didn't have too many friends in the office or in his city. 

Everyone working with him seemed to have grown younger or replaced by someone younger and he was the only one growing old. It was starkly visible. He noticed, just like everyone else. But at least at work they courteously greeted him when they ran into him and asked him how he was doing... 

And he needed the job. His kids were still depended on him. He earned and he saved, while everyone else seemed to spend and still weren’t happy with what they had. 'Did they even appreciate him?' he often wondered... this issue seemed to primarily stem from his wife's attitude.. the kids treated him exactly how his own wife did.. who could blame them? 

She was younger than he was, in the initial years of marriage she seemed to understand, but over the years he suspected she felt she was too young and was now stuck with him.. he even suspected she was glued to her phone all the time because she was seeing someone behind his back.. but he wasn't going to waste his energy on this at his age.. what if he was wrong? Maybe she deserved someone younger too... and all he could do was get out of her way at his age.

So they slept in separate bedrooms and only spoke in the evenings when they all watched TV together. He  

He is walking back one day and on his walk back from the metro finds a carton in the middle of his path back home. Inside the carton is a little puppy.

This old man looked at this puppy and mixed emotions run through him.
The puppy looks up to him as if expecting him to come to pick him up and take him. 

'Maybe his children will like the puppy and it would make up for their not liking the new house they just shifted into…?"

He decided to take the box and the pup in it home.
He then washed the pup and groomed it and put a bow around its neck from his daughter's box of stationery.
Then he waited for everyone to get home.
He waited for everyone to gather the living room to watch TV in the evening and then brought the box over. 

The kids were thrilled, so was his wife for a change, and things seem to be fine for a while.
Then the kids lost interest in the pup as it began to grow up and the wife started complaining... so as he had expected in the back of his head.. he ended up taking care of the pup. 

But it gave him immense pleasure in caring with the dog. He didn’t have many opportunities to speak or express himself.. so or him the pup was a companion, a listening ear.

So he woke up each morning and fed the dog.
Took it on a walk, then left for work, thought about the dog all day long, then came back and took the dog for a walk, fed it and spent time talking to it in the evening. 

He felt revived, rejuvenated, energetic at the end of the day knowing he had done well. The dog loved him and him the dog. 

This went on for a few years. The kids grew up, the wife also started to grow old. Faster than they all should have he thought sometimes.. but who could stop time he thought.
But strangely, the neighbours began to talk. They said that he had started taking care of his appearance. That he looked younger, he had started colouring his whiting hair to a grey. But he didn’t pay attention to any of it. He felt good and this gossip didn't matter to him.  

One day his school friend called and told him. He was passing through town and wanted to very much like to catch up with him for old times sake. 

Thinking about his obligations to his dog, he decided to invite his friend over to his house. At 65, he didn’t feel very comfortable with going to the local bar anyway. So it felt like a good excuse. 

Sharp at 7 there was a knock on the door. He opened the door and there stood his friend. He said, 'You must be Akira, very glad to meet you. I’m looking for your father, is he home? He was expecting me at 7 for dinner today.'

He stood there frozen at the door. What had just happen? Why was his friend behaving so strangely? It had been over three decades that they had met, and of course, they looked very different from how they looked back then but mistaking him for his son was a bit absurd? 

So he spoke and said, "Takashi, it's me... I think your memory seems to have fooled you.." 

And hearing these words his friend began to sept back in shock and then his shock quickly turned awe. 

"Is it really you? But how have you managed to look so young?" 

This baffled the old man, this wasn’t what he was expecting to hear! What? He felt like he had just snapped out of his trance and looked at himself in the window sill next to the door of the house and was shocked!

It was true, he didn’t look a year over 35! But how was this possible? Had he aged overnight? None of his family members came out to even greet his friend, but he was happy his dog kept them company. 

His friend had asked him how, and he had nothing to say. All he could say was that he thought taking care of the dog and taking it for a walk regularly has given him some exercise over the last few years.

His friend continued to praise him and his obedient dog the entire night, even though the mean that the man had prepared and then before he left, he told the old man that he had taken inspiration from him and would adopt a dog and take care of him and himself.

When his friend left the man ran up to his bathroom and took a good look at himself. How was this possible?
Had God rewarded him in some strange way?
But why him? Did the dog bless him for his kindness somehow?

The man didn't know how to face his family that night. 
Had they noticed this themselves? 
If they had, why didn't they say anything to him? 
Is this why the neighbours had been gossiping lately? 
He decided to go off to sleep early that night, after all, they really didn't care about him or what happens to him... 

He had the most vivid dreams that night. In his dreams, the dog was glowing and turned into a spirit that expressed his fondness for the man. The something fantastic happened, the man remembered something his grandmother used to tell him when he was a child. 


Apparently, the dog was a mystical spirit and anyone who took care of it reversed in age until they turned into a baby. They wouldn’t notice themselves unless someone pointed it out. 

This was an old folklore that his grandmother other used to tell him stuck him. About this kind spirit who manifested as a pet in the house and rewarded those who took care of it by reversing their age. But if the spirit wasn’t respected, it had the opposite effect on the members of the family. 

The dog had the same effect on the rest of the family. They all aged faster because they had refused to take care of him. But they didn't care enough to notice the man had grown younger and they didn't themselves know, for no one had pointed it out to them openly. 

Now with his illusion broken he woke up in the morning and tuned to see the dog, and to his surprise the dog was strongly glowing in the same way it had in his dream the night before. The dog's tail was wagging affectionately, but the man knew that this was as far as he could let all this go.

So he put the dog in a carton and took some food and decided to placed the carton in front of an old age nursing home. Then he left his thankless wife and children and decided with time on his side now, he could start fresh and be a better vision of himself again and have a happier life.