I follow her, deeper into the night. Nose to the ground, she breathes in the dirt of memory. Of those who walked a similar trail, leaving scented bread crumbs along the way.
A streetlamp highlights the crest of her head. The sandy brown of her fur a reflective gold. She continues down her path in search of conclusions. I follow behind, unable to fathom what stories she’s unfolding.
The faded red stone walkway cuts through a park. A deeper red under daylight, the path now far less sinister. The scattering of walkway lamps blots out stars of the cloudless night. The dog cares little for the failed celestial light show a thousand lightyears in the making.
A couple lingers on a bench. Her head rests on his chest. Darkness swaddles them. The woman, her arms around his waist, her eyes on his leg as she traces out their future in frays of denim. The man, eyes forward, adrift in the sea of olive trees surrounding the park. They don’t speak but their thoughts can be heard. Thoughts not of the moment, but of the future. Of the past. Of nothing and yet of everything. Thoughts offered up to the night sky. Destined for the heavens or to become trapped in the cobweb of light.
The dog continues with her story as the couple on the bench continue theirs. Something of interest tickles at her nose. She stops and presses her nostrils deeper against the earth, excavating meaning from grass and soil and history. She snorts, covers the spot in her own scent, and follows the fading essence of memory.
Sneakers clap against the walkway, a bouncing metronome to an approaching jogger. Her eyes forward, away from my own. Away from the world. She chases the invisible carrot of fitness and dreams. I understand. I have my own goals dangling forever just out of reach. Invisible to the universe but as plain as day to me. As real as the smell my dog follows.
Others walk past. A child and his father. An elderly woman and her cane. Whispers from the child not wanting to wake the world from its slumber. Heavier breathing from the woman as she sits on an open bench.
The thoughts and smells and ideas converge in the night. Nowhere yet everywhere. Invisible yet the weight of the world. The dog stops, nose searching for a trail gone cold. She plows the earth, caresses the grass, and stabs the air with her nose.
Nothing.
She’s lost the scent. The conclusion of the story she searched for forever lost. She looks at me. Blackness of the night and a lost ending reflective in her wet eyes.
We turn around, retracing steps from a different vantage. The glow of street lamps continues offering an umbrella of protection from the open loneliness of night. The man on the bench has lost his partner. His eyes remain forward, unwavering. Perhaps the partner never existed but in my mind. My thoughts manifested for him unwanted, and so have twisted upward into the night. To be caught in the lighted web of light? To make it into the heavens beyond? Nobody will know. But perhaps offered thoughts will discover the conclusion of the story my dog searched to uncover. Two ideas brought together in a night sky.
The dog continues her path home. All I can do is follow behind.