A dog named Bob

Chapter 1
Whenever she opened the door the big shaggy dog named Bob would bowl her over leaving her flat on the ground and her feet in the air no matter how much she prepared herself. Bob was her brother’s dog but it was always her mother who fed and groomed him. And it was always herself who had to take him for a walk, not that she minded she quite enjoyed it apart from the poopy scoopy thing and embarrassingly he always seemed to hunch himself over and relieve himself right in front of Mrs Langford’s house.
Mrs Langford was old and probably older than time itself, well that was what Karen thought.
As if on cue everyday Bob would hunch himself in front of Mrs Langford’s house and she would come out yelling and waving her hands in the air.
“Karen, Get that goddamn crapping machine off my lawn!”
“I’ll clean it up, Mrs Langford.”
“Damn right you will and I’ll stand here and watch, and make sure you get it all, yesterday you didn’t get it all.”
Karen inwardly groaned she knew Mrs Langford was over exaggerating, she always did, she was the type of old lady who had nothing better to do than complain about anything and everything.
Karen’s mother Denise said that she was a lonely old lady, Karen thought that she was just a cranky old woman who liked nothing better than to make everyone’s life miserable.
She lay on the ground as Bob was dancing on top of her.
“Bob, get off me, I can’t take you for a walk while you’re on top of me.”
Bob continued to bound and bounce with his tongue flopping out panting heavily. She clicked on his lead grabbed two plastic bags and attached them to the poopy machine.
She headed out the gate and down the footpath with Bob straining on the lead that almost had Karen’s arm being pulled out of its socket.
“Slow down Bob, we will get there. Heal Bob.”
She thought it was worth a try to use the commands that he learnt at his one and only dog lesson that David her brother took him to. She got to Mrs Langford’s house and on cue Bob hunched over to relieve himself, Karen braced herself for Mrs Langford to come out and hurtle the barrage of abuse at her.
Bob finished his business and Karen scooped up the doo and looked at the pristine house and closed curtains, she wondered about the cranky old lady and why she hadn’t come out to yell at her.
Chapter 2

“Mum.”
“Yes sweetie.”
“When I took Bob for his walk today Mrs Langford didn’t come out.”
“Maybe she was busy and she’ll be out with a vengeance tomorrow.”
“She didn’t come out yesterday either.”
Denise stopped washing the dishes and dried her hands on the tea towel the hung over her shoulder. “Maybe something’s wrong, we should go and see if she’s ok.”
“Mum, she’s cranky and mean.”
“Karen she’s just old and lonely.”
Karen nodded her head “Yeah and she’s still cranky.”
“Let’s go.”

Denise took her by the hand and led her out the door down to Mrs Langford’s.
They knocked on the fire engine red door, and waited.

“I don’t think she’s home.” said Denise

They turned to walk away when they heard a crash inside.

“Mrs Langford” they yelled

Again they knocked on the door. “Mrs Langford are you ok?”

With no answer at the door Denise strained her ear to see if she could hear anything.

“Something’s wrong. Mrs Langford can you hear us? Are you ok?” Denise yelled through the door, she tried the handle but it was locked.
“Mum ,maybe she left a key somewhere, you know how we have a key outside in case one of us have locked ourselves out.”

Together they looked around Mrs Langford’s porch for a key, Karen looked under the mat, above the door and inside the meterbox that hung on the wall beside the door. Denise looked under the flower pots that sat all uniformed on the porch against the wall of the house, but with no luck.

“She has to have one mum.”

“Yeah I agree, we just have to keep looking.”

“Mum where did Nan have hers? She had it somewhere strange.”

Denise gave a laugh, “She had it in the bird cage that had no bird in it but the stuffed parrot, it sang when you approached the door.”

Karen looked around for something similar and spotted a gnome in a blue suit and a red hat that sat between two flower pots. She walked over and picked it up, nothing underneath, she went to put it back down and the stopper under the gnome fell out along with a key. They looked at each other and Karen grabbed the key.

Denise took the key and inserted it into the keyhole, it fitted.

“Mum isn’t this breaking and entering?”

“Technically speaking yes, but were not breaking were just entering and hopefully for a good cause, but just to be on the safe side. Mrs Langford are you ok? It’s Mrs Henshaw.” Denise yelled out again. She turned the handle and called out to Mrs Langford again.

Karen followed behind grabbing onto her Mothers top.

They walked into a hallway calling out as they went further into the house.
Denise stopped “Shhh, I think I hear…”

She started walking faster toward the back of the house, walking into the kitchen finding Mrs Langford on the floor of her kitchen and two chairs that had been knocked over .

Chapter 3

“Mrs Langford.” Denise rushed to her side to check her, she had what looked to be a broken leg and quite possibly a broken hip. “Karen call triple zero.” Denise turned her attention to Mrs Langford “Mrs Langford can you hear me? Do you know who I am?”
Mrs Langford looked at Denise through hazy eyes knowing only that help had come, she tried to lick her lips but they were too parched to do so.
“I’ll get you a drink.”

Denise got up and searched the cupboards for a cup and filled it with water, returning to Mrs Langford she tilted it gently to her lips giving her only enough to wet them.

Karen came back into the room “The ambulance is on the way mum but they want to speak with you.”

“Ok, go and see if you can round up a blanket from somewhere and put it on her then give her a little more water but not too much, only a trickle.”

Karen did as she was told before telling Mrs Langford that everything would be ok and that help was on its way. She sat beside the old woman and patted her cold hand, Karen had never felt anyone so cold before, she instantly felt her heart go to the woman who yelled at her everyday and she wanted to see that woman again not the woman who lay helpless on her kitchen floor.

Denise entered the kitchen “The ambulance are here Mrs Langford, everything is going to be ok.”

Karen and her mum stood back as they watched the ambulance people array themselves around Mrs Langford tending to her.

They loaded her into the ambulance and asked Denise a few questions regarding family and Denise asked in return to which hospital they were taking her.

Heading back to their home Karen asked “Is she going to be ok?”

Karen’s mother gave her daughter assurances that Mrs Langford was a tough old bird and that she would be fine, however she herself held grave fears that the woman was too dehydrated.

“Can we go and see her in the hospital?” Karen asked her mother

“Sure, let‘s organise a few things here at home first and we’ll head off, they will be a while with her before we will be able to see her.”

After an hour they set off for the hospital and after inquiring they were shown the waiting room saying that Mrs Langford was still being seen to.
Three hours later a doctor came to the waiting room, “Mrs Henshaw?”

“That is me.”

“I understand that you found Mrs Langford.”

“My daughter and I, yes.”

“She is a very lucky woman that you found her when you did. She has sustained a broken hip and leg, because of her injuries and frailty she has also suffered hypothermia and severe dehydration which has affected the functioning of her kidney’s, but she is alive and she will pull through, but I can’t guarantee that she will be her old self. We understand that she has no family, were you close to her?”

Both Karen and her mother felt guilty for their admittance but they both said no in unison.

“Do you know if she has anyone close?”

“No, I don’t believe she does, but I’m not sure on that.” Denise said
“That’s a shame for her, she is going to require care, we’ll see what we can do for her.”

“Are we able to see her?”

“You can but we have sedated her to give her body time to rest.”

“Thank you doctor.”

“You’re welcome, she is lucky to have a friend such as you.”
Karen and her mum followed the doctor to the nurses’ station who then instructed them toward Mrs Langford’s room.

As the doctor stated she was sedated, she was dressed in hospital gown and hooked up to a machine monitoring her heartbeat and another feeding her fluids, it had been the first time Karen had seen anyone really sick in hospital, she had been to see a friend who had their appendix removed and a friend of her mothers who had a baby but no-one who was strapped up to machine’s such as Mrs Langford.

Denise looked at her teenage daughter knowing that this would be the first time that she had seen anyone strapped up to machine’s, seeing someone like that was a daunting and shocking sight even for those who were prepared for it, she hoped that it would not affect her daughter too much, her daughter had seen a lot in that short space of a few hours and she knew that her daughter would have grown up that little more and she wished that her daughter didn’t have to experience it, but as a mother she knew that cotton-balling her fifteen year old daughter was not the way to go, she only hoped that Karen had the coping mechanism.
On their way home from the hospital Karen was quiet and sombre she wasn’t sure what to say and even if she did have anything to say it didn’t seem as important.
“Are you ok sweetie?” Denise asked as she put a reassuring hand on her daughter’s knee as they waited at a set of traffic lights.
“I’m ok, I was just thinking how sad it was that Mrs Langford doesn’t have anyone to help her, and if we hadn’t of come along just how long she would have laid there.”
Denise could hear the angst in her daughter’s voice and it hurt her to know that she couldn’t ease it or protect her from it. “What matters is that we were there, and we were able to help, we did a good deed today.”
Karen sat silently in the car for the rest of the journey home and upon reaching home went straight to bed almost falling asleep the instant her head hit her pillow.


Chapter 4

Over the next six weeks Mrs Langford made good recovery, and everyday Karen went in after school and just after lunch on the weekends to bring fresh clothes from Mrs Langford’s wardrobe and those washed by her mother.
Each day she told Mrs Langford stories about what was happening at school and what was happening in the street as she took Bob for a walk.
Karen knew that Mrs Langford was getting better when she kept reminding Karen to pick up Bob’s business, she was getting back to herself and for some strange reason Karen was looking forward to Mrs Langford being back on her front porch yelling out at her again as she walked passed.
“How long til you’re able to go back home?”
“Another month I would imagine, the cast is coming of my leg next week and then they’ll do some rehabilitation so I’m looking at least another month.”
“You’d be looking forward to go home then?”
Mrs Langford looked at Karen and responded with a halfhearted yes but the truth was that Mrs Langford was afraid to go back home after slipping on the wet kitchen floor and breaking both her hip and her leg, she was afraid that it would happen again and that this time no one would be there to help her, she thanked her lucky stars that Karen and Denise came around when they did, she hadn’t thanked them yet, she didn’t know how.
All her life she had looked after herself, her husband died early in their marriage and it left her broken hearted and angry at the world thinking only how unfair it was, over the time all her siblings and her husband’s siblings died it was only her now, oh she was sure that there would be some distant relative, but who would take care of a cranky old pensioner, she didn’t mean to be cranky, it was just the way she was. She was quite nervous and downright scared to go home and had even thought of sabotaging her rehabilitation in order to stay longer.
Mrs Langford kept to the rehabilitation, she had been moved from the general ward of the hospital to a centre that specialised in rehabilitation and as the time came near she was apprehensive about going back home but Karen had given her strength and courage to keep on going, stating that she would be there for her.
Her rehabilitation was almost finished and while she could walk she didn’t have the strength agility or speed she once had, she knew it wouldn’t be the same and worried at the prospect of going home.
It was the third day before she was to be dismissed when Karen and Denise both came in together, both carrying a smile on their face.
“We bought you a present.”
Colour rose in Mrs Langford’s face it was too much that the two of them came in everyday to check on her let alone bring her a present she was still yet to thank them for all that they did and yet a simple thanks didn’t seem enough, she didn’t know how in the world she was going to repay them.
Mrs Langford opened the package it was a medic alert and at the thoughtfulness of the gift for the first time in years tears rolled from her eyes.
“I cannot thank you enough, the two of you have been so wonderful to me.”
“Well we have one more present….” Denise began before being interrupted by Karen
“Dad fitted out your home with special things so that you can get around the home a bit safer.”
“We hope you don’t mind us doing those things for you.”
The tears streamed down her face and her heart ached, no-one had been that kind to her in a long time and so she responded the only way she knew how.
“Get out the pair of you, you shouldn’t have done that, now get out.” She yelled
Stunned, the both hesitated before leaving the room, but they left anyway.
“I don’t understand it mum, shouldn’t she be happy?”
“Possibly yes but I’m guessing that she is a little overawed by it all, she probably hasn’t received such kindness or thoughtfulness in a long time.”
“That’s really sad.”
“It is and in today’s society where people only look out for themselves it is becoming more common, it doesn’t take much effort to lend a hand or to be nice or courteous, I only hope that mankind doesn’t forget how to.”
The following day Karen went in to see Mrs Langford again taking in a bunch of flowers that she picked from the school’s garden with permission from the principal of course.
Karen had paid a special visit to the principal she had been moved by the entire ordeal with Mrs Langford and wondered how many other pensioners there were who didn’t have people looking after them or even out for them, overnight she sat up thinking of ways to help and remembered a program that she had seen on A current Affair about people adopting a pensioner, with this in mind she had gone to the principal asking if they could incorporate it into the school’s program and together they nutted out a basic programme that the principal could take to the school board committee.
Sitting on the chair beside Mrs Langford’s bed Karen talked about her special visit to the principal, her reason behind it and their plans for the adopt a pensioner project for the children in year ten, she spoke with enthusiasm and delight while Mrs Langford sat and listened for the entire time that Karen was there Mrs Langford had not spoken a word.
After Karen left, tears once again rolled down Mrs Langford’s face at the kindness in the child that she had so often yelled at.

Chapter 5
She opened the door and the shaggy dog bounded up at her in one leap bowling her over leaving her flat on the floor licking her face while she scrambled to get up.
“Bob!” she growled “Get off me.”
Bob bounded and panted and barked at Karen. She clicked on the lead grabbed some plastic bags, the poopy thing and took off down the path.
On cue Bob hunched over and did his business, Karen looked up at the house and thought of Mr Tucker who was none the wiser that Bob took a dump on his front lawn every day since Mrs Langford’s fall.
Karen and Bob grabbed the mail from the letterbox and knocked on the door.
“Door’s open.” Mrs Langford yelled out “I’m in the kitchen”
Bob walked steadily down the hallway as if he almost knew that his bounding and bouncing would upset Mrs Langford or break one of the many vases and knick Knacks that abounded Mrs Langford’s home.
“Here boy I have a treat for you. Sit.”
Bob plonked his large butt on the floor and thumped his shaggy tail, he gently opened and closed his mouth as Mrs Langford placed the treat in his mouth, he got up as she patted the top of his head and he trotted himself to the back door waiting for Karen to let him out.
Karen walked back into the kitchen “Have you been baking today?”
“I have. And I want you to take some back home to your mother, I baked a sponge cake I felt like a piece of sponge for afternoon tea.” She lifted the cake protector to a glorious large layered sponge that hosted jam and cream in the middle and strawberries on top all dusted with icing sugar.
Karen’s mouth began to water, “where did you get the ingredients I don’t remember buying the cream or strawberries.”
“The lovely man at the grocers took my order and delivered them in his coffee break this morning, he’s going to stop by after his shift finishes and grab a piece.”
Karen smiled at the old lady who sat opposite “You’ve done a fabulous job it looks and smells delicious.”
“I know I’ve been waiting for you all afternoon to hurry the hell up so that we can devour it. Now let’s slice this sucker.”
Karen gave a little chuckle and put on the kettle while Mrs Langford cut the cake.
Sitting down to cake and tea with Mrs Langford had become an afternoon ritual, the cake changed daily from cake to sandwiches to biscuits to muffins to cheese and crackers, whatever Mrs Langford fancied for the day, Karen enjoyed the time she spent with Mrs Langford she never knew what she was going to get for afternoon tea, she smiled and thought how different things were since Mrs Langford’s accident and the marvellous transformation the last six months had brought.
It taught Karen two things, kindness went a long way and some people just needed a little understanding.

The end.