Pumpkin Spice

by C. L. Ryder

  “Thank you!” the woman called after her.

  Oh God, oh God, she thought. I feel like such an idiot. This is why I don’t want to talk to anyone. She punched in the key code at the entrance to her apartment complex, and the door buzzed and unlocked. Jogging up the stairs to her apartment, the only thing that was circulating in her head was the embarrassment of what had just happened. She’d had a bad experience with dogs as a kid, and though her fear was not nearly as bad as it was when she was young, she still felt some anxiety around them, especially if they took her by surprise.

  She unlocked the door to her apartment and was immediately greeted by the skunky-sweet smell of weed. Yuri was lounging on the couch, a Playstation 4 controller in his lap and a small handheld vaporizer in his hand. He exhaled a pale fog of cannabis vapor into the air.

  “Coleen,” he said, “You won’t believe what I did today.” He extended his arm out, offering the vape, and Coleen shook her head.

  “Nah, I’m good, Yuri. Got a final I need to study for. What did you do today?”

  “Red Guardian in Black Souls 4, remember that asshole?”

  “Yeah, you’ve been getting owned by him for the past three days.”

  “Well, I finally beat that motherfucker today.”

  “No way? Good job, dude. I heard it usually takes people at least a week to get past him.”

  “Well, I’m the fuckin’ master, that’s why.”

  Coleen laughed and walked to the section of the living room that was her bedroom, slung her bag onto the bed, and then went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. “You washed all the dishes today,” she observed. “Thanks, dude.”

  “Hey, no problem,” Yuri said, stretching his arms. “You’re at school all day and I’m just sitting on my ass, so you don’t need to worry about it. ‘Cept weekends, you can do them on the weekends.”

  Coleen sat down on the armrest of the couch and watched as Yuri slashed up monsters with a gigantic sword. “So, you know that old lady that lives in the house next door?”

  “Hm?”

  Coleen recapped her encounter with helping the old lady with her groceries, and Yuri burst out laughing so hard, he had to pause the game.

  “Hey. It’s not that funny!” Coleen lightly kicked her friend in the thigh, giving him a playful scowl.

  “Sorry,” Yuri grinned, his eyes red. “I’m high as a motherfucker. That’s great though, Coleen. I bet she appreciated the help, even if you did splatter her groceries on the ground.”

  “Shut up,” Coleen laughed.

  “You make any progress meeting people at school? You’re already done with the semester, right?”

  Coleen finished her water and sighed, putting the cup down onto the coffee table cluttered with canisters of medical marijuana, Yuri’s laptop, and a half-eaten sandwich. “No. I don’t know, Yuri. I’ve been trying to put myself out there more, but I just… don’t know how. I just can’t bring myself to talk to random people. I’d have no idea what to say.”

  “What about girls? You meet any, uh, hot girls you like?”

  “Hah. Like that would happen.”

  Yuri shrugged. “That’s why it’s best to be a lazy motherfucker like me. No expectations, no disappointment.”

  “Yeah, but, Yuri… you have a girlfriend.”

  “Had. She dumped me today,” he said. He seemed completely unaffected.

  “What? Kelly dumped you?”

  “Yeah. It’s alright though. I wasn’t good for her anyway.”

  Coleen moved off the arm of the couch and sat down next to her friend. “What happened? You okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m okay.” Yuri smiled in that usual way he did when he was trying to divert the attention from his emotions. He looked okay, but Coleen knew her friend well enough to see that he was more upset about it than he let on.

  “What happened?”

  Yuri un-paused the game and continued hacking away at the monsters on the screen. “You know. Said that all I cared about was video games and that she needed a guy who’s going somewhere in his life. That’s pretty much the opposite of me, so I can’t really argue with that.”

  Coleen nodded. Yuri was the opposite of her when it came to talking about feelings—Coleen was very open with her emotions with people that she was close to, whereas Yuri kept things locked down. Coleen could tell that he wasn’t interested in talking about it, so she let it go. “If you ever need to talk about it, I’m here.”

  Yuri smiled, and quickly glanced away from the screen at Coleen. “Thanks, dude. I appreciate it. Aw, son of a bitch.” His avatar on the screen crumpled into a bloody heap as one of the demons sliced his head off.

  “I’m going to play some piano,” Coleen said, patting Yuri on the arm.

  “Yup.”

  Coleen went to her side of the living room, and drew a curtain that doubled as a door. She had a simple setup—just a twin bed, a small desk, and an electronic keyboard. She took out a pair of over-the-ear headphones and plugged them into the keyboard, and then opened the book of Beethoven sheet music to the score for Piano Sonata No. 8 - Sonata Pathetique, Adagio Cantabile. It was her go to piece for when she wanted to unwind and calm down, and she found it especially useful to play before big exams.

  She powered on the keyboard, set her fingers to the keys, drew in a quick breath, and then began to play. She closed her eyes as the languid notes flowed out from her fingers, almost magically. She had the book open, but played by heart. It was a song she’d learned over ten years ago when she first started piano, so the music came naturally and easily, putting her into that meditative-like flow state where she wasn’t even thinking, just doing. She rocked gently as she played, feeling the gentle rhythm of the piece moving through her, carrying her into her zone.

  Her parents both disliked most pop music. They mostly listened to classical, orchestral or the soundtracks to musicals (though her dad did have one Eagles cassette tape), and so Coleen never really grew up with much of an interest in any other types of music. She didn’t really think of herself as a music lover, but more like someone who appreciated the technical qualities of complex compositions and the relaxing and sometimes stimulating energy it could bring to her when she played. During middle school, when kids started really caring about the things that made you “cool”, she’d tried listening to the stuff on the radio but didn’t find it very appealing. In the end she’d just accepted that she just wasn’t really a music person. She was happy just playing the piano for her own enjoyment.

  She played through the Adagio Cantabile, and then moved on to the much more challenging Rondo Allegro, her fingers dancing deftly over the keys. She smiled to herself and wondered if maybe part of the reason she was such a strong typist was because she’d taken piano for so long.

  “Coleen.”

  She heard Yuri’s voice behind her and stopped playing, pulling her headphones down to her neck. “Huh?” She turned around. Yuri’s head stuck through the curtain divider, and he had a serious look on his face.

  “My bad. But uh… come check this out.”

  Coleen took her headphones off and set them on the seat. “What is it?” she asked, walking over to the living room. For a moment, she’d though that Yuri was going to ask her to talk about the breakup, but instead he motioned for her to follow her to his bedroom.

  Yuri was probably the one person who kept his living space as tidy as Coleen did. His room was immaculately organized, with a large desktop computer and a two-monitor setup in the corner, a neatly made queen-sized bed, and a dresser with his wallet, a jar of weed, and snapback LA Dodgers hat on it in precise arrangement.

  “Look,” Yuri said, going up to the window which overlooked the lawn in front of the apartment complex that bordered the street. “That dog.”

  Coleen thought of Coal, the old lady’s dog, but when she went to look out the window she saw a pit bull with brown fur and a white strip that ran down the center of its face all the way to its tail, like a racing stripe. “Wh
ose dog is that?” she asked.

  “No clue. Maybe it’s lost.”

  “Think it got out from someone’s yard?”

  “I dunno, maybe. Shit, dude, he’s just moseying around out there like he owns the place. He’s gonna get hit by a car.”

  Just as Yuri said this, the dog started sniffing around closer and closer to the edge of the sidewalk, oblivious to the cars that kept speeding down the street.

  “Shit!” Coleen and Yuri gasped. They turned to each other. “What do we do?” they said at once.

  “I don’t know!” they both answered in unison.

  “Go and grab him!” Yuri urged.

  “Me? I’m afraid of dogs, and look how buff that one is!”

  “I am too!”

  “Yuri, your parents own a dog!”

  “A tiny Chihuahua!”

  Meanwhile, the pit bull had stepped down into the street and was sniffing at the gutter.

  “Shit,” Coleen hissed, and yanked the window open. “Hey! Dog!” she shouted. The dog turned and looked over, and then turned back to what it was doing, ignoring her.

  “He’s really gonna get hit, man!” Yuri said. “Aw, man, I’m too stoned for this.”

  Without wasting a moment, Coleen dashed out of the room, tugged on her shoes and then hurtled out of the apartment.

  Two

  Coleen skidded to a stop out on the sidewalk a healthy distance away from the pit bull that was still nosing around on the street by the curb. “Hey,” she hissed at it, but the dog paid her no attention and started to sniff its way towards the middle of the street. “Dog! No, come back here!”

  In sudden horror, Coleen saw that a huge SUV was barreling down the street towards the dog—and the driver was completely distracted by his cell phone. The dog looked up in slow realization. Coleen had only a split second to react, and she did, just as Yuri emerged from the complex behind her.

  “Coleen!” he shouted as his friend dashed into the street.

  Coleen’s mind went blank as her legs pumped and pushed her out as fast as they could. The dog’s eyes locked on the grill of the approaching SUV, frozen in terror. The driver glanced up from his cell phone, caught sight of the girl and the dog that had somehow materialized without him noticing, and slammed his foot on the breaks—but it was too late for him to stop.

  Coleen stretched out her arms and dove. She slammed into the dog and grabbed it, rolling across the street together, the screech of the SUV’s tires just inches away from her legs.

  For a moment, she sat there in a daze on the hot asphalt. Then she remembered the vicious beast she had wrapped up in arms and gasped, letting go and scrambling back. Coleen winced as it trotted over, its muzzle just inches away from her face—and then it licked her. Coleen snorted in surprise, at first recoiling away in a knee-jerk reaction, but as the dog kept laying more wet kisses on her face, she couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Hey, stop—hey!” She held up her hands to try to divert the dog’s friendly tongue. The undersides of her forearms were banged up with scratches from hitting the asphalt, and the dog sniffed her wounds and licked them too. “I guess you’re not so bad,” she said, and hesitantly patted the dog’s head.

  The SUV had come to a stop a short distance away, and the driver stepped out, his face curled up in anger. “What the hell are you doing? Why the fuck you playin’ with your dog in the street for? Goddamn idiot!”

  Coleen stood up, and the pit bull turned and stood protectively in front of her. “What? You were on your cell phone!”

  “Hey, man,” Yuri shouted from the sidewalk. “She just saved that dog from your driving. Pay attention!”

  “Get out of the damn street!” the man shouted, clearly beyond accepting responsibility for his own actions.

  “Don’t look at your cell phone when you’re driving,” Coleen spat back.

  The man advanced angrily towards them, but stopped in his tracks with the dog started to growl at him. Again, Coleen had a knee-jerk reaction from the sound and took a step back, but when she realized the dog was protecting her, she felt her fear melting away.

  “Hey, hey, hey, now,” a thin voice called out. They all turned towards the source and saw the old lady sitting out in front of her house, a cell phone in her hand. She waved and smiled. “Now mister, I got a video here of you yapping on that phone of yours. That includes you just about to hit that girl and that dog, so if you don’t want me turning this over to the authorities—and don’t think I won’t think twice about doing it—you’d better get goin’.”

  The man mumbled to himself and got back into his SUV, slamming the door behind him, and its tires screeched as he tore away. Coleen breathed out a sigh of relief. Her heart was pounding hard.

  “Thanks,” she said to the lady as she walked back to the sidewalk, the dog following behind her.

  “Your welcome. That was brave of you, what you did for that dog. ‘Specially since you got a phobia. Looks like he’s pretty grateful to you for saving him.”

  Coleen looked down and saw the dog sitting at her feet, looking up admirably at her. She smiled, never believing she’d actually feel fond of a dog.

  “You okay?” Yuri asked. “Damn, you got scratched up.”

  Coleen looked at her arms. “I’m okay.”

  “That was awesome. You fuckin’ superhero’d that shit. Wow. I saw it all happen in slow motion.”

  Coleen crouched down by the dog. “I wonder who he belongs to.”

  “Does he have a tag?” the old lady asked.

  The dog panted happily, its tongue hanging out the side of its mouth. Coleen could see that it had a collar on. She cautiously reached under its chin to see the tag, preparing herself to be snapped at, but the dog only gave the back of her hand a quick lick. There was a silver diamond shaped tag attached to the collar, and Coleen held it between her fingers to read the etching on it.

  TIMBRE

  She flipped it up to look at the reverse side.

  “Timbre. I think his name is Timbre? There’s a number on here.”

  “Let’s bring him inside,” Yuri suggested.

  They thanked the lady for her help with the mad driver, and Timbre followed them up to the apartment without having to be coaxed. “If only he’d been this pliant when I was shouting from the window,” Coleen said, looking down at the mahogany colored pit bull that trotted alongside her. Timbre glanced up at her for a moment, tongue waggling.

  Back in the apartment, Yuri pulled a bowl out from the cabinet and filled it with water for Timbre to drink while Coleen called the number on the tag.

  “Do you think he likes cookies?” Yuri asked, scratching his chin.

  Coleen shook her head vigorously, the phone pressed to her ear.

  “He looks hungry.”

  “No, Yuri. No cookies—” She stopped herself when she heard the line connect. A young woman’s voice came through the speaker. “Yeah, hello?”

  “Oh, um, hi,” Coleen replied, swinging her flattened hand back and forth at her throat in an effort to tell Yuri to ‘cut it out’ with the bag of cookies he was pulling down from on top of the fridge. Timbre sat on the floor and eagerly eyed the bag, his tail thumping back and forth. “My name’s Coleen, I’m calling to let you know that I have your dog.”

  “Huh? My dog?”

  “Yeah, Timbre?”

  There was a rustling as the girl on the line grunted, apparently getting up from what she was doing, and Coleen realized she might not even have realized that Timbre had escaped.

  “Timbre!” Her voice came through distantly, like she was holding the phone away. Timbre, hearing his master’s voice through the phone, perked up and barked. “Oh, son of a… he must’ve gotten out. Damn old hag left the side gate open again. Thanks. Really appreciate it. Where can I come get him from?”

  Coleen gave her address, which turned out to be just a few blocks over, and hung up. “Yuri...”

  Yuri was in the middle of tossing a cookie up in the air for Timbre to ca
tch. “Just one,” he smiled sheepishly, “for surviving that close call.”

  Coleen sat on the floor next to Timbre as they waited for his owner arrive, and gave him scratches behind his ears. Timbre gazed contently back at her, his mouth hanging open in a wide dog grin. “You’re a nice dog,” Coleen said to him. She was surprised at how calm she felt around the muscular pit bull—no anxiety at all. She didn’t know if she’d gotten over her phobia, but at least she felt safe and comfortable around Timbre. Yuri laid across the couch, the bag of cookies on his chest, engrossed in his video game.