Chapter 5: Eat

The street that used to be abandoned during that thunderstorm of the night before was waking up to a brand new day. Somehow the rains had brought a deeper hue to the surroundings - the leaves are more green, the flowers are more red, more yellow, more orange - the earth more brown - “Hmmmmm” as he inhaled the smell of the morning breeze, coupled with various scents from all over - people, food! “Food, Oh my God! I feel like I have forgotten how food tastes like.”

“Shoo! Shoo!” coupled with a mild whip of walis tingting on Polly’s small frame.  He cried with no sound walking backwards away from an elderly woman who was doing her early morning sweep of the frontyard.

“I didn’t see that coming!” Polly sighed.

While that was not the first time he felt a whip on his body or being shooed away, it still did not lessen how it felt deep in his chest. But it was not the time to be sad.

There was a time when Polly refused to listen when his mother would tell them about them being separated from one another. It was not only him that refused to listen actually, his brothers, too. She told them “Dogs are not really meant to stay together… We are made for a purpose, sons… Our purpose is to find a human and make a difference in his or her life.”

“What if I find more than one human, Mom?” he remembered Bitok asked.

“That’s even better.”

“Does Mom really think it’s possible? I mean, there was Mr. Santos, he’s a human! And then there’s Cornelio or, or that old lady that shooed me away! How can I make a difference in their lives if they keep pushing me away?”

“I wish Mom was here to answer all of my questions.”  

Polly looked around and decided that the mission of the day was first to eat, then to find a human. He then shook his head, ears flapping.

He walked cautiously along the busy street of Poblacion. “Mom is right. This is a dangerous place!” One wrong move and he could be quashed with just a step from any of the people walking or running around. It’s as if they were chasing something he could not see - a dream maybe or a mission.

As he walked on one side of the street, he started to see animals finally, some cats, some dogs, even rats! “Yikes!”

A man came out of the barber shop holding a stick of barbecue. He pulled out the first slice of meat with his teeth with some of the sauce falling on the floor. When the man looked down, he saw Polly.

“What are you a dog?” the man seemed to be asking him.

“Are you hungry?” the man asked as he took another piece from his stick.

“You want this?”

Polly didn’t know how else he could convey to that man that - “Yes, I am a dog!…Yes, I am hungry!…and Yes, I want that piece of fat skewered at the bottom part of the stick!… That is the best part, human!”

He sat there patiently but salivating with his tongue stuck out at the side of his mouth. He could already imagine how his papillae would celebrate at the touch of this piece. But just when he thought he was about to throw it towards him, the man changed direction and threw the stick in the trash. Yes, that stick with that fat still skewered!

He walked towards the bin thinking of ways to get to that food. He tried pushing himself up but he couldn’t balance on only his right leg.  

“Meooww… Hey, what’s in there, kid… food?”  said Trixie, a cat with triple colors.

“Well, yeah!” as Polly tried to climb once more…. “Go ahead, you can take it.” Polly said in defeat.

The cat let out a laugh. “Wow, I can’t believe that a dog is going to let me take his food! That’s a first!…. So what are you, two, three months old?”

“A little older.” Polly said hiding his face.

“You’re tiny. I am even bigger than you!” Trixie said matter-of-factly.

Polly never really took notice of his size. “I mean, I forgot about that!”   the voice in his head screamed. His mother always made him feel big, like he’s no different from his siblings - that he could do anything other dogs can do - “Yes, even with this leg that I couldn’t bend.” the voice in his head reduced into a whisper.

The trash bin fell to its side and made a sound that distracted him. When he turned he caught Trixie running away with the stick in her mouth.

“There goes my lunch!” he said helplessly.

His mother hated that word - helpless, but right that moment, he couldn’t think of any other word that could describe his state. Other words in his mind were - surrender, give-up - that’s what he was about to do until his senses got filled with that scent - “Sniff, sniff” he followed that smell.

“There they are - grilled chickens turning over those flaming pieces of coal… Yum! He stuck out his tongue to wet his lips. “Wait, how do I get there?”

He attempted to cross over to the opposite side but just as he was about to step onto the asphalt, a jeepney came speeding a few inches away from where he stood, the wind almost bringing him along. “Whoah! That was close!”

He practiced walking along the sidewalk but his left leg just wouldn’t cooperate this time. He was slow and he was walking with a limp at every step. There was no way he could make it to the other side alive.

Then an idea!

He walked towards a middle-aged woman wearing a yellow long-sleeved shirt that said “Street Sweeper.” He had been watching her move on both sides of the street with ease. “ If he would stay very still, maybe she wouldn’t notice him.

He stepped into the woman’s dustpan that’s been filled with all sorts of trash - paper, plastic, leaves. He covered himself up. He felt movement afterwards. The woman was crossing the street, dustpan in one hand with him in it.

“Success!” He made it to the opposite side.

Celebration was short-lived though. He was welcomed with a pack of four dogs led by Chocolate.

“You can’t be here, kid! This side is ours!” Chocolate told him with his three companions growling and showing their teeth to him. Polly pretended not to hear. He tilted his ears backwards to tell them he was not there to fight.

Polly thought that the name Chocolate didn’t really fit such huge tough dog. He was probably ten times bigger than him, his body was full and his fur was shiny. He also wore a collar that meant some human owned him. He was of mixed breed maybe Labrador and Aspin.

A whistle distracted Chocolate. It was his master, Unyo calling him.

Polly watched as Chocolate and his pack approached Unyo. Chocolate was in total surrender, tails wagging, ears pulled back and that seemed to please his human.

“Oh, that’s what I have to do!” Polly thought that if he could get his tail to move, maybe he’s got a better chance at fulfilling even just his first mission - to eat.