It was Saturday morning, finally. Even though Rick loved his job as a high school teacher and baseball coach, he looked forward to his free time. Of course, every other Saturday was spent mentoring some disadvantaged young kid who was without a father or whatever. Rick always tried to help wherever he could. He realized how fortunate he was to have such a "charmed" life; never having any major problems...well, except for Meredith and he refused to think about her this morning.
Rick smiled as he got out of bed and headed to the kitchen for his one cup of coffee. He could hardly wait to get outside to his garden...his passion. He spent countless hours in this garden, cultivating not just any flowers, but the most exotic and rare flowers that could be found anywhere in Seattle, or the entire United States for that matter. His pride and joy was the Himalayan Butterfly, a flowering herb, that, as far as he knew, had never been successfully grown anywhere outside its native South America. He had spent more money than he cared to admit importing and cultivating this flower, but it was worth it. Just yesterday, he noticed a small bloom and could hardly wait to observe the full flower.
Rick sat in his ultra modern, ultra white, and ultra spotless kitchen, planning the rest of his weekend. And besides, he thought, Meredith was wrong about him...dead wrong. He could open up...he knew how to let down his guard...what guard? He thought of himself as extremely warm and caring. Wasn't he always giving of his time, energy, and money to those less fortunate? Like his students...he always gave 100%...was always there when they needed him. What was it that Meredith said in that last conversation? Something about him never needing anyone? Well, that much was true. He could always take care of any situation. What's wrong with that? What did she want?...some wimpy, loser, like some of those guys that he had known in his lifetime? Not Rick...Anyway, all that was over now and his thoughts once again turned to his garden.
He stood up to put his cup in the sink and heard the strangest noise. It was the most shrill, high pitched yapping he had ever heard. Some animal must have been hit by a passing car or something. Or maybe that moving van parked next door. New neighbors...Ugh...
Rick calmly looked out the side door window to see what could possibly be happening. He noticed his golden retriever, Star, curiously following something with his eyes. Whatever it was, Star obviously did not deem it important enough to get up from his comfortable spot in the yard. Rick took a closer look and noticed the tiniest, ugliest chihauhau that he had ever seen and it was quite obviously trying to get a rise out of Star. What a sight! Rick almost laughed out loud (something he rarely did) except for noticing that the small dog was getting closer and closer to his Himalayan Butterfly. Almost reluctantly, Rick put down the cup and his newspaper and started out the door.
When he got out to the porch, he couldn't believe his eyes! The rodent was almost into the garden and Star was still ignoring it! Rick began to run and yell, but it was too late...out of the corner of his eye he thought he saw a short, bald guy running toward the dog, too. He couldn't worry about that now...all he could think of was his precious flower! The other man reached the dog before Rick, and he almost breathed a sigh of relief except, as the man reached for the dog, he fell right into Rick's garden! When Rick finally reached them...he felt like killing them both! Here was his precious Himalayan Butterfly broken and most likely destroyed by this dog wannabe and this unknown dork. The man sheepishly got to his feet and began to apologize...but not before Rick let him know in no uncertain terms just what he could do with his dog and where he could go thereafter!
But there was something oddly familiar about this guy. Had he seen him before? This gave Rick a moment to pause...where had he seen him? Definitely in the past...could it be?...no way...he hadn't seen that guy in decades it seemed. He took a closer look...it had to be....NAPPY!
RICK
NAP
WHEN ART HAPPENS