Bite and Bark
Uncle Bruce was convinced that Lenka wanted to eat his face. The drive home from my university was about seven hours, so on the way to my parents’ house between semesters, I spent the night with Uncle Bruce, whose double-wide was situated at the halfway point. Uncle Bruce wasn’t really my uncle, and Lenka the husky wasn’t really his dog. But for all intents and purposes, we were something like kin to each other.
“I’m not saying she wants to eat my face,” said Uncle Bruce the last time I saw him. “I’m saying it’s in the dog’s nature. She won’t be able to help it. It’s a well-documented phenomenon.”
I shrugged. “That doesn’t mean it’s universal.”
“You don’t know this dog like I do.” He brandished his chopsticks at me. “When it comes down to it, I’m just food. I know it.”
We were eating instant ramen with crushed peanuts on top. Uncle Bruce had quite a lot of money, but he was one of those people who grew up in lean times and couldn’t bring himself to buy anything beyond the barest essentials.
“Why don’t you give her away, then?” I asked. “If she scares you so much.”
“When Cheryl comes back, she’ll get mad at me for getting rid of the dog, and then she’ll leave me again.”
Cheryl had broken up with Uncle Bruce five years prior, back when Lenka was just a puppy. Last I heard, she had moved to Australia to become a surfing instructor.
“That’s a good point,” I said. “You’d better keep her, then.”
Uncle Bruce liked to sleep in. I wanted to get on the road early, so I left the next morning before he woke up. His funeral was closed-casket. The money went to Lenka.
Read more micro fiction by Sophie Hoss at Fiction Attic: It’s A Little Bit Like Being Possessed.
Sophie Hoss is currently pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from Stony Brook University, and her fiction and poetry have appeared in BOMB, The Baffler, The LA Review, Identity Theory, and elsewhere. Her mini-chapbook "Little Divinities" was the runner-up for the 2023 MAYDAY Poetry Prize and will be published with New American Press. more of her work at sophiehosswriting.com.