Of Dogs & Wives | Luke Foyle | Grade 9
he had to make for breakfast. Again, he remembered
how Susan usually got it for him when he was sick.
He defended his opinion that he could help himself
by saying, “Alright, she does stuff for me but I can do
stuff for myself!”
Jerry fixed himself something to eat and returned
to the black leather couch to eat it. He sat there
and pondered why he had even gotten married in
the first place if his wife did nothing for him. He
remembered when he was leaving the tax office and
had thought of how Susan helped him whenever he
needed it. Jerry reminded himself that, if he had to,
he could do almost anything himself, just like he had
said. Jerry didn’t need Susan to go and offer Uncle
Sam most of their money when he didn’t feel like it.
Through the window, he could see a herd of deer
feeding in and out of the low hanging mist in a
cornfield, hazy and blue with the morning. Jerry
watched them contentedly as he ate. Suddenly one
of his dogs, bawling, dashed from under the house
and tore after them. The deer ran for a stand of
young pines and vanished from sight. Jerry had
a notion to throw a flat iron at the dog, but he
suddenly corrected himself. He could never strike, or
in hardly any way reprimand his dogs. “After all,” he
thought, “they’re just thinking like dogs. If there is a
deer, then they’ll chase it.”
However, he wished that the deer were still out
in the field. Jerry had enjoyed watching them
because they were quiet and not disruptive to their
surroundings. In the light of this, he reflected on the
opposite views which he and his dogs had. That was
a difference between dogs and men. His dogs did not
have reason and could not appreciate what men saw
as good. Therefore they could not share themselves
with him in the way that men could because they
could not think like men do. Thus even when he
was out hunting, his dogs could not gratify him
fully although some of his friends claimed that they
could. Jerry finished his bowl of soup.
After this, he reflected on how his wife treated
him. He remembered that he had repeatedly said
that she helped him with material things but
did nothing for him other than that. Mr. Shields
grumbled that before they were married he had to
listen to everyone saying that wives and husbands
help each other and all what not. At the time, Jerry
had just turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to the
bothersome family members who had a suggestion
for everything.
Mr. Shields continued to tell himself that his
wife just cooked, cleaned, and kept house for
him. He mused that perhaps that was the way
it was supposed to be because it was laid out in
the Bible that way. Being no scripture scholar,
he could vaguely remember a passage which he
believed proved his point. He was thinking of St.
Paul’s admonition, “Wives be subordinate to your
husbands.” As he again tried to decipher the words
on the bottle of medicine, Jerry told himself that
a wife is indeed supposed to support her husband.
Susan did do that, but his original grievance was still
unsolved. For all she did, she still seemed distant
from him.
Jerry walked to the small gas stove in the kitchen for
another cup of coffee. He had made a small pot that
morning and as he poured his second cup, the pot
ran dry. Then it hit him. There was a whole Bible on
“Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the Church...”
32
BAYLEY BULLETIN, MAR-MAY 2016
