TheBanyanTree: barking dog

[NancyIee at aol.com]

I used to live on a busy street, back when streetcars were the norm for  
public transportation.  Our house was on the corner, and day and night, we  could 
hear the rush of tires, the "clunk-clunk" as they bumped over the street  car 
tracks. Across the street was the elementary school, with the playground  
right across from our house, and until full dark, we heard the screams and  shouts 
of the sandlot games and gym classes.  But, for as long as we lived  there, I 
think our minds blocked out the noise. Except for the neighbor's  dog.  They 
had a dachshund that stood just inside the fenced and  barked.  He barked 
every time we came out of our house, if we played in the  yard, if we merely 
looked out the window. He just barked. He barked, that sharp  yap like nails into 
the skull.  We did not hear the traffic or the  playground, but we heard the 
dog.
 
Over the years, we heard dogs.  Our own, when we left him out after  dark, or 
if he thought the sky was falling. The neighbors during neighborhood  street 
games, especially if we played hide and seek near him. He always informed  the 
"seeker" we were behind the lilac bush.
 
At the lake place, where the wind and the water coming ashore upon the  rocks 
was constant, we heard the dog barking down the shore. We did not  hear the 
motor boats, the kids down the way playing on their trampoline, my deaf  
grandfather's loudly-televised ball game. We heard the dog, leaping on the end  of 
his rope, and barking.
 
I had my own noisy children, playing and screaming, racing through the  house 
as pirates or the posse, or after the kid with the ice cream. I did hear  the 
cry of a skinned knee, but that was a mother's thing, quickly tended. I  
learned to tell the difference between pain and simple screech.  But,  through it 
all, I always heard the dog barking, whether he was chaser or chasee  in their 
games. And, I do admit to hearing night sounds, waking if someone was  up, or 
not feeling well. But, that was years ago, and now my nights are silent.  I 
sleep through the night storm, the alarm clock in another bedroom, and  
rooster's crow, but the dog's bark always breaks into my dreams.
 
The dog across the way, acres away is a barker. He barks at hawks, at the  
occasional car, at the moon, or just because. We live in the country, and I  
don't hear the wind in the trees, the water pump chunking on and off, the  
chickens battling, the eagles hunting in the sky. I hear the dog barking.
 
Now, miles from anywhere, I sit at my computer, look out over a pasture  
where the horses graze quietly, and hear the dog barking.  She is outside,  
wanting in, or inside wanting out.  Outside, is the silence of the farm,  the birds, 
the chickens, the neighbor's tractor as he mows hay. I hear it not.  It is 
all just part of the daymusic.
 
I hear the dog barking.
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