Where I try and make sense of what is going on.
I slammed the door harder than I wanted to and put my back against it. My heart thumped in my chest and I could hear the blood rushing through my ears.
I took a moment, trying to calm myself down, telling myself there was no way I just saw what I know I did.
The house had a large window just to the right of the door, and I peeked in.
There it was, just standing there if I could not see it breathing I would have thought it was a statue, but every few moments it moved, shifting its weight from foot to foot or looking around the room.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and called the owner of the house. He answered on the first ring.
“There is a fucking bear in your house,” I said as soon as he said hello. I watched the bear from the side window, the thing was huge. It had brown fur speckled with black and gray and it had to be at least seven feet tall. Its eyes scanned the room and then looked at me through the window, I fought the urge to hide on the other side of the door but the bear didn’t move.
“Yeah,” the owner of the house said, “that’s Dog.”
“What?” I asked.
“We hired you to walk Dog, the bear is Dog, don’t worry he’s harmless,” the owner said, his voice calmer than it should have been considering there was a fucking bear in his house, “he used to work in the circus, if he likes you he might ride his unicycle, although I wouldn’t push the issue.”
“You named your bear Dog?” I asked.
“Yeah,” the owner said, there was traffic noise on the other end of the line and I heard him swear at someone, “it fits his personality, the circus had named him Bernard, but he just didn’t seem like a Bernard to me. I mean you tell me, does he look like a Bernard?”
“He looks like a fucking bear,” I said.
“C’mon Justin, let it go, he’s a bear so what, he’s gentle and well trained, all you need to do is take him out for a walk and make sure there is food and water for him, I’ll be back in a couple of days,” the owner said.
“You could have told me,” I said.
“Really, Justin? You think I did this to surprise you?” the owner said, “I did tell you, also, why the fuck do you think I’m paying you so much?”
“You asked if I would walk your dog,” I said.
“No, I asked if you would take care of Dog, and you agreed, I said are you sure, he’s a fucking bear, and you said no problem you grew up with big animals,” the owner said.
I had no answer to that, he was right.
“Is this going to be a problem?” the owner said.
I swallowed hard, I needed the money.
“No, I got it,” I said, “just a little surprised is all.”
“You need to pay better attention when people talk to you, let this be a lesson,” the owner said and hung up.
I took a deep breath and opened the door.