LATE MONDAY EVENING from a bluff above the ocean a man could be seen walking along the beach. His hands were in his pockets and he looked down as he walked, at the rocks. He walked slowly, his shoulders slightly bent, oblivious to the sound of the waves and to the sky pricked brilliantly with cold stars.
The dog watched him for a few minutes, then ran down from the bluff and padded up beside him. The man stopped. He reached down to rub behind the dog’s ears.
The moon shone upon the stony beach, the sleeping sea. A breeze passed through the trees that grew upon the bluff. There was no one around except the man and the dog, hopefully wagging its tail.
The man began walking again. The dog watched him, then trotted to the foot of the bluff and found a stick. It ran to the man with the stick in its mouth and dropped it at the man’s feet.
The man hesitated, then picked up the stick and threw it into the brush at the bottom of the bluff. As the dog chased after it, the man took something slowly from his pocket, then changed his mind and thrust it away again. He started walking more quickly up the beach.
But the dog ran up behind him with the stick, and dropped it, and barked happily.
Again the man threw the stick; again the dog ran to fetch it. Again the man took the knife from his pocket, and this time he followed the dog into the brush, and when the dog found the stick and turned to take it to him, he was already there.
The bushes reached to the man’s thighs and were bare of leaves. The moon was bright and it drained the world of color.
The dog looked at him inquiringly, the stick still in his mouth. He took the stick away and laid it on the ground. The dog nudged the stick with its nose, stood back, and looked at him imperiously.
“Sit,” said the man, gently.
The dog stopped wagging its tail and seemed to give a sigh. It sat, reluctantly, right in front of him.
The man bent toward the dog, his left hand on the back of its neck. He looked into the dog’s eyes and stretched his right hand slowly behind him and brought the knife forward swiftly, savagely.
When it was over he sat on the ground next to the dog and stroked its head and softly sang to it, and the man wept, and knew that he was lost.