Brody
and
the Rainbow Bridge
by
Nathan Pettigrew
One of my wife’s biggest achievements is starring in the Mommie Dearest play, but Lamia’s nothing like her character in real life. I’d met her at a Danzig concert, and we made out when he played “Mother.” I thought it was a sign. I thought she was going to give me children, and she didn’t, but she gave me Brody.
I knew Brody for seven of the twenty years he lived, which isn’t an unusual lifespan for a rat terrier. Brody went slowly, and Lamia lost a friend for not putting him down, a friend who called her cruel, but Lamia was anything but. Lamia stopped his seizures, drove long distances to get his medications during hurricanes, and gave him comfort when others might’ve given up on the inconvenience of caring for a dying dog.
Even I couldn’t be there for Brody in the end. My mother had taken a fall, and I flew states away to visit her in a hospital. Alone again with Lamia after seven years, Brody chose that week to cross the rainbow bridge, and Lamia prayed over him while burying him, a protective mother to the very last breath.
Bio:
Nathan Pettigrew was born and raised an hour south of New Orleans. His story “Yemma” was recently awarded 2nd Place in the 22nd Annual Writer’s Digest Short Short Story Competition. Other stories have appeared in Deep South Magazine, Penumbra Online, Stoneboat, Punk Noir, and the bestselling Gone anthology from Red Dog Press, edited by Stephen J. Golds.