A warm early-morning breeze blew through the Pawston Pawtomotive garage as young Tag Barker was currently busy tinkering with her purple motor-scooter, installing a stronger engine for pulling heavier loads. There were few things in the world she loved more than working to improve her trusty vehicle, as she always felt the most satisfying sense of accomplishment when each piece perfectly fit together like an intricate puzzle. In a way, this was her own unique form of meditation.
“TAG!”
“AH!” Tag yelped out in surprise, dropping her wrench into a small space under the bottom of the engine. She turned her head in slight annoyance to find her older sister standing over her with a worried expression.
“Cheddar Biscuit, you scared me! What’s wrong?!” Tag stood up, matching her much older sister in height.
“Sorry Tag, I just need to ask you a huuuge favor so I rushed over here to find you and ask about the favor before I could get distracted and forget to remember to ask you about the favor, so-” Cheddar was speaking a mile a minute, and although Tag was relieved there wasn’t any big catastrophic emergency, she rolled her eyes as she turned around to fish her wrench out from the chassis of her scooter.
“Cheddar, slooow down so I can understand you,” she said before gently biting down on her tongue as she stretched her fingers out as far as she could manage to grab the wrench.
“Sorry, sorry.” Cheddar Biscuit took a deep breath, exhaling out to calm herself. “The point is, Colby’s birthday is coming up soon, and I want to do something to make it really special for him. So the favor I wanted to ask is… will you teach me how to build a car?”
“Colby?” Tag turned her head back around as she grabbed the wrench, noticing the glow in Cheddar’s pink cheeks at the mere mention of his name. Putting two and two together, Tag suddenly dropped the wrench again as she gasped loudly and excitedly turned back around to face Cheddar. “Do you like-like him? Wait! Are you two ‘boyfriend and girlfriend’?!”
“W-well, we didn’t really talk about it officially, but… I think so?” The little white Beagador’s cheeks turned from pink to red as she vividly remembered the taste of his soft lips on hers during that wonderful kiss they shared on the Ferris wheel the night before.
“EEEEE!” Tag girlishly squealed in delight, already picturing him as her new brother-in-law. She ran to the far corner of the garage and pulled the dusty tarp off the vehicle she had put together for the car show last year. “You can give him the Barker Buggy I made!”
“Wait, are you sure?” Cheddar asked as her brows furrowed, approaching the car and resting her paw on the sleek purple paint as she looked it over.
“Yeah, I never really drove it as much as I thought I would. I prefer my scooter.” Tag wiped a bit of dust off the car with her paw. “Besides, I can always just make a new car if I ever wanted to, anyway. It’d hardly cost me an afternoon.”
Cheddar thought about it for a moment as she looked at the sleek car in front of her before shaking her head.
“No, thanks for the offer, but I can’t just give him this. I wanna make him a car, especially for him.” She pulled the tarp back down over the hood. “Can you please teach me?”
Tag winced a little, remembering back on how uncooperative and distracted Cheddar was with Gilber during their ‘Not-Yet Cadets’ pedal-car building challenge. But then again, she wasn’t exactly the best building partner with Scooch, either. “...How about I just make him a car exactly how you want it to look, and then you give it to him?” When it came to cars, the little copper-colored dog much preferred to do all the work herself.
“Please, Tag. I want his present to be something I made. It wouldn’t feel right to give him something you put all the work into. I need to prove that I can get serious about something other than ‘clowning around’ for once.”
“Wow… you must really like this dog, huh?” Tag was a bit taken aback with how determined Cheddar seemed. She couldn’t recall a single time when her older sister was so passionate about something other than clowning.
“I really do. I know I’ve only known Colby for a few days, but… he’s really, really special to me. He just makes me happy in a way I’ve never felt before.”
Tag knew all too well how Cheddar felt; from the first moment she first met Scooch, she just knew there was something about him that was special to her as well. From the instant she’d laid eyes on that little blue terrier moving into the house next door, Tag knew in her heart that they’d be best friends for life. As she returned to her scooter to think it over, Cheddar continued as she followed.
“You’re like a genius when it comes to anything with a motor. Teaching me how to make a simple car can’t be that hard for you. Please? Please? Also… please?”
“...When is Colby’s birthday?” Tag sighed as she rubbed her temples, willing to help her sister but getting a bad feeling that she would have her work cut out for her.
“June first,” Cheddar recalled; thankfully, his birthday was an easy date to remember.
“So about a month…” Tag reached back down into her scooter again and finally pulled out the wrench. “And what do I get out of this arrangement, hm?”
“I’ll do all of your chores for a month.” Cheddar rolled her eyes; of course there would be some kind of catch.
“Three months.” Tag coyly smirked, trying to get a sweeter end of the bargain.
“Two months, and not until after Colby’s party.” Cheddar held out her paw for Tag to shake.
“Fine, deal.” Tag firmly took her sister’s paw, and with that her ‘classes’ began immediately. “But no clowning around.”
“How hard could it be? Gilber and I built that car once for the final Race Cadet challenge, so this shouldn’t be too different, right?”
“Those were just go-karts, and the parts were practically fully assembled already.” Tag shook her head as she walked over to the parts box. “Not to mention, you didn’t put the Barker bolt in like I suggested. If you want to make Colby a real street-legal car made from scratch, it’s not gonna be so simple.” She dumped the box of many small metal parts on the floor of the garage. “So, do you know what a ‘catalytic converter’ is?”
“...I think so, but what do cats licking themselves have to do with cars?”
‘This is going to be a looong month,’ Tag thought in private, rubbing her eyes between her fingers in frustration.
Meanwhile, Colby sat alone on the park bench as he casually watched the adorable puppies and their caring parents happily playing together on the playground. He slowly closed his eyes, looking inwards to his inner self in deep meditation as the green-birds’ songs being carried on the warm spring air met his ears. Their warbles and chirps were reassuring for him to hear as they broke through the darkness around him with their melodic tunes. The birds, the gentle wind blowing through the leafy trees, the joyful laughter of the many happy dogs around him - they were like the soundtrack of life. Of peace. Of safety. And he cherished every second of it.
The yellow Labrador suddenly opened his green eyes when he felt a tennis ball roll gently into his foot. As he bent down to pick it up, he was greeted by a playful little blue puppy excitedly wagging her rear end and panting heavily as if expecting him to throw it. Colby looked and looked at the tennis ball in his paw for a few seconds, then back down at the puppy. Then back to the tennis ball. Something about the ball was… entrancing. Captivating, even. With a few blinks and a shake of his head, Colby gently tossed the ball for the little puppy to chase after, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his paws over his mouth as he was suddenly deep in thought.
“What is happening to me?” He thought to himself.
Colby was salivating.
“Okay Cheddar, this is called a chassis.” Tag gestured to the featureless steel frame in front of them. “This is what we build the car around.”
“Chassis. Got it.” Cheddar picked up the two-dog car seat next to her and placed it on the metal bars. “This’ll be easy-peasy!”
“Uh, Cheddar…? The seat goes this way.” Tag rotated the seat ninety degrees to face the front of the vehicle. “And besides, the seat doesn’t even go on until step forty-four.”
“Oh. What step are we on right now?” Cheddar asked, her paws on her hips as she watched Tag slide the seat off to the side.
“One.”
“Oh… and how many steps are there?” The white Beagador’s palms began to sweat, wondering if this would be such a good idea after all.
“Three hundred and seventeen.” Tag replied casually with a grin as she patted her big sister’s shoulder before crossing in front of her to teach her what an alternator was.
Cheddar gulped.
Colby stood in front of the ball store, watching as other dogs turned the giant lever to receive a ball of random size and color. After much deliberation in his head whether he should get one for himself or not, he finally decided to give it a spin.
He turned the lever, and out rolled a shiny red rubber ball that fit perfectly in the palm of his paw. It reminded him of one of Cheddar Biscuit’s juggling balls. He looked around at the other dogs nearby, most of them happily chewing on their new ball as though it were the most delicious thing in the whole world.
Colby looked down at his new ball, slowly raising it up close to his mouth. This felt incredibly strange to even think of doing, but it was just too tempting to resist. He placed it between his teeth and slowly bit down, causing it to let out a high-pitched squeak. His tail wagged and he bit down again. And again. With each squeak of the ball in his mouth now covered in his saliva, all his troubles seemed to melt away more and more. Colby finally understood. This was what it truly meant to be a dog.
This was heaven.
That evening, after Cheddar Biscuit had finished her mechanic lessons with Tag, she was studying the manual in the kitchen when she heard the doorbell ring.
“Arf! Arf! Arf!”
She barked as she got up and ran to the door, having never been so excited to hear that doorbell in her whole life.
Just as she expected, Colby was standing in the doorway.
Cheddar wanted to throw herself at him, but she remembered what Tag had asked earlier. Were they ‘boyfriend-girlfriend’? Although they had shared a kiss, she still didn’t know for sure exactly where her relationship with Colby stood.
“H-hey Cheddar. Do you have a minute?” Colby asked, not knowing that this question actually struck fear into Cheddar’s heart.
‘Oh no, does he regret what happened last night? Does he just want to stay friends? This is it, isn’t it? It’s over…’
“Uhh, sure.” Cheddar Biscuit felt her heart pounding, feeling certain that he came to cut ties with her. ‘Of course he wouldn’t want a clown for a girlfriend,’ she thought.
“Let’s go for a walk.” Colby gestured towards the sidewalk with his head, taking her paw in his as they began to walk together.
They had walked several blocks without any exchanged words between them, with Cheddar’s nerves eating away at her all the while. It was driving her mad.
“Colby?” She finally asked, breaking the long silence. “There’s something I have to know.”
“What is it?” Colby turned to look at her, his expression already looking much warmer and happier than it had been the past several days.
“So… are we… y’know…” Cheddar Biscuit’s heart ached at the thought of one of two possible outcomes. “...a couple?”
Colby stopped in place, turning to face her. He bent his knees slightly, tilting Cheddar’s head up before giving her the second kiss she’d ever experienced.
“Does that answer your question?” The yellow Labrador asked, his wet nose finally pulling away from hers.
“Uh-huh…” Cheddar nodded in a daze, both of their smiles growing the longer they looked at each other.
“Why did you even need to ask?” Colby held her paw in his again as they continued walking. “I thought after last night, it would have been obvious.”
“I just…” Cheddar swallowed, her mouth still feeling the sensation of Colby’s warm canine lips pressed against hers. “I guess I thought I’d never meet someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
“Even when I’m goofing off, you don’t seem to get annoyed with me.” Cheddar looked down at her feet as they walked.
“I don’t think you’re ‘goofing off’, I think you’re just being your truest self, and that’s really admirable. Some spend their whole lives… hiding who they really are.” Colby’s tone shifted to a more solemn one for a second before his lighthearted expression returned, his paw holding hers a little tighter than before. “You’re really fun to be around, Cheddar Biscuit. You make me happy… and you have no idea how much that means to me.”
There was a long silence again for another block down the street as their hearts were both swelling, simply taking in each other’s comforting presence until Cheddar spoke again.
“...Can I tell you the story of how my grandparents met?”
“Yeah, okay. How did they meet?” It felt like a random topic to suddenly bring up, but Colby was interested to hear it regardless.
“My grandmaw, Marge, has owned the Pawston Pawtomotive Garage ever since she was my age. She practically lived there, working from morning to night almost every day. One day, my grandpaw comes in. He was just passing through town on one of his annual road-trips, and he needed a new… something-or-other, I forget what it was called. But something in his car suddenly broke, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to make it to the next town without it. So my grandmaw spends the entire morning trying to fix it, when suddenly it starts raining. Hard. We don’t get a lot of rainy days here, but it was raining so badly that that day became known as The Great Pawston Flood of ‘68. The river near Pawston had risen so high that it completely covered the roads. No one was going in or out of town. So with my grandpaw still stuck at my grandmaw’s garage even after she’d fixed his car, they started talking and talking for hours. The flood lasted all night, so they had to stay in that garage together the whole time until the water went down. The next day, my grandmaw took him out for a spin on her motorcycle. And just like that, his road-trip ended right here in Pawston.”
“That was a cute story.” Colby smiled as he gently kicked a small rock off the sidewalk with his foot.
“Yeah, I think so too.” Cheddar Biscuit blushed. “And that’s… why I believe in fate. Or destiny, or whatever you wanna call it. If it hadn’t flooded at that exact time after my grandpaw had stopped at my grandma’s garage, or if that part in my grandpaw’s car hadn’t broken in the first place, my entire family wouldn’t even exist. It’s kind of freaky to think about… how little things like that can add up and change everything.”
Colby thought about everything he’d experienced that had led him here. All the roads he had walked down. How even the worst moments of his life had led him to something good in the end.
“I… really am glad I met you, Cheddar.”
“I’m glad I met you too!” Cheddar Biscuit smiled as the warm evening sun hit her face, making her white fur appear to be a shade of tangerine before leaning up and giving Colby a kiss on the cheek as they walked. “I think we always end up exactly where we need to be, at the end of it all. Things don’t just ‘happen’, they all happen together.”
‘Destiny…’ Colby thought with a smile.
Over the following weeks, Colby and Cheddar Biscuit both slowly began to learn more and more with each passing day. Not just about each other, but about themselves. Colby learned that Cheddar often had terrible morning breath if she neglected to brush her teeth in the mornings, and that she was also quite the airhead who would often get easily-distracted by her desire to put on a funny show for any nearby dogs; Meanwhile, Cheddar learned that Colby had a bad habit of itching and picking at his tail and often seemed to be on-edge, frequently looking up at the sky as if nervous about something. But despite each of the other’s flaws, neither of them minded.
The two of them would typically spend most of every day together, and Cheddar would teach Colby about the seemingly-innocuous little things about living in Pawston that still confused him. She showed him just how addicting chewing on a bone could be, and the joys of rubbing his back on carpets and rugs. He even started to learn from Cheddar how to have fun by playing dog games, such as catching a frisbee in his mouth, digging in dirt with his paws, and chasing birds. They also went to watch fetchball games at Pawston Stadium together - once Cheddar Biscuit taught Colby what fetchball was.
He also spent time with Cheddar’s family, getting to know each of them better as well.
“Hey Gilber, what’re you making?” Colby asked as he approached the Barkers’ yard one day to visit Cheddar, noticing that he was lying on his stomach in the grass and tediously arranging what appeared to be a small scenery out of clay and other crafting materials on a styrofoam block.
“I’m putting together a diorama, obviously. For my presentation at Tree Club. And I need total concentration.” Gilber’s brow furrowed without ever taking his eye off his model, carefully placing a toothpick into a particular spot on a hill.
“Oh, cool!” Colby crouched down, taking a closer look at it. “Do you want some help?”
“I don’t need help,” Gilber groaned, his teenage moodiness getting the better of him.
“Okay, no problem. I’ll get out of your fur. I just thought that spot could use a model of a dog or something to show scale. But keep it up, it looks great so far.” Colby pointed to an empty spot on Gilber’s model before getting back up and heading for the house.
“...Wait!”
Colby turned his head to see a smile slowly growing on Gilber’s face.
“Mort, just come down, you’re gonna hurt yourself! That ladder’s almost as old as you are!” Grandma Marge called up to her husband from in the Pawtomotive Garage as Colby passed by several days later.
“I almost got it Marge, just gotta- get these old bones movin’...” Grandma Mort replied, though he was barely halfway up the ladder and clearly already having trouble.
“Is everything okay?” Colby asked as he entered the garage.
“Grandpaw thinks he can climb all the way up that flimsy ladder, but I’m worried he’s gonna need a hip replaced.”
“Not sure why it was all the way up in the loft anyway… ah, my lumbago…” Mort grumbled under his breath as he reluctantly made his way back down the ladder.
“What did you need up there? Maybe I could get it for you.” Colby asked as he held firmly onto the ladder for Mort to safely get down, noticing that it was indeed thin and flimsy.
“It’s a box of some old memories.” Marge answered, holding her husband’s waist to help him down.
“Old and dusty, like me,” Mort chuckled light-heartedly before setting his foot on the floor.
Without another word, Colby jumped up onto the nearby machinery and climbed up it to the loft before quickly dropping back down with a box in his arms.
“This one?” The yellow labrador asked, turning his head to sneeze into his shoulder as some of the dust on it had irritated his nose. “...Excuse me.”
“That’s the one.” Grandpaw took the box from Colby’s arms before opening it up, pulling out an old vintage photo and smiling. Colby peered over to see it was a picture of the two posing by an antique red motorcycle, much younger and holding a tiny puppy that appeared to be Paw.
“Thank you, Colby.”
“Hi, Mrs. Barker,” Colby crossed the street and greeted Cheddar Biscuit’s mother as she was walking down the sidewalk one evening with a large box in her arms. “Do you need some help with that? It looks heavy.”
“Oh, I’m fine. Thank you though, Colby,” The lavender dog replied with a smile, “if you could walk with me though, that’d be lovely.”
“Sure thing, just let me know if you want me to carry it for a bit.” He walked beside her, keeping a lookout for any oncoming cars as they entered the crosswalk. “What’s in there, anyway?”
“Oh, just a shipment of new stock for the doorbell store. Gerald accidentally brought it to our house instead. But that’s okay, it’s a nice day for a walk.” There was a brief pause in the conversation before Maw spoke again. “So what’s my little circus star up to today? You two have been running around so much lately I feel like I barely see her these days.”
“Oh, today we spent some time by the river and then she put on a one-clown show for the puppies at the daycare center. They really liked the bit where she pretended to pull her finger off and reattach it.” Colby smiled as he remembered the delighted looks on their faces. “Right now she’s doing something with Tag, though. Didn’t tell me what.”
“...My daughter really adores you, you know.”
Colby blushed, taken a bit by surprise with the sudden shift in her tone.
“I-I… I adore her too.”
“Good. I trust you wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.” There was no look of skepticism or wariness on Maw’s face, only one of firm and serious faith.
“Never.” Colby replied in earnest without hesitation, and Maw smiled.
“You’re a good boy, Colby.”
Colby’s tail wagged excitedly behind him; he’d never been called a ‘good boy’ before.
It wasn’t much longer until they approached the doorbell store.
*Ding-Dong*
Paw’s ears perked up at the sound of the door opening, his tail wagging as though the mere sight of his wife immediately made today the best day of his life.
“Hey, Maw! Hey, Colby!” The tall brown dog greeted them as he came around from behind the counter. “Oh, are these the new doorbells that finally arrived?”
“They sure are, three hundred units of Adorabells.” She pulled a doorbell out, showing that the design was a pile of three sleeping pastel-colored puppies. Paw rang the bell, and it made a sound that resembled a gentle lullaby-like tune.
“Wow, it seems like there’s a doorbell for everything imaginable,” Colby stated in awe as he got a good look at the wide variety of doorbells on the display walls, everything from tennis balls to bones and even rubber ducks. “I didn’t know there were so many different styles.”
“Oh, that’s only the tip of the iceberg!” Paw took the box from Maw and set it down on the counter. “See, there used to be only one style of doorbell all the way up until the 1990’s, with the simple ‘ding-dong.’”
“Really?” Colby asked, “That’s interesting, how long have doorbells been around, anyway?”
Paw’s eyes and smile widened, overjoyed that Colby was taking an interest in the long and extensive history of doorbells.
“Well! It all started in 1817 with an inventive Terrier from Barkingham named Woofiam Murdoch made a pipe system in his house out of compressed air-”
“Here we go.” Maw nudged the labrador’s arm playfully with a smile. “Now you got him started.”
The weekend after was the monthly community picnic, and nearly every dog in town was enjoying a buffet of burgers, watermelons, and a wide variety of other summertime foods; that was, except for Tag, who was alone at the farthest corner of the park and busy working on improving her race car.
She wasn’t alone for long, however, as a small yellow dachshund and a large green sheepdog approached her.
“Do you ever think you’re gonna beat Wind Swiftly, Tag?” Frank, the little dog, teased with a snicker as he rested his paws on one of the tires. “You’ll never be able to beat Sam Whippet if you can’t even beat her!”
“Do you ever mind your own business, Frank?” Tag quietly grumbled in annoyance as she tightened a bolt on the engine, trying her best to ignore him. She wished that Scooch was here to back her up, but he was out-of-town with his mom for the Windmill Festival in Chewston.
“I just don’t see what the point is of trying so hard,” Frank continued, the sound of his voice making Tag’s grip on her wrench tighter, “Soon you’ll have so many losses they’ll probably call you ‘Tag the Travesty’. If you ask me-”
“Hey Tag, I brought you a burger and lemonade,” Colby interrupted as he approached the little orange dog with a plate and a cup in his hand. He glanced over to the other two with a polite smile on his face. “And I don’t believe we’ve met before, are you Tag’s friends?”
“...Uh, yeah. Sure,” Frank nonchalantly backed away, gently pushing Beans towards the rest of the picnic. “Let’s get outta here, Beans, I’m hungry for some potato salad.”
“Alright then, have a good day! Oh, and by the way…”
Frank looked back at Colby, whose face quickly went from a pleasant smile to an intense scowl.
“...She didn’t ask.”
Frank got the message.
“Thanks, Colby,” Tag said as the older labrador handed her the food and drink.
“I hope they weren’t picking on you too hard,” Colby looked back at the two as they ran in the opposite direction. “You can always let me know if they’re bothering you.”
“Frank and Beans aren’t all that bad really, they’re okay sometimes.” Tag replied before taking a drink of the lemonade. “They’re more of a minor annoyance than anything else. Like a tick that gets under your fur.”
“Well still… there’s few things I hate more than a bully, and believe me when I say that… I’ve met some of the worst kind.” Colby’s fur on the back of his neck stood up slightly. “So if it ever gets worse… let me know.”
Tag nodded, and the two stood by her car for a moment as she took a big bite of her burger. Although she was playing it cool, Colby could tell that what Frank said really got to her.
“And Tag?”
She swallowed, looking back up at her sister’s boyfriend as she took another drink of lemonade.
“You’re destined for great things. I just know it.’
Tag dropped her cup and plate on the grass, tears welling up in her eyes as she gave Colby the tightest hug she possibly could.
“Yip! Yip!”
“Hey Yip, you want me to throw the ball?!” Colby crouched down to Yip’s level as the little magenta dog dropped a sand-covered blue rubber ball as the Barker family spent the day at Pawston Beach.
“Yip!” Yip replied excitedly, getting a running head-start as Colby drew his arm back.
“Go get it!” Colby threw the ball far down the beach, chasing after it alongside Yip as well as the salty ocean air on his furry face.
“Y’know…” Maw commented to Cheddar as they watched Colby playing with Yip. “I think he’d make a great dad.”
“Yeah…” Cheddar replied before realizing the implication of what her mother had said. “W-wait, WHAT?”
Maw simply smiled and shrugged as Cheddar’s face quickly turned as red as her clown nose, and the others chuckled.
They agreed.
As time went on, Cheddar Biscuit began to notice that the sad and inauthentic smile Colby often wore when she first met him was becoming less and less frequent, slowly but surely being replaced with nothing but smiles of genuine happiness. His tail noticeably wagged more and more every day. But there was one thing that no matter how hard she tried, she still hadn’t seen Colby do - laugh. He would smile, he would sometimes happily hum in a way that almost sounded like laughter, and he would even occasionally chuckle quietly under his breath, but Cheddar still never once heard him let out a full laugh.
On weekday evenings well into the late hours of the night, Tag would continue to teach Cheddar Biscuit in secret how to build a fully functional car. It took a lot of trial and error - a lot of error - but over time, Tag was soon starting to become impressed as her normally goofy and carefree sister was actually getting serious about something for once. Cheddar Biscuit was determined to prove that she could do this.
She also put the plans for Colby’s surprise birthday party in the tree into full motion, asking every dog in town who she knew could keep a secret to come. Her family, the Barkapellas, Wagnes, Manhole Dog, Sergeant Pooch, Lady Lydia, Muttfield, and many others that Cheddar Biscuit knew well. That was, except for Scooch. He wasn’t not invited, but Scooch was notoriously bad at keeping secrets, so it was decided it would be best that Sergeant Pooch would simply tell them about it at the last possible minute.
On weekends, Cheddar Biscuit had to spend most of her day rehearsing with her troupe for their circus act until the curtain-call in the evenings. Colby, of course, attended every single show to support her, and each one was a massive success. With each consecutive performance, the audience would fill up with more and more dogs, and the cheers got louder and louder.
And before long, Colby was at the Barkers’ for spaghetti dinner, where he finally got to meet Cheddar’s brother Spike for the first time as he was home visiting for a week. He was invited for dinner again the next day, the day after, and the next day after that. It was like he was part of the family.
“-and so that was how my day went.” Paw Barker finished his anecdote about an interesting experience with a customer at the doorbell store as they all sat together at the table, eating their dinner of various different foods directly from their plates - pawnini sandwiches, strips of bacon, dog-biscuits, and jalapeño-and-cheese-covered nachos. Colby was eating off his plate as well.
“Thanks again for dinner everyone, it was delicious.” Colby spoke up after he had finished his plate.
“It’s our pleasure, Colby!” Maw replied with a smile as she took his plate to the sink. “You’re always welcome here.”
“Speaking of which, if you don’t mind me asking…” Grandpaw Mort added, patting his full belly as he finished his plate as well. “Where do you live?”
“Oh, um…” Colby suddenly looked uneasy, feeling rather embarrassed once he really thought about it. “In a… cave. I stumbled across it one day hidden in the hedge-maze shortly after coming to Pawston.”
The room went silent.
‘I thought it was weird that he never showed me where he lived…’ Cheddar thought.
“And you live there… all alone? By yourself?” Grandmaw Marge asked with a look of concern on her face. “You don’t have any family in Pawston that you stay with? No relatives?”
“N… no.” Colby muttered. This dinner had suddenly taken a turn he’d rather not discuss.
“I never mentioned that to you?” Cheddar asked her family, to which they all shook their heads. “His family’s all back home.”
Colby shook his head as well.
“I, uh… might’ve… bent the truth a bit, Cheddar.” Colby hunched over in his chair. “I’m sorry. The thing is… I have no family… none. Not anymore. They’re gone… forever. When I first came to Pawston, I…” He swallowed, feeling the pressure quickly building in the corners of his eyes.
“...I had no one.”
The Barkers covered their mouths in shock. Colby started to tear up with a sniffle as he pushed back in his chair, standing up. “I’m sorry everyone, I should go. Thank you again for dinner.”
He left the open kitchen dining room in a hurry as he wiped his eyes, heading for the front door as the Barkers all sat speechless at the table. Paw gave Cheddar Biscuit and the rest of his family a look and they all nodded, knowing exactly what he was thinking without having to say a word.
Colby opened the door, letting out a shuddered sigh as the cold and lonesome night air hit his body. When he lifted his foot to take the first step out the door, he was stopped by the feeling of something firmly gripping his wrist.
He turned his head to see Cheddar Biscuit’s entire family behind him, with Paw Barker looking sternly into his eyes as he held onto his wrist.
“You’ve been through a lot… haven’t you?” Paw asked with an expression more serious than Colby had ever seen him. “I know we could never replace your family, but… you’re not alone anymore, Colby. And you’ll never have to be alone again. You’re one of us. You’re a Barker.”
Colby quietly gasped as tears trickled down his yellow furred cheeks.
“I’m a… a… Barker?” He whispered.
“If you‘ll have us,” Maw added, resting her paws on Cheddar’s shoulders.
“We are known to be a bit of a wild bunch!” Tag chimed in with a laugh, knowing there was never a dull moment in this family.
“Mostly Tag,” said Spike, to which the Barkers chuckled - Tag included.
“So… what do you think?” Cheddar Biscuit spoke up as she approached Colby as well, placing her paw in his.
“I… I’m…” Colby looked down, his expression hard to read as his tears dripped onto the floor beneath him. His shoulders quivered as he sniffled, the sounds of his soft crying the only noise in the house. He looked up at the Barkers. Paw, Maw, Yip, Grandmaw, Grandpaw, Spike, Gilber, Tag…
Cheddar Biscuit.
His family.
His home.
“...I’m a Barker.”
Colby’s tail began to wag, and he hugged Cheddar Biscuit and Paw in his arms; the rest of them joined in eagerly as they welcomed the Barker family’s newest member.
“I’m a Barker!” Colby cried out through his continuous tears of joy as they all smothered him in a warm family hug, and the cold night wind gently pushed the front door of the Barker home slowly shut behind him
‘Colby Barker’.
He liked the sound of it.
Although there wasn’t quite enough room for Colby to fit on the already cramped family-sized Barker bed, Maw set up a small makeshift ‘mattress’ for him on the bedroom floor made of spare blankets and an extra pillow from the closet; it would at least be enough until they could get him his own small bed to sleep in. But Colby was more than grateful for what little they could offer, as tonight would be the first time since before he could remember that he would finally be sleeping comfortably in a house - in a home; as the Barker family settled in for the night, the yellow Labrador was immediately fast asleep.
White. Nothing but lifeless, colorless white was all Colby could see when he opened his eyes. He sat up on the ground he laid on, looking down at it. It was pitch-black, with scales hard and coarse, and it extended all the way to the far horizon like an ocean of jagged obsidian. It almost seemed to faintly shift and move beneath him, as if it had a life of its own.
“ALONE.”
A booming voice spoke to him, deep and guttural like that of a demon.
“No… no… not again… no no no no no no no no no…” Colby whispered, terror striking his heart as he stood up and ran across the endless terrain. He ran, and ran, and ran.
“ALONE, ALONE, ALONE, ALONE, ALONE,” The familiar voice repeated as if it were mocking him. It began to overlap itself, echoing ceaselessly until Colby couldn’t even hear his own thoughts.
“NO!” Colby shouted as he began to cry. All he could do was run, feeling utterly and completely hopeless. Powerless.
“ALOOOONE.”
Cheddar Biscuit slowly opened her eyes once she was sure everyone else had completely drifted-off, carefully tiptoeing off the headboard and around her family’s heads before setting her feet gently down on the floor. As she crept around Colby’s sleeping body, her floppy ear perked up as she could hear him quietly whimpering and whining in his sleep.
“N-no… no…”
He was shivering in fear, his legs kicking slightly as he laid on his side and tightly clung to his blanket. His chest was heaving up and down.
‘What happened to you, Colby…?’ Cheddar wondered as she got down on the floor next to her love, carefully wrapping her arm over his chest from behind and snuggling up against his body in an effort to comfort him.
The voice continued in Colby’s mind, refusing to end its cruel torment as he ran across eternity.
Suddenly, Colby was halted in place when he felt a warm and reassuring embrace from behind him. He turned his head to see a very blurry but still recognizable Cheddar Biscuit hugging him from behind. The memories of just a few hours ago came rushing back to him, making him realize that this was all nothing more than a bad dream.
‘You’re not alone anymore, Colby. And you’ll never have to be alone again,” the memory of Paw’s words echoed in his mind, ‘You’re one of us. You’re a Barker.’
“I’m… I’m not alone. Not anymore.”
The voice finally went silent, and Colby’s nightmare quickly faded away into a much more peaceful dream of his new family.
As if he could sense Cheddar Biscuit were there by his side, Colby’s whimpering eventually stopped, and his tense body relaxed.
‘I wish you could tell me…’ Cheddar thought, slowly stroking his chest from behind with her paw. ‘I wish… I could help you…’
After keeping her sleeping boyfriend company for a short while longer, Cheddar Biscuit quietly got back up and made her way outside to the Pawtomotive Garage next-door. Letting out a yawn, she cracked her knuckles once she turned on the lights and got to work. She wouldn’t allow herself to get any more help from Tag for this, who had already taught her everything she could. She looked at the calendar on the wall. Colby’s birthday was tomorrow; she needed this present for him to be made with care completely by her, and her alone. She had all the parts she needed, and after a month of Tag’s teachings, she was confident she had the necessary knowledge.
Now she just had to put it all together.
