The Jewish Dog (15 page)

Lucas feared Gonzales
,
but he wasn't scared of me at all
,
and so he would try to undermine my position among the pack with all sorts of provocations
.
Every time he'd bathe in the lake
,
Lucas made sure to get me wet with the water he shook off himself
.
He would also bark at ungodly hours
,
and then pretend he had woken me accidentally.

Once I woke up early in the morning with a stomachache
.
I chewed on some grass to try to subdue the pain
.
Suddenly I felt an urgent need to fill my lungs with as much air as possible
.
Something was shifting and trembling inside me
.
I was no longer the master of my own body
.
In order not to choke
,
I opened my mouth and raised my stomach
.
My eyes were wide open and choking sounds escaped my mouth
.
I puked
.
Raising my head
,
whom did I see but Lucas
,
watching me with scorn
.
He knew I wasn't fit to fight back
,
and he chased me away with a salvo of barks
.
I retreated and watched him helplessly as he ate my vomit.

On a different occasion
,
I was burrowing in the ground and came across a hearty bone
.
Lucas
,
stricken by jealousy
,
came running toward me and caught the other end of the bone in his teeth
.
I tried to shake him off but failed
.
He had a strong grip
.
In angry growls
,
I reminded Lucas of the rules of food
:
he who finds the food gets the food
.
The finder has the right to protect his find from any aggressor
.
I made it clear that I would not give in
,
and he had better let go because I'd bite him until he bled
.
Lucas barked back in defiance.

Gonzales
,
who was passing by
,
intervened without delay
.
He approached Lucas threateningly
,
and the latter immediately let go of the bone and retreated
.
Gonzales took the bone for himself as a trial fee
,
but I was satisfied.

I remembered Kugel and the stolen sock
.
I had just been recompensed.

Finally
,
justice had been served!

One morning
,
I woke up later than the rest of the pack and stretched lazily
.
Margo was digging in the ground
.
She extracted a juicy steak that she had hidden there a few days earlier
,
and came to eat with me
.
Gonzales had gone out with Donkey Ears and the two border terriers to hunt rabbits
.
An hour later
,
they returned short of breath
,
tongues wagging
.
They hadn't found any rabbits
,
but they had come across a fox and had run him into the ground
.
Gonzales had managed to sink his teeth in the fox's neck and the four enjoyed an excellent meal.

Three days passed
,
and then things took a turn for the worse
.
The first victim was Donkey Ears
.
His magnificent ears drooped and his eyes turned a sickly red
.
He collapsed onto his stomach and all his limbs quivered
.
It was clear that he would never stand up again
.
Soon Reckless and Reliable
,
the remaining border terriers
,
began drooling uncontrollably and shooting crazy looks in all directions
.
They smelled like death
.
In less than two days
,
they passed on from this world in seizures and coughs.

Finally
,
it was the hour of truth for Gonzales.

He began growling
,
his back arched and his tail tucked in
.
He barked at branches for no reason
,
and lunged at me and at Margo
.
We ran away from him
,
terrified
.
He would relax briefly
,
with a thoughtful expression
,
in the shade of the trees
.
When I watched him lying so calmly
,
a small hope crept into my heart that perhaps the threat of death had passed
,
but I could see the end glimmering in his dilated pupils
.
The illness raged and its effects were palpable
.
Gonzales's ears bent back
,
the hair on his neck stood on end
,
his stomach shrunk
,
and his ribs stuck out.

He rose from his resting spot and began chasing me
,
frenzied
.
There was barely a stride between us
.
I could practically hear the beating of his heart and the chattering of his teeth
.
Suddenly he froze in his spot
.
He was terror-stricken by a nearby trickling river
.
Who knows what visions of sulphurous and tormenting flames he saw in the stream? He fought the sickness for two more days and then let go
.
He lay motionless and waited
.
I approached him carefully
,
though I knew that he no longer had the strength to bite
.
Gonzales
,
who was now more bone than muscle
,
lifted his head as though he was asking for one more hour of grace
.
A loud bark escaped his mouth and pierced the air
.
It was his last
.
His jaws trembled and all that remained in his lungs was the shadow of a whimper
.
I tried to butt my nose into his snout just one last time
,
but our pack leader's head fell as he choked and died.

The memories began flashing before my eyes
.
I could see us running toward each other in a friendly brawl
.
At the end of our scuffles
,
I usually ended up on my back with Gonzales huffing and puffing above me
,
proud of his unbeatable strength
.
The powerful Gonzales with the fiery eyes
,
who needed just one look to petrify the entire pack
.
I closed my eyes and bowed my head
.
That mighty dog was now motionless at my feet
.
I sniffed around silently but the moment of mourning did not last long
.
Lucas began barking proudly
,
“The king is dead
,
long live the king shepherd.” He galloped around the pack and
,
in loud barks
,
declared himself the new leader
.
Josephine barked along
,
accepting this new leadership.

Lucas looked straight at me now
,
a challenge in his eyes
,
and his bark held the hint of a viper's hiss
.
“Gonzales is gone and you lost your protector
.
Let's see if you dare bite me now!”

“You bastard
,
you mongrel,” I barked back
.
“Gonzales's body is still warm.”

Lucas bared his teeth
,
and his psychotic barks sent a clear message
:
you can't escape my powerful jaws.

Am I a cur
,
I thought angrily
,
that he allows himself to bark at me like that? This is it
,
I decided
.
Time for action
!
Disgust at Lucas's greedy appetite and gluttonous eyes spread through me
.
He was stronger than I
,
his muscles better developed
,
but I got my strength from being the underdog
.
The key to victory is initiative
!
I charged with bared teeth
,
and sunk my fangs into the soft and vulnerable part of his neck that was covered in thick
,
curly hair.

It was a shame Greta couldn't see me now
,
I thought to myself
.
I would like to hear her call me a cowardly Jew dog now
.
Lucas was not quick to surrender
.
He caught my right leg in his mouth and flipped me forcefully onto my back
.
He wasn't going to let me recover from the fall
,
and stood above me
.
He caught the back of my neck between his teeth
.
The fight reached its deciding moment
.
If the king shepherd were to shake my head with enough force
,
my neck would break and I would find my death in the same way the black kitten in Karl Gustav's mouth found his
.
I took advantage of the only weakness that was within reach – his large ears
.
I tore through his right ear with my teeth
.
I could feel my fangs meet through his flesh
.
As Lucas howled in pain
,
I removed my neck from between his jaws and sunk my teeth back into his injured neck
.
I shook him with force
,
overtaken by the fervor of the fight
,
until his sight became blurred and he whimpered for his life.

I couldn't kill him.

I let go of the wounded dog and allowed him to stand on his four feet
.
Lucas rose
.
His tail remained fixed to his belly
,
his arrogant barks stuck in his mouth
.
I gave two last warning barks
,
and he bolted
.
Josephine
,
whose treason had been brought out into the open
,
disappeared as well
,
never to be seen again.

I shook the remnants of his bitter fur out of my mouth
.
Lucas's gloomy shadow was gone
,
but I was a leader without a pack
.
Just as I rose to the throne
,
I became an ex-leader
.
Five were dead
,
two had fled
,
and we two – Margo and I – were alone
.
We knew that if we remained in this province without a strong
,
united pack
,
we would soon meet our demise
.
We walked toward one of the village markets and scanned the area for snatches of food
.
Our plunder was meager
.
The crusts of a sandwich
,
some egg shells
,
and the skeleton of a fish that had already been picked clean by the village cats
.
Margo spotted a fat rat at a street corner and began to bark
.
It was a fat
,
old rat with a stump instead of a tail
.
It whistled in fear and began running back and forth
,
searching for refuge from us
.
Our hunger was distressing
,
and the option of eating the rat
,
being as much meat as any other option we had
,
was almost tempting
.
Margo approached the rat and sniffed it.

“Let it go,” her look said
.
“Let the miserable creature go
.
It already smells like a carcass.”

My desire to bite the rat subsided
.
I curled up with Margo on a newspaper
,
in a mutual attempt to enjoy each other's heat
.
Margo fell asleep in the blink of an eye
,
but I remained awake
.
I turned around and got up again and sat down again
,
trying hopelessly to improve my sleeping position
.
The street was completely silent
.
I understood that another chapter of my life had just come to a close
.
A strange scent of dissipated smoke was in the air
.
Memories of the huge fires that had chased me away from the city came drifting back.

My stomach ached so much from hunger
,
I thought I would wobble like a drunk and fall flat on my face if I'd try to stand straight
.
Within the whirlwind of unfocused thoughts rose the memory of terrifying sights
.
I remembered the fires from which I had run
.
I remembered the charred pages
,
the torn pieces of paper that had flown out of books and disappeared in the wind.

I was suddenly scared
.
I thought I heard voices speaking in my ear
.
Was I hearing the ticks talk? It seemed as though I could understand their language
.
They wouldn't stop praising the sweetness of my blood
.
Was I going crazy? I could swear that I heard the ticks cheering as they feasted.