A LOYAL BIOGRAPHER

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

One dog in the neighborhood, called Matty by humans, has been entrusted with remembering the life of another dog, called Arturo by humans. For the last two years, ever since Matty came to live in the yard next door to Arturo’s yard, the two dogs have been close companions, and Matty has heard most of Arturo’s stories, though they have been delivered in a different order than the order in which they originally occurred. Arturo’s account of his childhood, for example, has only recently been related, while stories about the last month have been presented almost as soon as they were experienced. Arturo, who is at least fourteen years old, is faltering to the point where he does not expect to see the new year, and so has been preparing Matty to act as a steward of his memory. At Arturo’s request, Matty will give special focus to smells and sounds, with ideas being of next import, and visual descriptions a distant third, largely because Arturo developed cataracts in his tenth year and his human owners did not tend to them in a timely manner, resulting in a period of four years and counting in which Arturo has seen mostly gray shapes moving through a lighter gray field. Arturo acknowledges that his life story may not differ greatly from that of other dogs, which is why he has elevated his ideas to a higher value, given that he has specific and uncommon thoughts about the nature of existence, and whether or the periods before and after individual existence are continuous with it in some spiritual manner. He believes they are. Matty does not, but will represent his friend’s beliefs accurately, as agreed. The fence between them, aluminum in composition, powder-coated black, with posts every six feet and pickets every five inches, has allowed everything to flow between them freely.