Looking for Archie

It was a cold Saturday afternoon. Snow had been falling since early morning, so it had really piled up now. The ground was covered with a thick layer of white soft flakes. The bitter wind did not help. It was making it even more difficult to walk outside.

But Carmen was not going to give up until she found her beloved dog Archie. He was her joy, he meant everything to her and she just couldn’t imagine being without her furry friend. She had been looking for him for hours. Ever since her boyfriend (well now definitely ex-boyfriend) Tyler had purposely let out Archie out on the street to spite her, she has been searching frantically for her pet.

To think that she was going to give Tyler another chance! What was she thinking? This was one of those moments when she really wasn’t feeling too proud of herself. She’s always had such a poor taste in men, and been a bad judge of character. This has got to stop! I need to get my shit together already! She kept repeating to herself all morning.

First Tyler punched through her window because “he was in a bad mood” and now he lost her dog. And that’s just things he’s done over the last two days! His moods swings and irrational behaviour had been making Carmen dizzy practically since they met. And yet, every time he was in his better moods, acting all sweet and caring, she immediately fell for his phony charms. She was delusional to think that after 4 months of these ups and downs, he was ever going to stop being a jerk.

“Why do I allow men to treat me so poorly? What’s wrong with me?” she whispered to herself while tears were starting to pool up in the corner of her eyes again. She had been crying since Archie disappeared.

Where has he gone to? Archie, please come back to me! She prayed silently over and over again. He’s just a small Norwich Terrier and she was beginning to worry that he was somewhere out there not having a clue where he is, getting cold and hungry. Or worse…got hit by a car.

Tyler knew perfectly well that Archie was never allowed to be let loose outside. He’s a sweet dog, but he’s got the attention span of a goldfish. Every little sound or smell is enough to get him excited to go from one place to the next without any awareness of his surroundings. He gets lost easily. That’s why Carmen always has to keep him on a leash or watch him carefully.

It all started with a big fight last night. He came over drunk to her house and started accusing her of showing too much interest in his best friend, Mark. As if! The fight was starting to get out of control, so Carmen shouted for him to leave. But instead, he broke her window! She screamed at him furiously until he finally left her house. Then she had to stay up half the night and deal with emergency window repair, which cost her $500.

She was so angry that she swore to herself she was never going to speak to him again. She texted him just before she went to bed to tell him it was over between them. And just to mess with him, even though she didn’t even like Mark, she told him she always though he was better looking than him. She wanted revenge and this was the closest she felt she could get to it.

Turned out, that was a bad idea. Tyler showed up at her place early this morning and when she opened the door, he claimed he was there to apologize. Of course Archie was there at the door to greet him like he always does with everybody. And instead of apologizing, Tyler swooped up Archie in a quick motion and ran away with him under his arm.

Carmen froze with sock for a split moment but immediately after she started screaming, “Tyler get back here you son of a bitch!” But he didn’t listen. She quickly put on her boots, grabbed her coat and scarf and went over to the side table to grab her keys. Just then her phone beeped. It was an incoming text from Tyler which read, “Payback you bitch, your dog is out on the streets”. There was no more doubt about it in her mind, he was psychotic.

She ran out the door slamming it shut to go after him. But he was already out of sight. He must have turned around the block onto another street. But which one? She started running forward. She came to the crossroad and looked both ways. No sight of Tyler or Archie. She started to panic but kept moving. She turned onto Mary St. because it lead to the park where she always takes Archie to, so she hoped that was where Tyler was taking him to. But she didn’t find either of them there.

She had been trying to call Tyler ever since but he wouldn’t pick up. She even begged in her texts to please return her dog, but to no avail. Right now she was cold, tired and feeling desperate. She had been out since 8am and it was coming close to noon. Yes, she didn’t want to give up. She really loves Archie and was worried sick about him.

She’d been calling out Archie’s name over and over. People were giving her looks, but she didn’t care. She asked everyone she saw if they’d seen him, but nobody had. She didn’t know what else to do. She sat for a moment on a nearby bench and she started sobbing loud.

“Archie…Archie…please come back to me…” she was letting out between sobs.