Dogs with Careers: Ten Happy-Ending
Stories of Purpose and Passion
Story #1
SPACE SHUTTLE - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida
A Mother and Daughter Astronaut Team, the Immortal Space Dogs, and Retriever, the Puppy: at The Eleventh
Dimension’s Dog Club
SPACE SHUTTLE - CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida
“They’re library dogs, Charlie. They’re
all dog-faces,” laughed the space station manager, as he waved good-night to his security dogs and locked the gates.
“They’re not just dogs with jobs, but detective canines with investigative sniffing careers at the space station
and in outer space.”
At night, the space station’s library is eerie, dim lighted, and in places, simply velvet-shadow dark, except
for the human’s dogs. They mingle with the shape-shifting immortal space dogs that prowl the space station library’s
corridors and live among the rows of computers.
Career dogs just want to have fun traveling onboard the space shuttles as working companion dogs, never locked behind
gates. These dogs don’t bite. They are dogs with purpose and passion.
This is a team of working dogs that can shape-shift from dog to human and human to dog live outside of time. And in
this century, they work for a mother and daughter astronaut team.
"Which dog sprayed wolf graffiti on the space shuttle?" A ground controller dog, a mellow, Chocolate Labrador retriever,
studied the photo. "But how did it get there?"
“Maybe it's a paste-on tattoo that the astronauts put on board to celebrate all those years here," the pack leader
howled in a licorice-sweet yelp. The omega canine hurried to switch off another computer.
'Retriever,' formerly a "library greeter dog" but now the ground controller's pet, sniffed with curiosity. He stretched
and curled up on top of the filing cabinet.At night, the space station’s library
is eerie, dim lighted, and in places, simply velvet-shadow dark, except for the human’s dogs. They mingle with the shape-shifting
immortal space dogs that prowl the library’s corridors and live among the rows of computer. Library dogs, like library
cats are people greeters, eager to be petted, therapeutic, and smart enough to keep quiet in the reading rooms.
They are “wannabee
me” free dogs who live in the space station’s lending library and travel onboard the space shuttles, never locked
behind gates. And these dogs don’t bite. They have fun as dogs with jobs—real working dogs that live outside of
time when they please.
Some, unknown to the
space program, aren’t even home-grown. Those include shape-shifting dog to human and human to dog type of dogs that
the mother and daughter astronaut team named Dogsniffer and Dogface Doggedetermination. And those two keep the astronaut’s
puppy, Retriever quite busy nowadays.
"Which dog sprayed wolf graffiti on the space shuttle?"
A ground controller
dog, a mellow, Chocolate Labrador retriever, studied the photo. "But how did it get there?"
He aimed a scowl of
surprise over his computer at his boss. "Maybe it's just a paste-on tattoo that the astronauts put up to celebrate all those
years here," barked the retriever.
The alpha dog replied
in a licorice-sweet yelp. “After all, faces of wolves represent cleverness better than these faces of wise owls you
put on your boss’s computer screensavers.”
“How about a
fox face to represent the ‘crazy as a fox’ cliché?” The retriever shook his floppy ears and took a sudden
interest in his forlegs, and then his elbows and paws. “Darn, the dust
mites in this place. A dog could get the balding mange.”
The dog’s boss
hurried to another computer. Retriever, the Earth-born dog, formerly a library greeter dog adopted by the ground controller's
boss, sniffed with disdain and curled up on top of the main filing cabinet. A computer screen banner reflected bright red
in each puppy's hazelnut-brown eyes.
Rows of blinking computers lit
up the room everywhere. The controller called in an expert. Everyone expert in the room studied the graffiti this time through
video monitors as they watched the space shuttle.
The controller pressed a button on his phone. "I'll call security."
"And I'll call Prunella Zeezee" said his boss. "Our latest female commander astronaut can fix anything."
"You don’t have to mention that the commander is female each time you refer to her," said the ground controller's
boss dog.
"You're right. Ever since we hired several commanders with toddlers, I'm always waiting for the first to give birth
in orbit," the ground controller dog said amiably as he extended his thin ivory paw across his human’s computer keyboard.
Mother and daughter
astronaut teams still made news. Prunella Zeezee Doggedetermination, 28, jet pilot, astronaut, and space scientist also worked
hard to be an athlete. Prunella sat next to her mother and long-time astronaut, Dr. Velia Zeezee Doggedetermination, one of
the first women in space. Velia went in as a doctor of space medicine.
Prunella had dogged
determination’s expertise at repairing space satellites in orbit gave the team buzz words in the news. The mother-and-daughter
astronaut team kept their space suits on. "Hey where are those takeoff orders?" Prunella barked into her phone.
Prunella adjusted the
controls as the first controller appeared on his video screen. "Okay, astronauts. Run out of that space shuttle. Let's call
it a day. We've got a security breach. Seems that someone sprayed graffiti on the side of the shuttle…."
Prunella winced at
her mother. "She doesn't know what it's like being a single mother to teenage space freaks."
"Was there something you wanted to tell me?" asked the first controller on his intercom.
Prunella pressed a button and wiped the
controller's face from the screen.
"Ooops! The wiring just short circuited," Prunella said. "We've lost communidogion."
Prunella
pressed the red alert button and sirens blared.
"I bet you'll love pushing papers, mom. So how does it feel to be shoved
out at fifty?"
"Wild," Velia sighed.
"Old astronauts never die, mom. They just orbit their lecture circuit."
"I'll run for president," Velia laughed. "Shouldn’t they all run for something?"
"It's back to Earth." Velia laughed as she removed her space helmet. She ran her hand across her cheek.
"Tell that to the dog twins," Prunella replied.
That night in the astronaut's dogs' play yard jangling jewelry chains grew louder.
Two feline figures walked slowly--Dogsniffer and Dogface the teenage dogs of Velia and Prunella Rhoades.
Each young dog
watched the world between two basketball courts until two members of a rough alley dog clique walked onto the schoolyard grounds.
A wind rose. Beyond,
a second space shuttle streaked across the dark sky, rockets screaming. Papers blew across the pavement. Dogsniffer rattled
his chain as Dogface kicked over a garbage can. The rocket noise grew louder leading a comet streak of light.
A clap of thunder blasted
overhead. Dogsniffer and Dogface watched their "mom's" space shuttle streak above. The two dogs looked skywards for a moment
and then on toward towards the two other dogs dressed in the same baggy pants. Did they belong to some support group for environmental
chaos? Dogface thought.
Dogface's eyes widened,
reflecting the lights above.
A garbage can rolled
toward the slowly moving dogs. A streak of lightning flashed from the sky, hitting the metal garbage can. The electric flash
climbed the school drainpipe like a Jacob's ladder. Suddenly the rain poured down.
Slowly Dogface and Dogsniffer, two Labrador yellow retriever dogs from the same litter, came face to face with tabby
gray alley dogs, Loco and Hugo, leaders of a Florida teenage stray dog community armed with unclipped nails and muddy paws.
Dogface glanced at
his ordinary clothes and the other dogs' conformist-like wear. He took an interest in his Dogface. With tales proudly to the
sky, the two dogs laughed nervously as they walked toward the two other teenagers. "I'm scared, how about you?" Dogface whispered.
"You can't judge a dog by his baggy pants," Will laughed, "I'm pretty scared myself." They all met, looked one another over
quickly, and laughed loudly. The four dogs begin to converse. "Yeah, we're members of Loco's dog community, so?"
The dark playground
stood still and quiet. Beyond, the city lights twinkled like stars, stretching across the city. Lightning and rain came down
hard.
Dogface and Dogsniffer
stood facing the other two, hands on hips, as the clique members began to circle them.
Soon they realized the other two dogs towered over them. They recognized the two from their school class. "Oh it's
just you two," Dogsniffer said. "Loco and Tom Dog. Here comes more trouble."
Loco, taller than Dogface or Dogsniffer, lit a rag in a bottle and smashed it to the ground.
The other dog balanced with arched backs
and twitching tails, nose extended sniffing and rubbing their Dogface on the jungle gym of the empty playground.
"I told you torn T-shirts,
fatigue pants, combat boots, and leather jackets means they belong to a clique," Dogsniffer said. "Dress doesn't mean all
that," Dogface added. "You'll see. You can't judge a dog by his clothes."
Tom Dog, the leader,
watched Dogsniffer take a small box from his shirt pocket. He held the little black box and pressed a button. Out shot a laser
beam.
"Hey, what's that?" Tom Dog shouted.
Dogsniffer walked under a street lamp, and Dogface followed him laughing.
Tom Dog and Loco closed in on Dogsniffer and Dogface swinging their arms like a monkey and making baboon hoots.
"What did you steal from the space shuttle this time?" Loco asked.
Dogsniffer stopped directly in front of
Loco's face. The rain fell down hard, dripping from the dogs' faces.
"I told you I was going to take you up for a ride in the shuttle," Dogsniffer said.
Loco laughed, and then Tom Dog as the two
dogs closed in on Dogsniffer and Dogface.
Tom Dog grabbed the
box from Dogsniffer's hands. He pushed the buttons, but nothing happened.
Dogsniffer stepped
back and circled Tom Dog and Loco slowly. Tom Dog and Loco circled Dogface and
Dogsniffer as they kept pushing the buttons on the flashing box.
"What's this thing for?"
Dogface took out of
his pocket what looked like a walkie talkie radio. He pulled a small switch. "You wanted to go to the moon?"
Without warning, radio
contact is made with the orbiting space shuttle. As the guys listened, Dogsniffer
and Dogface heard the voices of their own older sister and mom orbiting the Earth in space flight.
Meanwhile, way out in space, astronaut Prunella asked Velia, "Ever wonder what your dog
is doing at this hour?"
"He'd better be doing his math or designing something," said Velia.
"Oh, shucks. I forgot about the math quiz tomorrow."
On the satellite space station, Velia gazed out the window looking at Earth, the big blue marble, from a distance.
"I'm not going without a fight."
"What now?" Prunella complained.
Velia ate an astronaut's meal from a toothpaste tube. "Somebody's selling defective parts for the shuttle. I'm going
to be forced into early retirement for blowing the whistle.
It's Russian Roulette
up here."
"If you run for public office, mom, somebody will listen."
"They're kicking me
out because I know everything.
"The pink slip always says burn out. Only it's not me, it's the shuttle that's in burn out. Why don’t they dump
the space ship and keep the astronaut? It's usually the other way around."
"Did you ever hear of an astronaut burning out from keeping one hand in the dishpan and the other on the cradle?"
"No, Velia laughed. "She'd have to steer a space ship with the toes"
"Who says it's a 'she'?"
Prunella said. "With the twins dogs almost a year old and equal to humans in their teens now, I still have plenty of dog cradles
to rock at home with the younger puppys from the dog rescue home and no helper
or partner in sight."
A light flashed… the communications signal. "The computer has ears,"
Velia said.
"What do they need us for? Robots cost less."
Velia clicked on the Earth control station switch. The ground controller's face appeared on the computer screen. He
smiled.
"What's the matter? Is your armor cracking?"
"The robot's arm malfunctioned," Prunella told the controller.
Wires stuck out of the space robot.
It lied like a dummy across the bow of the space ship.
"Dump him. He's a loser," Velia
ordered.
"Do you see anything out there?
Any space alien dogs?"
"Just you, Tom," Prunella laughed to the first controller. He clicked off his communidogion screen.
Prunella grabbed a
tube of food paste and squeezed the mashed vegetables into his mouth. He gazed into outer space at the full moon.
"We have tons
of work, and we can't be stopping to take a nap."
"That attention to detail, mom, is what makes you a great commander," Prunella said, smiling.
Prunella floated down
into the lower equipment bay and found his little plastic bag. The space dog, Retriever, this orbit had been included with
them. Retriever had his own space suit and sniffed deftly at the canned air with disdain.
Velia sat at the controls and turned on his intercom. "In the next century,
This shuttle will be an amusement park
ride. Don’t you wish the dogs could watch you now?"
Back in the dark
and empty school playground Loco looked at Dogface and Dogsniffer's new toy.
"You didn't dare steal that thing from the shuttle."
Dogface whipped out a snapshot from his wallet. It's a picture of the graffiti spray painted on the side of the shuttle."
Loco looked at the
photo. Tom Dog tore it away from him and looked at it for a long time before ripping it up. "That's our tag. The police will
know it's us."
Dogsniffer laughed loudly. "You don’t think I'd write my own name on mom's spaceship."
"It's not your mom's," said Tom Dog.
Dogface grabbed the device back. "Now let me show you something. You're wondering how a hundred-pound dog sneaked inside
the space shuttle? Hey, I'm going to sneak all of you inside."
Dogface whipped out the laser tool he took
from the space shuttle.
"Now watch me, you dogs of genius."
"The dog's a genius," Dogsniffer yowled in a sing-song voice. Even more of a genius than Dogsniffer Gates…" Thunder
pealed.
"Watch me," Dogface barked. "Security breaker!" The laser tool shot a beam. "It melts metal," said Dogsniffer. "Better
than a video game. For real."
Dogface aimed the laser
tool at the jungle gym. It cut the metal in two. Loco perched on top of the jungle gym slid to the ground. The metal legs
of the jungle gym crashed down after him.
"Nice welding tool, eh?" Dogsniffer shook his device. "Perfect for melting space garbage. That's what it's for, my
friends. Melting space garbage."
Smoke and fire pour from the melted playground equipment. The light rain turned it into a steaming column that rose
around the dogs.
"That's what my brother uses to repair space satellites," Dogface said. "Look, I'm Rosie the Riveter," he laughed as
he moved his hand like a welder. "Just like Rosie the Riveter.
After a doctorate in physics, he still
melts space garbage."
"Well, he repairs satellites, too, Dogface."
"There's no getting away from doing the same thing year after year," said Dogsniffer. "When I grow up I won't be melting
space garbage."
"So maybe we didn't
miss much by dropping out of school," Loco sighed.
"You missed learning how to design my Web
sites," Dogsniffer added. "I wouldn't drop out now that the fun's starting. Talk about repetition, dropping out is the pits
of doing the same thing every day, guys."
"Yeah, somethin' new
every day, Tom Dog added."Like this."
Tom-Dog high-kicks Dogsniffer in his face.
A high karate kick with piledriver force. Dogsniffer drops his laser tools. As it clutters down, Dogsniffer's sneakers are
on tiptoe. Tom Dog hammer-scratched Dogsniffer with blinding speed. He leapt out of the way to the ground in a tail-twitching
heap and ran half-way up a tree.
“You missed. What’s the matter. Did the dog-groomer clip your nails?”
Loco grabs the laser tool. "Rich dogs steal expensive toys."
Tom Dog blasts Dogface
in the face. Dogface screams. The laser comes close, but misses. He turns his head, rolling away, and falls. Dogface claps his hands over his face and pretends he is burned. Tom Dog peers over him, laughing. "So
long, monster face. You want to be an astronaut like your brother and mom? Now you look like a Martian."
Tom Dog walked
away laughing hideously, followed by Loco who bent down and swiped the radio communidogion device from the pavement.
The rain streamed down over Dogsniffer’s
face, running into his eyes. Dogface helped him up.
"Are you still alive?"
"How come they didn't touch you, Dogface?"
"I made believe I passed out."
Loco left the playground and walked down the street. He stood under a pool of street light to put the laser tool in
his belt. Tom Dog joined him.
Loco switched on the box. He heard voices from the space shuttle control center nearby and then static. He put the
radio device into his belt.
Back in the playground, Dogsniffer sat up in a rain puddle. "What hit me?"
"Dinosaurs of distinction."
"I hope I still have
the tape."
Dogsniffer ripped open
his jacket. He pulled out his tape recorder. "Pretty neat, huh?" Dogface saw a microphone taped to Dogsniffer's shirt.
"What's the difference, Dogsniffer? They didn't say much."
"I think you're crazy to get involved with killer punks just to write that stupid comic book of yours." Dogface turned
away.
"I told you I'm turning my diary into a comic book with a real dog detective story, Dogface."
"Dogs don’t keep diaries."
"Immortal dogs from inner space keep diaries. Only they call it logs. Like in the Captain's log. Funny how girls keep
diaries and dogs keep logs, and they could be the same thing."
"Logs are kept by the captain of a ship or the owner of a business. Diaries are personal journals. When I grow up I
want to be a reporter."
"Well, I want to be an astronaut," Dogface said.
"Maybe I can be both."
"Yeah, well you're going to get killed trying."
Dogface gave Dogsniffer his handkerchief, and Dogsniffer wiped his face.
The two teenager dogs
walked down the rainy street. Thunder shook them silly. A bolt of lightning flashed, hitting a parked car next to them. The
twins jumped. They moved past the neon signs.
The two past a bum
who made a face at them and screamed. The bum put out his hand right into Dogface's face as he asked for money. Dogface barked
at the moon as the two walked faster.
The bum threw an empty wine bottle half sticking out from a paper bag at them. They
ducked as the bottle missed and crashed to the sidewalk The two moved on towards home.
"The bet's still on... that I get as much of an edudogion reading at home or while I travel around the world….sail
around….or better yet, take mom's space shuttle all over the place during the next four years as you'll get sitting
on your butt at school," Dogsniffer teased.
"Dogface, don’t worry. I'll forget ninety percent of everything I read two weeks after finals," Dogface said.
"If you think school's a waste getting an edudogion," Dogsniffer added, "I'll buy condos and rent them to students,
then sell them at a profit after four years. All I have to do is assume the human attitude.”
“Meanwhile, there
must be a million stories I can write if only I can find a way to use a human-made computer."
“Let’s
use our dog computers from our own planet. If the astronaut ladies didn’t bring us here with them so quickly, we could
have taken our own technology.”
“You may have
to take on the shape of a fourteen-year old boy to do that, brother. Luckily we can speak most of the languages of the galaxy.”
"Sure, you're not even
old enough for a social security card, and you're talking about buying real estate." What are you going to write about, Dogsniffer,
nutrition, genetics, warfare, your mom's job search, or your social problems?
"Look, Dogface. Mom promised me twelve thousand a year for four years to go to college or to invest, right? I'll have
a four-year start over you at your university majoring in classical civilization while I run up a portfolio of internet stocks.
I know, I watch my mom day trading all day, and she's gotten out with a hundred percent return on her dollar."
"Sure, Dogsniffer dog. And eight years from now I'll be a highly paid engineer astronaut,
and you'll be an unemployed finance writer
with no degree."
"But with lots of practical
experience."
"I give up. Here we're
not even finished with our first year in high school, and you're talking about what the world will be like in seven or eight
years when I'm through with college." Rain turned to fog.
A brilliant white glare
pierced the fog as a police cruiser glided by slowly keeping pace with the two staggering dogs. An officer shined his flashlight
on them. The doors flew open and two cops leaped in their faces. "Hold it, fellows," said the first officer. "It's three in
the morning. Do you happen to know where your parents are?"
Dogsniffer and Dogface
stopped in their tracks. As the two cops approached the twins, Dogsniffer and Dogface tugged the release switches in their
belts. Without warning jet streams rocketed from their heavy belts and backpacks that looked like small parachute packs.
Suddenly the two dogs
bolted upwards above the cops' heads. The cops drew their guns and raced after them. In a rush of wind, Dogface and Dogsniffer
swerved over the cops' heads, high enough to get beyond firing range. The two dogs vaulted a pile of cars. They whipped around
the street, and leaped the hood of parked cars.
The two cops jumped into their car. They followed the dogs raised now about ten feet off the ground. Dogface and Dogsniffer
leaped over the tops of telephone poles and trees.
The dogs and then the
cops snaked through the maze of streets. The officers followed each dog whose jet belts projected them forward. The twins
flew like jets. Now they traveled faster than the cop's car.
"Will they shoot
at us?" asked Dogface.
"We'll go faster than
their bullets," Dogsniffer said, grabbing Dogface's hand and pushing another button on Dogface's belt and on his own. "Let's
jet forward."
The two joined hands as they flew above the rooftops. Dogsniffer shouted with joy. "I told you mom's antigravity belts
would work as good here as in outer space."
"Prunella's going to miss them when he walks out into space trying shovel space garbage."
"I told you mom doesn't shovel space garbage. He repairs Internet satellites attached to orbiting space stations."
"Sure, Dogface, he's a space waste manager."
"Astronaut-pilot."
"Garbage man."
SPACE SHUTTLE - IN OUTER SPACE -
NIGHT
Prunella Zeezee took
a flying leap into outer space. "Okay give me the jet belt."
He poised in space
on the outside of the space shuttle. Sunlight flooded his space helmet. Prunella waved a tool at Velia. "Repairing an orbiting
satellite is the easy part. Where's my jet belt?"
Velia searched frantically through the packs in the space shuttle for the belt that would propel his dog through outer
space to the nearby orbiting space satellite. "Uh, oh. What a mother-dog astronaut team we are." Velia switched on her communidogion
device.
"The two space dogs of ours forgot to pack the jet belt."
"What? How can I repair this satellite? What do you mean they forgot?”
“Nobody forgot."
"Someone swiped it," said Velia.
"I checked it out before the launch, yesterday. I tell you
it was here."
"Get that damn hatch open," Prunella shouted.
Prunella switched on his communidogion device. He prepared to re-enter the shuttle, carefully wing-walking, tumbling
through space held by a tether.
"We're heading back. If I find out who took the jet belt, there's going to be a size sixty law suit."
ALLEY JUNCTION - NIGHT
Dogsniffer and Dogface
laughed wildly as they flew around a maze of alleys. "Suddenly they can't find the two jet belts just as they step out into
space," Dogsniffer chuckled. "Oh, man. The look on their faces." Dogsniffer and Dogface pressed a second button and soared
over the rooftops.
"It's not funny, " Dogface argued. "They'll have to come all the way back. I hope that space junk falls on your head."
"Then I can sue somebody famous."
"I'd rather be somebody famous,
Dogsniffer."
"You're a ninth-grade
genius, bro, but such a jerk."
The police car finally caught up to the
two. It sdogded at the corner in time to see twins Dogface and Dogsniffer take off at a right angle. The geek dogs vaulted
over Florida's rooftops. Two police officers stopped in
awe. Traveling even faster, Dogface and Dogsniffer soon became a tiny point in
the sky. The first police officer grabbed his car phone. "No one will believe us."
SPACE SHUTTLE - NIGHT
Even the rat inside
space shuttle running a clock wheel couldn't give Prunella the time of day. Next to his rat, a litter of baby rats in the
cage watched Prunella studying them.
"How would you like
to give birth in outer space like that rat?"
"Pregnancy isn't the only way to stand out in a crowd, dog"
"Don’t look at me that way," Prunella said. "If you want to be a better single mom, then act like a child."
"What's so good about going back?" Velia looked down at the Earth from outer space and pointed. "Crowded as a can of
cockroaches… Is there one house left where I don’t hear my neighbor's toilet flush? Look down there at that blue
marble. Ever wonder why they build houses so close together?"
"Maybe we should search for signs of superior life." Prunella laughed. "Out in space, there's plenty of land for everybody.
Bet you can find a whole acre backyard out there someplace and real cheap, too."
"At least here on the space platforms, the minus-two-hundred-degree winters keep out the riff raff."
"Whom do you think swiped the belts, dog?"
"Terrorists. First the graffiti. Now this. Let's get back home. Maybe your bosses did it to
force you into early retirement."
"At least in the old days, Prunella, there was no manual control. So if the engine rockets
didn't fire, I'd be stuck here.
"And remembered as
a hero," Prunella said smiling. Velia looked out into the darkness and bright stars.
"Accidents are always a series," Velia added. "A world series."
"One event right after the other," said Prunella. "No single cause ever does it."
Velia took a sip from his water bottle. "Wait until that satellite crashes over Russia or China.
Without needed repair, dog, are we in trouble. They took the two jet belts. Why couldn't they have left us just one so at
least either of us could have fixed that satellite?" Prunella patted her mother's
back. "I'm sure your talking space dogs will be real proud. Isn’t it neat the way they look like real Earth-born flame-pointed puppys? No one would suspect they can shift shape into human-looking fourteen-year
old boys when they want."
“No one will know we met their ships in space. Let’s not say a word, and we get to keep those immortal
dogs of space.”
ALLEY - NIGHT
Dogface and Dogsniffer glided. Their antigravity belts left streaming jets behind them. Full tilt… The agility
of skateboarders moved closer to them looking like great skateboarders in the sky. They smelled the skateboarders’ hovering
belts. The twins rose above the treetops, then below, then above the rooftops. They flew past a full huge moon in silhouette.
They shook hands in a dogish way. The rooftops blurred by.
The view from the rooftops
below became a city maze. Dogface and Dogsniffer saw their reflections in the lake they flew above. They saw their silhouette
like two shadows, against the bright yellow full moon. They jetted by, flying like a bird. Their jet belts sputtered. "We're
running out of battery power," Dogface wailed.
"Chip power," Dogsniffer
added. "Ten atoms thick chip power."
"Bet they can get down to a five atoms thick computer chip in five years," Dogface boasted.
The sputtering grew louder. Slowly, both
dogs gently fell to the sidewalk, lit by the moonlight.
Neon lights spun around them as the two turned on a dime. The two dogs cast off their depleted antigravity jet propulsion
belts.
Dogsniffer nervously tucked the belt away in his backpack. "It's still not too late to back out."
"We're not at the mercy of technology yet."
"That's exactly what astronauts say when ordered to walk on water," Dogface said. "We're at the mercy of guys who glue
planes together with bubble gum because they don’t get paid enough. That's what grand moms always tell me."
Dogsniffer nodded. "Shall we blow the bolts to the booster?"
Dogsniffer pulled two
ski masks out of his pocket, handing one to Dogface. He put on his ski mask.
"Dogsniffer, are you willing to speak out to your congressman? Are you ready to go on the air to save your childhood?"
“No,” Dogsniffer laughed
"Good, Dogsniffer.
Then we're space brothers." Dogface slapped Dogsniffer's hand.
CAPE CANAVERAL
TWO-STORY MODEST HOME - NIGHT
Palm trees cast shadows
on the driveway where bicycles and lots of electronic gadget junk on the lawn lies across patio tables. There's a loudspeaker
and stereo hooked outdoors. Comic books, fast food wrappers, and empty cartons are sdogtered all over.
The house stood out
like a teenager's nightmare of a messed-up room. Old toys rusted on the lawn. Parts of cars being worked over frosted the
driveway. The house was an eyesore. An upside down gingerbread… A sore thumb sticking out… A telephone pole in
a rich man's swimming pool. It looked nothing like the neat upscale homes next door to this disaster.
Someone strung Christmas
lights across the eaves. The darkness inside contrasted with the lights outside the windows. Dogface and Dogsniffer tried
to sneak into their parent's home, but Dogface tripped over his bicycle left in the driveway. He made a crashing noise.
Marina, the housekeeper and burly lady wrestler, awoke tiptoed down stairs. She opened the door, looking both ways
as if she had to cross the street. Meanwhile, the dogs hid in the bushes. In five seconds both had shape-shifted into fourteen-year
old boys to look like the astronaut’s friendly neighborhood kids who visit a lot and got to know the housekeeper, Marina,
since the astronauts hired her two weeks ago.
Dogsniffer threw a
twig against a back window. Marina hurried around to the back
door, leaving the front door unlocked.
Dogsniffer and Dogface
entered the house and hurried up to their rooms. Dogface turned on the radio and two computers. "She never noticed we weren't
in our own homes. She must think were neighbors," Dogface said shaking his head. "She's scared of the dog’s room, "
Dogsniffer laughed. "Here only two weeks and too scared to enter our hardwired world."
Marina heard their radio. She ran back and locked the
front door. Dogface turned up their favorite music station. She held her ears and hurried to their room.
Two computers with
Internet radio played even louder in their adjoining rooms. Marina shook her head in bewilderment seeing only two neighborhood
boys the astronauts always allowed to play with her spare computers in a special dog’s room they shared with neighborhood
kids who came in now and then to use the computers for homework research. She walked slowly.
"Afraid the computers
will bite?" Dogsniffer laughed. Each computer ran a different program. And each dog had two computers. "We're running games."
The dogs stayed in their human form to put Marina at ease.
"Not at this hour,"
Marina yelled. She pulled their computer plugs. "Tomorrow
is a school day for dogs with jobs."
“Not only jobs,”
they barked. “Careers in sniffing for surveillance….”
