Today ….

There is a professor of literature who teaches at the university and it seems, lives down the next road. I didn’t know until today when I was accosted by his black lab. He tells me he’s been away all summer at his villa. I didn’t understand where. He speaks with a French accent. He seems to not know the neighbors which explains why no one ever mentioned him to me.  

Yet, his dog has been obnoxious to me all summer. I ask him,

“so will he be nice to me now that I have been invited inside?”

“No. I doubt it,” he says, matter-if-factly

I want to say,

“maybe you can leash him?” as I rub my ankle where his teeth didn’t get through my boot. But I don’t say that.

As I throw the book into my backpack he calls to me what sounds like 

“Return….jen-ever.”

I am almost all the way back when I figure out what that means