She sat on the back porch watching her dog piss on dead rose bushes; brown branches bare from autumn’s wrath. The yard was filled with yellow leaves that had fallen in the month of October. Mornings, she’d walk on the frosted ground and hear the crunching of death. Grass would soon be brown as well. Everything brown. Colors were making a run for it. The yellow and the gold, red and rusted, all turning overnight to bits and pieces with stems attached. Snow was coming.

Quiet, she said as the sun came over the city and the large dog began to bark. Be quiet. Shhh, he kept barking. A garbage truck rolled down the alley. The hound hated this. He hated this whole city scene. The dog felt trapped by a wooden fence standing tall, buildings blinking lights, cars, and ambulances driving by. He constantly barked. And as much as she tried to quiet him, the dog would bark louder. Letting her know his disapproval of where they now lived.

He took off in a pickup truck to go find himself somewhere in America. As soon as the papers were signed, he was out of there, leaving twelve acres behind. The couple sold the land and made a small fortune. She took the dog and the loot while he lost his mind out on I-95. Going up and down from Virginia to all points north. He spent days on end sleeping in that truck. Money was spent on food, booze, and companionship. America’s expensive.

She’d think about him from time to time. So did the hound. He would sit by the door for hours crying, waiting for the ex to come home. He never did. And part of her wanted him to come through that door as well. There were times when she missed him. And then she’d think about his drinking and womanizing; those thoughts went away in a cloud of smoke from her cigarette. Just lingered in the air.

One thing’s for sure, he said to a woman in Philly one night. We all hate being lonely, he told her. We hate it more than the devil himself, she laughed. You can’t change the past. You can only prepare for the future.

You know what your future is? she asked him as she stirred her drink. He shook his head. You’re just a lost soul, aren’t you? Looking for something. But, you don’t know what.

No, he said. No, I don’t.

The hound barked in the morning.