Myra usually avoided the cemetery on her runs, but something had prompted her to take the road less traveled that day - namely, Eugenie. The pit bull had pulled at her leash until they were headed up Sycamore to the entrance, and hadn’t stopped until they’d arrived at the side by side markers laid into the ground. With a sigh, Myra had dropped to one knee, giving Eugenie a good scritch behind the ears as she stared down at the all too familiar marble pieces.
“Looks like Eugenie thought I should say hi,” she murmured, pulling away some of the grass that had started to encroach on the edges. “Guess I haven’t been around lately.” She brushed away the stray blades. “But here I am, same as the last time. Wish I had something more interesting to say.”
Eugenie yawned and gave a little whine, starting to pull on her leash in a different direction. With a sigh, Myra pressed a kiss to her fingertips, passing it on to each of her parents’ graves. “All right, genie,” she half-groaned, getting back up to her feet. “Where to next?”
Tail wagging, the pit bull set off downhill at a medium trot, Myra keeping pace as they wove their way down into the cemetery’s older sections. It was there that the girl caught her eye, and their pace slowed as they approached. All of Myra’s first aid training bubbled up to the surface as she tried to assess from a distance if the girl was somehow hurt; after all, it wasn’t exactly normal behavior to see someone down in this section, let alone sitting next to a grave.
When the girl spoke, it seemed obvious that she wasn’t somehow incapacitated. With her excited snuffling, Eugenie hadn’t hesitated to go right up to the girl, who reciprocated the interest with an intense stare, bringing herself nose to nose with the pit bull. Instinctively, Myra’s grip on the leash tightened, just in case she had to pull Eugenie away suddenly for becoming to agitated. But to her surprise, Eugenie simply sat, her tail wagging as the girl ran her hands over the dog’s head and immediately found her favorite spot to be scratched.
“Sorry,” Myra started slowly, watching the unfolding scene. “I guess my dog just really wanted to say hello.”