Jim had been awake for thirty minutes, but his eyes remained closed as he dreaded the grueling schedule of the day ahead. Another form lay motionless beside him in the early light. "She doesn't have to get up for another three hours," he thought. "God, why can't I be so lucky? What did I do to deserve a day like today?"

Quietly he slipped out of the cool sheets and made his way downstairs to put on a pot of coffee. "Better make a full pot this morning," a voice echoed inside his head. "Yeah, right! I'm gonna need it!" He grimaced at the aches and pains that had caught up with him over the years, but it didn't slow him down too much. Not yet, anyway.

A little sad-eyed spaniel greeted him in the kitchen. Rocky was just two years old, so to be safe they kept him out of mischief each night with a small airline kennel: he loved his little plastic igloo, but he couldn't wait to go outside. "Hurry up, Rock!" Jim whispered in the pre-dawn stillness as he turned the key in the door's lock, "I've got to go just as bad as you do!" Continue reading →