Saturday, May 30, 2009

Lucky

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named Lucky. Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, a guest would forget and something would come up missing.
Mary or Jim would go to Lucky's toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky's other favorite toys. Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.
Well, one day Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease. In fact, she was just sure it was fatal.
She scheduled a double mastectomy. The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky. A thought struck her: what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary's dog, through and through. If she dies, she thought, Lucky will be abandoned. He won't understand that I didn't want to leave him. The thought made her sadder than thinking of her own death.
The double mastectomy was more difficult than her doctors had anticipated and Mary was hospitalized for more than two weeks. Jim faithfully took Lucky for his evening walk each day, but the little dog just drooped, whining and miserable.
Finally the day came for Mary to leave the hospital. When she arrived home, Mary was so exhausted she couldn't even make it up the steps to her bedroom. Jim made her comfortable on the couch and left her to nap. Lucky stood watching Mary but he didn't come to her when she called. It made Mary sad, but sleep soon overcame her and she dozed off.
When Mary woke up, for a second she couldn't understand what was wrong. She couldn't move her head and her body felt heavy and hot. But panic soon gave way to laughter when Mary realized the problem: she was covered, literally blanketed, with every treasure Lucky owned! While she’d been asleep, Lucky had made trip after trip to the basement bringing his beloved mistress all his favorite things in life. He had covered her with his treasures, and his love.
Mary forgot about dying. Instead, she and Lucky began living again, walking further and further together every day. It's been 12 years now and Mary is still cancer-free. Lucky? He still steals treasures and stashes them in his toy box, but Mary remains his greatest treasure.
copied

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