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Lost and Found
Proper 19 | OT 24 | Pentecost 16
Click here for the full installment.
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| Keith Hewitt |
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Contents
"Lost and Found" by Keith Hewitt
"Messes into Miracles" by Kirk R. Webster
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The old song asked, "How much is that doggie in the window?" In today's story about a lost puppy, Keith Hewitt reframes the question from "how much" to "why should we care?" After all, the world is full of dogs...
Lost and Found
Keith Hewitt
Luke 15:1-10
The graphic was simple, the copy was blunt, calculated to reach under your rib cage, grab your heart, and rip it out, Temple of Doom-style:
LOST -- DACHSHUND (Wiener Dog)
Last Seen Corner of 5th & Madison
3 Days Ago
Answers to Louie
Call: 682-4504
REWARD ! ! ! !
Between the name and the phone number was a color photo of a black dachshund staring into the camera, wearing a red and white party hat with a frilly gold tassle. The look in his eyes was one of resigned tolerance, as though he knew the hat was silly, but was willing to put up with it for the sake of the boy in whose lap he sat.
Presumably the very same boy who was duct taping the flyer to every utility pole on the block…
Martin pulled his car to the curb and watched the boy for a few moments before he got out of the car and walked up to the nearest pole and carefully studied the paper that had been stuck there. Unaccountably, though there was no obvious similarity between a fourteen-year-old shih-tzu and a one-year-old dachshund, the picture reminded him Madame Chiang, and he smiled wistfully in the bright summer sun.
How many years had it been since he'd thought of her, snuggling up against him under the comforter on a cold night… the way she grunted and slunk away when he pushed her, and the way she always came back. She had been half senile and all blind when he went off to his sophomore year at school, but the phone call from his father had still been a shock.
He shook his head, shook off the memory and sighed, turned his steps toward the boy, followed him quickly until he caught up. When he did catch up, he realized he didn't know what he wanted to say. "So -- your dog is missing?" he asked after a moment and cursed himself for the inanity of it.
The boy barely paused. The tape zipped beneath his hand as he pulled out a length of it, slapped it against the top of the flyer to hold it in place, and quickly stripped off a second piece to hold the bottom. Then, with the paper held securely, he peeled off strips for each side. When he was done, he looked back at Martin. "That's right, sir. Have you seen him?"
"Can't say that I have," Martin answered, and with that the boy shrugged, turned away to walk to the next pole. Martin fell in next to him, not quite understanding why. "Fifth and Madison -- that's what, six blocks from here? Do you really think he would have just wandered off that far?"
"Eight."
"What?"...
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