Arctic Servant Chapter 1
Chapter 1 - Richard
Dark, wet, cluttered, dirty, and foul smelling. Those in only a few words are what described my ally. It may not have been much, in fact I'm sure many would find it to be the absolute least, but it was my home. It was the place I could come to and try and keep warm, my corner filled with old abandoned coats, leggings, and clothing had often shielded me from the bite of the Alaskan winters. It was at this comforting pile of warmth that I was staring at as the baseball bat again fell across my back.
I cried out again in pain as my three attackers snarled down at my thin, dirty, writhing form on the ground. "Fucking deadbeat!" A heavy steel-toed boot made contact with my ribs, I yelped in pain and tried to roll away with the blow, but I only encountered another pair of boots, one of which quickly made contact with my stomach, knocking the breath from me. I laid there on the ground gasping, trying desperately to breath again as I felt the bat hit me again. I wasn't able to scream, but my pain was clearly visible on my face, a tear falling from my eye and over my dirt-stained cheek.
I felt one of them spit on me before they started walking away, out of the ally. "That'll teach you, you bum." I felt another kick, this one, however was softer and half-halfhearted. "Don't go begging around on our turf." He paused as I opened my eyes just in time to see him reach down and pick up my wallet from the ground beside me. "Now what do we have here?" The leader of the group opened the old wallet and smirked. "A good twenty dollars. Too much for this bum, I think." I tried to protest as he pocketed my wallet, but I was still too winded and too weak. I watched the three men as they walked away, laughing.
I laid there for a while, regaining my breath and looking about my trash-strewn home, trying not to cry with the loss of a weeks worth of food. My stomach growled loudly at me. "I know, I know," I said standing up, gritting my teeth in pain. I checked myself over, making sure nothing was broken. Luckily, all I had was a few bad bruises.
I wandered over to my makeshift bed and sat down, pulling a ratty old blanket over me, more for comfort than warmth. It was spring, so there wasn't much to worry about with the cold, it was still to a point where we'd get ice in the middle of the night, but that wouldn't last long, the days were getting brighter and longer. I laid there, thinking about past springs and summers, going to school or work, going on road trips with my beautiful Kent to the Lower-Forty-Eight. I sighed, another tear crossing my face. Back then, I was happy, I had a job, a car, an apartment, and a man whom I could share my life with. I sobbed quietly, tears now falling more freely down my face. We had shared our lives together until... until the fates had stolen his.
My eyes opened quickly to the dark, cloudy morning sky. I hadn't realized that I had fallen asleep, and was further surprised at how early I had woken. Then I hear the rustling and the sound of heavy sniffling. I looked up, grabbing a metal pipe from under my "bed." I couldn't see anything at first. The ally seemed empty of any life other than my self. Then I saw movement. A canine shadow crossed the ally to the other side, obviously looking for food. I gripped my weapon and stood up. My movement got the animal's attention, its head turned towards me, our eyes meeting. We simply stared at each other for a number of minutes, I didn't move, not wanting to hurt the dog if I could help it, but if I had too...
Slowly, the dog started moving towards me, not in a hostile manner, but one that seemed to be more cautious and curious. It moved in front of me and sat down, looking up at me, it's curled tail wagging. Wait, curled? I squinted in the darkness, looking at the dog closer. It was a husky! I laughed a bit to myself as I kneeled down, offering a loose fist towards the dog so it could decide whether or not to trust me. The canines head moved forward, it's moist nose brushing my skin. Suddenly, the husky pulled its head back and sneezed, making me jump a bit.
I kept my hand outstretched to the dog and it moved forward again, sampling my scent before licking my hand. I smiled and scratched the dog behind the ears, smiling. The canine walked towards me and nuzzled me a bit before giving my face a lick.
"Quite the friendly one, aren't you?" the dog responded by giving me another lick and laying down beside me. I smiled down at the dog, resting my hand on it's head and scratching lightly. "Well, I'd say an introduction is in order," I said, smiling down at the dog. "My name's Richard, and this is my home," I gestured at the ally around us. "How about, you, what's your name?" Of course, the dog didn't much respond, only looked up at me, his tail wagging slowly. "I know," I said, remembering a husky one of my old friends had had. "I'll call you Sunny. How's that?" The husky gave no sign of disapproval. I smiled again. "Well then Sunny, welcome to Richard Ally."
There's nothing quite as nice as Anchorage at fifteen degrees below zero, it's not too cold, and all the inhabitants of "Northern L.A." are still feeling too cold to get out of bed. I walked briskly through the city streets, making my breakfast rounds, thankful that it was starting to warm up. Believe me, searching for food scraps at fifty below is no fun. Especially since you have to defrost anything that's been outside for more than three and a half minutes.
The last few days of food searching had been quite a deal easier thanks to Sunny. He could pick out anything edible from even the most grimy dumpster. The real wonder was that he never gobbled it up instantly, he pointed me in the direction (or even dug a little) for the food and let me get too it. I, of course, gracefully shared the findings with my four-legged companion, as it was through his work that we found anything. In exchange, I played with him, ran with him, and generally gave him attention, as well as letting him sleep with me in my ally. To me, it seemed I was getting the better part of the deal, but he always seemed to appreciate my efforts.
After about two weeks of Sunnys company I suddenly awoke to find him gone. I wasn't too upset though. It just meant it'd be a bit more difficult to find food, and it was getting into spring, so I wouldn't have to worry about warmth.
I was lucky in some ways to be living in the most populated town in Alaska, in fact, it was the only section that at all resembled a stereotypical Lower-Forty-Eight city. Lots of cramped buildings, tons of cars, lots of pollution, the occasional street gang (comprised mainly of moronic teenagers), and almost no one was at all friendly to strangers passing by. It made me kind of miss the small town atmosphere of Fairbanks, where most were at very least polite to their neighbors, even if they were poorer than dirt, but, on the other hand, I probably never would have been able to find as many wasteful people north of the Alaska Range.
"Probably wouldn't have been exiled from the soup-kitchen either," I muttered to myself. It'd happened only after about two months after I had been on the streets. I had gone to the soup kitchen and someone had recognized me. At first, I had thought it a good thing, a friend on the streets might have been beneficial, but, much to my chagrin, he instead informed everyone in the soup kitchen that I was, as he quite rudely put it, a cock-sucking pole-smoker. Well, guess my surprise to find that a large portion of the people there were homophobic, and on top of that, the servers were hardcore Mormons. Needless to say, I never returned.
I kneeled down to picking up a coin from the sidewalk. "It's my lucky day," I proclaimed as I pocketed the quarter. I had found a total of six dollars and forty-two cents so far today, and I could tell that I would find a good deal more over the next few weeks. The snow was finally starting to melt, so all of the lost change and small bills were emerging from the slowly melting snow and ice.
I whistled on the walk back to my ally, my spirits high with the days findings. After a good hours walk, I finally made my way back home, and too my surprise, sitting on my bed, was non other than Sunny. He ran at me, tail wagging furiously before lumping up, his paws on my chest. I hugged the dog, glad to see him again. It had been a good week since he had vanished, so I was thoroughly surprised to see him back.
We wrestled and played until we were both exhausted. Both of us finally flopping down onto the bed and drifting to sleep.