A Light in the Dark
By Thomas Grant Bruso
I head to the kitchen for a third refill of Earl Grey. Through the window above the sink, I stare out into a bare October morning and glimpse Darth Vader, my neighbor’s grey and white Huskie, thirty feet from me over the well-tended hedge separating our yards. He yanks at the end of his too-short leash as though he is playing tug-of-war with himself, trying to get free from the metal porch railing.
My lips curve into a snarl at the ungodly sight. Some people should not be allowed to have pets.
Bret Hicks, the dog’s owner, is a seventeen-year-old high school dropout who lives with his mother and hosts drinking parties at his house on weekends when his mother is out of town. Which is the case now.
I watch as the gangly boy steps out onto the sto
