From: BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog

By Heather O'Shea

The other morning while I was eating peanut butter toast and drinking coffee on the porch, a woman with a beagle trotted down the driveway. “Did you lose a turtle?” she asked. The leaves were breaking the sun into confetti spots of light, dappling the garden.

It was cool enough in Albuquerque to be wearing yoga pants and a light jacket. Rusty, my faithful golden retriever, was asleep, three-quarters of his body buried in a thick patch of lamb’s ear. I told the woman that I hadn't lost a turtle, and we chatted for a minute while Rusty woke up and the dogs sniffed each other.

Then the beagle snapped at Rusty, and the woman tugged her dog back down the driveway. I took another bite of toast and went back to the lines I had been jotting down before she appeared. The sun moved a tiny bit across the sky.

Read more at BREVITY's Nonfiction Blog.