Peanut Bonding

Flash Fiction

Peanut Bonding

Jerry looked at the child, Andrew, on the floor, patting the dog. It was the first thing that seemed to make him happy. The child was his grandson, but because they had lived so far away, he hadn’t seen the five-year-old since he was barely two.

Now they were moving in with him. His daughter had run to the grocery store. Apparently, the only thing he had in the house that the child could eat was peanut butter and bread.

“What’s his name?” Andrew asked.

“He is a girl, and her name is Peanut.” Jerry said.

“Oh! I didn’t know she was a girl! She’s nice and soft.”

“She is, and she seems to like you…”

“I like her too; can I keep her?”

“Ah, no.”

The look on Andrew’s face was not happy. “Why not?”

“Because, she’s my dog. She lives with me, she knows me and I love her.”

Andrew didn’t look as happy as a minute ago… ‘I’m too old for this…’ Jerry thought, looking at the child’s face, then he asked, “Why do you want my dog? Why didn’t you ask your mom to get you a dog?”

“She couldn’t. They don’t allow dogs in our apartment building.”

“Well, you won’t be in that apartment anymore. You couldn’t take Peanut even if I said yes, because you’ll be living here.”

“Oh yeah! Well… she could be my dog too? And you and I could keep her for both of us.”

Suddenly Jerry remembered how much he wanted a dog when he was a kid, and he didn’t get one till he got his own apartment. “So, she would be our dog?”

“Yes!”

“OK then! She’s ours!”

And suddenly, Jerry and Andrew bonded, over Peanut! They because best of friends, and, co-dog owners, for many happy years.