A Champion (Adapted) by Edward Pontacoloni

Scene I.

Kitchen:
As the father stands by the sink, looking out of the kitchen window into the early evening, he sees the ghost of the black dog run across the rear yard. He turns and says to his wife and son at the kitchen table,

“I think that it’s time to get another dog”

The woman silently responds with a nod.

The boy adds, “let’s go tomorrow, dad.”

Next morning:
Their car pulls into the driveway of a white shingled home with grey shutters surrounded by a white picket fence. They approach and knock on the door. The door quietly opens, and they are met by a large, bearded, orange dog with long floppy ears and yellow eyes. The dog turns and saunters away towards the back of the house. The boy looks at his father and they silently follow.

In the backyard, laying on its back in a bed of daisies, is an orange ball of a puppy with long floppy ears and yellow eyes pawing upwards towards a blue butterfly that flutters about the puppy’s orange head.

The butterfly says, “Who’s they?”

The puppy answers, “I don’t know.”

A man in overalls comes out of the house and approaches the boy and his father. He says,

“You have come for the puppy? That’s him there, in the daisies. Here pup. Come on boy.”

The butterfly says, “They’ve come to take you.”

The puppy says, “I don’t think so. They took Lucky and Sparky and Skippy, but no one wants me. I’m the runt of the litter.”

The butterfly flies away.

The boy says, “Hey dad, look, a blue butterfly.”

The man from the house says, “Hey, here boy. Come on pup. He’s just being lazy.”

The father says, “Well, we’ve come to see the dog. I’m not sure as we will take him. Your ad said that the dog has a pedigree as a competitive field trial dog.”

The man says, “Oh sure, he’s got a championship pedigree, he does. He’ll compete with the best of them, he will.”

The father says, “He seems to be the runt of the litter, and he looks to lack any spunk.”

The man says, “Oh…well, yeah, but, he’ll grow. He’ll compete with the best of them, sure. A potential champion, sure.”

The father turns to the boy and says, “What do you think?”

The boy says, “Well, I don’t know. He seems lazy and lackadaisical like.

Doesn’t show any drive.”

The butterfly returns to the puppy, alights on its head, and declares, “tag, you’re it!” and then flutters quickly away.”

The puppy rises and chases the butterfly, tearing through daisies, stumbling head first, rolling over, getting back up and continuing the chase.

The boy and father share a smile.

The father says to the man, “I guess that we’ll take him.”

In the car:

The boy, holding the puppy on his lap, says, “Hey dad, that blue butterfly flew into the car.”

The father says, “Roll down the window and it will fly out.”

The puppy sleeps. The boy smiles contentedly. The butterfly nestles unseen in the backseat of the car and quietly hums an Irish lay.