The grandfather clock that was hanging on the living room wall was one of the few things Martha had left that belonged to her great-great-grandmother Twee.
It’s ticking had become somewhat random, you could be talking while it ticked and be setting tea while it tacked.
The white porcelain dogs were left to take care of themselves while the old lady walked her dog.
Martha always knew her dog Ray Charles II was special.
He had a terrible sense of smell, which was the result of him continuously bumping his nose because he couldn’t see what was in front of him.
Martha walked along a patch of grass and Ray did his thing, someone she knew was also walking her dog.
The two women talked about their favorite soap opera and Ray wandered off on his own.
“I can’t believe Lora is such a slut! She has such a good husband, I would know what to do with a hunk like that.” Martha told her friend, and they both cackled like witches around a cauldron.
Suddenly there was a loud crash right next to them.
Alfie Apostle found himself lying on the street unable to move or feel his legs.
He began to remember how he got to be lying face down on the road.
He was riding his scooter on his way to see his girlfriend Nancy who invited him over for some fondue.
Right when he was in the middle of vividly imagining finally getting to fourth base with his girl.
Out of the blue a small French bulldog walked in front of him, crossing the street without a care in the world.
Alfie moved out of the way and his front tire got into a ditch and he lost control of his scooter.
When he opened his eyes again Ray was staring straight at him, his blue and hazy eyes look like the sky on a spring day Alfie thought to himself.
He couldn’t move and or feel his legs, he was starting to panic and Ray began to lick his face.
And with each stinky lick Alfie felt his legs tingle, he grabbed onto the dog and held it up against his face to make sure it would continue to lick his face in the hopes he could move his legs again.
“Get your filthy hands of my dog!”, Martha shouted while she kept hitting the guy with her handbag.
At first she was hitting him on his head until he finally let go off the dog, and then she began to hit him on his back, “I’ll teach you, hurting a blind old dog!”
And with a lucky hit she snaps one of his vertebral back into place thanks to the heavy purse in her bag.
After Martha’s friend calmed her down and called an ambulance, Alfie began to feel his legs again.
“I.. I.. can feel my legs again!” He said as he got up and tested his legs as if they were brand new.
At that time the sirens of the ambulance could be heard in the distance, and Martha and Ray walked back home.
Back home Martha is making herself a cup of tea and Ray falls asleep in his wicker basket that’s on the couch.
After her tea had steeped she went back into the living room and turns on the television.
The last thing she watched it was this morning was for her morning aerobics, which airs on the local TV station.
The news was just beginning and the blond reporter was talking about a miracle that happened tonight in their little town.
She broke her biscuit in two and dipped it in her tea and fed it to Ray, she ate the other half herself.
“It is the road where the dramatic accident took place earlier this evening where a young man riding his scooter got out of the way of a blind dog that was crossing the street, and crashed.”, The brunette reporter said.
She took a sip of her hot tea right when she saw Alfie standing next to the young brunette.
“Here to talk about it is the young man in question, Alfie Apostle.”, The brunette said.
Alfie was standing next to her with a big smile on his face, “Hi, can I say hi to some friends of mine, oh and my girlfriend.”
“Maybe after were done.”, She replied.
Alfie ignored her and put his mouth above her microphone, “Hi sweetheart!”
The reporter seemed irritated and pulled the microphone back to her, “Alfie, can you tell us what happened early tonight?”
“Oh right, I was on my way to meet me girlfriend for some fondue.
She likes to fondue and I even brought some croutons that’s like old bread or something with green speckles on it.
And suddenly this dog just walks up in front of my scooter, my tire went into a ditch and I crashed.”, Alfie explained and tried to put his arm around the reporter’s shoulder.
Martha was mesmerized by what she was hearing and seeing, “That damn hippie.”
The reporter dodged his arm and continued as if nothing happened, “That’s quite a tragic story, but something miraculous happened next right?”
“Yes, I was lying on the street and I couldn’t feel my legs or more them.”, Alfie said.
“And you thought you would never walked again? Is that right?” The reporter asked.
Alfie seemed to be thinking about it until he started to talk again,
“Yes, but the most amazing thing happened.
The dog was in front of me staring at me with his sky blue eyes and licking my face.”
“Wow, and then what happened?” She asked while she looked directly into the camera smiling uncomfortably.
Alfie tried to put his arm on her shoulder again, “And with each lick I felt my legs tingle.
And when I was about to get up this old lady went crazy on me, hitting me with her bag just thanking her dog.”
She removed his hand from her shoulder and said, “What a crazy person.”
Martha was getting aggravated and found her stress relieve by hitting a pillow.
“After the tingling was gone I could feel my legs again and I got up and I could walk again.”, Alfie explained and showed them how he walked again.
“He gave me a second chance, a way to redeem my life.
No more being lazy! No more video games! No more porn!”,
Alfie was raising his hands and was almost yelling how he would improve his life.
“Ooh, that’s more than we wanted to know, Alfie thank you very much for your story.” She said as she walked away from Alfie.
The news went to another item but promised to return soon.
Martha flips to another channel and leaves it on whatever station it landed on while she goes to the little girl’s room.
When she returns she sees some rappers rapping about ho’s and bitches and she flips it back to the news.
“Yes, I know the old hag and her blind dog, yes.” The woman next to the reporter said.
Martha recognized the woman as the lady that lived in the same street as her.
“You didn’t have to say yes twice we got it the first time.
Have you seen or heard about the dogs ability to heal before?” The reporter asked.
And right when the woman was going to answer, the doorbell rang.
Martha walks to her front door which woke up Ray from a nice dream, she opens the door and Alfie was standing on her doorstep.
“Hi there, remember me?” He asks.
“What do you want?”, Martha replied in a hateful sounding way.
“I wanted to say thank you, or actually I wanted to thank your dog, so I got him a big bag of dog food.”
Martha takes the big bag of dog food from him and puts it in her hallway, “Thank you.”
Ray was walking up to the front door to check up on his boss, until he hit his nose against the bag of dog food.
“Oh, Ray Charles II are you okay!” Martha said while she petted him.
Martha got up and was about to close the door, “You should go now. Goodnight.”
She went back to the living room and flipped off the television and the two of them went upstairs.
The next morning Martha and Ray got woken up by the house shaking like crazy.
Martha got up and on her at her feet she saw Ray who was also awake, his ears were pointed up and trying to hear what was going on.
She got up and put her bathrobe on and went to take a look out of her window to see what was going on.
A crowd of people had lined up on her doorstep and across her front yard.
People in wheelchairs, with canes and crutches, bald people and even children.
They were chanting something but she couldn’t hear them so she opened the window.
The chanting went straight into the bedroom, “RAY CHARLES II, RAY CHARLES II!”, the crowd chanted.
Ray heard his name being called by so many people he got up and ran towards the sound making him fall off the bed head first.
“Get out of here, get off my lawn!” Martha yelled.
Her house begins to shake again as two big tour buses pull up in front of her little house.
The doors of the buses open and more cripple and sick people come out.
She gets dressed and takes Ray downstairs, she pulls the cord out of her doorbell so it wont make any sound when they ring it and walks towards the kitchen.
“I just saw him, it’s Ray!” Someone shouts that was looking through her mail slot to see if Ray was there.
She fills her tea kettle with water and puts it on a flame as Ray eats his morning bowl of kibble.
Suddenly a group of people were standing in her little backyard, they began to slam their hands on the backdoor and yelling they want to see Ray Charles II.
Martha’s not sure what to do about all of this, but then her phone rings.
“Better not be one of those psychos.”, She says right before she answers it.
It’s her daughter, “Mom? Are you alright?”
“No, off course I’m not, I got a whole bunch of crippled lunatics in my front AND back yard!”, Martha shouts into the phone.
“Okay mom, calm down. We will come over and set things straight.”, Her daughter said.
She hangs up the phone and the kettle begins to whistle.
The people in her backyard multiplied and are still chanting Ray’s name.
A part of her wants to leave the kettle there to whistle so she wouldn’t hear them but she turns off the gas and pours the hot water into her teapot and goes into the living room.
Lucky for her all the curtains are still closed.
Ray was beginning to go crazy, from hearing his name being called by so many people and so for many times he begins to bark and howl, giving away their position.
“Oh Ray, what should we do.”, Martha asks.
The chanting was suddenly gone.
Martha put down her teacup and peeked outside from behind the curtains.
They were all looking back at one of the TV reporters holding a megaphone while she stood on top of the news van.
Martha couldn’t hear what she was saying but then her phone rang again, she went over and answered it.
“Mom, it’s me again, were at your front yard and the TV people want to come and talk to you. They promised to keep everyone at bay.”
“Fine, let’s get this over with. I’m opening the front door.”, Martha replied.
She went to the front door, and opened it and the crowd of people turned around and faced her and began to all say something that they wanted from Ray.
The sound was incredible and it even scared Ray enough to hide under a chair in the living room.
Luckily for the both of them the TV reporter with the megaphone told them to calm down, and they did.
The reporter walked up to Martha, followed by a camera man.
She introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Tracy Newsworth.”
“What an fortunate name for you, if I knew you guys were coming I would have freshened up.”, Martha replied.
They stepped inside her house, “Go into the living room.”, She commands.
And when Martha was about to close the door someone pushed their way wheelchair inside,
Her daughter and her husband ran up to the doorstep and stopped anyone else from going inside.
Martha followed the guy into the living room, where he was already holding on to Ray Charles II.
“Get your hands of off my dog!” Martha yelled at him.
“Let him, this is great for TV.”, The reporter beckoned.
“Hi, Ray Ray, my name is Romano and the doctors said I would never walk again.”
Ray began to lick Romano’s face because he smelled like salami.
Her daughter’s husband stepped into the living room.
Martha took Ray from him and her daughter’s husband grabbed the guy’s wheel chair and dragged him out of the house.
The TV reporter and camera man followed them, and so did Martha but she had put Ray in his basket where he was already beginning to doze off to sleep.
The man in the wheelchair was talking to the crowd, “Ray licked my face, I can feel tingling in my legs!”
The crowd went wild and he got up from his wheelchair, “I.. I.. can feel my legs again!”
The crowd went silent again as they were about to see him take his first steps but instead they saw his face was turn red and swell up.
He was choking and fell down onto the grassy lawn, tossing and twitching until he had no breath left.
The crowd stared at him and Martha’s daughter went inside to call an ambulance.
Someone from the crowd yelled, “Ray killed him!”
“Ray giveth and Ray taketh away.”, Another one shouted.
The crowd went back home, back onto the tour buses.
And the house shook for one last time.
Later that night everything had turned back normal and Martha was enjoying a relaxing cup of tea just like she normally did.
She flipped on to the news.
“Today was a crazy day wasn’t it Tracy.”, The male announcer asked his colleague.
“It sure was, and we have more to say about the healing dog Ray Charles II.”, She said.
The TV behind them showed an photo of Ray Charles II with red glowing eyes and evil horns.
“It turns out he can’t heal the sick, but it was all just a coincidence.”, Tracy said.
“The young man that could feel his legs again had an displaced vertebral and the owner of the dog was hitting him with her purse and hit it back in place.”, Tracy explained while she smiled to the viewers at home.
“And what about the unfortunate death of the man in the wheelchair?”, The male announcer asked.
“Oh that, well it turns out he was allergic to dogs.”, Tracy said.
Both of them and the viewers at home laughed.
“Look Ray that’s you on the telly.”
The grandfather clock ticked and tacked away as it always did, because home is where the dog is.
It’s ticking had become somewhat random, you could be talking while it ticked and be setting tea while it tacked.
The white porcelain dogs were left to take care of themselves while the old lady walked her dog.
Martha always knew her dog Ray Charles II was special.
He had a terrible sense of smell, which was the result of him continuously bumping his nose because he couldn’t see what was in front of him.
Martha walked along a patch of grass and Ray did his thing, someone she knew was also walking her dog.
The two women talked about their favorite soap opera and Ray wandered off on his own.
“I can’t believe Lora is such a slut! She has such a good husband, I would know what to do with a hunk like that.” Martha told her friend, and they both cackled like witches around a cauldron.
Suddenly there was a loud crash right next to them.
Alfie Apostle found himself lying on the street unable to move or feel his legs.
He began to remember how he got to be lying face down on the road.
He was riding his scooter on his way to see his girlfriend Nancy who invited him over for some fondue.
Right when he was in the middle of vividly imagining finally getting to fourth base with his girl.
Out of the blue a small French bulldog walked in front of him, crossing the street without a care in the world.
Alfie moved out of the way and his front tire got into a ditch and he lost control of his scooter.
When he opened his eyes again Ray was staring straight at him, his blue and hazy eyes look like the sky on a spring day Alfie thought to himself.
He couldn’t move and or feel his legs, he was starting to panic and Ray began to lick his face.
And with each stinky lick Alfie felt his legs tingle, he grabbed onto the dog and held it up against his face to make sure it would continue to lick his face in the hopes he could move his legs again.
“Get your filthy hands of my dog!”, Martha shouted while she kept hitting the guy with her handbag.
At first she was hitting him on his head until he finally let go off the dog, and then she began to hit him on his back, “I’ll teach you, hurting a blind old dog!”
And with a lucky hit she snaps one of his vertebral back into place thanks to the heavy purse in her bag.
After Martha’s friend calmed her down and called an ambulance, Alfie began to feel his legs again.
“I.. I.. can feel my legs again!” He said as he got up and tested his legs as if they were brand new.
At that time the sirens of the ambulance could be heard in the distance, and Martha and Ray walked back home.
Back home Martha is making herself a cup of tea and Ray falls asleep in his wicker basket that’s on the couch.
After her tea had steeped she went back into the living room and turns on the television.
The last thing she watched it was this morning was for her morning aerobics, which airs on the local TV station.
The news was just beginning and the blond reporter was talking about a miracle that happened tonight in their little town.
She broke her biscuit in two and dipped it in her tea and fed it to Ray, she ate the other half herself.
“It is the road where the dramatic accident took place earlier this evening where a young man riding his scooter got out of the way of a blind dog that was crossing the street, and crashed.”, The brunette reporter said.
She took a sip of her hot tea right when she saw Alfie standing next to the young brunette.
“Here to talk about it is the young man in question, Alfie Apostle.”, The brunette said.
Alfie was standing next to her with a big smile on his face, “Hi, can I say hi to some friends of mine, oh and my girlfriend.”
“Maybe after were done.”, She replied.
Alfie ignored her and put his mouth above her microphone, “Hi sweetheart!”
The reporter seemed irritated and pulled the microphone back to her, “Alfie, can you tell us what happened early tonight?”
“Oh right, I was on my way to meet me girlfriend for some fondue.
She likes to fondue and I even brought some croutons that’s like old bread or something with green speckles on it.
And suddenly this dog just walks up in front of my scooter, my tire went into a ditch and I crashed.”, Alfie explained and tried to put his arm around the reporter’s shoulder.
Martha was mesmerized by what she was hearing and seeing, “That damn hippie.”
The reporter dodged his arm and continued as if nothing happened, “That’s quite a tragic story, but something miraculous happened next right?”
“Yes, I was lying on the street and I couldn’t feel my legs or more them.”, Alfie said.
“And you thought you would never walked again? Is that right?” The reporter asked.
Alfie seemed to be thinking about it until he started to talk again,
“Yes, but the most amazing thing happened.
The dog was in front of me staring at me with his sky blue eyes and licking my face.”
“Wow, and then what happened?” She asked while she looked directly into the camera smiling uncomfortably.
Alfie tried to put his arm on her shoulder again, “And with each lick I felt my legs tingle.
And when I was about to get up this old lady went crazy on me, hitting me with her bag just thanking her dog.”
She removed his hand from her shoulder and said, “What a crazy person.”
Martha was getting aggravated and found her stress relieve by hitting a pillow.
“After the tingling was gone I could feel my legs again and I got up and I could walk again.”, Alfie explained and showed them how he walked again.
“He gave me a second chance, a way to redeem my life.
No more being lazy! No more video games! No more porn!”,
Alfie was raising his hands and was almost yelling how he would improve his life.
“Ooh, that’s more than we wanted to know, Alfie thank you very much for your story.” She said as she walked away from Alfie.
The news went to another item but promised to return soon.
Martha flips to another channel and leaves it on whatever station it landed on while she goes to the little girl’s room.
When she returns she sees some rappers rapping about ho’s and bitches and she flips it back to the news.
“Yes, I know the old hag and her blind dog, yes.” The woman next to the reporter said.
Martha recognized the woman as the lady that lived in the same street as her.
“You didn’t have to say yes twice we got it the first time.
Have you seen or heard about the dogs ability to heal before?” The reporter asked.
And right when the woman was going to answer, the doorbell rang.
Martha walks to her front door which woke up Ray from a nice dream, she opens the door and Alfie was standing on her doorstep.
“Hi there, remember me?” He asks.
“What do you want?”, Martha replied in a hateful sounding way.
“I wanted to say thank you, or actually I wanted to thank your dog, so I got him a big bag of dog food.”
Martha takes the big bag of dog food from him and puts it in her hallway, “Thank you.”
Ray was walking up to the front door to check up on his boss, until he hit his nose against the bag of dog food.
“Oh, Ray Charles II are you okay!” Martha said while she petted him.
Martha got up and was about to close the door, “You should go now. Goodnight.”
She went back to the living room and flipped off the television and the two of them went upstairs.
The next morning Martha and Ray got woken up by the house shaking like crazy.
Martha got up and on her at her feet she saw Ray who was also awake, his ears were pointed up and trying to hear what was going on.
She got up and put her bathrobe on and went to take a look out of her window to see what was going on.
A crowd of people had lined up on her doorstep and across her front yard.
People in wheelchairs, with canes and crutches, bald people and even children.
They were chanting something but she couldn’t hear them so she opened the window.
The chanting went straight into the bedroom, “RAY CHARLES II, RAY CHARLES II!”, the crowd chanted.
Ray heard his name being called by so many people he got up and ran towards the sound making him fall off the bed head first.
“Get out of here, get off my lawn!” Martha yelled.
Her house begins to shake again as two big tour buses pull up in front of her little house.
The doors of the buses open and more cripple and sick people come out.
She gets dressed and takes Ray downstairs, she pulls the cord out of her doorbell so it wont make any sound when they ring it and walks towards the kitchen.
“I just saw him, it’s Ray!” Someone shouts that was looking through her mail slot to see if Ray was there.
She fills her tea kettle with water and puts it on a flame as Ray eats his morning bowl of kibble.
Suddenly a group of people were standing in her little backyard, they began to slam their hands on the backdoor and yelling they want to see Ray Charles II.
Martha’s not sure what to do about all of this, but then her phone rings.
“Better not be one of those psychos.”, She says right before she answers it.
It’s her daughter, “Mom? Are you alright?”
“No, off course I’m not, I got a whole bunch of crippled lunatics in my front AND back yard!”, Martha shouts into the phone.
“Okay mom, calm down. We will come over and set things straight.”, Her daughter said.
She hangs up the phone and the kettle begins to whistle.
The people in her backyard multiplied and are still chanting Ray’s name.
A part of her wants to leave the kettle there to whistle so she wouldn’t hear them but she turns off the gas and pours the hot water into her teapot and goes into the living room.
Lucky for her all the curtains are still closed.
Ray was beginning to go crazy, from hearing his name being called by so many people and so for many times he begins to bark and howl, giving away their position.
“Oh Ray, what should we do.”, Martha asks.
The chanting was suddenly gone.
Martha put down her teacup and peeked outside from behind the curtains.
They were all looking back at one of the TV reporters holding a megaphone while she stood on top of the news van.
Martha couldn’t hear what she was saying but then her phone rang again, she went over and answered it.
“Mom, it’s me again, were at your front yard and the TV people want to come and talk to you. They promised to keep everyone at bay.”
“Fine, let’s get this over with. I’m opening the front door.”, Martha replied.
She went to the front door, and opened it and the crowd of people turned around and faced her and began to all say something that they wanted from Ray.
The sound was incredible and it even scared Ray enough to hide under a chair in the living room.
Luckily for the both of them the TV reporter with the megaphone told them to calm down, and they did.
The reporter walked up to Martha, followed by a camera man.
She introduced herself, “Hi, I’m Tracy Newsworth.”
“What an fortunate name for you, if I knew you guys were coming I would have freshened up.”, Martha replied.
They stepped inside her house, “Go into the living room.”, She commands.
And when Martha was about to close the door someone pushed their way wheelchair inside,
Her daughter and her husband ran up to the doorstep and stopped anyone else from going inside.
Martha followed the guy into the living room, where he was already holding on to Ray Charles II.
“Get your hands of off my dog!” Martha yelled at him.
“Let him, this is great for TV.”, The reporter beckoned.
“Hi, Ray Ray, my name is Romano and the doctors said I would never walk again.”
Ray began to lick Romano’s face because he smelled like salami.
Her daughter’s husband stepped into the living room.
Martha took Ray from him and her daughter’s husband grabbed the guy’s wheel chair and dragged him out of the house.
The TV reporter and camera man followed them, and so did Martha but she had put Ray in his basket where he was already beginning to doze off to sleep.
The man in the wheelchair was talking to the crowd, “Ray licked my face, I can feel tingling in my legs!”
The crowd went wild and he got up from his wheelchair, “I.. I.. can feel my legs again!”
The crowd went silent again as they were about to see him take his first steps but instead they saw his face was turn red and swell up.
He was choking and fell down onto the grassy lawn, tossing and twitching until he had no breath left.
The crowd stared at him and Martha’s daughter went inside to call an ambulance.
Someone from the crowd yelled, “Ray killed him!”
“Ray giveth and Ray taketh away.”, Another one shouted.
The crowd went back home, back onto the tour buses.
And the house shook for one last time.
Later that night everything had turned back normal and Martha was enjoying a relaxing cup of tea just like she normally did.
She flipped on to the news.
“Today was a crazy day wasn’t it Tracy.”, The male announcer asked his colleague.
“It sure was, and we have more to say about the healing dog Ray Charles II.”, She said.
The TV behind them showed an photo of Ray Charles II with red glowing eyes and evil horns.
“It turns out he can’t heal the sick, but it was all just a coincidence.”, Tracy said.
“The young man that could feel his legs again had an displaced vertebral and the owner of the dog was hitting him with her purse and hit it back in place.”, Tracy explained while she smiled to the viewers at home.
“And what about the unfortunate death of the man in the wheelchair?”, The male announcer asked.
“Oh that, well it turns out he was allergic to dogs.”, Tracy said.
Both of them and the viewers at home laughed.
“Look Ray that’s you on the telly.”
The grandfather clock ticked and tacked away as it always did, because home is where the dog is.
