Pablo and the Puppy

Silhouetted by the moon, Pablo shouted from the dome of the cathedral. "Allow me to introduce...My puppy!" The form of a huge monkey crept up the dome as the townspeople cried out.

"That's not a puppy," shouted a small girl.

Pablo laughed and fell to drinking gin upon the dome in the moonlight, the sky wide and clear above, and bottle after bottle broke upon his breast, waves leaping closer to morning and light, and birds and the ringing of the church bell. In the light of dawn the monkey was but a wandering Nascar driver, who awoke, produced keys, and eased into a stock car. And then, an engine, the sound of wheels on gravel, the shadow of a car moving away in the sun.