NATURE'S WAY (OF DECEIVING YOU) by Ronald Verstraten It was almost dinner time and knowing that they were soon going to be fed, the elder dogs barked and walked nervously along the fence of their kennel. The puppies howled along on account of an everlasting feeling of hunger. Suddenly the dogs stopped barking and moved to the back. The puppies, not understanding, kept moving in front. Jean- Jacques came in their direction so they waved their tales. They didn't know yet, that whenever Jean-Jacques approached the dogs, he'd have his stick ready. The elder dogs knew, as well as the boy's pleasure in violently beating with it against the kennel. Or poking through it, trying to hurt them,in search of satisfying his sadistic needs. They kept quiet, respectfully. With his mouth open at one corner, almost as if he was drooling, Jean-Jacques came nearer. Quite unnecessary he ordered them to shut up, which they already did. Then he started striking the fence: left, right. Left, right. The dogs panickedand tried to hide. One of the puppies came too close and the boy poked him hard roaring with laughter The puppy screamed with pain, thus making Jean-Jacques' pleasure even greater. After some time, when none of the dogs dared to move upfront anymore, he called it a day and went back to the house. The dogs remained silent, afraid that the boy might come back, as he sometimes did when he was bored The Rousseau's had moved into the village five years before. Mr. Rousseau was the manager of a large building company in the neighbouring town. Thanks to his influence new, cheap family houses had been built on the grounds of the old mill. The village people had since shown their gratitude by ap pointing him honorary member of nearly ever local club or society one could think of. She was a bit on the quiet side, they thought. Some said that, being a manager's wife she felt above their sort of - common - people. Others knew to a certainty that she had a chronical disease. Jean-Jacques wasn't known to most of them. He had attended the local school only for a couple of months, before he went to the grammar school in the city. He hadn't made any friends. The neighbours thought him a bit strange, but they weren't bothered. What did bother them,- however, were the dogs. Five Beagles and some puppies now and then. The noise they some times made!! One thing about Jean-Jacques though: he could quiet them down. Those dogs apparently respected him. Being an honorary member of various local societies, carried' obligations upon mrRousseau from which he could not always easily withdraw. Some were pleasant, some hardly. But some 1 1

Tijdschriftenbank Zeeland

Ballustrada | 1987 | | pagina 12