Answering the Call of The Village People; a short story

My darling husband, CF, wears many hats with his job.  Officially, he is the Village Maintenance Supervisor.  Being the only employee on the payroll, with the exception of the Village Clerk, he essentially supervises… himself.  He maintains the town on many levels.  He is the municipal water and sewer operator, he maintains all village-owned property (mowing, weeding, watering), including the baseball and football fields, two parks with playgrounds and restrooms.  He repairs village equipment, streets, water and sewer lines.  In a nutshell, his 40-hour a week job keeps the town clean and running smooth.  He is on-call 24/7, and those calls can range from, “I’ve got sewage in my basement” to “My water pipe broke in the freezing cold, and it’s forming an iceberg under my trailer that’s fixin’ to lift it off it’s foundation” (that really did happen).

Just yesterday, he received a phone call from a “concerned citizen”.  This lady was upset that her neighbor’s two dogs had escaped from their fenced-in backyard, and were now running amuck all about the town.  She went on about how they ran through her yard, and her neighbor’s also; and she was kind enough to voice her great concern for the dogs welfare.  The sudden “concern” for these two dogs was spreading throughout the neighborhood.  So, not wanting to disappoint the village people, CF put on his dog-catcher hat and hopped in his truck.

These two dogs were quite friendly; this he knew because our kids had helped care for them this summer.  He also knew they loved to play with toys.  He stopped by the home of the escaped dogs, picked up one of the squeaky toys from their backyard, and headed down the street in his pickup, in search of the escapees.   Driving through town, he made the most annoying noise that only a dog could love.  SQUEEK, SQUEEK, SQEEEEEEEK!!!  

He had not driven even 4 blocks when he noticed in his rear-view mirror, the black dog running behind the pickup; the white dog was not far behind.  He continued to drive, squeezing the squeaky toy until he arrived at their home.  CF tossed the toy inside the fence, and the dogs pursued the prize; running  back into the yard from which they had escaped.  CF reinforced the board they had knocked out and did a quick inspection of the fence to make sure the two neighborhood marauders would not be carousing about town again.

And once again, The Village People were happy.   The end.