{"id":1283,"date":"2011-09-22T00:02:24","date_gmt":"2011-09-22T00:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/?p=1283"},"modified":"2011-10-30T03:25:31","modified_gmt":"2011-10-30T03:25:31","slug":"found-lost-by-jarret-liotta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/found-lost-by-jarret-liotta\/","title":{"rendered":"Found & Lost by Jarret Liotta"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Found & Lost<\/h1>\n

?by Jarret Liotta<\/p>\n

\n

The big man stood in my doorway effortlessly holding Buddy?poor Buddy, slumped and lifeless, patched with blood.<\/p>\n

?Oh ? no,? I whispered.<\/p>\n

?I?m very sorry,? he said. ?You must be very sad.? His voice was low. His soft blue eyes sought to feel my pain, searched my reaction with unwavering eyes.<\/p>\n

?I?m ? Oh, I?m ?? I sobbed twice, steadied myself, then said, ?Please come in.?<\/p>\n

He carried Buddy into the living room. Without speaking, he asked where to put him, and I gestured to the blanket spread on part of the couch. He laid him carefully down.<\/p>\n

I sat beside him and pet his fur. He still felt warm, though the man said he?d probably been hit the day before. The blood still seemed wet, too, and a bit even dripped onto the blanket.<\/p>\n

?I had him in my barn last night. As I said on the phone, I didn?t want to call late.?<\/p>\n

?Thank you,? I murmured.<\/p>\n

?I saw your signs on North Avenue , and then ? He was just down the road from me, on Perry Street .?<\/p>\n

?You found him on Perry??<\/p>\n

He thought about this for a moment. ?It was near Perry, kind of, but off the road, in the woods ? on Frasier, actually. That?s what I meant.?<\/p>\n

?And he was dead??<\/p>\n

?Of course,? he said seriously, his eyes unblinking, still searching my eyes. ?I?m sorry.?<\/p>\n

He stood respectfully still, watching as I softly pet my Buddy again. I lost myself in a moment, then looked up to see him still there, unmoving, his eyes fixed on mine.<\/p>\n

?I?m sorry,? I said. ?I want to give you a reward. I ? I had that on the poster, and??<\/p>\n

?No,? he said, stepping closer. ?No,? he said with eyes locked on mine.<\/p>\n

I got up and moved past him to the other side of the room. ?No,? I said, ?I want to, please.?<\/p>\n

?It?s not necessary. I feel bad about this.? He took two steps toward me. ?I don?t want anything,? and he took another step, his eyes forever locked on mine.<\/p>\n

?Well,? I said, holding his eyes firmly, ?at least I can give you a-a drink or something, please. Okay?? I moved carefully toward the kitchen.<\/p>\n

?No, please.?<\/p>\n

?Please. Just have a seat, okay, and I?ll be right back. Okay? I?ll be right back.?<\/p>\n

I slipped into the kitchen before he could reply. Something didn?t feel right, and all at once I knew I had to get out of the house.<\/p>\n

I skipped to the back door. Holding my breath, I turned the lock.<\/p>\n

?Where are you going?? he said, gliding into the room.<\/p>\n

I jumped. Speechless, I held my breath and stammered silently. He came closer, his piercing eyes never leaving mine.<\/p>\n

?P-please,? I gasped. ?Don?t.?<\/p>\n

He grabbed my wrist in a brutal lock. Slowly, he leaned in close to me and whispered, ?Come on. Let?s go and pet the dog ??<\/p>\n

###<\/p>\n

JARRET LIOTTA’s essays and articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, Brill’s Content, California Arts & Living, Los Angeles Times, Connecticut magazine, Hartford Courant, Pasadena Star-News, and the Connecticut Post. He maintains an under-read blog (jarretliotta.blogspot.com), and has been writing fiction since he was a kid, priding two yet-to-be-published novels and a wealth of short stories. Jarret’s also a great lover of horror in all its fictional forms, and considers October 31st the best day of the year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Found & Lost ?by Jarret Liotta The big man stood in my doorway effortlessly holding Buddy?poor Buddy, slumped and lifeless, patched with blood. ?Oh ? no,? I whispered. ?I?m very sorry,? he said. ?You must be very sad.? His voice was low. His soft blue eyes sought to feel my pain, searched my reaction…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1283"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1330,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1283\/revisions\/1330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/shortstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}