{{I Close My Eyes}} [open]

Deception Hammond

The damn dogs are loose again. And Harvard expects me to catch them. Like it isn't enough that I feed them and walk them and try not to yell when they piss on my shoes. Nope. Now I have to catch them, too. I've only been up for ten minutes. Harvard quite literally dragged me out of bed this morning. He woke me up just because he's too lazy to catch the damn dogs himself.

I'm not usually so pissed off. I'm just really not a morning person. Especially when I'm woken up by a guy with a hangover who wants me to catch over-excited dogs. And it doesn't help that all nineteen dogs are loose on over five acres of property.

It takes me three hours to round up all the dogs, get them in the house, and give them food and water. If we didn't depend on these dogs fro money, I'd kill each and every one of them. I'm not a puppy-killer or anything like that, but I'm pissed, okay? These dogs have been waking me up for my whole life at three in the morning because they have to pee. And they jump on me and drool and piss on my stuff. I don't care so much when they pee on my shoes, but when they piss on my guitar, I start kicking puppies.

I'm in a horrible mood today. Waking up early, chasing ungrateful dogs, and now I'm sweaty and I smell. As I walk through the archway to the living room, I see that Harvard is conked out on the couch with a bottle of beer. God, that guy just doesn't know when to quit sometimes. I grab the beer and finish it off, even though it's warm. Whatever. I deserve it.

Half an hour and one cold shower later, I'm feeling a hell of a lot better. Happy. I don't even care that I had to get up early to chase the dogs. It doesn't matter, because now my duties on the farm are done until tonight and I can do whatever I want. So what will it be? Into town to find girlfriend #1? Or do I drop by the farm of girlfriend #2? On second thought, no girls today. I run upstairs and grab my guitar. I bring it with me as I walk down the path that leads to the house. It dips through the woods, then opens up onto the main road into town.

I sit down on the log at the end of the path and play a few notes on the guitar. I didn't bring the song I'm working on with me, so I'll have to settle for something else. I think about the song Harvard was singing last night. It's an old one. He taught me how to sing it a while ago, and I figured out how to play it. I clear my throat and begin.

"Every time that I close my eyes
I catch a glimpse of the west coast sunrise,
And I can tell you you're just as beautiful.
Overwhelmed by the fear and stage fright,
You're the only one in my spotlight,
Even when you don't feel so beautiful"

There's more to the song, but that was always my favorite part. I like the rest of it too, but when I sing this song to girls, they swoon more often if I just sing this part. I've sort of trained myself to end the song there.