Friday, October 22, 2010

Which Ray?

Ray was feeling neglected. I could tell because everything was going right into his mouth. Shoes, newspapers, the belt of my robe, the remote control. I was trying to ignore it. It had been a hectic morning and it wasn't even 9:00. The construction crew, Javier and Carlos hadn't arrived yet. I was trying to relax and went to pour myself a cup of coffee. By the time I walked back into the front hall from the "kitchenette" (1 minute? 2?), Ray was there chewing on something else. It was a spool (about 10 inches around and 5 inches across) of the electric element that was going to be embedded in the concrete floor to heat the new tile. I grabbed the spool from him and checked for teeth marks. There were a lot in the cardboard spool but only one section of the wire element looked kinked enough to cause me concern. I waited for Javier and Carlos to arrive to tell them what my dog had done.
Javier speaks very good English but it isn't his first language. I explained at length that Ray had lifted the spool from behind the plastic sheet that was hanging over the door to the kitchen. I told them that they couldn't leave anything out because Ray would eat it. I showed them the kinked spot on the wire and told them that I thought maybe Ray had bit into it. They looked at the wire then looked at me blankly. Then inspected the wire again. Ray lapped at the coffee in my cup. I sighed.
I hooked Ray to his leash so that I could take him to school, then ran upstairs to fetch something that I had forgotten. When I descended the stairs, they were conversing in Spanish and still inspecting the wire.
Javier turned to me and said "What did Ray say?"
 Ray is the name of the contractor with whom we signed our contract.
"Not THAT Ray," I said. I pointed at Ray the Blind Dog, "THAT Ray. I think he bit the wire right there," I said as I pointed at the kinked wire, "And he chewed the spool," I added as I pointed at the teeth marks on the cardboard spool.
The guys started laughing. I started laughing too.
"It's OK," said Javier, looking very relieved that his boss wasn't going around gnawing on wires and spools.
"It's OK," he repeated while inspecting the wire, "It's fine."
Carlos and I were still laughing.
I took my poor, neglected, blind dog and and we left them to their business.

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