Powder Burn Flash # 262 - Anthony Santiago

The Tree House
by Anthony Santiago


Here comes that dog again, barking from the fence to me in the tree house. This dog never was around until I built this thing for my son. My son could never enjoy it because the dog would always be outside braking at it. He would always tell it to go away, and it would sit there and then leave. For five weeks, the dog would return and bark at the tree house. I didn’t know where this dog came from, who owned it, or why it hates our tree hose so much. I mean, the tree house isn’t that bad, maybe could more sturdy, but it looks good. The dog seems worried more than mad. I could tell this because when it walked away, it would stop, turn back, and then continue waking. More days went by and the dog still showed up, but his bark seemed louder this time. I yelled at it from the window, telling it to go away as we do every day. I walked away from the upstairs, and thought about the dog. I then began to think my wife, she was a dog lover. I think she would have loved to keep that damn barking dog. It’s been almost two years since she’s been gone, but the dog reminds me of her every time it comes. We could never have a dog in the house because as much as she loved them, our son was allergic to them. So whenever we saw one, we would have to keep our son back and my wife ran to the dog to pet it. There are some memories for sure, and the more I think about it, the more I don’t mind the dog coming.

Weeks went by and the dog still was barking at the tree house. It paced near the fence like it was anxious. I was watching it and thought to myself, “Why doesn’t he just jump over the fence ?” The fence isn’t very high, so jumping over it would be no problem for the dog. The dog always stayed away though. The next day was a sunny one, and my son ran to the tree house but knew the dog would show up. Of course, the dog did come and this bark was louder than ever. My son yelled at it but it wouldn’t go way this time. So my son began to come down the tree house to throw something at it. I quickly ran outside to keep him away from the dog. When he got down and I was outside, we heard a noise from the tree house. We both looked up and the tree house fell apart and feel off the tree into the yard’s ground. My son came up to me saying, “that was close Dad”, and I said, “yeah it was son.” I then turned to look for the dog, and I saw it walking down the street, but this time it didn’t look back. It was no longer worried.


BIO: Anthony Santiago attends Concordia University in Saint Paul, MN. where he is a  Communications Major and Marketing Minor.