On the way back to the living room, I was livid. This resistance, this talking back!! It wouldn't do. I owned him, now, and everything around him. I wanted a clean, uncluttered space to work in, and I knew how to make it so. I spoke Bobby's "language", and knew what to do to set things right.
I'd more or less broken him on several occasions - turned him into a, beseeching, subhuman, blubbering pile of waste. But, it seemed now, it was to be an ongoing project. I was not in a hurry. Like a professional painter, I had a vision of what I wanted to create, and would take the time, the necessary steps, to realize it.
I took my chair, leaving Bobby on all fours before me, his leash dangling. I could tell that he sensed something serious was going to take place. He didn't move even a fraction of an inch, and he kept his face down.
The Mrs Rafferty episode was foremost on my mind. Just when I was beginning to think that this moron was getting the hang of being my dog, he retches up an unsavory slurry of sniveling and begging. To me, it was a grave failure. On my part, too, I suppose. But that was a matter for my own private reflection. Here, in the living room, we would focus on Bobby's shortcomings.
For certain, the "Mrs Rafferty challenge" was a new mark for Bobby to strive for. The woman knew so many people we knew; our schoolmates, their parents and families. Word would almost certainly spread; the strange relationship spoken of furtively, in low tones.
There had been previous tests that Bobby had passed satisfactorily. I once instructed him to kiss the feet of an old man while riding on a bus. Bobby got down on his knees before the geezer and got in one soft kiss on the well-shined shoe before the man shot up from his seat, alarmed and cussing like a sailor. There had been a sizable audience, too. I'm not sure how many saw what exactly had taken place, but the sideways glances and whisperings convinced me that at least those nearby did. I insisted that we ride to the end of the line so that I could relish their reaction.
So, his balking at the latest task showed me that more work was needed.
"You are one sad sack of shit, you know that?" I said.