As I breathed in the warm pine filled Autumn air, I slowly made my way down to a small pasture. As I entered the pasture, I caught a glimpse of something white buried under a a pile of leaves. A crouched down and brushed a layer of leaves away from the buried object and gasped in astonishment. A battered, old, rugged hammock had been partially revealed. As I uncovered the rest of the hammock, a flood of memories invaded my mind. Out of all of them, two stuck out the most.
As I crossed the pasture, hammock in hand, I starteed to think about whenI had gotten my first dog. I had been only been around five at the time, but it will be stuck in my memory forever. And I distictly remember brining her down here to bond. We had played in the middle of the small clearing for hours, and had decided to rest for a while on a hammock my father had set up a few years before. When I had layed down, I had placed my small shaking ball of brown fur in my lap. I remember feling my mind racing about what I should name her. I was listening to my iPod, and the song Crazy on You by Heart had begun. Suddenly, an idea popped in my head. I'll name her Anne, like Anne the lead singer in Heart! I felt a satisfied grin creep onto my face as I fell asleep to the wailing Guitar solos of Heart.
As I hoisted the hammock on to an old hook emplanted into a tree, another precious memory flooded my mind.
It was about 5 years ago, and Anne and I had been raking leaves into piles at the pasture. I felt snot dripping from my runny nose as I raked the leaves into a perfect pile. I stopped a few moments to relieve my aching back. I settled down onto the hammock, my dog joining me by laying down in her favorite spot next to the hammock. Suddenly I felt a few small droplets of liqiud hit my face. I opened my eyes quickly, and gasped at what I saw. It had begun to snow!I gasped in amazement. Snow had littered the tops and branches of the evergreens surrounding the pasture. I jumped off of the hammock and began to roll and the snoq covered gorund with Anne. I grabbed a handful of snow, and quickly morphed it into a snowball. Anne stared at the ball of snow as if it was a simmering, jiucy rib eye steak. "Do you want this Anne?" I asked, lowering the snowball to just above her snout. Without warning, I heaved the ball of snow flakes across the pasture. My dog bounded after the covetted prize. Once the snowball made contact with the ground, it blended in with the other snow. My dog looked around for a few minutes, obviously upset she had lost her much desired treasure. I hugged her once she had given up her search and rescue mission for the white ball of heaven. When we finally made it back to the house, Anne and I quickly went up to my room and fell fast asleep. I remember waking up the next morning, and being alarmed that she wasnt laying beside me. I figured that maybe she had gone downstairs to eat. But once I was in the kitchen, it was obvious she wasnt in the house at all. I quickly bundled up and made my way outside, calling Annes name. I came to the edge of the clearing, and spotted Anne lying next to the hammock. I called out her name, but she didnt move. I felt my heart skip a beat as I ran over to the hammock. As I neared her body lying on the snow covered ground. I already knew why she wasnt responding to my calls. Jenny had come out here to die, alone. I felt the ground starting to tilt, and my legs were starting to buckle. A loud sob escaped my chest. I felt myself fall to the grounf, tears rolling down my face. I nuged Anne with my hands, her body rolled slightly, limply. "Anne, please get back up. Please!"I sobbed, rubbing her chocolate colored fur. I felt sob after sob escaping my throat. Tears were coming down in a seemingly endless waterfall. After I had gotten myself emotionally and physically able to tell my parents the terrible news. I remember asking my mother how she had died. She was just old, she was ten honey. I had decided to bury her in her favorite spot next to the hammock.
I hooked the other side of the hammock to the opposite tree and began to sway back and forth. I felt my fingers scraping the earth where Jenny had beem buried two years ago. In a sort of symbolic way, Anne was still with me, it would always just be the two of us, just hanging out in the hammock.