Bye Bye Otis (2)

 BYE BYE OTIS

Written by Axel Jacobs

It was a Friday afternoon in Roscommon, MI. Axel and his dad were taking Axel's newspapers place to place, and it was a somewhat stressful job for both of them on different levels. One of the last places they stopped to deliver was the Funeral home where Hank worked. Fran was taking a short vacation that evening and would be back tomorrow night. When the newspapers were all done, Jake suggested to Axel, "Hey, how 'bout tonight you and me could go get a drink at Jack's Place?" Axel thought that was a wonderful idea, so the two of them had a laid back hot dinner of Fish 'n chips, then lastly, made an errand at the gas station. That night, Axel and his dad were doing their own separate things. Axel was painting a picture on his iPad, and he had a very hard time figuring out what should be on the canvas, because these paintings represented nostalgic youth in Axel's younger life and eventually he got overwhelmed. Around 11 that night, he decided to go take a short walk out in the cold snowy weather. Jake had let the dog Otis out, "Axel," he called "Please make sure Otis comes in when you get in. I'm going to bed."  After Axel came inside, he had just remembered to let Otis in, and opened the door for him. "Otis, it's time to come inside, okay." So Otis did. Axel didn't think much of anything after closing the door, he was a little buzzed and a while after midnight, went to sleep.

Axel was fast asleep in his room, when at 2am he heard a terrified... "YELP!" Axel blindly ran down to the kitchen to see if Otis was alright, but he didn't see him anywhere, and went back to bed.                     And at 6 in the morning..... "Axel, did you let Otis in last night?" "yes." "Then where is he?" "I don't know." Jake searched all around the house for Otis, while Axel joined in the search party still tired.      "Oh, no Otis! Oh, no! Oooohhh, nooooooo!!!!" Jake sobbed. Axel hurdled down the basement and there was Otis paralyzed in a puddle of his own waste. Otis tried to get up but kept slumping. Axel started to cry feeling very guilty, Jake tried calling some emergency hotlines that were stationed in Traverse City or Saginaw. "You know he's not gonna make it, Axel." Jake sighed to his son after hanging up. Lastly, Jake called Fran on her cellphone in a hotel room with friends, he explained everything. Axel came up the stairs to try to get help on Facebook, but no one was online. When Axel came back downstairs, Otis completed stopped moving. Axel quietly hugged his dad still talking on the phone. "I love you too, Axel." he sobbed and hung up. "Otis, you made a mess all over my floor." Jake groaned. When Axel came back upstairs, he hugged Vivian and played a sad song by Irene Cara and Freddie Jackson called "Love Survives" and went back to sleep. When Axel awoke a few hours later, he saw Hank had brought his son Abraham over and they were hanging out. "Axel, will you help Hank carry Otis out to his car?" When Hank saw Otis under a blanket, he petted the late animal on his neck. "Oh, Ody." "This is awful" groaned Axel when he saw Hank starting to pick him up and he drove away. The loss left an emptiness in Axel and Jake's souls all day, and eventually Jake had to go to work. Axel went for a ride that evening. Madre finally came home from her Friday night vacation. 
"How was your trip, Madre?" Axel asked. "It was okay, would've been better if I hadn't heard the sad news." Axel eventually told his GF about the loss over Twitter, but they still continued to talk about certain things the next day.