My Open Blook

I see her everyday. Walking down the street towards me. She is much older than me yet she has an ageless quality about her. And she always has a slight smile. It it as if she has wrapped herself in a perfectly happy moment. The air of happiness and contentment are almost palitable., and I can feel it brush me when she passes.

The dog is watching me again. He will sit in the corner on his pillow and watch me with his big brown eyes. It is very hard to get work done when I know he is watching me. And I am sure he knows this because invariably I will give in to his forlong look. I will walk over to him and his tail will start hammering against the floor. He will not move, just track me moving towards him with those eyes. I must weave around the furniture but he never loses eye contact. He waits for me to be right next to his pillow before he will roll over and show his belly. I know the spot, the side of his chest near his left leg. It is small and sometimes hard to find but once I press the button, the dog becomes untethered from his pillow and is allowed to roam the room. I gather up his leash and we go for a walk. Everyone in the park likes him. He is the right size, big enough to look like a friendly dog yet small enough to not scare people. Other dog owners love him and wonder what I do to get his coat to look so shiny. The other dogs know though. They know he is not real, still. It is the smell. He just doesn't quite smell like a real dog. That is my job. I am close. He gives off many smells that all are very doggish but something is missing and the real dogs know it. But humans can't tell. All our human test subjects are always in total disbelief that he is not real. We always have to open up part of the test dog to prove it is true. I will someday solve the odour problem, but in the meatime, the dogs are out there being used by our test people. They do not know they are not real, just as they do not know that they are the ones on study, not the dogs.