Speak: to Fall Back On

Nathan Dragon

He talks.

He’d always thought he could. He didn’t think he was mute. He’d thought this because the dog tilts its head when he speaks to it. He’d thought it was a good idea.

One time he recorded himself speaking to the dog so he could listen to the recording for concrete proof but after he realized the experiment lacked validity—he could not be the control sample and the experimental sample; though the dog did tilt its head.

When he was younger he thought about his life a lot, like how long it would be and if he’d get a dog some day. He stopped thinking about his life a lot when he got a dog and decided that he always wanted to live somewhere sleepy, not knowing really what made a place that way.

And now he thinks about his dog being loyal and having a salt and pepper coat.

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Just to be safe, he thinks, he will take a photograph of his dog too. To make sure it is true that his dog has a salt and pepper coat. And to be sure, he thinks, he will take one photograph in color and another photograph in black and white and he will get the photographs professionally printed 36” x 48” at 300dpi for accuracy. Then he will take a color photograph of the professionally printed black and white print of the dog with a salt and pepper coat as well as a black and white photograph of the professionally printed color print of the dog with a salt and pepper coat. He will then get those photographs professionally printed 36”x 48”at 300dpi for accuracy, also.

This time through, both of the sets of photographs of the dog with a salt and pepper coat will take turns being the experiment sample and the control sample. He will not make a big deal about it or even think about it for too long and the samples will hopefully come to an agreement.