The Golden Retriever

The Golden Retriever materializes on Nightbitch's front lawn on an ordinary morning, one of three dogs—a golden retriever, a collie, and a basset hound—lounging in the shade of the silver maple. For Nightbitch, these breeds carry an immediate, almost embarrassing nostalgia: they were the dogs that girls in the 1980s loved, the dogs she herself had loved as a child, fantasizing about brushing their hair with a pink hairbrush, decorating them with lavender bows, and naming them Lisa or Gem or Mr. Belvedere. In her childhood imagination, these dogs would also save her if she ever accidentally tripped into the street in front of an oncoming car or fell into a very deep hole. Now they are simply there, on the lawn, all turning to look at her and her child, and she can only say aloud, "Oh, come on."