By AnnMarie Rowland<\/strong><\/p>\n Gerald\u2019s talking dog likes cherries. It\u2019s all he ever talks about. Gerald, that is, not the dog. \u201cMy talking dog,\u201d Gerald says to anyone who will listen, \u201clikes cherries. I mean, he really likes cherries.\u201d <\/p>\n Gerald came in last week and he was going on about his dog to everybody in Stormcloud. You never know what you\u2019ll hear in there on a Tuesday night when it\u2019s mostly just locals, but it\u2019s always entertaining. I couldn\u2019t resist asking, \u201cHow do you know?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow do I know what?\u201d he asked, as though I\u2019d insulted him somehow; as though if I\u2019d been paying attention I\u2019d know already. <\/p>\n I sucked suds off the top of my beer, and ran my finger up the side of the cold glass to catch a drip. \u201cHow do you know he likes cherries?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe told me.\u201d Gerald rolled his eyes. \u201cMaybe you missed the part where I said my talking dog likes cherries.<\/p>\n \u201cYour talking dog.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cYou heard me.\u201d Gerald glared back, draining his glass and slapping the bar impatiently for another.<\/p>\n \u201cThis talking dog,\u201d I pressed. \u201cWhat\u2019s his name?\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI call him Buster, and he hasn\u2019t told me that I\u2019m wrong, so there it is. But cherries! God, how he loves them. And that he did tell me. I was sittin\u2019 on the back stoop one day last week, watching the wife pull weeds out of the little garden, and I had a box of them cherries they sell from the stand down on the corner. I was eatin\u2019 cherries, and spittin\u2019 pits, and next thing I know, ole Buster, he\u2019s lookin\u2019 at me with those eyes. \u2018I like cherries,\u2019 he says.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had a dog once who liked grapes, if I bit them in half first,\u201d Walter, two stools down cut in. \u201cIf I gave him a whole one he just rolled it along the floor with his nose until it was up against the toe of my shoe. Then he\u2019d look up at me as if to say, \u2018Would you bite this thing in half for me?\u2019, and I would, and then he\u2019d eat it. He loved grapes.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cNobody wants to hear about your dog and grapes,\u201d Gerald shot back. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about my dog here. My talking dog, for the love of God. My talking dog that likes cherries! I was saying, before you opened your yap, that my talking dog told me he likes cherries. He didn\u2019t just look at me, he said it.\u201d<\/p>\n Gerald guzzled his beer, and slurred, \u201cSo, I gave him one. I gave him about ten of \u2018em. You never saw a happier dog than Buster.\u201d<\/p>\n Walter interrupted again. \u201cYou\u2019ll kill him, you know, feeding him cherries. If the cyanide in the pits don\u2019t get him, well, they\u2019ll plug him up, if you know what I mean, and he\u2019ll die from being full of pits.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLiar!\u201d Gerald clenched his fists. \u201cMy talking dog\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTruth,\u201d said Walter. \u201cMy cat told me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gerald\u2019s talking dog likes cherries. It\u2019s all he ever talks about. Gerald, that is, not the dog. \u201cMy talking dog,\u201d Gerald says to anyone who will listen, \u201clikes cherries. I mean, he really likes cherries.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[171],"tags":[188],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/geralds-talking-dog.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3TDCr-xS","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2109,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2100\/revisions\/2109"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betsiecurrent.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}