The Vietnam Vet at the Gun Auction

   I am hiking with my good friend Mark. We are on the shorter five mile trail now cause we are older, while others, also older but able to jump over boulders in a single bound, buzz around us heading up Mathis. Because I am working on a manuscript about Vietnam that mentions M-l6's, and Mark is a Vietnam vet,  I asked him if he carried an M-l6. 

“No, he said, “not an M-16 but an M-14 as well as a reconditioned 45 from 1941 which by the way was before I was even born. “

We continued hiking up seven hundred feet on “the dinosaurs backbone.” named by Liza, another hiker.

“I had a shotgun,” Mark said.  So I asked him if he ever went hunting, thinking of living in Idaho and the pheasant and duck hunting that went on each fall. 

“No,” he said, “I shot clays, but not anymore. I sold my shotgun at an auction.”

The auction was held in a huge indoor space where people sat in metal chairs and waited for the auctioneer to start.  And he did.  His voice boomed out from a microphone. 

A blind man wearing a suit and dark glasses stood near the group, with the most interesting large dog, some kind of European breed, that sat, alert, next to him.
                                               
A young girl saw the blind man.  She went over to him, really to see this great big dog as big as she was.

In a medium loud voice, she said, “Mister Blind Man, can I pet your dog?”

“Yes,” he said, “That’s all right.”

She stroked the dog, enjoyed being close, her hand moving down the fur on his shoulder over and over.

“Mister Blind Man,” she said. “Have you ever seen what your dog looks like?  Her voice  so much louder now.

The bidders, the people in their chairs, turned to look at her.

“No I haven’t,” the blind man said.

“Well,” she said, “Let me tell you what he looks like.”

Her voice boomed out over the room.  More of the audience turned toward her.  The auctioneer went quiet.

“Your dog has four feet that look like little white booties,” she said, “and his fur is brown and black.  He has a black mouth and his ears are sticking up.  He has a big head and a big body ----

Silence in the whole auction.  The young girl stole the stage.  Her voice ricocheted around the enclosed space.

A woman came quickly over, put her arm around the young girl, apologized to the blind man and nodded in the direction of the auctioneer and the bidders.  The mother and young girl hurried off.  The auctioneer began again.  Later Mark’s shotgun was sold to the highest bidder. 

They say a story is only as true as you can make it.