I looked at Robert who was laying on earth but his lips grinned ear to ear.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Uh huh,” he said, then he continued smiling.
“Don’t you have any questions?”
“Well,” he raised his face, “I am afraid that you can’t answer, that’s why I don’t ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Do you know what content can get one million views?”
“I am searching for it as well.”
“When you find it, share it with me.” He returned to lay on earth and smiled his lips.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Shh…” Robert did this to me, then he pointed to the two women who were standing about three meters from our fence. I walked to stand next to Robert and listened to the human’s talking.
“Here are photos of the two men who are chasing me.”
“Okay.”
“I think both of them are good, but I feel it is hard to make a decision. If you were me, which one would you choose?”
“I can’t say it because I am not you.”
“I know, I just want to hear your opinion; however, I will make a decision by myself.”
“It’s best for you to make a decision by yourself.”
“I told you already. I just wanted to hear your ideas.”
“I won’t express my idea because it’s not good action. You must think and consider and make decisions by yourself. If I show my ideas, it will be able to distract your decision. It might impact you without your consent. So, I urge you to make a decision by yourself - because it’s your own life and happiness.”
“Pig,” Robert whispered, “I love her. The one who tells her friend to make decision by herself.”
Hearing it, I opened my mouth big.
“Pig,” Robert walked to me, “are you still typing?”
“Yes.” I nodded.
“What are you writing?”
“Skills that sellers should learn and train themselves.”
“What is it about?”
“It’s about the people who are in the selling role. Most of them like to sell because they think they are a seller; they don’t care about capacity development; and I am showing them that they should upgrade themselves though they are a seller and why they have to do it.”
“Can I read it?”
“Sure, you can, but you have to click on it because I posted it on another website.”
“Why do you make yourself busy like this?”
“You can see that I don’t have any family to help me, I don’t have any friends who I can trust and rely on, and I don’t think I need anyone to depend on. I want to depend on myself, rely on myself, and help myself. So, I have to work harder and harder at this time to live easily when I get old.”
When the sun set, there was a small rain. When it stopped, I came out to sit in my lounge in my front yard. Robert came to join me. It was a cool night and it was good.
“Tonight, you don’t update your social media, do you?” Robert said.
“If you want to talk about Instagram account, no I don’t. I deleted it already,” I said.
“Why?”
“Because it is harder to use than before. It demands that I have a Facebook account; if I use email to sign up, I need to verify with my face. It gives me a headache.”
“But how did you sign up for your account?”
“I used a Facebook account. However I didn’t feel it was secure and I felt annoyed since I usually got a notification asking me to pay to advertise my account to get views. Hence I decided to delete it.”
“Why do they have to make it complicated like this?”
“We can’t put blame on them. Many users have created fake accounts to scam other users and to cause trouble to the society so Facebook or Instagram companies need to be careful and protect. Furthermore, they are doing business, they need money to run the company, and the source of money to continue running their company is advertising, so they have to go for it. They are not wrong.”
“I understand.” Robert nodded his head.
The sky was dark blue and the wind became cooler. Over the bush before my house, there were a lot of lights, like tiny bulbs, and once they were bright once they were weak.
“Beautiful,” I said with a smile.
In the evening, while I was gardening, I heard Robert talking with the crow.
“This morning, where did you go? I came but I saw the door and the gate were locked,” the crow said.
“I went with Pig to deliver the vegetables to the client. I wanted to be a business dog so I asked her to teach me to do business,” Robert said.
After hearing it, I didn’t say a word even when he came back to do gardening with me.
Robert was a dog; loyalty and honesty are his identity. Also dogs usually trust others easily and carelessly. It was the reason Robert didn’t lie and he always said everything even when he was not asked to say. It was not bad but it was not good as well. He could tell the crow that he went with me - to do some personal stuff. He should not tell her frankly that he went with me to meet with the client and he should not say about his wish to be a business dog and he asked me to teach him. However I wouldn’t instruct him to say or not to say because I knew exactly that he wouldn’t listen to me. I let him learn from his own lesson; it was the best way to teach someone to help or survive by their own selves.
The sun rose. I organized the vegetables with help from Robert. Afterwards, we left by locking the door and gate properly.
On the way, I saw Robert was having a delightful facial expression. It has been many months since he lived in my house. He didn’t go anywhere further; today was the first day.
We didn’t talk much, but I tried to tell him a few things along the way till we arrived at the destination.
Normally Robert liked to talk, but he turned to keep quiet especially while I was meeting with the client. He stood by me and I saw he was focusing his eyes and ears on our conversation.
When we returned, he changed to be himself.
“Can we play?” He said.
“Play?”
“Yes, we can do running competitions.”
“I think we cannot.”
“Why? It is a long way. We should have fun.”
“Because it’s a long way, that’s why we should not have fun.”
“Why not?”
“Because along this way, there are many troubles such as wolf, tiger, lion, hunter’s trap etc. If we have fun, we might lose caution and this will give an opportunity to those who want to harm us to be successful. Moreover, if we have fun, we will waste our energy. If a wolf or tiger appears, we will not be able to even run. So, along this way, we should maintain our caution both when we go and when we come back.”
Robert wagged his head, “I see.”
“Pig, can I ask you for a favor?” Robert said.
“Say first,” I said.
“Well,” he hesitated to speak.
“Say it.”
“I want you to bring me with you when you deliver the vegetables to your client.”
“Why do you want me to take you with me?”
“I want to know how you do it.”
“Do you want to learn about it?”
Robert wagged his head, “Yes, I want to learn it. I want to know how you do business.”
I giggled, “Do you want to do business like me?”
“Yes,” he replied honestly. “I remembered you said that you don’t believe animals have to live by relying on humans and you proved it to me. You are a pig, but you can survive yourself; moreover, you do business with humans. You are a business-pig and I want to be a business-dog.”
I laughed; however, I loved him; he was great and awesome.
“Pig, where do you come from?” Robert asked. “I went to the market to buy this box,” I said and showed him. “What is it?” “It’s a foam conta...
