["Do you know anything about polyamory?"
"Um...If I'm not mistaken isn't it being in love with more than one person?" I asked.
"Sort of. I was talking with these two guys I met at the bookstore last night about polyamory. Polyamory is having deep or intimate, not necessarily sexual, relationships with more than one person. Do you think that's possible to do?"
"You mean, to have that connection with more than one person at a time? I think you probably could. But as far as having relationships that function and that function well, I don't think you can. It's hard enough to have just one relationship."
"Well the thing about it is, it's open, like, everybody is upfront about it and knows that you are in other relationships, maybe even knows the people you are in other relationships with. It's a way at getting at honesty and everybody is in it only because they want to be. If you're jealous you can't be in the relationship. It's like, that's one of the rules. Everybody is on board and up front."
"Yeah, it still sounds like trouble to me. I'm not saying it's impossible, it just seems like it could get really complicated really fast. I take that back, I don't think it's possible. Not for any sustainable period of time. I think people are just built that way," I said and turned to the back seat. "What do you think, John?"
"I thiiiink that, if you can do it then you can do it and if you can't then you can't," he said trying not to look as though he'd been paying attention. "I don't even know what you guys were talking about," and then there was silence for a short moment.
"What do you think about it?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said. "I mean in a perfect world it seems like it would be ideal but I can see where it could get messed up or people could get hurt. But it seems like if you go into it agreeing to share yourself with someone knowing that you are also sharing that someone with someone else and there was no jealousy, you could maximize your intimacy. I don't mean sexual intimacy, necessarily, but how much of yourself, your love, you could share with people and how much you could receive from them sharing with you. But then maybe you're right about human nature. Maybe you're not, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know."]
And then there was just silence.
"Hey, let's pull over here," Ryan said and we pulled off the road onto a gravel drive into a flat area where a port-o-john stood with a trash can next to it. We got out of the car and let the dogs out and both took off running into the brush and began marking their territory. At the edge of the field was a 4 ft. drop to a healthy creek-bed below with water running what looked to be 4-5 ft. deep.
I lit a cigarette and so did Ryan and we stood and watched as the dogs came back and Jeff made his way down to the water to drink. Juneau quickly followed and soon Ryan was throwing a large stick into the middle of the creek, which Jeff swam after. Juneau edged closer to the water, wading chest deep, not quite standing and not quite swimming. Both climbed back out together and both stood for a moment looking around. Suddenly Juneau took off back into the brush as fast as he could and Jeff followed suit. In the distance they stopped for a moment and then both dropped to the ground and began rolling on their backs in the remains of a dead animal. Both Ryan and Dawn began running towards them yelling for them to "Come HERE!" and "STOP!" and of course they didn't until Ryan and Dawn reached them, at which point both pooches sprung to their feet and began to run my direction.
"Oh, Jeff! You STINK!" she said as Ryan was laughing and covering his mouth and nose.
"Geez, Juneau!"
The dogs, Ryan, and Dawn made it back to the waters edge and both Dawn and Ryan made them wade and swim as much as possible. The embankment was steep and while Jeff came back up a somewhat passable slope, Juneau attempted to jump up a part of the embankment which was nearly vertical. His lower torso was dangling and kicking while his front legs grasped at the dirt and grass as he tried to scramble back up to where we were standing. I watched him for a second and realizing he wouldn't make it, I reached down and grabbed his collar and pulled him up the rest of the way. Once up, Juneau stood to his feet and trotted slowly away, looking over his shoulder at me once. Ryan laughed.
"When I punish Juneau I grab him by his collar," he explained to Dawn. "The other night we were up on the roof and Kevin was sitting in the lawn chair. He tried to get Juneau up into his lap by grabbing his collar and pulling him up onto the chair and Juneau wouldn't get up. Kev let go and Juneau went like 20 ft. away and laid down with his back towards Kev. He kept looking at Kev over his shoulder and then turning back around and laying his head down!" he said laughing. "Kev kept calling him and telling him to come back over and apologizing to him but he would not budge! Oh man, it was so funny. You wounded him, Kev. They made up later, though, didn't you Junes," he said and laughed and then coughed. "Ugh."
Back in the car I rolled the window down. Those dogs stunk.
"Did you roll your window down because they still stink like dead deer? Or their breath? Or because they smell like wet dog?" Dawn asked.
"I think it's pretty much all three," I said. As we took off both dogs stood next to each other, heads at the cage above my shoulder next to the window, both smiling and panting and sneezing.
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