Storytelling for Week 2: The Eavesdropping Dog

It was a normal sunny afternoon, I was on my porch just eating a bone and watching the activity of the neighborhood around me. Down the street lived the most beautiful girl on the block, everyone was extremely jealous of her beauty. Many men tried to court her but none could hold her attention and most found that dating her led to many struggles of keeping other men off of her. No one seemed to be up for the challenge of marrying this beautiful handful of a woman. This led her into a depression, every night I would watch her come outside contemplating suicide I would do my best to console her but it was getting very old. One afternoon an as equally a handsome of a man strolled into town. I watched him as he drove down the street to the woman’s home. She seemed overjoyed that this handsome man wanted to have her hand in marriage. As she was running around telling everyone of her engagement I overheard him on the phone. He seemed to be fighting with someone and finally I heard him say “Fine Mother, I will not marry her” then he hung up and when back to the woman’s home. The day went on and I fell asleep in my usual spot on the porch. Late in the night I was awoke by the sound of a car starting up I looked up quickly enough to see the young man and woman taking off down the road. My curiosity was at am all time high so I started howling or my friend, Hawk, to come visit. When he arrived I told him of the day’s activities and asked for him to follow the couple and send me updates. Hawk was instantly on board, he loved a good case of eavesdropping. He hurried to catch up to the couple’s car.

{Dog} The next day the woman’s family was so distraught at her running away with the man that they fell into a dark depression. The parents and the sisters were overwhelmed with pain. It was so hard to watch them in so much pain.

{Hawk} I followed them up on to a hill to a beautiful little cabin hidden back in the trees. The man kept telling the women that this would be the only way they could be together and she could not tell anyone of their hiding spot or ask him about his background. She seemed nervous but willing to do anything for this man. He gave her the best foods and all the gold and jewelry she could ever dream of. They go on seemingly happy for a few days. After a while she begins to become depressed and miss her family. She again becomes suicidal. He eventually gives in telling her she may go see her sisters in private. She scurries out in the middle of the night to see her sisters.

{Dog} It is very late as I see the girl sprinting down the road. She drags her sisters out of the house telling them of her adventure. She leaves before daybreak and that is when things become interesting. Her sisters immediately become jealous and devise a plan to break them up. They call up his mother and tell her of their marriage! She sounds outraged over the phone and knows exactly where they are hiding. I am sure she is headed their right now.

{Hawk} As I am watching the happy couple I see an outraged older woman coming up the path. She bursts in yelling at the two. She is angry her son disobeyed her wishes and she feels the girl is no good, just after his riches. She soon devises a series of tasks for her to prove her love for him. The girl struggles but eventually completes the tasks but that is not good enough for the mother. The boy has to confront his grandfather to help him convince the mother the marriage is good. After much fighting the mother finally gives in.

{Dog} When Hawk returned he told me everything he saw. What a crazy story?! It has been weeks since the event and we hear the girl is pregnant now and knows how devious her sisters are. She has not come home since the event and keeps to just her beautiful little family. 

Author's Note: The story is based off the crazy love story of Cupid and Psyche. To sum it up, Cupid and Psyche were in a forbidden love affair. Cupid's mother disapproved and was jealous of Psyche's beauty feeling it took away from her own. Cupid's mother is the goddess Venus, better known as Aphrodite. Psyche has two sisters who were jealous and devious and tried to ruin Psyche and Cupid's marriage. They had to go through many trials and tribulations to keep their marriage together and prove their love to Venus. I wanted to tell the story from an outside point of view so I had two curious animals report what they saw and heard happening. A dog seemed the best choice because most stories seem to have that lazy dog that just lays on the porch all day. So it seemed he would know what is going on around the town at all times. Then I added a hawk because the dog needed a helpful companion to follow the adventure when it left the neighborhood. I loved the entire story of Cupid and Psyche, so I felt I wanted to just give a broad version of the tale instead of picking out one element and going into a lot of detail. This way the readers can still know generally know everything.

Apuleius's Golden Ass, as translated into English by Tony Kline (2013).

The Nosy Dog from Google Images