Chapter 2: "Chasin' Pups"

Excerpt: "Louis thought for a moment, he really liked the songs “Over Myself” and “Yorker Girl” yet he didn’t know if they’d appeal to a forty some year old woman."

Chapter 2

Chasin’ Pups

It took Louis a while, but he finally got himself all unpacked. It all hadn’t been too much, yet he could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Louis was sitting on the floor of his living room. He didn’t have any furniture, all he had was his black and yellow guitar. No Tv, no shelves, stereo, or table. Besides the guitar, all else Louis really had was an old record player, and a stack of beat up records. At one time, he did have a stereo system, but he let Nate, Shrill, and Don keep it. it would have been too much to move anyhow.

One of the walls of Louis’s living room had four windows, they were clean and good sized. Louis stood up, he was heading towards his guitar, but he paused. Instead, he headed toward the windows.

His apartment house was snugged in close between two other houses. The one to his right, there wasn’t hardly any room for a single person to squeeze between the two of them. 

The house on other side though, Louis noticed looking out the windows, had a rather large yard. It was mostly blacktop, but there was still plenty of grass. His apartment house had a decent yard, but not as large as that one. Opening the window, Louis heard the barking of the dog, one? No, two? Out of curiosity Louis poked his head out the window. There were four little dogs running in that large yard. A large smile stretched itself across Louis’s face. He chuckled. Two terriers, a calico one, and a white and black one. Then a little min-pin, and a chubby chihuahua waddled behind. The calico terrier was barking it’s head off. Louis looked out, he didn’t see anything the dog could be barking at. Louis whistled, it caught the dog’s attention. It turned it’s head toward Louis and tilted it’s head, lifting it’s ears.

“ Hey boy.” Louis called to the dog smiling fondly.

Then the white with the black spots came up. It nuzzled the black terrier who began to bark at Louis. The white one spotted Louis too, and let out a loud howl and bark. 

Louis was taken aback. He heard a woman’s voice call: “ Tipper, Elsie! Get in here!” The dogs left. Yet now, the min-pin saw Louis, it’s hair raised up. The woman’s voice called again: “ JJ, get! Ruby!” The dogs scurried off.

Louis brought himself in, and closed the window. He felt bad for making the dogs bark. Yet, they had made him smile.

Louis returned, he fetched his guitar, and set indian style on the floor. He began to play a few bars when he thought about the dogs again. He thought; well, it would be neighborly to introduced himself, wouldn’t it? Louis scanned his eyes around his apartment, he didn’t have anything as a house warming gift. Nothing the dogs might want, save for his old socks, but the lady might not appreciate it.

Louis strummed his fingers on his guitar. Finally it clicked. It might be different, but quickly he set his guitar down and dashed for his stack of records, he dug around them for a minute, then finally he found what he was looking for.

It was Louis and the Leo’s very first CD, well demo CD, anyways. 

Louis thought for a moment, he really liked the songs “Over Myself” and “Yorker Girl” yet he didn’t know if they’d appeal to a forty some year old woman. He shrugged his shoulders, it’s the thought that counts anyways.

With a hopeful smile, Louis descended downstairs.

When Louis reached the metal gate, he leaned his elbow against it, and peered up at one of the windows. It was open, Louis called “ Hello?!”

Almost immediately all the little dogs began to viciously bark, Louis heard them scratching from inside. He thought maybe this was a bad idea.

Louis peered back up at the window, someone was looking out at him, it wasn’t the woman, because she was walking outside. She was slightly raising her voice to keep the dogs back. Now Louis really felt his stomach swim.

The woman stepped out, she was a little shorter than average height. She was plump with a pleasant round face, middle aged. Her hair was a medium shade of red, and she kept it very short. 

Louis spoke first: “ Oh, I didn’t mean to bother your dogs.”

The woman shrugged, she smiled. “ They’ll bark at most anything.” She was scanning her eyes about Louis. He noticed she was looking at his lip ring, than his tight black jeans, and his black and purple pin striped button up shirt. She grew wary. 

Louis reached his hand out above the fence. Almost immediately the front door swung open and the dogs came barreling out barking their little heads off. An old woman stepped out. She was scrutinizing Louis with her little brown eyes.

The stampede of dogs made Louis jump. But it quickly turned into a smile, his heart grew warm looking at them. The red headed woman walked off the porch, shooing the dogs away.

“ Ma!” She yelled at the older woman, “ Get them back in.”

The dogs obeyed and followed each other tail, to tail back in the house. Louis heard a third voice from inside talking to them. But he didn’t pay to much too it. Louis cheeks tinted pink.

Louis held his hand out again. “ I’m Louis, I just moved next door.”

“ Im Delinda, Delinda Kraus.” The red headed woman replied. She turned to the older woman. “ This is my Ma Mary Kraus.” The older woman waved at him.

Louis smiled in a congenial recognition. Mrs. Kraus noticed his nice and white his teeth were.

Louis chuckled uncomfortably, “ I didn’t mean to make your dogs bark.” He said in almost a whisper. He looked at Mrs. Kraus.

“ She can’t hear you.” Delinda said. When Louis saw Mrs. Kraus seemed not to be paying attention.

“ Well.” Louis said a tad unsure, he looked Delinda in the eyes. “ if you ever need anything, I’d be happy to help you out.”

“ Thanks Louis, if my son, or our normal lawn guys can’t make it.”

The dogs began to scratch at the door again. For a second, Louis peered up at the window. There was indeed a third person. But, again he didn’t really pay attention to who it was.

It was then Louis remembered the CD. “ Oh, yeah. I’m a musician, amateur. I thought you might like a copy of my bands first cd.”

He pulled out the record and handed it to Delinda.

She turned it over. It had a black cover with a faint purple electric bolt jetting through it, and written in bold, intricate letters spelled out: Louis and the Leo’s, the ‘s’s were shared on another. Parallel to the l’s was a rearing yellow lion.

“ Thanks.” Delinda said indifferently, “ My son likes this kinda music.”

Louis had caught the hint a while ago, his new neighbor was a little weary of him. He understood, and couldn’t blame her, but yet he still felt a little bad. 

He forced a happy smile, “ That’s cool, he might like it. Yeah were still kinda new. Kinda like an alternative Indie Rock, but I like to mix a little of everything together.”

Delinda nodded her head, still scrutinizing the disk. Louis knew he had overstayed his welcome. “ Well, thanks Delinda, I’ll see you around sometime. I hope you guys like it. We’re suppose to play down at the Plaza, downtown sometime.”