The Dog Whistle

Published in The Stockholm Review of Literature

He buys and paints army after army. The 1900 North African Arab Warriors, the third Swiss Regiment Infantry Voltigeur 1809. There are specific areas of his bedroom where each army holds sway. The 'Charge of the Light Brigade' seventeenth Lancers commands the whole top of his wardrobe, whereas the area below the windowsill falls to the British Camel Corps, 1882. On the days he goes to school he double checks his bedroom door is firmly closed. He suspects that if the dog got in, it would be unable to control itself and would devour hundreds.