{"id":16515,"date":"2024-04-30T14:06:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-30T19:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/?p=16515"},"modified":"2024-11-26T11:43:24","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T17:43:24","slug":"rhumbline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2024\/04\/30\/rhumbline\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhumbline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-social-links is-content-justification-right is-layout-flex wp-container-core-social-links-is-layout-765c4724 wp-block-social-links-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-facebook  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=61556140010887\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12 2C6.5 2 2 6.5 2 12c0 5 3.7 9.1 8.4 9.9v-7H7.9V12h2.5V9.8c0-2.5 1.5-3.9 3.8-3.9 1.1 0 2.2.2 2.2.2v2.5h-1.3c-1.2 0-1.6.8-1.6 1.6V12h2.8l-.4 2.9h-2.3v7C18.3 21.1 22 17 22 12c0-5.5-4.5-10-10-10z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n\n<li class=\"wp-social-link wp-social-link-instagram  wp-block-social-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/boudin_mcneese\/\" class=\"wp-block-social-link-anchor\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.1\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" focusable=\"false\"><path d=\"M12,4.622c2.403,0,2.688,0.009,3.637,0.052c0.877,0.04,1.354,0.187,1.671,0.31c0.42,0.163,0.72,0.358,1.035,0.673 c0.315,0.315,0.51,0.615,0.673,1.035c0.123,0.317,0.27,0.794,0.31,1.671c0.043,0.949,0.052,1.234,0.052,3.637 s-0.009,2.688-0.052,3.637c-0.04,0.877-0.187,1.354-0.31,1.671c-0.163,0.42-0.358,0.72-0.673,1.035 c-0.315,0.315-0.615,0.51-1.035,0.673c-0.317,0.123-0.794,0.27-1.671,0.31c-0.949,0.043-1.233,0.052-3.637,0.052 s-2.688-0.009-3.637-0.052c-0.877-0.04-1.354-0.187-1.671-0.31c-0.42-0.163-0.72-0.358-1.035-0.673 c-0.315-0.315-0.51-0.615-0.673-1.035c-0.123-0.317-0.27-0.794-0.31-1.671C4.631,14.688,4.622,14.403,4.622,12 s0.009-2.688,0.052-3.637c0.04-0.877,0.187-1.354,0.31-1.671c0.163-0.42,0.358-0.72,0.673-1.035 c0.315-0.315,0.615-0.51,1.035-0.673c0.317-0.123,0.794-0.27,1.671-0.31C9.312,4.631,9.597,4.622,12,4.622 M12,3 C9.556,3,9.249,3.01,8.289,3.054C7.331,3.098,6.677,3.25,6.105,3.472C5.513,3.702,5.011,4.01,4.511,4.511 c-0.5,0.5-0.808,1.002-1.038,1.594C3.25,6.677,3.098,7.331,3.054,8.289C3.01,9.249,3,9.556,3,12c0,2.444,0.01,2.751,0.054,3.711 c0.044,0.958,0.196,1.612,0.418,2.185c0.23,0.592,0.538,1.094,1.038,1.594c0.5,0.5,1.002,0.808,1.594,1.038 c0.572,0.222,1.227,0.375,2.185,0.418C9.249,20.99,9.556,21,12,21s2.751-0.01,3.711-0.054c0.958-0.044,1.612-0.196,2.185-0.418 c0.592-0.23,1.094-0.538,1.594-1.038c0.5-0.5,0.808-1.002,1.038-1.594c0.222-0.572,0.375-1.227,0.418-2.185 C20.99,14.751,21,14.444,21,12s-0.01-2.751-0.054-3.711c-0.044-0.958-0.196-1.612-0.418-2.185c-0.23-0.592-0.538-1.094-1.038-1.594 c-0.5-0.5-1.002-0.808-1.594-1.038c-0.572-0.222-1.227-0.375-2.185-0.418C14.751,3.01,14.444,3,12,3L12,3z M12,7.378 c-2.552,0-4.622,2.069-4.622,4.622S9.448,16.622,12,16.622s4.622-2.069,4.622-4.622S14.552,7.378,12,7.378z M12,15 c-1.657,0-3-1.343-3-3s1.343-3,3-3s3,1.343,3,3S13.657,15,12,15z M16.804,6.116c-0.596,0-1.08,0.484-1.08,1.08 s0.484,1.08,1.08,1.08c0.596,0,1.08-0.484,1.08-1.08S17.401,6.116,16.804,6.116z\"><\/path><\/svg><span class=\"wp-block-social-link-label screen-reader-text\">Instagram<\/span><\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>Rhumbline<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Lucinda Kempe<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Comus was a black Labrador and came from a breeder on Long Island. Rhumbline Retrievers is run by Susan and her husband Joe. Rhumbline is a nautical term for a straight line between two points.1 Both Susan and her husband had worked in the merchant marine. When we went to visit the puppies, I discovered the nautical connection. It felt like fate. My mother and I had been regulars in the Greek merchant marine bars on Decatur Street in New Orleans. I made my unofficial \u201cdebut\u201d there. Plus, my mother had made her debut in the Comus ball in the 40s so what else could I call her? Decatur? No. Comus was perfect. In mythology, Comus, the god of excess, is depicted as a winged youth or a young satyr. As a teen, I was a paradigm of acting out and misbehavior. I grew up feeling that my mother loved her dogs more than me. In fact, I pretended to be a dog as a little girl to get her attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    Calm heavyset woman, almost masculine, a take-no-prisoner personality, Susan picked the pup for us. Pink girl was her first name. The pups are named by the color of the ribbon\u2019s Susan places on their necks. She only names her own dogs. Name it and it\u2019s yours\u2014the \u201cit\u201d disappears and becomes what you hope is a \u201cperson in a dog suit\u201d as Maud Ellen called special dogs. My mother never owned a breed dog. She rescued stray dogs, cats, and men, a habit I inherited from her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    She only liked dogs and books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    In the last picture I took of Comus, her black fur shines in the dappled sunlight filtering through the trees of Sunken Meadow Park. She looks away from me. I had her off-leash. She had a great recall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    \u201cI\u2019m here to train you, not the dog,\u201d the Syosset dog trainer had said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Comus never jumped on beds or sofas, never bolted with a lamb shank<br>or turkey in her maw, never tore out of the front door or pawed manically like <em>Skouria<\/em>, my mother\u2019s Saigonese Street dog she picked up off a Greek freighter when she was picking up some sailor. Unlike <em>Skouria<\/em>, who returned from a peregrination with a stab wound in his chest, Comus was a docile darling\u2014she chewed a slipper once. I loaned her to friends who were thinking of getting a dog. The husband was wary of dogs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    \u201cMan, she didn\u2019t go near the kid\u2019s lunches on the coffee table,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    She won them over. They got a dog. Another friend got a black Lab for her son after they fell in love with her\u2014he was a big fellow with a thick neck, nothing like Comus, who was never more than sixty pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    Comus had a \u201csoft\u201d mouth which meant she held her retrieves gently, never biting down hard. The only thing she gobbled was food. I fed her kibble and I suspect the kibble contributed to her stomach cancer. She was dead at age ten. Kibble bloats the gut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    \u201cShe\u2019s aged five years in six months,\u201d the vet said when I brought her in, \u201cThere\u2019s a mass in her stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    She\u2019d been throwing up, but I thought she\u2019d eaten something outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    \u201cI\u2019ll be here on Monday, if you can wait that long.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    Thirty-six hours after the diagnosis, Comus was gone. She died almost as fast as my mother except Maud Ellen lingered for two months before heading into the great library in the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">     The diagnosis was made on a Friday. Comus collapsed on Sunday. All four of us took her in. The kids didn\u2019t want to go, but I said, \u201cThe best person in the house is leaving the earth. We can\u2019t let her go alone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    My mother was wrong. Dogs aren\u2019t people in dog suits. They\u2019re dogs, but in keeping with Orwell\u2019s \u201csome pigs are better than others,\u201d some animals are better than people. They behave well. They teach patience and civility. They\u2019re paradigms of good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    I buried my mother\u2019s ashes with Comus\u2019s body in our Yankee garden. We\u2019d picked up stray cats, dogs, and men together. It was more than appropriate. It was freeing. I haven\u2019t gotten another dog since. I let my mother die alone in a third-rate nursing home in New Orleans as payback for all she had and hadn\u2019t done but burying her ashes I\u2019d held onto for twelve years with the body of a beloved dog gave me closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">    That day in the woods when Comus stood on the path, the dappled light on her coat, its shine, the glint of the prong collar I used so she wouldn\u2019t pull, her back legs still had muscle tone. In the photograph, she appears to be already leaving, sensing or scenting something. Maybe Comus heard a voice, a call. Was it my mother? Maybe she knew she was needed. Dogs are smart. They know where they belong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">The dog became the rhumbline between me and my dead mother.<br> Her name was Comus. We called her Coco. We called her love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">1. An imaginary line on the earth&#8217;s surface cutting all meridians at the same angle, used as the standard method<br>of plotting a ship&#8217;s course on a chart.<br>2. Any of the 32 points of the compass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Dedication<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To all the animal rescuers.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/IMG_8570.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-16626\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/IMG_8570.jpeg 480w, https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/04\/IMG_8570-225x300.jpeg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>__________<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong><strong>Lucinda Kem<\/strong>pe<\/strong>&#8216;s work has been published or is forthcoming in <em>Flash Fiction Review<\/em>, <em>Centaur<\/em>, <em>The Disappointed Housewife<\/em>, <em>Unbroken Journal<\/em>, <em>New South Journal<\/em>, <em>New World Writing<\/em>, <em>Southampton Review<\/em>, and <em>The Summerset Review<\/em>. An excerpt from her memoir was short listed for the Fish Memoir Prize in April 2021. She lives on Long Island where she exorcises with words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>__________<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"438\" height=\"211\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15484\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1.jpg 438w, https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/01\/boudin-logo-1-300x145.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 438px) 100vw, 438px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-large-font-size\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2024\/04\/30\/walking-on-the-levee-on-our-way-to-angel-mounds\/\"> Back<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/2024\/04\/30\/take-em-both\/\">Next <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">To learn more about submitting your work to <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/boudin-submissions\/\">Boudin<\/a><\/em> or applying to McNeese State University&#8217;s Creative Writing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/mfa-application-submissions\/\">MFA program<\/a>, please visit Submissions for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rhumbline Lucinda Kempe __________ Comus was a black Labrador and came from a breeder on Long Island. Rhumbline Retrievers is run by Susan and her husband Joe. Rhumbline is a nautical term for a straight line between two points.1 Both Susan and her husband had worked in the merchant marine. When we went to visit&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205],"tags":[75,146],"class_list":["post-16515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boudin-april-24-pet","tag-boudin","tag-fiction-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16515"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18016,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16515\/revisions\/18016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mcneese.edu\/thereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}