"Eyes of Dogs" by Lucy Corin

Lucy Corin's short story, Eyes of Dogs, focuses on a war veteran battling PTSD as he encounters a woman who he believes could be a witch and his mother. This story is the first of four short stories in Corin's anthology, One Hundred Apocalypses and Other Apocalypses. This short anthology book centers on the idea and themes of a dystopian/end of the world situation.

Right at the beginning of the story, Corin places the reader right next to the veteran as he is walking home on the sidewalk. The veteran instantly notices a dog that is tied up to a tree as the dog tries to reach its food bowl.

The road was lined with trees, and every so often a hovel hunched right there at its edge, droopy and mean, with a dirt yard like a pale sack at its feet. The soldier passed a hovel with a little dog outside, barking on a rope. The dog's dish was just beyond the reach of the rope. He watched the dog run, barking, to reach it, catch itself by the neck at the end of the rope, bounce back yelping, and do this repeatedly, his white ruff following the jerk of his head. The soldier could see that there is nothing in the bowl.

It is a few paragraphs later when the veteran encounters the witch, who gestures him over with the promise of money, along with vagueness about what is in her pot. She then asks him to complete a series of acts to retrieve a purse and then she'll give him money.

"Tie this rope around your waist," said the witch. "Hop down this black hole into this deep hollow tree. You'll be tethered to me. Don't be frightened of what you'll see. Ha! You've seen worse. You'll see some dogs. Wink at the first dog, blink at the next dog, and for the third, squeeze your eyes shut and wait to see. You will find a little leather purse in the earth down there, and all I ask is: bring it to me. If you don't, I won't pull you up, and then, you'll have something to be frightened of."

The narrator then takes the veteran, and the reader, on an interesting journey down the black hole of the tree. The way Corin writes the scenes almost seems like the scene from Alice in Wonderland, where Alice is going down the rabbit hole. But it is the side story that she puts in the margins that can confuse the reader. It is an alternate version of the story that Corin is already narrating. With it in the margins, it can confuse the reader on what story to focus on primarily.

The scene where the soldier encounters the dogs in the black hole of the tree that I found interesting. This scene has stuck with me ever since I first read this story. It is the complexity and the fantasy of this story that gives it an ethereal and unique quality.

The dog had eyes as big as snowglobes, sparkling and swimming with watery light [...] the dog [laid] down and tilted his head to the side and the snow settle, an Eiffel Tower reflected in one eye, a Golden Pyramid glowing from the depths of the other [...]

There before him loomed an even more enormous dog, and bluer, this one grouchily awakening from a nap, yawning, stretching, great shoulderblades shifting like mountains through time, with eyes as big as the capitol dome, magic beaming from beneath the lids as they rose, and the light rose. This dog was so enormous that his head pressed the top of the chamber, which even so must have expanded to accommodate him and his eyes

[...]

Dog three. Eyes as big as planets, one ringed with rings and one with a great red spot floating gaseously in it. Hallucinatory expansive light, light filled with fire and ghosts, so fragmented and strobing that the soldier squeezed his eyes shut.

It is how Corin describes the dogs' eyes so explicitly and so evocative, which is what I believe makes the story what it is. Even though the title alludes to the dogs' eyes, Corin's use of description is the frosting on the cake that is this story. As a reader and a writer, I feel that description is a vital part of any story and Corin definitely delivered.

I enjoyed this story, as it felt magical and very evocative. The way Corin describes the dogs' eyes will forever be my favorite part. And while the side story in the margins can be considered interruptive and confusing, it is able to show an alternate version of the story that makes it interesting. I also enjoyed the fairytale-esque spin on the story as well. 

As for whether or not you should read it? It's definitely worth the read. It has the hint of a fairytale with a dollop of human desire. So go and read!