The prize! The prize!

Our most recent contest winner was told "well, we'll figure out what the prize is later." Patience being its own reward, the contest prize turned out to be pretty good.




Sadly, it won't be delivered by The Suzenator Herself:





but it will come directly to you delivered by a uniformed representative of the federal government. Or by a good-looking muscular guy in brown shorts. Your choice!


Turns out our winner, Phoenix Sullivan, is a query shark in training!

You might consider getting her advice; I think her writing is pretty darn good.

"Java?"

The dog whines at her name and paws my hand.

She's a Labrador. Black, like uncreamed coffee or the fading night.

Hope had been a Golden, a sun-filled garden, her bright devotion burning like Hannukah oil for eight precious years.

Black, though, is a color I understand. A bond buds where I thought no new would grow.

She waits patient in her harness. I take up the handle, eager yet cautious, aware she's my freedom, my salvation. My own miracle worker, ready to serve.

"Forward," I say to Java -- but what I'm really saying is good-bye to Hope.