cold snap is threatening to freeze everything

A cold snap is threatening to freeze everything around these parts, including this series, but no dice on that call. Even though it might be a bit late in coming, coming it what it is. Now, because of the delay and because you all are such nice folks, I am giving you the sixth chapter in its entirety today, so, here now is chapter six of the book: How to train a wild puppy dog named, Manley.   

Chapter Six
Do it for the love

Staying warm in a cold snap

... I would kill myself if they ever try to do that to me Libby had said while she was sharing the story of Kamal and Selma with me.
“Don't talk like that Libby.” I rebuked her, “you shouldn't go about saying things like that.” “But it's true, I mean it, what kind of a life is that? Living your whole life with someone who you don't even like, let alone love, just because your parents thinks that they know better than you what is good for you? They may do it to Kamal and get away with it, but that's as far as they are going to get with those old-fashioned rituals unless they decide to go back to the baby pit for another child to practice on, not Libby though thank you very much.”
“Don't you think that people can find happiness within an arranged marriage, ever?”
“Good for them if they do, but not for me, I will go find me my own dream lover with no help from anyone.”
“You know”, I said. “I should be really thrilled hearing that kind of talk coming from you since it would seem like I don't have a snowball's chance in hell of your folks choosing someone like me, for their daughter, but I can't help but feel a bit concerned about you taking this stance.”
“I am a big girl, I can fend for myself.” She defended herself. “You don't have to go about worrying about me.”
“…Is this the way how it works in your household?” I asked her later on, “you have to pass every exam that you sit?”
“Why else would I sit them, if not to pass them?” She blurted back at me.
“There are people in this world,” said I, “who do believe and will swear on their mother's grave to the fact that, one can learn an awful lot more from failure, or at least, from failing an exam, as it is in this your particular case here than from passing one. You know, failure tends to get one to put things into proper perspective sometime and to try harder the next time, and then, one might even be able to pick up on a thing or two which one might have missed on the first take.”
"I would much rather pass it on the first take and be done with it thank you, which by the way, is exactly what I am expecting to happen this very summer. I just want to be done with this and be out of here, the sooner I am out, the better."
“Why is that? Don't you like it here? Or is it somebody else that you can't stand to see anymore, me perhaps?”
“No, no, this is not about you. I just think it's time for me to start moving on with my life, start doing my own thing, in my own way.”
"So what, or who is preventing you from doing your own thing now as it is?"
“Can we change the subject? Please?
I don't want to get into that sort of thing now, maybe someday in the future, but not now.”
“Yes, I was married before.” I told her in response to her queries as to my marital status, “I got myself hitched at twenty-six year of age. That marriage lasted for four years, in fact, we were together for only three of those four years when she left, a year later, we were divorced.”
“She had found someone else, who had much more money than I did. So she started acting up, behaving weird, and blaming me for any and everything. And then, I committed the biggest of faux pas ever, when I gave her a cheap gift I had picked up at the pawn shop on her birthday. That was all I could afford or barter trade for, but it's the thought that counts. Right?
She had said that she needed space. It wasn't long afterward though before that space was nicely filled by someone else, someone who just happened to be her brother's best friend and co-worker. They were both jockeys riding at the Woodbine racetrack then and was at the time locked tight in an epic and fierce battle to become the top jockey of the year. Needless to say that, the money was rolling in in that arena, coincidence or what?
Little buggers weren't just riding horses though, they were riding bitches too.”
Libby gasped. "Are you serious? I can't believe you just said that."
"Bitches, as in dogs.
You know?" I said.
"You know these competitive sports professional types?" I said further, lying through my grinning white teeth. "They just seemed to delight themselves in spending time and money on extra-curricular, extra-judicial activities, such as those which cannot face the light of a Sunny day," I said all of that still continuing along in the deceit, trying to detour her from the real and original meaning of what she knew darn well that I was saying, she was not fooled, that's for sure.
“Yes, right,” she said. 

To be continued.
That’s it for today, my friends, come again tomorrow for another episode in this series. Don’t forget to subscribe, follow and share.

Get the Manley book here. 

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Extra, extra. On this day in history 

Monday 28th
1986 - The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crewmembers were killed.
1909 - The United States ended direct control over Cuba.
1878 - "The Yale News" was published for the first time. It was the first, daily, collegiate newspaper in the U.S.
1878 - The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.
1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.
1547 - England's King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9-year-old son, Edward VI.