Tagger by Tracy McCall

Tagger finished up his latest addition to the mural, put the cans of
spray-paint back into his backpack, and reboarded the train. As the
doors began to close he heard a voice calling out "Hold the door!" He
looked in the direction of the voice and saw a blind man with his
seeing-eye dog hurrying towards the train followed by a downright evil
looking bald man.

Tagger held the door as the blind man and his dog, along with the evil
looking bald man boarded the train. "Thank you!" said the blind man in
a grateful tone. The evil looking bald man said nothing as the train
began to move towards the next stop.

"My pleasure, sir!" replied Tagger to the blind man. As they all sat
down Tagger couldn't help but stare at the blind man. He was old, and
his face was scarred, as though he may have been a war veteran. The
seeing-eye dog looked nervously at the evil looking bald man, as though
the dog expected something terrible to happen.

Suddenly the evil looking bald man stood up, walked over to the blind
man, quietly pulled a bottle of water from his coat pocket and let it
slowly trickle onto the blind man's leg with an evil smile on his face.
It took a couple of seconds for the blind man to realize what was
happening, but when he did he cursed out loud and began beating the dog
with his cane.

"GODDAMN DOG!!!" shouted the blind man, "THAT'S THE THIRD TIME TODAY YOU SONOFABITCH!!!" The poor innocent dog yelped in pain and whined at the cruel injustice of the accusation. The evil bald man snickered out
loud.

"YOU THINK IT'S FUNNY???!!!" the blind man shouted in the direction of
the evil bald man. "IF I WAS HALF MY AGE AND HAD MY EYES I'D GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO LAUGH ABOUT, YOU BASTARD!!!"

In a sick and twisted way Tagger could see the humor in the situation,
but at the same time he felt anger over the evil bald man's deception
and his taking advantage of the blind man, and decided to set things
right. Tagger nodded towards the evil bald man and gave him a silent
thumbs up. The motion had the desired effect as the evil bald man
walked over to Tagger. The evil bald man grinned, bent down and
whispered "Been following the old fart around for two weeks now, and he
still thinks it's the dog!"

Suddenly the blind man stood up, and in one quick motion of his wrist
brought his cane up and struck the evil bald man in the groin. The evil
bald man collapsed to the floor of the train, moaning and holding his
rapidly swelling scrotum.

"Take that, you little prick!" the blind man said, "You think just
because I'm blind I can't hear you whispering?"

Tagger remained silent, wary of the blind man's wrath, but happy that
the evil bald man had been so easily suckered into whispering about his
evil deed. He sat back with a look of satisfaction on his face, waiting
to see what might happen next. The blind man reached down and grabbed
the seeing-eye dog by the collar, "Get him, boy!" he said to the dog,
pushing him towards the still moaning evil bald man.

Tagger could swear that he saw a grin appear on the dog's face as the
dog walked over to the evil bald man, still lying on his back on the
floor of the train. As the evil bald man began to lose consciousness
from the pain, the dog lifted a hind leg and unloaded two weeks worth of
pent up liquid revenge upon the evil bald man's head. The dog completed
his task, and with a look of total satisfaction on his face sat back
down beside the blind man and placed his head on the blind man's lap.

"Gooooooood boy!" the blind man spoke soothingly to the dog as he
stroked the dog's ears.

As the train slowed for the next stop Tagger rose from his seat and
stepped over to where the bald man still lay unconscious on the floor of
the train. He reached into his backpack for a can of spray-paint and
then pulled the water bottle from the bald man's coat pocket. Tagger
sprayed a quick tag on the water bottle before placing it back in the
bald man's coat pocket, then stepped off the train to update his mural.