Life Saver

Did Penny adopt the dog or did the dog adopt her?

"You know at first I hated dogs," Penny said. "They're loyal to one person and act like they've got to dominate everyone else."

Her therapist, Hank, wrote down some notes. He let the pregnant pause hover before probing again. "What changed? Why'd you finally get a dog?"

Down by Penny's feet, Daisy snuggled closer to her. The dog was so good at sensing anxiety. The comfort made it easier to speak.

"When I went to war," she said. "I didn't think it'd be like this. I didn't think I'd be so terrified to do the everyday things. It gets old being scared to go out. Thinking that any second someone's going to kill you, because it's us versus them. I may have left the battle field, it didn't leave me. Time for a change."

Hank blinked a couple of times, processing. "So how has getting a therapy dog changed things?" He asked.

"I'm free," Penny said. "I have someone—if dogs count as someone—who doesn't judge me, who doesn't tell me how messed up I am, Daisy just supports me. It's that support that makes life feel doable again."

A timer beeped in the background. "Glad to see you've made progress." Hank said. "We'll pick it up here next week."

Word count: 211
Prompt:Write a story that includes the line: “I thought it would be different.”