PUNK PROSE: Child Star And His Service Dog Found Dead in Car in Peoria by D. Walker-Lass

Child Star and His Service Dog Found Dead In Car In Peoria

Death stalks the parched air

TV stars fall from the screen

Human, just like us

A Child Star, most beloved for his role as the sidekick of ALF on television, was found dead in his car after going to an ATM to deposit residual checks. The checks were in the car, uncashed, after so many years of being off the scene, off the screen, and off-grid from Hollywood, did he succumb to the heat? To the fright of defeat? Or to the ravages of bipolar disorder? He lived with that beast, and also his service dog, Hans, who perished beside him in the unforgiving Arizona aridity-- the car--a coffin with two bodies, was otherwise unremarkable, unnoticed for days, baking in temperatures over one-hundred and fifteen degrees, and that’s how it happens, isn’t it? By degrees. But what really transpired? Had his bubbling circumstances spilled over, withdrawing rational thought? Where were the checks and balances that would have left this pair, quite unarmed, unharmed? Where was the magical, Alien Life Form when he was really needed by the boy? Was the creature really just a mass of sticky faux fur, a costume pushed inside a forgotten closet on some Hollywood sound stage? Where, for God’s sake, was The A-Team, while one of their young co-stars deliriously teetered between life and death? A previous visitor on “The Twilight Zone,” Mr. H. was all alone in this land, "As timeless as infinity," except for his trusty canine companion, Hans, always by his side. And just like all the films we hate, one question remains, an incredulous “Why?”  Why oh why did the dog have to die? 

--D. Walker-Lass