Dog Days

by Karen English

  “Okay, okay,” Richard says. “I get it. When do you get paid?”

  “After I walk Carlotta one last time.”

  “Good. Even I can’t wait.”

  “There is one little thing I might be worried about today, though.”

  “What?”

  “I hope Harper is still benched.”

  When Ms. Shelby-Ortiz leads the class out for recess, Gavin is almost afraid to look over at the benched kids. He takes a quick peek. There’s Harper, sitting facing the yard, all sprawled out, the backs of his elbows resting on the table behind him. Gavin can’t see his face, but imagines his lip curled in anger. He looks away quickly, afraid that Harper might catch him staring.

  “He’s benched,” Richard whispers behind him. “Lighten up.”

  Lunchtime presents more opportunities to run into Harper. Room Ten’s lunch table is three tables behind the one assigned to Harper’s class. Gavin sits down and sets his lunch (a sandwich, chips, and an apple) before him, but doesn’t feel hungry.

  “Can I have those chips?” Richard asks.

  Gavin doesn’t answer. He’s busy looking at Harper’s mean face as he sits hunched at his table eating chocolate chip cookies. He’s even eating the cookies in a hostile way, breaking off little chunks, popping them into his mouth, and chomping on them with a sneer. At one point he looks up and glares at Gavin. Gavin looks down quickly and busies himself with his own lunch.

  “I’m telling you, he gave me a real dirty look,” Gavin says to Richard on their way to the handball court.

  “So what?” Richard says. “He’s benched. He can’t do anything to you even if he wanted to.”

  Gavin sneaks a quick peek over at the benched kids. Harper sits in the middle of the group, his chin on his hand and his elbow on his knee, still with the mean look on his face. Saved by the bench, Gavin thinks.

  He almost manages to get through the day without seeing Harper again. But then, after P.E., Ms. Shelby-Ortiz has the boys and girls line up at the boys’ and girls’ restrooms, as usual. She lets three boys and three girls go in at a time. As soon as Gavin enters with Carlos and Jose, he runs into Harper. His hall pass is on the sink in front of him. He is wetting bits of balled paper towel and then throwing them up at the ceiling, where they stick. He’s so busy breaking a school rule that he doesn’t even notice Gavin.

  Gavin immediately makes a U-turn and exits the restroom, his heart beating fast, even though he really has to go. What a close call.

  “Ms. Shelby-Ortiz,” he says as soon as they get back to class and he’s seated. He hadn’t even raised his hand and waited to be recognized. “May I go to the bathroom?”

  “What?” she answers. “Didn’t you just go to the restroom?” There must be something about the panic in his face that makes her say, “Oh, all right, get going.”

  He jumps up and practically runs out of the classroom.

  When the dismissal bell rings, Gavin feels as if he’s been dodging danger all day long.

  “I have to walk Carlotta, but since there’s no homework, let’s meet at the skate park later. I’m sure I can get permission,” Gavin says to Richard as they hurry down Marin on their new route from school. They part at Fulton.

  Gavin is anxious to get the last walk with Carlotta over and done with. Maybe, since it’s his last time walking her, Aunt Myrtle will let him have his snack first.

  He decides he will propose this to her, but when Aunt Myrtle opens the door, she seems frantic. She steps out onto the porch and looks up and down the street. “Have you seen Carlotta?”

  “No,” Gavin says slowly. He looks past Aunt Myrtle down the hall, expecting to hear Carlotta’s toenails clicking on the floor. But Carlotta is nowhere to be seen. Aunt Myrtle steps around Gavin and ventures down the porch steps. She reaches the sidewalk and walks a few feet in one direction and then the other, shielding her eyes as she peers up and down the street. “I just put her out in the yard for a bit, and when I came out to get her”—Aunt Myrtle pats her chest as if overcome—“she was gone! There’s a spot where she must have dug herself out under the fence. I don’t even know why she would do this. I don’t know . . .” Aunt Myrtle’s voice trails off. But then she adds, “And she doesn’t have her collar on! I’d taken it off because it was causing a little irritation. I couldn’t find her other one . . .” Her voice trails off again, and she turns and climbs the steps to go back into the house. Gavin follows, not knowing what to think. Does this mean he can go into the kitchen and make his special snack?

  Then his mother comes down the staircase. “Sweetie, did you see Carlotta? Maybe down the street somewhere while you were walking home?”

  “No, I haven’t seen her anywhere.” He looks over at Aunt Myrtle, who has collapsed into a chair in the living room and is fanning herself with a folded paper.

  “Can you go out and look around a bit for her?”

  Gavin thinks longingly of his snack. It looks like he won’t be heading for the kitchen to make it after all. Again.

  “Don’t go past Marin or the park,” his mother adds, stepping out onto the porch to look up and down the street herself.

  As soon as he starts up the block, Gavin begins to feel funny. Carlotta is out there somewhere, and a tiny pinprick of worry tickles him. He walks toward Marin, listening for sounds of distant barking. Not deep barking, but Carlotta’s particular little yap-yap bark. He hears nothing. The empty streets make it seem as if she’s simply disappeared. Maybe she’s been dognapped, he thinks as he hurries down the street. Or maybe Richard’s seen Carlotta.

  When he reaches the skate park, Richard is busy practicing his flat-ground Ollie on the cinderblock ledge. Gavin stands at the chainlink fence and watches him approach the block and then chicken out at the last minute. He tries again, and this time he gets the front of the board up, but then lets it plop back down. Luckily, no one’s waiting to use the ledge.

  “Richard!” Gavin calls before he can make his next attempt.

  Richard whips around, looking surprised. “I thought you couldn’t come until after you walked that dog.” He moves to the fence with his skateboard in his hand, looking puzzled. “Where’s your skateboard?”

  “Have you seen Carlotta?” Gavin asks, already having a pretty good idea of what Richard’s going to say.

  “No, why?”

  “She’s missing.”

  “Missing?”

  “My aunt put her in the backyard, and she dug a hole under the fence and got out.”

  “Why’d she do that?” Richard asks.

  “How am I supposed to know? It’s a dog thing. Dogs like to dig holes and they like to get out of their yards.” Gavin shrugs.

  Richard nods slowly, as if that makes sense to him. “Want me to help you look?”

  “Yeah,” Gavin says. “But my mom doesn’t want me to go past Marin.”

  “Well, what if she went all the way to that big street with the tire shop, or maybe over to the pet store where we got that toy?”

  “I don’t know,” Gavin says. “My mom’ll probably get my father to look around those places when he gets home from work.”

  Together, they begin to call out Carlotta’s name as they start toward Marin. “Carlotta! Carlotta!” People stop what they’re doing for a moment to take in the fact that someone, or someone’s pet, has gotten lost. The mailman waves, and the guy from S&L Nursery looks up from watering a row of ficus trees. Two girls stop jumping double dutch on the walkway in front of a house next to the nursery. One of them walks over to Richard and Gavin.

  “Who’s Carlotta?” she asks. Gavin recognizes her from one of the other third grades at Carver Elementary. Her friend comes over too.

  “Yeah, who’s Carlotta?” her friend repeats.

  “My aunt’s dog got out of our yard and ran away,” Gavin explains. “Have you seen a stray dog?”

  “What’s she look like?” the taller girl asks, biting her thumbnail.

  Gavin doesn’t have much hope she’ll be hel
pful. But before he can answer, Richard pipes up with, “She’s one of those funny-looking kind of dogs. Kind of small. Ugly-looking fur.”

  Gavin surprises himself. He’s growing annoyed by this description of Carlotta. For some reason, he feels the need to stick up for her. “She’s not all that funny-looking,” he interrupts. “You guys know what a Pomeranian looks like?”

  “A what-a-ranian?” the shorter girl asks. She laughs at her own joke. Then her friend joins in.

  Gavin was right. He knew they wouldn’t be helpful. He’s ready to move on. “Never mind. Come on, let’s go,” he says to Richard.

  They cover the rest of Marin as far as the park, then go down Ashby toward Richard’s house, on Fulton, where they part. Then it’s back home. Gavin’s mother meets him at the door with questions before he can even step inside. Apparently, she’s sent Danielle out to search for Carlotta as well. Aunt Myrtle is nowhere to be seen.

  “I told Aunt Myrtle to go upstairs and lie down,” his mom explains. “Your dad is out in his car looking too.”

  “Can I make a snack?” Gavin asks. Now he’s really hungry.

  “Yeah, yeah. Go get your snack,” his mother says as if her mind is on something else.

  Gavin hurries into the kitchen before his mother can change her mind. He takes the jar of grape jelly out of the refrigerator, unscrews the lid, and inhales deeply. Ahh, what an awesome smell, he thinks. He gets a plate out of the cabinet, takes down the box of wheat crackers, gets a knife, and goes to work. On the plate are five crackers spread with purple jelly. Before he carries his snack to the kitchen, he pops one in his mouth. Delicious, he thinks. He pops another one in his mouth. At that moment, there is nothing tastier in the world.

  Dinner is quiet. Aunt Myrtle has come down from the guest room, but she says very little, and the worried crease never leaves her brow. She’s given Gavin’s dad the picture of Carlotta that she usually keeps in a frame on the nightstand by her bed. Gavin’s dad plans to make flyers with the picture on them, to post all over the neighborhood. But for now, Aunt Myrtle just sits there, staring at her green beans, lamb chops, and mashed potatoes.

  “Aunt Myrtle, why don’t you try to eat a little something?” Gavin’s mom suggests.

  “I can’t eat,” Aunt Myrtle says. “I don’t have an appetite. Your uncle Vestor’s going to be sick with worry. Carlotta’s his dog too.” She sighs and shakes her head.

  Gavin wonders if Uncle Vestor knows already, or if he’ll find out when he returns in the morning.

  “I’m just going to go back upstairs and lie down.” Aunt Myrtle pushes back her chair. Everyone is silent as they watch her shuffle off.

  “We’ve got to find Carlotta,” Gavin’s mother says once Aunt Myrtle is out of earshot. “I don’t know what’s going to happen if we don’t find that dog.”

  “I’ll make the flyers tonight, then we’ll post them in as many places as we can in the morning,” his dad says.

  On Saturday morning, Aunt Myrtle mopes about while the rest of them eat a quick breakfast. As soon as they’ve finished, Gavin’s dad hands stacks of the flyers to Danielle and Gavin to take to the shops on Marin and Ashby. He’s got the big staple gun in his hand. He’ll be posting flyers on the telephone poles all around the neighborhood.

  The strange thing is that Gavin didn’t sleep well the night before. He kept waking up, worried about Carlotta. What if the silly dog thought she could beat up that big dog they encountered the first day he walked her? What if she got in that dog’s yard, thinking she could take him on? Do dogs do those kinds of things? What if she was hungry—or thirsty? He worried that he hadn’t yet exchanged the real Chew-Chew for the fake one. What if she never got to be reunited with the toy that she loved so much?

  His shoulders slump. So much to worry about.

  “You take Marin,” Danielle orders. “I’ll take Ashby.”

  “Why do I have to take Marin?” Gavin asks, not knowing why he’s asking that. He doesn’t really trust his sister. Maybe she has some kind of trick planned.

  “Fine, Bozo. I’ll take Marin, and you can take Ashby.” Danielle shrugs. “You’re such a dork.”

  Gavin goes to Babe’s Barbecue first. There’s no one inside. Mr. Olive, who is Babe (he must have thought it was a catchy name), is hosing down his front walkway.

  “Mr. Olive, have you seen this dog?”

  Mr. Olive looks at the flyer in Gavin’s hand. He studies it. “Can’t say that I have,” he answers.

  “Can you put this poster in your store window?”

  “Sure. Go put it on the counter.”

  Gavin goes to Global Tire and Brakes, Perfect Beauty Hair Salon and Nail Emporium, and the Re-Sell Shop. Everyone at the stores on Ashby is sympathetic. They must see the worry in his eyes. They look at the poster, shake their heads, and then promise to put up the flyer in their windows. Gavin is hot and thirsty by the time he finishes with Ashby. He decides to go by Richard’s house on his way home. See what he’s up to. Maybe get something to drink.

  Nine

  Is That Carlotta?

  Richard is sitting on his front porch tossing a tennis ball up in the air. Darnell is just leaving on his bike. He gives Gavin a quick “Hi,” and then he’s off.

  “What’s up?” Richard asks. “What are those for?” He points to the stack of flyers in Gavin’s hand.

  “Carlotta is still lost. We’re posting these around the neighborhood. Want to help?”

  “Okay,” Richard says. “But I have to get permission.”

  “Can I have something to drink? I’m thirsty.”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  Gavin’s never been in Richard’s house before. He’s surprised to see how messy it is. Maybe it’s because there are a lot of boys in Richard’s family. There’s Richard; Darnell, in fifth grade; Jamal, in seventh; and Roland, in the ninth grade. Dishes are piled in the sink. There are soccer jerseys draped over the kitchen chairs. A basketball sits in the corner. Cereal boxes are left out in the middle of the table. Gavin thinks of the things his mother would say if she walked into their kitchen and it looked like that. He can just hear the shock in her voice, all the fussing she’d do. Richard finds a clean glass and fills it with water. Gavin gulps it down gratefully while Richard goes off to ask for permission to help with the flyers.

  Once they’re back outside on the porch, Richard says, “Wait here. I’m going to get my scooter from out back.”

  “But I don’t have my scooter,” Gavin says.

  “I’ll get my skateboard. You can use that.”

  Gavin sits down on the top step to wait. He looks up the street in one direction and then the other. Way down at the end of the block, on the other side of the street, he sees two girls from his class. The mean girl, Deja, and that other girl. He forgets her name. They’re each walking a dog. It’s funny, but one of the dogs looks a little bit like Carlotta. It has almost the same color fur—but maybe darker, he thinks. Deja is walking the other dog. It has a small, thin body and long legs, and a pointy face. He watches for a bit and then turns his attention to the guy across the street washing his car. It’s a black car with shiny pipes coming out of the back and some spokey-looking hubcaps. Gavin decides he’s going to get a car like that when he gets to be that guy’s age. He looks up the street again. The girls with the dog that looks like Carlotta have gotten closer.

  Gavin stands up and shields his eyes. Wait a minute! As Deja and her friend approach, he sees one of the little dogs pull at the leash just like Carlotta used to do. Then the dog stops to sniff the grass. The nicer girl—Nikki, he now remembers—has to tug her along, the same way he used to have to do with Carlotta. Slowly it begins to dawn on Gavin. That little dog is Carlotta! What are they doing with her? At that moment Richard comes around the side of the house on his scooter with his skateboard under his arm.

  “That’s Carlotta!” Gavin exclaims to him.

  “What?” Richard asks. He looks confused.

  “Those girls have Aunt Myrt
le’s dog! That’s Carlotta!” He points down the block at Deja and Nikki.

  “How come they’ve got your aunt’s dog?” Richard asks.

  “I don’t know,” Gavin says. He runs to the curb, looks both ways, then crosses the street to meet the girls.

  Carlotta seems just as happy prancing along or stopping in her tracks to sniff at the grass as she was when Gavin walked her. He can’t believe it. He hurries to them, and the bossy one, Deja, frowns in recognition. What did he ever do to her? She takes the leash out of Nikki’s hand and pulls Carlotta to her as Gavin approaches.

  “Where’d you get that dog?” he says when he’s close enough to be heard.

  “Why?” Deja asks.

  “Because that’s not your dog!” He points at Carlotta.

  “How do you know?” the nicer girl asks in a quiet voice.

  “That’s my aunt’s dog! She got out of our yard yesterday, and we’ve been looking all over for her.” He looks down at Carlotta, who still seems perfectly pleased to be in the possession of people who are complete strangers. He finds himself annoyed. It’s as if she’s some kind of traitor. The other dog is trying to pull Deja toward a candy wrapper on the grass.

  “How do we know that’s true?” Deja asks.

  Richard has crossed the street and joined the group. Now he adds, “That is his aunt’s dog. He’s been walking that dog after school every day this week.”

  “Well, then how come she’s acting like you’re a stranger?” Deja asks.

  Gavin looks down at Carlotta. “Carlotta,” he says. The dog pays him no mind. She’s back to sniffing at the grass. “Carlotta,” he says again.

  “See?” Deja says. “She doesn’t even know you.”