by Blake Morgan
One by one, the kids drifted back up the beach.
Eventually, it was only me, Lily and Noah left. I didn’t know whether to be happy that we were finally alone or sad to think about what was to come. I thought I’d done the right thing, helping to rescue Noah, but in the end it had just made things worse. I did everything, just like Katie taught me, I thought. So why do I feel so bad?
Lily gave a big sigh.
“I’m sorry for ruining your party,” Noah told her. His voice was almost a whisper.
“You didn’t ruin the party,” she told him quietly. She bumped her shoulder against his. “We still got to eat cake!” Noah gave a small, brave smile.
He and Lily got to their feet and began to fold up the picnic blanket. They each held a corner and came to meet each other in the middle. Noah passed the corners to Lily and bent to retrieve the folded end. Then they folded again, moving silently, almost as though they didn’t need words to understand each other. It brought a lump to my throat and, for a moment, I had to look away. I noticed something resting in the sand. It was Lily’s new ball, her gift from Noah. I took it up gently in my jaw and carried it over to Lily.
“Good dog!” she said, patting me on the head as she took the ball from my mouth. She wiped off my saliva on the back of her shorts, politely pretending that I hadn’t just drooled all over it.
“He is a good dog,” said a voice. It was Amelia, gazing down at me as she clutched her phone.
“No more photos,” Lily said gently. But Amelia kept staring at me, her eyes brimming with tears. What was wrong? She opened her mouth to say something, when her mum came back down to the beach.
“What’s going on?” she asked. “Come on, we need to go.”
We followed her towards the car park, our heads bowed. As we clambered back into the minivan, this time I didn’t care if my smelly fur left a coating of hairs across Jake’s jeans. He hastily pulled his legs up and sat cross-legged on the seat as I settled down on the floor. My tail curled around my hind legs, so that I felt as small and secure as I possibly could.
Lily’s parents dropped the kids off at their houses, one by one. Goodbyes were called out and Lily waved back, thanking them, but the mood of the day had turned sour. I could detect the sadness coming off Noah – a damp smell like rotting leaves – even though the colour had come back to his cheeks. His body was better, but his heart hurt like mine.
I dreaded getting home because I knew what Lily’s parents would say to Noah’s. That I’d been a bad dog. But I hadn’t been! Noah reached down to tickle behind my ears, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
Finally, we turned into Noah’s drive and I slunk out of the car, rushing past the legs of Noah’s parents as they stood at the front door.
“What’s wrong?” I heard Noah’s mum ask, as she watched me slink upstairs. I stood on the landing and peered down to watch the Humans.
Amelia was leaning out of one of the van’s windows, holding her mobile phone. “Can I show you—”
“NOT NOW, AMELIA!” her parents shouted, and she shrank back into her seat, her face small and white as she tucked the phone away in her jeans pocket.
“Can we talk?” Lily’s dad said, and there was the sound of footsteps as they all went into the kitchen and closed the door. I ran into Noah’s bedroom, flattening my body to crawl under his bed.
Then I waited. It was the longest wait of my entire life, longer even than waiting for supper. I licked a patch of my fur, over and over, until the skin turned red and sore. Then I rested my chin on my paws and tried to sleep, but it was no good.
Eventually, I heard footsteps on the stairs and watched two sets of legs walk into Noah’s room. There was a small grunt and someone sat down on the floor beside the bed and a hand was placed gently on the carpet. Despite my better instincts, I crawled over and tentatively licked the top of the hand. Noah beckoned me out from beneath the bed. Beside him sat his mum. Both of them were looking at me. My stomach gave a small growl.
Noah’s mum reached over and patted my head. “You can have supper soon.” She sighed. “There’s no point punishing him now. Too much time has passed. He won’t realize it’s to do with his behaviour on the beach.”
Noah sighed too. In his other hand, he held a rounders ball and was turning it over and over. I sniffed the leather and looked at him hopefully, but Noah shook his head. His mum took the ball from him and placed it on his bedside table. She took his hand and held it between hers.
“I’ve spoken to Lily’s parents. It sounds like that was quite a shock at the beach.” She didn’t look at me or Noah, just gazed into the middle distance as though she was thinking hard.
“Mum, I’m not sure it was Buddy’s fault,” Noah said. He was looking at me, but I could barely make eye contact with him.
His mum gave a big, shuddering sigh. “The fact is, you can’t remember, Noah. And apparently Jake can.” Finally her gaze switched over to me and I felt my whole body flinch. “This has clearly been too much for you. Your dad and I have been talking. No more sport.”
“What?” Noah asked. He sounded as though he was about to burst into tears.
His dad’s voice came from the doorway. “And we might have to consider sending Buddy back to Katie for more training.”
NO! I went to hide beneath Noah’s bed again, but he hid his face in my fur, crying. The sobs vibrated through my body.
“I won’t let you!” his muffled voice said. There was a movement beside us and his mum kneeled, taking hold of Noah’s shoulders to pull him to her.
“All right, we don’t need to make any decisions just yet.” She gave Noah’s dad a warning glance over Noah’s back as she rocked him gently in her arms.
I slunk beneath the bed again before Noah could stop me. “Buddy, come back here!” He called, reaching a hand to coax me out, but I scrambled back against the far wall. I didn’t want anyone touching me and for the first time in my life, I didn’t even want supper. I just wanted to be left alone. After all, if my Humans didn’t trust me … how could I trust them?
“Come on, Noah. You need to eat.” I listened to them all traipse out of the bedroom. “Let’s leave the door open in case Buddy wants to join us.” They padded down the stairs, one after the other.
Noah paused on a step, his eyes level with the landing. He looked back through the rails at me, still hiding beneath the bed. I wasn’t sure if I imagined it, but I thought our eyes met. “I love you, Buddy.” His voice floated over the air towards me but I didn’t move. Then slowly, reluctantly, he followed his parents downstairs.
Later, I listened to Noah getting ready for bed; pulling on his pyjamas and cleaning his teeth, then the groan of the mattress as he got under his quilt, just above my head. He snapped off the light and everything turned as dark and heavy as my heart felt right then.
“Buddy?” Noah’s voice rang through the darkness. “Please come out.” I heard him holding his breath as he waited.
Slowly, I inched out from beneath the bed. I leaped up on to his quilt and curled myself at his feet. He sat up and reached a hand out to tickle my ears.
We stayed there in silence for a few moments, and then he began to speak.
“Can you remember the day we brought you home from the Training Centre?” he asked.
Yes, you wore a baseball cap, I thought. You threw it up in the air! I remembered how bouncy and full of life he’d been that day. How had everything turned so sad?
“Your tail was wagging so hard in the dust, I knew you were excited to be mine.” It was true. I remembered that whoosh, whoosh, whoosh! I felt my throat constrict and I couldn’t whine or yip or anything. I waited to see what he’d say next.
I heard him pull out something from behind his pillow and then the sound of pages turning. He snapped on his bedside lamp and showed me his photo album. “Look.” I craned my head around and touched my nose to the corner of the page he’d opened it to. There was a new photo. It was a picture of me, the first day I’d
joined Noah’s family. Someone must have taken the photo when I wasn’t looking.
I moved my chin to settle on his lap and for the first time since we’d got home, I looked him full in the face. His eyes brimmed with tears. “It’ll be all right, Buddy. I promise you.”
He snapped the light back off and we both settled down with a sigh. I crept up the bed so that we slept back to back, our spines touching. I lay there, letting his words sink into me. A sliver of moonlight pierced the curtains above the bed.
Oh, Noah, I thought. How do I get anyone to understand the truth?
By the time I woke up the next morning, I really regretted skipping supper. I was starving! As soon as Noah got up and opened the bedroom door, I leaped off the bed and raced downstairs to where his dad was making breakfast. He quirked an eyebrow at me.
“So, you’ve stopped sulking, then?” He placed a bowl of food down in front of me and I wolfed it up in three mouthfuls. “Hungry?” he joked.
I ran out into the garden. Today was the school Activity Day. The sun was high in the sky already and there was a gentle breeze. Despite everything that had happened yesterday, I couldn’t help my spirits lifting just a little bit.
I heard Noah’s voice from the kitchen and went to greet him – then froze in the doorway. He was wearing shorts, a T-shirt, trainers and a baseball cap, almost as though he…
“You look all dressed for Activity Day,” his mum said carefully, placing a bowl of cereal in front of him.
“Mmmm,” he said through a mouthful of muesli. His mum and dad shared an anxious glance over the top of his head. His mum sank into a seat beside him.
“You know we’re only going to watch today, don’t you? We talked about this last night.” She placed a hand on his arm, but he shook her off.
“I know,” he said. He didn’t look at her. “But I still want to wear my sports gear. Just in case.”
“In case of what?” his dad said carefully. “You know you can’t—”
Fortunately, the alarm went on someone’s mobile phone. “Oops, come on! We’re going to be late,” said Noah’s mum, taking a water bottle from the fridge and then looking at me hesitantly.
“We’re not leaving him behind,” Noah said darkly. He pushed past her with my lead and clipped it on. “Come on, Buddy. Let’s go and have fun!”
“You won’t be able to join in, Noah!” his mum called after him. He turned and stared at her. “I’m sorry. But I thought I’d made that clear.” She threw me a look as though to say, If Buddy can’t be trusted to look after you… Silence throbbed through the air, then Noah turned on his heel.
“Come on, Buddy,” he said again, as he led me out of the house and the two of us jumped into the car. Noah buried his face in my fur. At least someone loved me.
By the time we got to the sports arena, it looked as though the whole school had beaten us to it! Kids were chasing each other round the track and their parents had set out blankets on the benches, and were passing around bottles of water. Some of them had even made banners to cheer pupils on. And the noise! People were whistling and cheering, talking and calling. Activity Day was loud!
It was strange, though. As we moved through the crowd, no one made a fuss of me. By now, they were used to seeing me in the school with Noah, and kids loved to come over and slip me a morsel of food or stroke my fur. Some of them even tried to drag me to sit on their lap – have you ever tried having a Labrador on your lap? We’re big dogs! But today – well, today, no one wanted to give me a treat. No one at all.
As we walked past a crowd of girls, they stared then quickly turned away, almost as though they’d been talking about us.
“Hello!” Noah called over, waving. One of them turned around and gave him a sad smile. Her glance fell to me and the smile faded.
I heard her whisper, “That’s the dog that got Noah in trouble.” I realized someone must have been spreading rumours about what had happened at the beach and it didn’t take much to work out who.
Jake.
He hadn’t just been lying to Lily’s parents – now, he was telling fibs to the whole school.
I settled beneath a bench and gazed out from behind Noah’s legs. His trainers kept kicking the ground impatiently, as though he wanted to be down there on the grass and I didn’t blame him. Sprinklers were watering the lawn, sending rainbow arcs misting through the air and the scent of cut grass tickled my nostrils, along with the smell of hot dogs from a stand. I couldn’t decide what I wanted more – a roll in the grass or a nice tasty hot dog! Anything to take my mind off what everyone was saying about me.
Down on the rounders pitch I spotted Lily immediately. She was wearing a white T-shirt, pink sneakers and had her hair in a long ponytail that poked out of the back of her baseball cap. She was practising with the bat and her arms looked strong in the sunshine. She was going to do brilliantly today, I could just tell.
I let out a bark of encouragement and Lily looked over at us. The moment she spotted us, her bat froze in mid-air. Then she let it fall to the ground and marched over, picking up her sister Amelia on the way.
Uh-oh, I thought. What now? I didn’t mean to bark at you, I’m sorry!
“What’s she doing?” Noah murmured. “The rounders match is due to start soon.”
Lily came to stand before Noah, but instead of smiling and giving him a high five, her face looked serious.
“Noah, could I speak to you?” She jerked her head off towards a spare space on the bench. “In private, please?”
“Erm, all right.” Noah glanced at his mum, who gave him a nod, and then he slid along the bench to talk to Lily. I started to go after them, but his mum held on to my lead.
I watched them talking, their heads so close they were almost touching. As they talked, Amelia took out her mobile phone and began to show Noah something. His frown melted away and he smiled and nodded eagerly. What are they up to?
The three of them came to stand before Noah’s parents. “Can we show you something?” Lily asked.
“Er, sure…” his mum said, shrugging at his dad. Noah’s sister, Lucy, stood a small distance apart, checking messages on her phone.
Lily started backing away. “Great. Just give us five minutes.”
“All right, but if you’re not back in five—”
Before she could finish her sentence, Lily caught up Noah and Amelia’s hands and pulled them away across the arena. I let out a bark of exhilaration and raced after them.
What’s going on? I wondered, as Lily let out a whoop of excitement. I guessed I’d just have to wait and see!
As we raced across the field, the rounders teams emerged from one of the changing rooms, all in their kit and ready for the game. They each wore a white T-shirt, shorts and a coloured bib to show what team they were on. They were being led out by Jake, who looked thrilled to be at the head of the team wearing purple bibs. He waved to Lily and held out a bib to her, but she just ran even faster – straight past him!
Everyone’s heads snapped round as they watched us race past. “Where are you going?” Jake called after Lily. “The game’s starting in ten minutes!”
But if Lily heard him, she didn’t respond. Instead, she threw open the door to the arena office and marched over to a desk. As I followed them inside, panting hard, Noah shut the door behind us and the noise of the crowd outside fell away. A clock ticked loudly on the wall as we crowded round a wooden desk.
A woman was sitting behind the desk, a whistle on a cord hung round her neck. She was checking some numbers on a clipboard. I guessed she was in charge of the Activity Day – from her pursed lips, she looked like the type of person who was good at bossing people around. She wore a badge and I heard Noah whisper as he read the gold words etched in the plastic: Mrs Kelly, Stadium Manager.
“She must be new here,” Lily whispered back to him. “We’ve never had a stadium manager before.”
All her clothes were matching – she wore green trainers, a green tracksuit and a green b
aseball cap. She even had green eyes and green nail polish. This woman liked everything to be just so, I could tell. I wondered how she felt about slightly smelly Labradors.
“Excuse me, children aren’t permitted in here,” she said over the top of her clipboard. She hadn’t even looked up. “And dogs should wait outside.”
I gave a small howl and Noah shot me a warning glance to stay quiet. I slunk behind his legs and waited to hear what the woman would say next.
When no one moved, she finally glanced up. “I said OUT!”
But Lily was too busy fiddling with Amelia’s phone to listen. She had pulled a cable out of her pocket and plugged it into the mobile, then handed it over to the woman. “Mrs Kelly, could you put these photos up on the big screen, please?” she asked, glancing out of the window towards the pitch.
Lily was brave, I had to give her that.
“I beg your pardon?” The woman’s clipboard fell to the desk as she took the phone and cord from Lily and turned them over in her hand.
“In the camera folder,” Lily explained. “It has photos in it that are very important for people to see.” She swallowed hard. I sniffed the air and picked up on the scent – behind that brave face was a very nervous girl. “There’s been a rumour flying around about Noah’s Detection Dog—”
“And we want to put it right!” Noah interrupted.
What? This was the first I’d heard about that! I looked up at my friend. His face was bright red and I could see how agitated he was. I touched the tip of my nose to the back of his hand. Calm down, pal. I’m not that important. But Noah’s hands bunched into fists. Wow! I felt a sudden flush of pride. Noah cared as much as I did! Like me, he must have noticed how the kids at school had been turning their backs on me today.
For the first time, I allowed my heart to open to how that had really felt. I’d tried to be brave, but it had wounded me to the tip of my furry tail to see the children judging me to be something I wasn’t. Katie had always said I had a heart of gold, but now people thought I was mean and unfaithful. I felt a flicker of hope – were Noah, Lily and Amelia about to put that right? I found myself panting with excitement.
