The Secret Dog

by Joe Friedman

  ‘My uncle promised he’d get me one if we had a good year,’ Josh lied.

  ‘That old miser?’ said Kearney, laughing. The librarian gave him a sharp look and he lowered his voice. ‘You’ll be waiting a long time, City Boy.’

  ‘City Boy,’ Angus repeated, chuckling. Angus thought pretty much everything Kearney did was clever. Even a remark that had been old five years earlier.

  ‘I’ve got a dog,’ Kearney bragged. ‘A working dog.’

  Josh was interested in spite of his dislike for Kearney. ‘Really? What kind?’

  ‘It’s a Border. It’s black with a round white circle around his left eye. My dad gave him to me. I’m training him up.’

  ‘I bet that’s difficult,’ Josh sympathised.

  ‘Are you joking?’ Kearney said. ‘It’s easy peasy. He’ll beat your imaginary dog any day.’

  On cue, Angus repeated Kearney’s joke. ‘Imaginary dog. Good one, Kearney.’

  Josh found it difficult to imagine Kearney having the patience to train a dog. Especially him finding it ‘easy peasy’.

  ‘I’d like to see him sometime,’ he said.

  Kearney rolled his eyes, as if Josh had suggested something far too ridiculous to consider. He and Angus left the library. Josh went back to his video, determined that Reggae would be ten times better than any dog Kearney owned and trained.

  Josh heard the library door open and automatically checked to see if it was Yvonne. No. Disappointed, he turned back to the computer.

  * * *

  Josh’s next class was citizenship. It was boring, but at least the teacher didn’t call on him very often. She only paid attention to the smart kids who asked and answered questions. As he rushed through the hall, he caught sight of Yvonne’s stringy brown hair. There she is, he thought, pleased to see her. He was just about to shout out her name when he realised she wasn’t on her own. Eric, a tall blond boy who always had his hand up in class, was with her.

  They were deep in conversation. Josh felt a bit like he’d stepped into a rabbit hole on the commons – his whole body seemed to be suspended in mid-air before gravity took hold of him.

  That was why she hadn’t come to see him in the library. She was in the middle of a brilliant conversation with Eric, probably talking about something he couldn’t understand. Instantly, Josh reversed direction. He took the other stairs up to the classroom. His stomach still seemed to be floating, as if the hole he’d stepped into was a lot deeper than he’d expected.

  Josh sat staring at the page in his textbook. His mind went back to Yvonne. So she’d found something better to do during lunch. It didn’t necessarily mean anything.

  Then he pictured how absorbed she was in the conversation with Eric. He felt a sharp pang of feeling. Something he hadn’t felt for years. The last time was when he’d brought a friend home from school and his mother had been chatting away with him. Jealousy.

  He shouldn’t kid himself. Yvonne had decided she didn’t want to be friends with him. It must have been the fiasco with Reggae the day before . . .

  And then he’d asked her to tutor him. Twice a week! Josh closed his eyes with embarrassment at the memory. He was glad Yvonne wasn’t in citizenship. He didn’t have to look at her. And as it was the last class in the day, he could just go straight home afterwards. At least Reggae would be there for him.

  * * *

  ‘Heel,’ Josh said firmly. Reggae fell into step beside him. Josh started to jog. There was nothing better than running after being cooped up in a classroom all day. He couldn’t imagine life without the commons.

  Immediately, Josh felt guilty. If his mother hadn’t died, he’d still be living in the city. He stumbled but managed to recover his footing. He had to forget about Yvonne and concentrate on the job at hand. He had a dog to train. Today it was long outruns.

  As they neared their valley, he could see Reggae’s ears perk up. He knelt down next to her and tickled her under her ear. ‘Today it’s outruns,’ he explained. ‘An outrun is when you go off to your right or left to get behind some sheep. You’ve been doing short ones so far. But in the Gathering, the sheep will be so far away they may be invisible behind a hill or rocky outcrop. I’ll have to trust you to get behind the sheep, keep a good distance, and then bring the sheep to me. Okay?’

  Josh knew Reggae couldn’t understand what he was saying. But he found it useful to tell her his goals for the day ahead – it helped him to focus on the job at hand. He suddenly realised he hadn’t done this the day before. He’d been too distracted by wanting to impress Yvonne to chat with Reggae.

  Suddenly a whole number of images came together in Josh’s head. He remembered Reggae tugging on her lead as he walked with Yvonne. Twice. She’d missed running with him to the valley. Just like he’d missed Yvonne at lunch. That’s why Reggae had kept looking from him to Yvonne before circling the sheep! She was jealous.

  He felt Reggae licking his hand, and Josh realised she was trying to get his attention. He’d been staring into space.

  ‘Sorry, pup,’ he said, tickling her under the ear. ‘I was just figuring something out. We’ll do your outruns now.’

  * * *

  As they ran across the commons together, Josh reflected happily on the afternoon’s work. Reggae had really got the idea of outruns. And he’d figured out why she’d misbehaved the day before.

  Suddenly, ahead of him, he saw a crofter out with his dog on the path that intersected the one they were on. Josh dived to the ground. ‘Down, Reggae!’ he whispered urgently. Reggae stopped in her tracks and went down on her stomach.

  Josh was pretty sure they hadn’t been seen, but just in case, he stayed down for at least a minute. Then he lifted his head to check what was happening. He was relieved to see that the crofter had continued on his way. But his dog was another matter. He started running towards Josh, barking frantically. Josh ducked and after a few tense moments, heard the crofter call, ‘That’ll do, Jay. No time for chasing rabbits. We’ll miss dinner.’ The dog’s barking continued, but now at a greater distance. By listening carefully, Josh could keep track of the crofter’s progress. After a couple of minutes, he lifted his head again. He could see that in a few moments, the crofter and his dog would pass over the next rise.

  Josh left it a while after they disappeared before standing. This kind of thing was happening more frequently now, as the weather got better. He had to stay alert all the time.

  They started again on their way. A few minutes later, Reggae suddenly veered away from his side and started to run towards a gorge on their left.

  ‘We’re not home yet,’ Josh shouted at her.

  But Reggae kept running. Then she stopped and sat, her tail wagging furiously. It was as if she thought she’d done something extremely clever.

  Josh ran towards her. Then he saw the fox cub. He was nuzzling his mother who was lying on the ground. She’d been shot. Probably earlier in the day.

  ‘Good pup,’ Josh said to Reggae.

  Without picking her up, he checked the cub’s eyes. They were open. That was good. It meant he was more than a couple of weeks old, and had a chance of surviving without her mother.

  Then he picked him up carefully by the scruff of the neck (he’d been bitten twice before by cubs). He examined his mouth (yes, sharp teeth) and her leg muscles (she could get around).

  ‘About six weeks old,’ he told Reggae. ‘So she’s not for us. We’ll take her to Joanne.’ The butcher’s wife would be delighted.

  He put the cub down and started to search the ground for the den. If there was one cub still alive, there were probably others nearby. And Joanne always said the more, the merrier.

  * * *

  ‘Go,’ Josh said. Reggae ran the few steps to her food bowl, and started to eat.

  ‘You’re doing well,’ Josh told her. ‘But you still have a long way to go. So do I.’

  Josh knew that he’d have to get permission from the vet to take part in the Gathering. And because the Gathering, and th
e gruelling fank afterwards, was such a severe test for a dog, it would be no easy thing to get the vet to agree to let a dog as young as Reggae participate. Josh was pretty sure he could do the ten days of hard physical labour involved . . . but Reggae? She might think she was a lion, but she was just over a year old. And she still spent most of her time in the shed, sleeping.

  It wasn’t just her fitness. There was still so much for Reggae to learn. She’d never practised driving sheep or splitting them. Even dogs with years of experience had trouble splitting sheep.

  Josh looked up. Reggae was peering at him, with her head tilted. It looked like she’d been there for a while.

  Josh rubbed her head.

  ‘It’s no big deal. I’m just a bit tongue-tied with the vet. I’ve never managed to say anything very much to him.’

  The second time Josh had met the vet was when his uncle had called him to deal with a crack in their bull’s front hoof. Josh knew Calum was upset because of the expense, but he’d been really pleased to think he was going to see the vet again. He wanted to tell him about all the animals he’d rescued.

  The scene came vividly back to Josh. He’d met the brightly coloured van in the yard.

  ‘Hi Josh,’ the vet said. ‘Up to any mischief?’

  Josh had intended to tell him there and then about the animals he’d rescued from round the croft. But nothing would come out of his mouth. He just felt like a stupid little boy who wanted to speak to a king.

  The vet must have realised he wanted to talk – so he waited – what seemed like forever. Then he shrugged, picked up his bag and went to tend the bull, saying over his shoulder, ‘I’ll be glad to hear what it is you’re wanting to tell me, when you’re ready.’

  Josh followed him like an orphaned puppy to the crush, where the bull would be held still so the vet could work on him, and then back to the van when he’d finished, all the time trying to make some words come out of his mouth.

  In the end he’d not been able to say a single thing. Except ‘bye’. He would have to say a lot more than that to persuade the vet to let Reggae take part in the Gathering.

  Reggae was looking at Josh, keen to move on. She trusted him to make everything all right.

  ‘Don’t worry. I’m on top of this. I’ll talk him into it. Somehow.’

  Chapter 13

  Josh decided it would be easiest for him (and Yvonne) if they didn’t bump into one another for a couple of days. She was better off with Eric really.

  By ducking into the classes they shared late and dashing off at the end, he’d avoided her the first half of the day. At the end of English, he’d seen her getting up to follow him, but he’d given her the slip in the crowded hallway.

  Now there was just lunch and one more class to go. He headed for the library and was completely absorbed in watching a video showing a dog trainer teaching ‘driving’ when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

  He looked up. Yvonne. Her face was flushed and her lips tight.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she demanded.

  ‘Going on?’

  ‘You know what I mean. You’ve been avoiding me all day. And yesterday.’

  ‘Quiet!’ the librarian shouted. Yvonne flushed even deeper. But she didn’t take her angry eyes off Josh. Everyone in the library was staring at them.

  Josh’s brain felt as if it had short-circuited. Why was Yvonne making a fuss? He was giving her ‘space’, wasn’t he? He couldn’t compete with the likes of Eric.

  Yvonne’s face got darker. Somehow she managed to whisper even louder than she had spoken earlier. ‘I asked, what is going on?’

  Josh blurted out, ‘But you like Eric!’

  For a moment, Yvonne looked bewildered. Then in quick succession, a light came into her eyes, she looked up at the ceiling and sat heavily on the chair next to Josh.

  ‘Is that what this is all about?’

  ‘I didn’t want to get in the way,’ Josh explained.

  ‘Get in the way of what?’

  ‘You and Eric.’

  ‘Me and Eric what?’

  ‘You like him . . .’

  Yvonne rolled her eyes. ‘We’re doing a maths project together.’

  ‘He’s smart, like you.’

  Yvonne giggled. The librarian gave her another look. ‘You’re getting me in a lot of trouble,’ she whispered, as she tried to get control of herself.

  ‘I don’t mean to.’

  ‘Do you really think I’d disappear the day after I met your lovely dog?’

  ‘People do just disappear . . .’ Josh blurted out. And suddenly his eyes started to water. Desperately, he fought back the unexpected emotion.

  ‘Oh,’ Yvonne said.

  His hand felt the whisper of her touch. He turned away towards the computer monitor. Why did all these feelings about his mother keep coming up? On the screen, he watched the trainer kneeling, rubbing his dog’s tummy. Somehow this calmed him.

  Yvonne continued to sit next to him, watching him intently.

  The bell rang.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Yvonne asked.

  ‘He’s really good,’ Josh said, pointing at the trainer in the video.

  Yvonne sighed, nodding. Then she persisted. ‘Are we okay?’

  Josh nodded but he didn’t meet her eye. He didn’t trust himself to speak.

  ‘Do you want to walk to music class?’ Yvonne picked up her bag.

  Josh closed the browser and stood.

  * * *

  A few days later, Josh powered up the steep valley slope, with Reggae bounding along by his side. Just above the secret valley, he stopped to survey the surrounding area. There was no one in sight.

  Josh knelt down so that he was on Reggae’s level. He could feel the warm sun on his face. ‘Today, you’re going to learn how to drive sheep,’ he told her. ‘That’s when you work on the same side of the sheep as me. In the Gathering, once we’ve collected the sheep, we get behind them and drive them to the pens where they’re tagged and treated.’

  Josh led Reggae down the slope, until they were relatively close to a group of sheep. He stopped. Reggae’s body tensed as she awaited the command to go off to her right.

  ‘Heel,’ Josh said. He took a step forward. Reggae stayed where she was, looking off to their right. Josh turned and gave her a stern look, pointing to his side. Reluctantly, Reggae took a step forward.

  Josh took another stop. Reggae hesitated again. She was still expecting to do an outrun.

  Then, with a terrible shock, Josh became aware of somebody coming over the hill! Somebody with two dogs. He’d been concentrating so much on Reggae, he’d forgotten to keep an eye out.

  ‘Down!’ he whispered urgently and he followed his own command, plunging to the ground. Had they seen him? Had they seen Reggae?

  He had to get them both out of sight! He lifted his head and looked around. There were a couple of tall gorse bushes not too far away. They could hide behind them.

  ‘Come,’ he whispered, and he started to crawl along the ground on his stomach. Reggae wagged her tail and crept along by his side. To her, this was a wonderful new game.

  Safely hidden behind the bush, Josh tried to compose himself. Who was this person? And why was he in his valley?

  Chapter 14

  Josh felt like a mouse trapped by a cat. But who was the cat? Kneeling, he peered through the yellow gorse flowers.

  From this distance, all he could see was a dark, hooded man with heavy eyebrows. He was shouting angrily at his two dogs, who were running around wildly and barking. The man wasn’t looking in his direction. Josh breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t been spotted.

  As the man came down the hill, Josh got a clearer look. His heart sank. It was Dunham, a man who was hated and feared, both for his fierce and uncontrolled temper and his shady practices. Josh had heard many stories about Dunham told by his uncle’s friends over late-night drinks. How he’d been caught stealing wood from someone’s forest – and almost beat to death the man who found him at
it. And how he always remembered a grievance, seeking revenge even years later.

  Josh had no trouble believing these stories, because Kearney was Dunham’s son. A bully cut from the same mould as his father.

  Why had Dunham sought out such a hidden valley? A place far away from where he lived?

  Josh watched as Dunham placed himself in front of a small group of ewes. Josh tickled Reggae behind her right ear. Fortunately, he didn’t have to worry about her making any noise.

  Dunham’s dogs were running back and forth on long leads, barking excitedly. They hardly paid any attention to their master’s commands.

  He shouted their names, again and again. Eventually when they came to heel Dunham struck each dog hard on the head. Josh inhaled sharply. What was the point of that? It would just teach them not to come when he called the next time.

  Josh took several deep breaths, trying to calm himself. He hated to see animals badly treated. Especially Border collies. And it wasn’t just the dogs . . . What would these bullied and badly-trained dogs do to the commons sheep, his sheep, the ones he’d been using to train Reggae?

  ‘Away,’ Dunham ordered. The two dogs headed straight for the sheep, barking loudly. Alarmed, the ewes scattered. It was then Josh saw the green markings on the right thigh of several of the sheep. They belonged to his uncle! They must have escaped onto the commons through the broken fence Calum had been muttering about mending for weeks. Using the long leads, Dunham hauled the dogs back. Then he hit them again. ‘To the right, you stupid mutts.’

  Dunham ordered the dogs off again. This time, at least they went to their right. But rather than finding the balancing point, one dog charged one of his uncle’s ewes and bit her behind the ear. The other dog jumped on the back of a young lamb, also with his uncle’s mark, who bleated in shock and pain. When its mother rounded on him, both dogs attacked her, tearing off mouthfuls of fleece. The ewe and her lamb cried out in pain.