by Livi Michael
Pico sprang to attention immediately. He opened his mouth and gave his biggest ever bark. ‘WOOF!’ and then ‘WOOFF!’ again. Aunty Dot came pedalling towards him on her bike. She scooped him up and petted him briefly before putting him into her basket.
And that was it. Pico went back to exactly the same life he’d had before. A life in which he was loved, but not overly petted, and sometimes forgotten about. A life in which he often got stuck in wastepaper baskets or handbags, and in which he peered out at the world from the window ledge or from Aunty Dot’s bicycle basket or from Aunty Lilith’s sleeve.
Yet inside Pico, everything had changed.
He had no direct memory of having helped to save the world, yet he felt that within him he had distant horizons, and marvellous deeds. Stars blazed inside him and a whole universe was in his heart. In his dreams he wandered along the Milky Way, with comets shooting past and galaxies bursting into existence, and he felt a vast contentment about his own small life.
As for Sam, once he had finished blowing the great horn, he handed it back to Aunty Lilith, who threw it as far as she could, until the air closed around it silently. Then he tucked Jenny under one arm and set off home with his aunts.
‘Mu – um,’ he called when he got there. ‘We’re back! Jenny’s home!’
And indeed Jenny felt that she was.
∗
Life quickly went back to normal and after Sam’s first day back at school Aunty Dot called by to take her for a walk.
All around her was the croft and it was just as she remembered it. She lifted her nose and sniffed, searching the air for the scents of her friends.
Boris was out with Mr and Mrs Finnegan, who were pushing baby Sean in his buggy. They were joined by Gordon and Maureen, who were spending quality time with Gentleman Jim. Boris and Gentleman Jim stood together talking, while their humans chased a ball around the field. They were soon joined by Flo, who was walking Myrtle. Myrtle seemed so keen on the outdoor life these days that it was hard to keep her in. Flo joined Gentleman Jim and Boris, and moments later Checkers arrived with Freda and John, who had taken a break from doing his reports. There were more important things than money and work to think about, he said. There was Checkers!
And finally Pico came trotting along in front of Aunty Lilith, since there was no longer any nonsense about him not being allowed to walk on the streets. The five dogs greeted one another rapturously, like the great friends they were. None of them remembered exactly the great events in which they had taken part, yet they all felt somehow, in spite of their near-perfect happiness, as though something was missing from their lives.
Pico saw the strange dog first. He trotted over to her, slowly at first, sure that he remembered her scent. Then gradually he picked up speed, until he was running as fast as a Chihuahua can, while Jenny waited for him with her head on one side.
‘Jenny!’ cried Pico, and he knew all of a sudden what the great gap in his heart had been. Then for a few moments everything was a blur, as Pico bounced up and down towards Jenny, and Jenny wagged her tail so hard it could hardly be seen. Finally, Pico raised his nose to hers.
‘Little friend,’ she said to him, ‘your body is small, but your heart is great. You have seen distant horizons and done marvellous deeds. In this new world, you can show other dogs that they too can dream of greatness.’
And though Pico had forgotten the old world and his big adventure, as Jenny looked into his eyes, she could see the glimmerings of memory, like a star.
Then Gentleman Jim came over to sniff her.
‘Well, hello,’ he said slowly, and he thumped his great tail once, twice, against the bole of a tree. ‘Jenny, isn’t it?’
The small white dog raised her nose up to Gentleman Jim.
‘Dear friend,’ she said, ‘born hunter – your instincts are keen and you have used them well. This new world owes you more than you know, and now you can show other dogs how to use their instincts for the benefit of all.’
‘Hrrrrummpphh!’ said Gentleman Jim, suddenly feeling within him the blood of his ancestors, fierce and swift. Then he stooped and licked Jenny on the nose, and she realized that while so much had faded from his memory, no dog ever truly forgets.
‘My turn! My turn!’ said Checkers, bounding up, but Boris was standing patiently behind and she turned to him first.
‘Dear Boris, natural guardian and protector, you defended the whole world from danger and now this new world needs you to go on protecting and guarding its young.’
‘I did – didn’t I?’ said Boris, as a spark of memory dimly returned.
‘Me – me!’ said Checkers, bounding around in a circle.
‘Checkers, natural warrior,’ the little dog said, ‘you have accomplished great things by using your gift of courage. In this new world there may still be battles to be fought, and both people and dogs will need to be brave. You can show them courage.’
‘That’s me!’ said Checkers, dashing around again. ‘The bravest dog that ever lived!’
‘WOOF!’ said Pico.
But Flo was waiting, overwhelmed by the memories that were flooding back, because out of all the dogs her memory was the most keen.
‘Dearest Flo,’ Jenny said, ‘your wisdom and your perception helped to overcome the enemy. In this new world the young will need your guidance, which you can freely give, because you have been set free.’
‘Yes,’ said Flo. ‘But it was all thanks to you. You set us free.’
The little dog lowered her head modestly. ‘That was my name – Leysa, meaning “to set free”,’ she said. ‘But you have set yourselves free.’
And for a moment they stood together, with their noses touching, while high above the croft Sirius, the Dog Star, began to rise. Each of them felt the radiance from that star in his or her own way. Then they bounded around the croft for a while, just like ordinary dogs, before returning home with their humans, to a new life in a city in which each dog played a vitally important role.
Boris and Flo looked after the city’s young, both animal and human. Boris guided and protected them as they learned to explore, while Flo taught the puppies her many proverbs so that they could guide their humans.
‘Be careful!’ she would say. ‘Still waters run deep!’
‘There’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip!’
‘Cowardice is just one of the forms of wisdom.’
Gentleman Jim helped to rear a new generation of people and dogs who were used to hunting and tracking, and wherever they went Checkers went with them in case of danger.
But when any animal or human was feeling down at heart or out of sorts, they went to Pico, who would sit with them until they too could see the vastness of the universe and their place in it, which was both immensely significant and immeasurably small.
And so, gradually, the city changed. It was full of green spaces, where people walked their dogs and dogs walked their people. There were hardly any cars. Traffic kept to certain roads, while others were made into free dogways. The streets were clean because the dogs foraged in them and kept them clean. There were shops and restaurants where dogs feasted on steak, while people sat at tables to one side and ate their salads. The hunting dogs hunted, the herding dogs herded and the guard dogs guarded, and between them they brought perfect order to the city and its people. No dog was homeless; they all looked cared-for and loved, because it was unheard of for a dog to be lost and alone in the City of Dogs.
The biggest change was in the people. No one hurried and everyone looked relaxed. People stood around with their dogs, talking, and no one was lonely or shut up in their houses. They were all brought together by the community of dogs.
The three aunts felt entirely at home in this new city. Aunty Joan took up woodwork, as she had always wanted, and Aunty Lilith went line-dancing and lost a lot of weight. There was less dog-walking for Aunty Dot to do, since everyone walked their own dogs, but she would walk out with them and greet every dog by name. And from time
to time she would visit her darling Berry in the underworld, where he had settled in nicely in the Elysian fields, which was the only place left in the underworld, now that mankind was on the right track.
Far above the new city shone Orion. It was always possible to see his outline dimly on winter nights, but two of the stars in his constellation were of particular brilliance: Sirius, or Canis Major, and Procyon, or Canis Minor. The great hunter was content to be guided by his dogs, because even in his own eyes he just wasn’t that important any more. So the great star Sirius, in particular, shone over the city, and all the people in it were guided by its light.
As for Jenny, she had done her bit for mankind, and she settled into a new, peaceful life in which she remained devoted to Sam. And Sam was devoted to her. He couldn’t wait to get home from school, to play with Jenny till bedtime, when she went to sleep on his bed and both of them dreamed wonderful dreams all night, about a boy with a face like the sun and a small white dog gleaming like a star through the early-morning mist.
