Sled Dog School

by Terry Lynn Johnson

  Matt blinked. “Um . . . yeah, you’ll get a certificate.”

  “Cool!” Tubbs said.

  “And there’s a test,” Matt said.

  “There is?” Tubbs asked.

  “Excellent,” Alex said.

  “That’s Lily.” Matt pointed to his sister, who had just appeared, out of breath. “I’m Matt.” He jogged ahead of Alex to lead everyone to the barn.

  Lily trailed behind, chattering with Alex. “. . . and you can come see my room, and I’ll show you my doll collection, and wait till you see the puppies. How old are you?”

  “Eleven and a half,” Alex said.

  Lily’s mitten snaked up to grasp Alex’s hand as they walked. Matt was surprised to see Alex smile at his sister. Lily skipped and hummed beside her, swinging their hands.

  Matt tried to remember what he’d thought up the night before. Ways to make Tubbs learn better. Ways to understand the dogs. And what did Alex’s mom mean that she had to write everything down afterward? Like, everything Matt said?

  Pushing away his nerves, Matt introduced the dogs in the yard the same as he had with Tubbs. But Alex didn’t look confused like Tubbs had. She looked excited.

  “So, why did you pick Foo and Grover as your lead dogs?” Alex asked. “Is it something they’re born with? Like how some people naturally have superior intelligence, by genetics or extra study, and become influential?”

  Tubbs and Matt glanced at each other in the awkward pause that followed. Foo gave Matt a pointed stare.

  “When they’re pups, they tell us they want to be leaders,” Matt said, noticing with a frown that he’d introduced Foo and Grover at the beginning and Alex still remembered their names. It was clear she wasn’t going to forget anything or let anything go.

  “But how?”

  “They look forward up the trail, like they want to see past the dogs in front of them,” Matt explained. “They’re brave enough to run in front of the team. They show they’re listening to the musher through their bodies. Their ears swivel back, their tails are straight, not held high, stuff like that. Listen, why don’t we just start running the dogs. You’ll see.”

  Tubbs went pale. “You sure Alex doesn’t want to go inside and see your house first?”

  “She can come into my room,” Lily said.

  “Very sure,” Matt said.

  “Can I be on your sled?” Tubbs asked.

  “Good idea,” Matt said. “Alex can follow behind and watch us.” As soon as Matt suggested this, he realized that was exactly how he’d tried to teach Tubbs. But the thought of Alex dragging by her pant leg and screaming was strangely comforting.

  Tubbs immediately relaxed and then shared a look with Matt, clearly remembering what can happen to the person following behind.

  “That’s your idea of a lesson?” Alex asked with a tone of voice that was already so irritating, Matt hoped he didn’t hear it in his sleep.

  “We’ll go slow, for all the people here who weren’t born with superior intelligence,” Matt responded.

  Alex stared at Matt, bristling. Matt stared back. Their stares turned into a challenge, both trying to make the other break eye contact first, like two dominant dogs.

  Nine

  Lily was the one who broke the war of wills. “I can go with Alex! I can help her,” she said, tugging Matt’s arm.

  He frowned, not wanting to see in his mind Lily dragging down the trail with Alex. But if Tubbs was coming with him, it made sense for Lily to go with Alex. She could actually help. She knew more than the two students.

  “Okay. But we’ll just hook up three dogs for you guys.” The chase team wouldn’t need as much power since they’d be so focused on catching up to the team ahead of them. The dogs would pull harder, and they’d have less weight to pull with just the two girls.

  Back at the barn, Matt hauled out two sleds again. The dogs started up their screaming. Matt watched from the corner of his eye as Alex took in the whole scene with a look of complete confidence.

  After Matt prepared the sleds, he collected Grover. If Alex wanted lessons, he would fill her head with so many facts that she wouldn’t be able to remember them all, let alone write them down. Whatever she was doing that for.

  “See this harness?” Matt held it up and folded it in half. “You fold the part with the double webbing and it makes two holes. Then you slip it on over the head like this.” He slid the harness over Grover’s sleek head. The dog helpfully lifted a paw, eager to be going. Matt glanced at Alex to see if she was impressed with how smart his dog was.

  “Then you hook the back of Grover’s harness to the tug line. It’s attached to the gang line. The gang line is attached to the sled, so when the dogs pull, they all put their power into moving forward, and that moves the sled forward. We’ll hook up a few more.”

  Matt hooked Foo beside Grover. “We have more leaders, but I like using these dogs because they run well for me. We have a connection.”

  Matt stroked Foo’s bristled white muzzle. The dog’s multicolored eyes glanced up at him innocently and then, in a flash, snatched the large mitt that Tubbs wore dangling on its string.

  “Hey!” Tubbs said, pulling on his string. “Mischievous white beast!”

  Matt rescued the mitt, grinning. He felt as if he’d grown up with these dogs. He used to sneak out to their pen to sleep with them when they were puppies. Foo would drape his fat body across the warmth of Matt’s neck and fit perfectly. When Matt was learning to run his own team, the yearlings were learning to pull. And Matt would spend hours just being out with them in the dog yard, or having entire conversations with Foo. Matt had run them so often now, he thought they even preferred to run with him rather than Dad. Sometimes Foo knew which way Matt planned to go before he even told him, as if the dog could read his mind.

  “Atlas is the wheel dog—that’s the dog closest to the sled. It’s usually a strong dog. Sometimes wheel dogs have to slam their tugs to get the sled unstuck. It’s called popping the tug. The leaders are the smart ones. They know the commands—‘gee’ and ‘haw.’ Some other commands are ‘gee over,’ ‘haw over,’ ‘come around,’ ‘on by,’ ‘trail,’ ‘hike up,’ and ‘whoa.’ Get it?” Alex only nodded.

  After they hooked up three dogs for Alex’s sled, Matt went over the brakes with her. He showed her the snub line, how it attached the sled to the tree, and how she needed to yank the half-hitch knot to release the team and follow him.

  Alex looked down her nose at him. It was a long pointy nose, like the kind Matt saw on witches in fairy tales.

  “What do I do next?” Alex asked.

  She’d never even done this before, so why was she looking all know-it-all? Maybe that was her expression all the time, Matt thought. Or maybe she was as scared as Tubbs and hid it better.

  “Stand on the runners and hang on. It’s going to be crazy. Do not let go. That’s rule number one. If you fall off, we can’t go back for you.”

  Lily climbed into the basket of Alex’s sled, all smiles and completely trusting. Matt had a moment of regret and wished he’d told Lily to go in his sled. But that would look dumb now. And it wasn’t as if Lily hadn’t done this before. So Matt jogged to his sled and motioned for Tubbs.

  “I’ll stand on this runner and you stand on the other runner, and hold on to the handlebar of the sled like this.” Matt used both hands to show him.

  The noise of the dogs at hookup always got Matt’s heart pumping, but it appeared to terrorize Tubbs. The whites of his eyes flashed, and he was breathing so fast, Matt worried he’d pass out.

  “Don’t worry,” Matt told him quietly. “I won’t let you get dragged today.”

  Matt could tell Tubbs was trying to be brave. The large boy thrust his shoulders back and stepped onto his runner. The earflaps on his hat stuck straight out and fluttered slightly with the movement.

  Matt pulled the snub line attaching them to the tree and called to the dogs. “Ready? All right!”

  The dogs blasted ahead j
ust as Matt reached an arm around Tubbs so he wouldn’t fall backwards. Matt glanced behind to see Alex pull the snub, cling to the sled like a monkey, and whip out of the yard after them with a huge grin on her face.

  “Cowabunga!” She laughed into the wind. The loose hair around her hat slapped her face.

  They didn’t get far down the trail before it became apparent that Tubbs wasn’t going to stay on his runner. Matt had to keep grabbing him and holding him, plus watch his team, plus watch the dogs behind him to make sure they weren’t going to get hurt, plus make sure his sister was safe.

  Matt signaled to Alex to use her brake as he slowed his team and turned to Tubbs. “Do you want to ride in the sled? Your only job will be to jump out if we need to untangle dogs, okay?”

  Tubbs practically dived into the toboggan sled. It was fitted with a coated nylon sled bag. Tubbs planted his butt and gripped the sides of the sled bag tightly. It came up to his chest. They took off again. Foo and Grover’s shoulders rubbed against each other as they matched strides and pounded around the next bend. As he always did, Matt felt a fierce pride watching them work. The joy that radiated off the dogs clung to him too.

  When the sled skidded around the corner, Matt stuck his foot out for balance. He hung his other heel off the runner to dig into the trail to carve a tighter turn. These were the types of things he did that were hard to explain. He didn’t even know he was doing half of them until he paid attention because someone was behind him watching.

  Matt glanced back to see Alex do the corner perfectly. She leaned in and stuck out a foot. The sled skidded with a rooster tail. Matt heard Lily hooting in the basket.

  Even if Alex weren’t a girl, Matt still didn’t think he’d like her.

  “And now that we have a customer base, our sales will only go up during the next weeks,” Tammy said. She used a laser pointer to indicate the numbers in her PowerPoint show. Matt couldn’t understand her numbers because there were so many zeros. And who owned a laser pointer?

  “I thought I’d go ahead and show my projected sales. My mom didn’t even help me with this part.” She clasped her hands in front of her and gave Mr. Moffat that syrupy teacher’s-pet smile that everyone knew was fake fake fake, except for Mr. Moffat. “I predict Cherrylicious and Cinnabon-bon are even going to outsell the gloss they have in the mall.”

  “‘Projected sales’ doesn’t mean guessing . . .” Mr. Moffat leaned in and squinted at the Smart Board. “A million dollars of product sold, Miss Fuller? Let’s just stick with the exercise.”

  Matt suddenly wanted to high-five Mr. Moffat. Maybe he did know something about teacher’s pets.

  “The task this week was to show how much you’re getting paid,” Mr. Moffat continued. “How long does it take to make a jar of lip-gloss? You need to know how much you’re making per hour at any job, correct?”

  Uh-oh, Matt thought. That was this week’s task?

  “People, please have your salary—that’s how much you are making—figured into your numbers. Next: Jacob, what do you have for us?”

  Jacob sauntered to the front. “I’ve made a financial report.” He held up some papers he’d taped together to make one long piece.

  “Here’s my balance sheet of operating costs. It was simple to make if you know how to count.” Jacob smirked at Matt. “I think my business is the best because I’m making thirty-five bucks an hour and I’ve only just started! I bet even MotorHeads doesn’t make that much. I’ll be a billionaire before any of you losers!”

  Bottle and Can Recycling Service by Jacob Tonge

  Assets:

  milk crates to carry bottles

  long toboggan to go door-to-door of neighborhood

  Dad’s truck

  Expenses:

  fuel to drive to depot center $7

  Total time to do pick ups

  1 hour

  Sales (5 clients)

  Kruegers

  $13.00

  Smiths

  $8.00

  Makis

  $5.50

  Schultzs

  $9.00

  Lewises

  $6.50

  total

  $42.00

  Debit

  Credit

  Income

  $42

  Expenses

  $7

  Total

  $7

  $42

  Net Income

  $35

  Mr. Moffat sighed. “What about the cost of the vehicle and driver? I know you do the pickups on your own, but you need to rent the truck from your dad to take all the bottles to the depot. That goes down as an expense, same as paying your employees. Unless you’re driving yourself?”

  The class laughed and Matt felt a bit better.

  “The expense of the driver and truck will bring down your net profit. And how long does it take to return the bottles? That will add time to your hour of work.” Mr. Moffatt pointed to Jacob’s chart.

  “Even with those extra expenses, you’ve got an impressive net income! But don’t forget, this is a longer-term project. How many clients will you have next week? Since bottle returns aren’t a weekly occurrence, you’ll have to calculate your average salary at the end. But great job so far!”

  Jacob bowed before walking back to his desk, making everyone laugh. “Millionaire walking, yo. Make room.”

  “Matthew!”

  Matt sat up straight.

  “Let’s hear how the dogsledding business is going.” Mr. Moffat looked at him expectantly. “This is week three. You should all have solid numbers and be half-done on your reports.”

  Matt’s face felt hot as he slid out of his seat and went to the front. He didn’t have any numbers yet. He didn’t have balance sheets or charts or any figures. He’d been so busy just trying to deal with the clients he had.

  “I have two paying clients now.” Matt looked down at his feet.

  “Excellent! That’s double your sales of last week,” Mr. Moffat said.

  Matt looked up with surprise.

  “What’s the percentage?” his teacher asked.

  When Matt stared at him blankly, Mr. Moffat explained himself. “You had one, now you have two. Double the sales. What percentage of growth is that?”

  “Fifty?” Matt guessed.

  “In business it’s called one-hundred-percent growth! Nicely done. Now make sure you get three paying customers and then you’ll have enough revenue to work on your balance sheet. Next week.”

  Matt nodded.

  “And how are the lessons going?”

  “Um, good. I have . . . a lesson plan and . . . parameters of success.”

  Mr. Moffat’s eyes widened a fraction before he smiled and pushed up his glasses. “That sounds fabulous. Now, Destin. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Confused but relieved, Matt scurried back to his chair. One more client and then he may be able to pass this assignment and class after all. But he really needed to figure out first what a balance sheet was.

  Ten

  “How’s your business coming along, Smokey?” Jacob asked as he knocked Matt’s hat off from behind. Jacob was smart enough to stay in his seat as Mrs. Wilson eyed them in the rearview mirror. “Doesn’t seem like you have your numbers figured out. I’ve got a question. How many dummies does it take to screw in a light bulb?” He said it loudly enough that the whole back of the bus paused to hear the response.

  Squeezing his eyes shut, Matt thought he knew what was coming. He didn’t turn around.

  “Oh, wait a minute. There are no light bulbs in Smokey’s house. They use dog farts to light up the room.” A few kids burst out laughing. “They have pretend electricity, like pretend flowers, right, Smokey?”

  Matt’s stomach tightened. Normally he hid the paper flower his mom made him every day and put into his lunch. She’d been doing it since he started school, and he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her he was too old now. Today, he hadn’t gotten rid of the flower fast enough before Jacob had s
een it.

  Jacob tried to keep his audience, but conversations started back up. He settled into the seat behind Matt.

  Matt stared out the window and considered how he could ride with Lily to school instead. Her little bus went right past his school on the way to hers. But then Jacob would really have something to say about him.

  As the power lines whipped past, Matt imagined what it would be like to take the dogs to school, running the ditches beside the road as the bus drove by. Everyone would see him running sled dogs and forget his family didn’t have electricity.

  Matt sighed. As if they would ever think running dogs was cool.

  * * *

  Scrape, scrape, scratch, scrape.

  In his room before supper, Matt whittled the ears of the sixth sled dog and stewed over perfect Alex. She hadn’t fallen off once during the whole run on Saturday. Even Tubbs wouldn’t stop talking about her. She was smart, too. How could she be good at everything?

  Sh-sh, sh-sh, sh-sh.

  Even sanding the carving couldn’t calm his mind. Matt needed a lesson plan before the weekend. Something big to challenge Alex and her perfect skills. He placed the half-finished dog on his desk and went to find Dad.

  Dad raised his head from the pottery wheel when Matt entered the workshop. His father had been in the kiln shed every evening firing, and now he was back in his workshop making more pottery. The spinning clay on the wheel slowly came to a halt as he stopped the pedal.

  “Son, can you wait a minute? I’m almost done with the last of this set of bowls.”

  Good, thought Matt. He’s distracted. “I just have to ask a quick question. For this weekend’s lessons, I’m thinking of using one team so I can explain things easier to Tubbs and Alex. But if I still have to take Lily, that’s four of us.”