The Dog in the Freezer (7 page)

She
had
to say yes. It didn't matter about the rules. Nobody had to know about Michael. She'd sleep in my room. I'd take her out at night. I'd do everything just the way I did now.

By the time Mom called, I was so nervous I hardly gave her a chance to say hello. “I'm bringing Michael home with me,” I said. “I'm coming home with her, Mom.” I was almost yelling.

There was silence on her end of the line.

“You'll love her, Mom. She's trained and everything.”

“Honey,” Mom started. “Lucas. Sweetheart…we can't have pets, Lucas. You know the rules.”

“Then we'll have to move.”

“Honey, be serious.”

“Mom, I am serious. Michael is my dog.”

Another silence. “I'm sorry, Lucas,” she said finally. “I really am, but it's impossible.”

MY BRILLIANT PLAN

I grabbed Jerry's bike and rode downtown, where he was working late for a Cadillac dealer. The showroom was locked up. Everyone had gone home. But in back, a door was open, and I saw a light. Jerry was there, working on a car. He had all the doors open and the leather driver's seat out on a couple of horses. “Lucas! What's up?”

“I have this brilliant idea, Jerry. Mom says Michael can't come home with me, but look—this is home for Michael. She's happy here. So she stays with you, and I come back and see her maybe at Christmas, and then again next summer. By that time, Mom and I will have moved to a place where we can have a dog, and Michael'll come live with us.”

Jerry put down a small paintbrush. “You want to leave Michael with me? What's she going to do all day when I'm working?”

“Jerry, it's not that hard. Think positive. You just change your routine a little. Run her in the morning—that's nothing for you—leave her stuff to eat, and when you come home, she can run with you again. Michael'll be company for you.”

“I'm not going to do that, Lucas. I have too much going on. Anyway, I don't want a dog. I don't need a dog.
I'm sorry, Lucas. Hey, don't look that way. You know I'm sorry.” He made a grab for me to give me one of his big bonding hugs.

I ducked away. “No! You can't make things better with a hug.” I was having trouble breathing. “What did you give her to me for, Jerry? Why'd you do that, if you don't even like dogs?”

“You wanted her, Lucas. And she was good for you. You've had a lot of fun with her, so it worked out okay.”

“And now…” I tried to hold my breath steady. I was on the edge of crying. “What do I do? What do I do now, Jerry?” I was yelling at him. I couldn't help it. “What's going to happen to Michael?”

“Lucas, I'm sorry. You want me to talk to your mother?”

“No, don't talk to Mom! She can't help it.”

“I'm sorry.”

“And don't say you're sorry to me ever again.” I ran around the car and slammed all the doors.

Then I went home. I put Jerry's bike away in the garage. I fed Michael and took her outside. “You're the only good thing in the whole world, Michael.”

Hearing her name, her ears stiffened and she came over to me. I got down and put my arms around her. She licked my face. She'd grown over the summer. She was big and warm. Every time she looked at me I felt like a murderer.

GEORGE LOSES IT

Michael and I went looking for Glori. We went to the park first and then to her house. Maybe she could keep
Michael for me. Sure she could. She had three dogs, one more wouldn't matter.

George's red pickup was parked in front of Glori's house. I walked by. I didn't want to see George. But then Boy came out, and he and Michael ran around the side of the house, and I followed.

Glori and George were in back. She was sitting on the exposed roots of an old willow tree. George was standing over her. When he saw me he threw up his arms and said, “Oh, no! What's he doing here?”

I ignored him. “Hi, Glori.”

“Hi, Lucas. What do you think of this, Lucas? George wants his ring back.”

“Come on, Glori,” George said. “Stop wasting time. Hand it over.”

“I say it's mine. A gift is a gift. What do you say, Lucas?”

“What do you care what he says?” George said.

“It's your ring to keep,” I said to Glori.

She nodded. “Do you hear that, George? That's what anybody would say.”

“Who's he? Who made him an expert?” He grabbed her arm, pulled her up, and tried to get the ring off her finger. She yelled and yanked free. He went after her again, and she tripped over the roots and went down.

Without thinking I put myself in front of her and stood there like a school crossing guard between her and big beefy yunko George. It was kind of stupid, but it felt great.

Then George laughed and ruined the whole thing. “Get out of here, you bug,” he said, and he pushed me aside.

Michael snarled at George, defending me. I came back, and George pushed me again.

“Oh, you are such a jerk, George!” Glori said. “If you want it that bad—” She took the ring off her finger.

George stood there with a satisfied smirk on his face.

“Here,” she said, “take your Cracker Jack ring.”

I was hoping she'd spit on it, maybe drop it in the dirt and make him pick it up, but instead she threw it at him. Not directly, not in his face, but up in the air.

The ring sparkled. The snake eyes flashed red in the light. George was ready, hand out, palm up like an out-fielder poised for an easy catch.

And then Michael leaped, her chin up, her mouth open, like a trained circus dog, and snatched the ring out of the air and caught it.

GEORGE LEARNS THE RULES

Snap!
The sound of Michael's jaws closing lingered in the air.
Snap!
An instant photo: George, with his hand out, waiting. Glori, mouth open wide with delight. Michael, hovering in the air. Wonder Dog of the world.

“That dog ate my ring,” George said, breaking the silence. “He swallowed it.”

“She,” I said.

He looked at me. “What?”

“Wonder Dog is a she,” I said.

“You meatball!” George made a grab for Michael, but she was too fast for him. He went after her, but he couldn't catch her.

“What's her name?” He suddenly went soft. He got down on his hands and knees. “Here, pup,” he called in his new soft voice. He held out his arms. He smiled at Michael. “Here, boy, I mean girl, good girl. Come here, baby.”

Michael crouched low, hind quarters up. She growled.
Try and get me
, she seemed to say.

George sprang at her like a big brown toad grabbing for a bug. Michael leaped aside, but she was too close to the fence and George had her. “Spit it out,” he ordered. He pressed her down to the ground and tried to pry her jaws open.

“Leave my dog alone.” I jumped on his back.

He tried to knock me off and Michael got away.

George was so mad, he kicked the tree. Glori couldn't stop laughing. Then George took a knife out of his pocket, snapped it open, and ran after Michael. “George, are you crazy?” Glori cried.

“Run, Michael,” I ordered. “Go home, girl!” That was one of the commands we'd worked on in Glori's class. Michael ran, and I ran after her.

GEORGE LEARNS

AN IMPORTANT LIFE LESSON

When George drove up to our house later, Michael was safe inside the garage with the doors locked. I was on the front steps, tossing the cigarette lighter.

“Where's the dog?” George said, jumping out of the pickup truck.

I shrugged.

“You know where he is!”

“She.” I was trying to be cool, but I kept looking for Jerry to come home.

“Hey, I'm talking to you.”

I tossed the lighter. I was watching his hands. Where was the knife? If he tried something, I was going to run for it.

“You scratched me,” he said, pointing to his arm.

“I never touched you.”

“You or your dog. If I get an infection, you're going to pay. Where's my ring?”

“You know where it is.”

“Yeah. So where's the dog?”

I didn't say anything. I wasn't going to tell him, but just then Michael barked.

George tried to pull the garage door up, but I had locked it from inside. Then he really got mad, so mad his eyes turned black. He ran at me, and he was on me before I could get away. He got my foot and dragged me off the steps and halfway down to the street, just as Jerry pulled into the driveway.

“Hey!” Jerry came charging out of his car and grabbed George around the neck. “Let go,” he yelled. “Let go of the boy!”

“You let go of me first,” George said, but he quieted down fast. He was as big as Jerry, but he was lard to Jerry's muscle.

Then it was a three-ring circus—George demanding his ring, me trying to tell Jerry what had happened, and Jerry telling George to get away from me and stay cool.

“Give me back my ring!”

“Okay, George,” Jerry said. “You're going to get your ring back. This is a problem we can solve, George. Just be patient.”

“I don't feel like being patient! It's my ring and your dog ate it, and I want it now.”

“I know how you feel, George.” Jerry was suddenly George's best friend. “You'll get your ring, but these things take time. Sometimes in life we have to wait. My girlfriend, Kiki, says it's good to wait for things. And in a situation like this, where there's nothing to worry about—”

“Yeah,” I said, “wait. Because everything is going to come out in the end.” I started to laugh.

Then Jerry laughed. “I'm sorry, George, I know you don't think it's funny. But sometimes in life it's good to take a deep breath and see the humor in a situation.”

MICHAEL COMES THROUGH

Michael stayed in the garage the next few days. She did her business on paper. I kept the stools lined up and in order on a piece of cardboard. The last one had the ring sticking out of it.

I called Glori, and she called George. She was there when George arrived. We were all there, including Kiki.

Jerry offered George the water hose, but he just poked the ring out with a stick and dropped it in a plastic bag.

“Are you going to tell Esther where you got the ring from?” Glori said.

George didn't answer. He didn't speak to any of us. He just got in the truck and drove away.

“I was hurting before,” Glori said to Kiki, “but I feel good now. Seeing him pick up that ring was worth everything.”

Kiki and Jerry went off running, and I let Michael out of the garage. She ran from Glori to me. She was so happy to be out, she was running in circles.

“Well, this was great,” Glori said. “The only thing I regret now is that I didn't have my camera with me when George recovered his ring.”

“I did,” I said, and held up my camera.

“Lucas! Did you get his picture?”

I nodded.

“You doll!” Glori kissed Michael. “Isn't he a doll, Michael? And this dog,” she said to me. “She's so smart. I'm going to really miss her.”

It was the perfect time for me to ask if she'd keep Michael for me until I came back. She kept nodding as I explained everything. She was listening really carefully. I thought it meant yes.

And then she said no.

“I would, Lucas, but I'm going back to college. I can't ask my mother to take care of another dog.”

“Okay,” I said. What else could I say?

“What are we going to do, Lucas? We have to do something about Michael. Jerry definitely won't take her?”

I shook my head.

“That's crazy. He has to.”

“He won't.”

“Michael can't go to the pound.” She got really upset. “There's got to be some way.”

“There isn't,” I said. I thought of the way I used to wish for my father, thinking if I wished hard enough he'd come home. But he never did.

“Let me think of the people I know,” Glori said. She started ticking them off on her fingers.

For a moment I thought,
Yes! She's going to figure it out.

She shook her head. “It's not going to work. I can't think of anyone. I'm just going to cry,” she said. “I better leave.” She rushed off, her head down. Then she came back. “I almost forgot. Lucas, I brought you a good-bye present.” She reached into her bag and gave me a photo of herself and Belle.

“Thanks,” I said. I wanted to say something else. I wanted to tell her that meeting her had been the best thing that had ever happened in my life. Instead, I studied the photo. I said I'd frame it when I got home and keep it on my bureau.

“I could send you a snapshot of myself. If you want it?”

“Of course I want it,” she said. “Aren't you my special friend?”

I put the picture of her and Belle in my jeans pocket. Then I took it out. I didn't want her to think I'd sit on it. I put it in my shirt pocket and kept my hand over it.

JERRY COMES THROUGH, TOO

The morning I left, Kiki called up to say good-bye. “Lucas, Jerry and I are going to try to find a good home for Michael. I don't want you to worry.”

Leaving Michael was the hardest thing I ever had to do in my whole life. I sat with her on the steps, talking to her. Jerry came out, and I said good-bye and put her in the garage. I didn't want her to come to the airport with me.

On the way there, Jerry didn't say much. Nothing about Michael. Maybe he thought I was still mad at him. I wasn't. It wasn't his fault. He didn't know that I was going to feel like this.

“You can drop me by the ticket counter,” I said when we got to the terminal. I put out my hand. “I had a great summer, Jerry. Thanks for everything.”

“Wait a minute, not so fast. You're not getting rid of me yet.” He parked the car and came in all the way with me, through the security check, down the corridors to the gate, where they were already boarding my plane.