Zoo Breath (14 page)

“Do you eat it?”

He laughed. “If I did your mama wouldn’t let me in your house.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “Maybe not even on the street to your house.”

“Uh, Ledward? Do you think you could, you know, maybe bring Streak something to eat that … um … doesn’t stink?”

“Hmmm.” He thought, and then his eyes brightened. “Corn! I got way too much in my garden. Next time I’ll bring her couple ears to chew on, how’s that?”

“Sounds good to me.”

Ledward grinned and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “Let’s go inside. Your mama said she was cooking shepherd’s pie tonight.”

The kitchen smelled like heaven.

Mom was at the stove steaming broccoli. The shepherd’s pie was cooling on the counter. Stella was making a salad while Darci set the table.

Ledward gave Mom a hug from behind. “Looks good.”

“You hungry?”

“Like a horse.”

I grabbed Streak’s bowl and reached under the kitchen counter for the bag of dog food.

“I fed her earlier, honey,” Mom said.

“You did?”

“She was begging.”

“Oh.”

“She smells better. Did you bathe her?”

“Uh, yeah … in Darci’s pool.”

“In her
swimming
pool?”

“We rinsed it out.”

Mom shook her head. “Well, Streak smells better … though her breath is still fishy.”

I glanced at Ledward.

He made an
oops
face.

Then I remembered what Shayla had said. “It’s a good stink, Mom. Not a bad stink.”

Mom coughed a laugh. “Well, I never thought of it quite like that before. But it does make sense. If you love your dog you don’t care, right?”

That threw me. “You mean … you mean I can keep Streak?”

Mom cocked her head. “Why on earth would you ask that?”

“Well, because of her breath, and how you
always wash your hands after you pet her, and how you complain when she’s in the house that—”

“Whoa, slow down there, Cal.” Mom leaned over and looked me in the eye. “Is that what you’ve been thinking? That I’m going to make you give her up because she
smells?”

“Uh … well … yeah.”

Mom cupped the sides of my face with her hands. “I would never, ever make you give up your dog, Calvin. Never.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Of course not. Do you think I’m heartless?”

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

“I love Streak as much as you do, honey.”

Now I was really confused.

I looked at Stella. She puckered her lips into a fat smooch.

Mom kissed the top of my head. “Keep giving her baths. It helps.”

After dinner, Darci and I watched TV.

Darci had Petey propped up to watch, too, so I guess there were three of us.

Mom and Ledward had gone out onto the dark patio to talk. The bathroom door was open, and I could see Stella washing her face.

I was thinking about how I’d gotten so worried about something that wasn’t even
real
 … when I noticed something … and nearly choked!

“Darce.” I grabbed her arm. “Look.”

Our mouths hung open, because now Stella was brushing her teeth … with the same red toothbrush we’d used that one time on
Streak
. She took the brush out and looked at it, moving her tongue around like something tasted bad.

Ooops.

“I thought you said it was her old one,” I whispered.

“Well, it was in the bottom drawer where the old stuff is.”

When Stella saw us gawking at her she kicked the door shut.

Me and Darci looked at each other, then raced outside, bursting into laughter. We stumbled into the weeds across the street, out of range. If Stella heard us she’d make us tell her what we were laughing at.

And then she’d kill us.

Streak trotted out of the garage like, What’s
going on? She grabbed up a sun-dried toad on the street and brought it with her. I struggled it out of her mouth and flung it into the bushes. “Don’t
chew
on those!”

Streak looked into the bushes where it had gone, her ears standing up.

I couldn’t stop giggling. “Don’t ever tell Stella, Darce, okay? Never, ever, ever.”

“Tell who what?”

“Stella. The toothbrush.”

Darci looked at me with a straight face. “What toothbrush?”

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her, right?”

“Yeah,” Darci said. “But it might make her sick.”

I grinned and looked back toward the house.

“Calvin?”

“What?”

“You got any money?”

“Some. Why?”

“We got to buy her a new toothbrush.”

I turned back. “Why?”

Darci looked up at me.

“Okay, okay,” I said. “We’ll get her a new one. Tomorrow. We’ll sneak it in.”

“Red.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I smiled to myself. It served Stella right for complaining about Streak.

But Darci was right. We’d get her a new one.

“You know what, Darci?”

“What?”

“You’re nicer than me.”

“I am?”

“Yeah … because I would buy her a pink one.”

“Stella hates pink.”

“Exactly.”

Just as we were about to head back to the house, Streak ran out of the bushes and sat at my feet, the dried-up toad in her mouth.

I squatted down and looked her in the eye. “You are incurable, you know that? Absolutely one hundred percent incurable.”

Streak dropped the toad.

“She wants you to have it,” Darci said, squatting down to pet her. “I wish I had a dog that loved me that much.”

A Hawaii Fact:

Over 10,000 cans of salty canned precooked meat called Spam are consumed in Hawaii every day, making Hawaii the largest consumer of Spam in the USA.

A Calvin Fact:

When a frog barfs, it throws up its stomach, cleans it off with its front legs, then stuffs it back down. Me and Julio saw this once. It was awesome.