The Dog in the Freezer Read online

  There were three women and another boy around my age in the first class, but the boy never showed up again.

  The guy in the red pickup always dropped Glori and Belle off. Sometimes he hung around. Sometimes he left and came back later. I didn’t like him. I was always glad when he left.

  At the start of each class, Glori would give a little lecture. “Dogs are pack animals, like wolves. There’s the top dog, the alpha dog. It’s like a ladder and on the next rung down there’s an underdog, and a dog under that dog. And so on. Dogs want to know their place. Since most dogs don’t live in packs, but with their owners, you have to be the top dog. Even if it’s only one dog, you’re the leader of the pack. Don’t ever forget that.”

  During class, Glori gave each dog a lot of attention. “People, I want you to hug your dog every day. Talk to your dog. Get down there on all fours, on your dog’s level, and hug him and show him how much you love him. Lucas, demonstrate how you love Michael.”

  “Yes, Professor Glori.” I wound my arms around Michael’s chest and hugged her.

  “Look how happy Michael looks,” Glori said. “Aren’t you, Michael?”

  Glori was nice to everyone, but I thought she was extra nice to Michael. And to me, too.

  I never missed a class. I came early, so I could talk to Glori before the others arrived. I brought bagels to share with her. I took pictures of the class with my camera and gave them to her. On one I wrote “For Professor Glori.” I didn’t tell her I liked her, but I think she knew. When class was over, and if her boyfriend wasn’t back, I’d hang around and talk to her some more. It was a lot about dogs, but other things, too. I found out she was in college, and that the guy in the red pickup was her boyfriend, and his name was George.

  One day he stayed and ate all the bagels. I had four of them in the bag and he didn’t even say thanks. I didn’t like anything about him. Not his name. Or his sleeveless sweatshirts. Or the rings he wore on his fingers or the chains around his neck.

  Glori showed me a silver ring he’d given her. It was in the shape of a snake with ruby eyes. It was too big for her, and she wore it on her thumb. George had a lawn-mowing business. She’d worked with him at the beginning of the summer until she got the job running dogs.

  “You’re better off without him,” I said.

  “Why? Don’t you like him?”

  “He thinks he’s so big.”

  “Oh, you’re just too young to understand some things.” And then she lectured me. “When you tear someone down, it’s a sign of weakness, not strength, Lucas. You need to learn to look beneath the surface, to understand a person’s true character. When you get older, you’ll see.”

  “He loves himself too much,” I said. “That pearl in his ear. What’s that for?”

  “He’s different. He’s not like everyone else.”

  “He’s an alpha dog.”

  Glori laughed. She pulled my ear. “Are you jealous, Lucas? I can be friends with more than one person.”

  One day Michael and I walked her and Belle home. There was a wire fence around her house and two more dogs in the yard: A miniature collie that belonged to her sister and Boy, her mother’s old black Labrador. The dogs came to greet Glori, but they were really excited about Michael.

  We watched the dogs playing for a while. Glori started asking me a bunch of questions, about my father and my uncle and why I was in Cliffside Park this summer.

  “Is Jerry like a father to you?”

  “No,” I said.

  “Why not?”

  “He’s just not.”

  “What does that mean? Be more specific.”

  “I don’t know. He’s okay.”

  “Okay? Does he like you?”

  “I guess so. I’m in his house. He invited me to come.”

  “And do you like being there?”

  I got down with Boy and scratched him under the chin. “You really know how to ask questions,” I said.

  “I should. Journalism is my second choice if I don’t get into medical school—”

  “So I’m your guinea pig?”

  “That’s right.” She tapped me on the head. “Sure you are.”

  I wanted to tap her back, but I didn’t know if I should. I liked her touching me. I wished she’d do it some more.

  THE GIRL IN THE BAGGY SHORTS

  One day there was another girl in the truck with Glori and George. They all got out and stood there talking. The other girl wore work boots and a shirt so short it showed her belly button. After a while she and George drove off together.

  “Do you like Esther?” Glori asked me after the class. I was holding a pocket mirror up for her while she pinned her hair back.

  “She’s okay,” I said. “Cute belly button.”

  “Cute, nothing!” Glori grabbed the mirror back from me. “That’s really stupid, Lucas. You guys!”

  “Glori, I didn’t mean—”

  “Oh, I know what you meant.”

  “Glori, I—”

  “No! I don’t want to hear anything else. Good-bye, Lucas.”

  I sat down under a tree. Michael went sniffing around. I was supposed to work her, practice the lesson. Send her out and call her back. Walk and make her heel and sit. I didn’t do any of it. “Michael. Here!” She came right over. I got my arm around her. “You think Glori’s really mad at me? Maybe she won’t want us in the class. You think?”

  Michael barked. She had developed this goofy way of barking, halfway between a whine and a bark, that was like talk. Maybe nobody else understood, but I knew what she meant. Cool it. It’s going to be all right, Lucas. Come on, let’s play!

  • • •

  Esther, the other girl, was there again on Thursday and hung around with George while Glori ran the class. For a while they sat on the hood of the truck. He had his head in her lap, and she was smoothing his eyebrows. Glori kept looking over at them.

  Then Esther slid off the truck and George chased her around. She jumped into the cab and blew the horn.

  “Will you guys cut that out,” Glori yelled. “Just stop!”

  George froze, like he was playing statues. Esther was smiling at him from inside the cab.

  “There’s a class going on,” Glori said. She looked upset. She ended the lesson ten minutes early, and they all drove off together.

  “I hate him,” I told Michael. “What a pig. How many girlfriends does he need?” I wanted to do something for Glori. Something great. Maybe I’d die for her. No, I didn’t want to die, but I wanted her to know I would if I had to.

  WHAT HAPPENED IN THE BAGEL SHOP

  I saw Glori at the bagel shop, sitting by herself in a corner. She looked sad, but when she saw me she waved me over. “Hi, Lucas. Where’s Michael?”

  “I left her home.” I sat down and offered her part of my bagel. “Nice and hot,” I said.

  She shook her head. “Nothing for me. So, how’re you, Lucas?”

  I started blabbing about Michael and how this summer had turned from bad to brilliant, all thanks to Michael. “And you,” I said.

  “Me? That’s nice.” She played with the silver ring George had given her. “How’re things going with your uncle?”

  “Good. Jerry does his thing, and I do mine.”

  “Your uncle should be more like a father to you, a role model. That’s what your mother wanted. That’s why she sent you here. He should be thinking about you more. He’s selfish. All he thinks about is himself.”

  “He got me Michael.”

  “He got you a dog, but where’s he? Does he really care about you? All guys think about is themselves.”

  “Jerry’s okay,” I said. Why was she acting so upset about him? She didn’t even know him.

  “You’ve got a right to be disappointed, Lucas. I know what it’s like to be disappointed in someone.” Tears ran down her cheeks.

  I didn’t know what to do. I handed her a napkin. “Did I do something wrong, Glori? Are you mad at me?”

  She wiped h
er face. “Not you. You’re fine, Lucas.” She took my hand. “Don’t ever change. What a stupid thing to say. You’re going to change, but I wish you could stay the way you are. With that face. You still care.”

  “You’re crying again,” I said.

  “I’m not! George is not worth crying over. So he’s got him a new girlfriend. So he had one before me and he’ll have one after her.” She took another napkin and dried her eyes. “I don’t care anymore. They deserve each other.”

  She pulled the ring off her thumb. “It’s nice, isn’t it? He said it was mine. Now he wants to give it to Esther.”

  “You don’t have to give it back,” I said. “He gave it to you, so it’s yours.”

  “Yeah,” she said. “You’re right, Lucas.” She put it back on her finger. “He can give her something else.”

  JERRY ASKS AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

  “Hey, old son, the time is getting close,” Jerry said. He was standing by the calendar counting off the days. “You’re going to be going home in a week. Isn’t your mother’s school over on the eighteenth?”

  I got up and looked at the date. I’d forgotten about the time. My uncle hadn’t. He’d marked off each day.

  “So is Mom ready for Michael?” he asked. “Does she know you’re coming home with a dog?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Did you ask her?”

  “No, not yet.”

  “Don’t you think you better?”

  “She’s going to say no. The building doesn’t allow dogs.”

  “Hey, think positive. There are always loopholes. Believe it, or old Michael goes to the dog pound.”

  Was that supposed to be one of Jerry’s bad jokes? Michael in a dog pound! In a cage! With people she didn’t know! Not able to run. And nobody to love her. Suddenly I felt sick. Sick and stupid. And then I got scared. Where were my brains? What was going to happen to Michael? There were no loopholes. It wasn’t Mom, it was the building. We’d lived there six years and nobody had an animal.

  MOM ANSWERS THE QUESTION

  I left a message for Mom to call me. Waiting for her to phone back, I kept getting these white flashes in my stomach. She was going to say yes about Michael. She was going to say no.…Yes.…No.…Yes.…

  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<
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  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.