How to Look for a Lost Dog Read Free Page B

“You can keep her.”
    â€œShe isn’t wearing a collar,” I replied.
    â€œThat’s why she’s yours. She’s a stray.”
    â€œBut shouldn’t we look for her owners?” I asked. “They might want her back.”
    â€œIf they didn’t care enough to get her a collar, then they don’t deserve her,” said my father. “Besides, how would we find her owners? She doesn’t have a collar so she doesn’t have any tags.”
    â€œIs she a gift?” I wanted to know.
    â€œWhat?” said my father. He stopped wiping the dog for a moment. “Yes, she’s a gift, Rose. She’s my gift to you.”
    My father had not given me many gifts.
    The dog stood patiently while my father wiped her fur. She lifted her front feet one at a time when he held out the towel. Then she gazed at me and lifted her eyebrows up and down. She panted, and when she panted she stretched her lips wide so that she looked like she was smiling.
    â€œAll right,” my father said to the dog. “You’re dry enough to go inside.” He held the door open and the dog walked into the living room, which is really just part of the kitchen, and she leaned against my legs.
    I stared down at her. She stared up at me.
    â€œYou can pet her,” said my father. “That’s what normal people do with dogs.”
    So I petted her and she closed her eyes and pressed in closer.
    â€œWhat are you going to name her?” asked my father.
    â€œI will name her Rain,” I replied. “You found her in the rain, and rain has two homonyms – reign and rein – so it’s a special word.”
    â€œThat’s great, Rose. And what about ‘thank you’?”
    â€œThank you.”
    That night Rain slept in bed with me. She has slept with me every night since then.

6
Who I Wait For
    Uncle Weldon drives me to and from school every day. He does this because I’m no longer allowed to ride the bus, and when my father heard about that he announced that he couldn’t drive me himself. He said, “Rose, what did you go and get yourself kicked off the bus for? How am I supposed to drive you to school in the morning and get to the garage at the same time? And how am I supposed to pick you up in the middle of the afternoon while I’m working?”
    There are a lot of days when there’s no work for my father at the J & R Garage, but on those days he likes to sleep late and then go to The Luck of the Irish.
    Uncle Weldon said, “I could drive Rose to school.”
    Uncle Weldon works at a construction company. He has what my father calls a wuss job and what Uncle Weldon calls a desk job. He doesn’t do construction. He sits at a computer. His job starts at 9.00 a.m., so he could easily drop me off at my school, which starts at 8.42 a.m. before going on to his company, which is called Gene’s Construction, Inc. He said he would ask his boss if he could work through his lunch break so that he could pick me up at 2.42 p.m. and run me home every afternoon.
    When Uncle Weldon mentioned that he could drive me to school, he didn’t look directly at my father. He and my father and Rain and I were sitting on the front porch, and Uncle Weldon stared out at Hud Road while he spoke.
    I waited for my father to say, “I can take care of this myself.” But instead he lit a cigarette and stared at Hud Road too.
    So then I joined them in looking at the road while I said to my father, “Did your father drive you to school?”
    â€œHe didn’t have to. I didn’t get kicked off the bus. Why are you asking about my father?”
    I was asking because my father always says that he’s not going to be the kind of father that his father was. He says he’s going to raise me up by himself if it kills him. This is why he doesn’t accept much help from Uncle Weldon. And this was why Uncle Weldon asked his question so