A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron Page A

park to play all day. We were mostly by ourselves except for a woman with a small black dog named Get Back Here Milo. The black dog ran right over to me and I blinked and sank to the ground submissively, aware that as a puppy I needed to let Get Back Here Milo see I was no threat. “Get Back Here Milo!” the woman called over and over. The black dog pushed me roughly over with his snout and then Clarity reached down and picked me up, holding me the way Jennifer had when she’d fed me the strange milk.
    When Get Back Here Milo left, Clarity set me down and played with her face close to mine. I was so happy I yipped and spun.
    “She leaves tomorrow,” Clarity said to me. “I just need to keep you hidden one more night and then she’s gone for a week. Can you go without barking tonight?”
    I chewed a stick.
    “I don’t know what I’m going to do, Molly. She’ll never let me keep you.” Clarity grabbed me and gave me a fierce hug. “I love you so much.”
    I felt the affection pouring off of Clarity, but I was really focused on the stick at the moment, so I didn’t do much more than just wag my tail.
    I was disappointed that when we got home Clarity took me right down stairs and placed me into the small space under the stairs, sliding the boxes back. I voiced my displeasure with a volley of barks and she appeared instantly.
    “I need you to not bark, okay, Molly? My mother will be home any minute.”
    She slid the boxes back. Truthfully, I was tired from playing all day, so I settled down for a nap. I woke up, though, when I heard the front door slam. “I’m home!” Gloria’s voice boomed through the house. “Wait until you see what I bought at Neiman’s!”
    Though I had been smelling and hearing Gloria for a few days, I hadn’t yet had a chance to greet her. I thought she would probably be as glad to see me as Clarity had been. I yipped a couple of times and then waited, but all I heard was talking. I barked some more and then got the expected results when the door opened overhead and footsteps came down. Clarity shoved the boxes aside.
    “Please, Molly, please. Please be quiet.”
    Clarity fed me and took me inside her jacket down the street and then we walked and walked. It was dark and cool by the time we returned. Clarity pushed me back into the small space.
    “Okay. Go to sleep, okay, Molly? Go to sleep.”
    I tried to slip out as she was pushing the boxes back across the entrance, but I wasn’t fast enough. She ran up the stairs, which rattled, and shut the door and then it was quiet.
    I slept a little, but then I woke up and remembered I was all by myself. I whimpered. I knew that upstairs Clarity was probably lying in her bed, feeling lonely because I wasn’t with her, and that made me sad. I knew she thought that I liked to lie on the nice pillow under the stairs, but actually I wanted to be with her. I barked. There was no response, so I barked again, and then again.
    “Clarity! What’s that sound?” Gloria shrieked. I heard running, and then the door at the top of the stairs opened.
    “I think it came from down here!” Clarity shouted. I wagged my tail as she came down the stairs. “Go back to bed, Gloria. I’ll take care of it.”
    “It sounded like an animal!” Gloria replied.
    I heard Clarity moving around on the other side of the boxes. I scratched at them. I heard Gloria walking through the house and then I could sense her at the top of the stairs.
    I barked.
    “There it is again!” Gloria hissed. “It’s a dog; there’s a dog in the house!”
    Clarity shoved the boxes aside and I tumbled into her arms, licking her face. “No, it’s … Oh my God, it’s a fox!” she yelled. “Stay back!”
    “A fox? What? Are you sure?”
    “Foxes do bark, Gloria,” Clarity said.
    “How did it get in the house? What’s a fox doing here?”
    “The basement door must have blown open in the wind. It probably came because it smelled your stupid coat.”
    Clarity was smiling at me