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CHAPTER XII
HARVEY, August 2 Thursday evening
I am convinced that dogs basically think humans are nuts.
John Steinbeck "Emily got a call from Sam last night, and I could see she was excited. She had hardly hung up the phone when she picked it back up and called her mother. He’d invited her out to dinner at the Back Porch, I heard her say, adding that it’s one of the nicest restaurants at Ocracoke. “I can’t wait!” Later she plowed through her whole closet, tossing dresses across the bed with a frown of concentration on her face and mumbling to herself, “too old…too priggish…too big…too short…” What is this thing humans have about clothes? She finally settled on a blue silk with little stripes. She took an extra-long bath, put some awful smelling stuff from a little glass bottle behind her ears, and then put a silver collar with a shell on it around her neck. She looked real pretty, I have to say, and I woofed in approval. When Sam knocked on the door she turned and stroked my head and kissed me on the nose, with an admonition to “Be good Harvey.” Then she left and I settled down for a boring evening. KALI, August 2 Thursday evening The skipper got home from fishing early that day, but he didn’t stay around for long. He had a date with Emily, he said, and he put on some clothes I didn’t even know he owned. He promised to bring me back something extra good from the restaurant as he left, but I jumped up on the sail cover, refusing to let him pet me, just to make sure he knew I disapproved. I climbed up on the boom after he left and stretched out, watching the activities around me. HARVEY, August 2 Thursday late evening A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.
Ogden Nash It was past dark when the squeak of Emily’s bicycle woke me up. There was something different about the sound tonight. I listened more carefully. Yes, I was right. There was another sound. The front wheel didn’t squeak like Emily’s, but it was definitely a second bicycle. I cocked my head and was soon able to discern voices. There was Emily’s, talking about how bright the stars were. The other voice, which said something about Cassiopeia and Leo, was Sam’s. She had brought him home with her. They came in the house in a few minutes, Sam carrying a bottle of wine in hand. He spoke to me and petted my head politely as I sniffed him, so I guessed that I was forgiven at last. Emily handed him the corkscrew and he opened the wine, then poured the red liquid into two glasses she set out. “We can take it with us when we walk Harvey,” she suggested. I perked up my ears when I heard the word “walk.” I was afraid she had forgotten our nightly ritual. It turned out to be one of the slowest walks we’d ever taken, but at least we were outside and I was included. We followed the road and turned at the path that leads over the marsh to the sound, what Emily and I consider “our beach.” Emily and Sam spoke in low tones and stopped along the way to watch the fireflies as they turned their phosphorescent nightlights on and off. When we got to the beach, Emily let me off my chain, and they sat down on a piling that had been uprooted and deposited on shore in a recent storm. I trotted off to explore the latest smells. A new dog had been there, and it took a lot of concentration to figure out who he was and what he had been doing. The otters had been out too. I checked back in every few minutes, however, catching bits and pieces of their conversation. Actually, they didn’t seem to be talking much, just gazing out over the water and sipping their wine. After a few minutes, I noticed that Emily had moved over and was leaning against Sam’s shoulder. His arm was around her. “I don’t know,” she was saying, “sometimes I think about having children, sometimes I think I might like to adopt one. There are so many in foster homes. But I couldn’t afford to now, and I’m not sure I’d want to try it by myself. How about you? Do you like kids?” He nodded slowly. “I taught for a while, though the students wouldn’t have called themselves kids. They were older —college age. I like kids though.” Another time he was telling her about fishing with Jed. “We had a pretty good haul yesterday, a lot of Spanish mackerel. When we got there this morning, though there was a loon tangled in the net. It was still alive, so we cut it out. It was really beautiful, a young one with sleek brown wings and a long beak. I hadn’t seen one that close before. I must say, they do have sharp beaks!” Sam held up his arm in the moonlight and showed her a gash near the elbow. Emily made a face and asked him if it hurt, then added that she loved to hear loons call to each other across the water.” I trotted off to see if I could sniff out any dead fish. A few minutes later, I heard Emily call, and when I got back they were ready to go. She fastened my leash on and we started back. I noticed, after a moment, that they were holding hands. When we got to the house, Emily did something she hardly ever does; she put me in my crate on the porch. I barked my indignation, but she just patted me on the head and gave me a dog bone. “I’m sorry, Harvey. You’ll be okay.” I whined a bit as I watched them close the door behind them and listened to their footsteps as they went up the stairs. Then I buried my dog bone under the blanket, refusing to even consider chewing on it. I waited for a while for them to come back, but finally I gave up, curled myself into a ball, and went to sleep. KALI, August 3 Friday morning Dogs come when they’re called. Cats take a message and get back to you later.
Mary Bly The skipper did not come home that night, and I was worried sick. It was not like him at all, and I kept thinking of all kinds of things that could have happened to him. There were some pretty big dogs on this island, and some of them looked mean. And he was always warning me to be careful of cars, maybe he’d gotten himself in front of one. It was past my breakfast time when he finally rode up to the dock on that bicycle he had rented. I was relieved to see him, but I wasn’t about to let him know it. I sat down in the cockpit with my back to him and refused to acknowledge his efforts to make up. I didn’t even get up when he opened a can of Friskies cat food, not at first anyway. After he had been sufficiently punished I strolled over to the dish and ate some, then let him scratch under my chin. “Gaudalmighty, Kali,” he said softly. “What have I done? I swore I’d never get involved with anyone again, and look at me now!” I did look, but could not see anything particularly unusual. I did wonder, though, since he’d brought it up, what he had been doing all night. I wasn’t sure, but I had a feeling it had something to do with Emily. The next day he was as moody as I’d ever seen him. He went out fishing in the morning and brought me back a Spanish mackerel, but that was the only thing dependable about him. Part of the time he was in a great mood, whistling those jaunty little sea shanties he likes. Other times he’d moon around with his brow wrinkled. HARVEY, August 4 Saturday As long as he has a dog, he has a friend—
-Will Rogers Emily was as happy as a robin that next day. She told Mary and her mom that she was quite sure she was in love, and she kept giving me big hugs for just about no reason. She cleaned the house and brought home a whole bicycle-basket full of groceries from the Community Store, stuff she usually doesn’t buy. When a day passed and she didn’t heard from Sam, her mood started sinking like a ball rolling down a hill. It was worse than before, and I did my best to cheer her up. We rode past the Mary Bee twice that next day but we didn’t stop. I tried to show her how reliable I was, always ready for a head-rub or a walk and that she didn’t need a human man around. It didn’t seem to help much. She was as blue as I’d ever seen her.    |
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