“Maybe I should get a dog, too,” Aidan said with a wistful look at King.
“Yeah, I bet King would love to deal with another dog in the house,” I said. “Besides, you already have Meowser.”
Aidan picked up the black-and-white cow-spotted pajamas Giovanni had left out for him. “It’s not the same,” he said, wandering out the door to the bathroom.
Mom poked her head in a few minutes later. “Hey guys,” she said. “Does anyone know why I found a bowl of flour outside behind my begonias?”
“Oops,” I said. “That was me. Um. Long story.”
She raised her eyebrows. “OK, I won’t ask.”
She forgot to tell me to put King on the floor, so I let him sleep next to me on the bed. It wasn’t like he took up much space, and he didn’t snore nearly as loud as Aidan did, and she never said anything about Meowser sleeping on Aidan’s bed. Besides, I kind of liked feeling him curled up against my back while I fell asleep.
I didn’t see David again until the next afternoon. He was already gone when Giovanni woke us up — Giovanni said he’d muttered something about walking to school, which didn’t sound like David at all. But then, neither did model airplanes and a raccoon-eyed girlfriend.
It was after school, and I was up in the attic trying (again) to make King sit, when I heard the front door slam in David’s loud, grumpy way. I waited about ten minutes, and then I carried King downstairs and checked out one of the back windows. David and Bowser were out in the backyard, just the two of them. David was throwing sticks for Bowser, which was pretty funny because Bowser would start to chase them while they were in the air, but once they hit the ground he’d stop and look confused like, Wait, where’d it go? Why isn’t it flying anymore?
I took a deep breath. I was probably about to get yelled at. But there was a part of me that really wanted to talk to mysterious Other David, especially about the plane he’d built.
Aidan was in the kitchen helping Giovanni fold laundry when I went through.
“Hi Charlie!” he chirped. “Look, we washed your shirt! Good as new! See?” He held up my CHARLIE shirt, the one he’d worn on my birthday. It looked like it had been scrubbed and polished so all the colors were bright as the day I’d bought it.
“He made me put it through twice,” Giovanni said, shaking his head with a smile. “Using every stain remover in the laundry room.”
“Oh,” I said. “Thanks, Aidan.” For washing the shirt you got dirty. “It looks great.”
“Where are you going?” he asked.
“Nowhere,” I said, pulling on the sliding door.
“Watch out,” he said. “David and Bowser are out there.”
“I know,” I said. I let King scoot out the door ahead of me, and then I closed it behind us and walked down the deck steps to the grass.
David saw me coming and scowled. “Did I miss a presidential announcement?” he said. “Is this Annoy David to Death Week and nobody told me?”
“I wanted to say I’m sorry again,” I said bravely. “I feel bad about King going in your room, and I really didn’t mean to touch your stuff.”
“You should feel bad,” he said, snapping a branch between his hands.
I paused. “Um,” I said. “That airplane looked really cool.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” David said. “You’d better take Mr. Meanie-Weenie back inside before he gets in Bowser’s way.”
Now I was mad again. “Stop calling him that! King is not mean!” I said. “Bowser is the one who’s mean! He’s mean and he hates everybody, just like you!”
“I don’t hate everybody!” David snapped. “Just annoying little brothers who can’t mind their own business!”
“Fine!” I said. “I was just trying to be nice! I just wanted to say that your plane looked cool, that’s all! You don’t have to be such a jerk about it!” I turned my back on him. “Come on, King, we’re not wanted h —”
I stopped midsentence. OK, I’d thought David and Harper holding hands was the weirdest thing I’d see all week. But that was nothing compared to what was happening in our backyard right at that moment.
King and Bowser were galloping around the yard together. It was hard to tell who was chasing who — it was like they kept switching places. One would stop and spin around and do a play bow, wagging his tail. Then the other would pounce at his head, and the first one would go tearing off across the lawn with the second in hot pursuit. Then they’d switch and do the same thing in reverse. King’s ears were flapping like seagull wings and his stubby legs pumped madly over the grass, but he had no trouble keeping up with Bowser.
And Bowser was acting like he’d been possessed by some kind of adorable puppy. His mouth was hanging open and his tongue flopped out as he romped around, spinning and leaping and wagging his tail.
I glanced over at David. His face looked as astonished as I felt. We just stood there staring at the two dogs for a long moment.
Then I heard a sound from David that I hadn’t heard in ages. It took me a moment to figure out that he was laughing. He doubled over and I started laughing, too.
“Look at them!” David said through tears of laughter. Bowser raced right past us with King at his heels. “Who are you?” David asked Bowser, but his dog was having too much fun to stop and pay attention.
David sat down on the grass to watch, and after a moment, I did, too. I figured he didn’t seem as mad at me anymore, and it was too funny watching the dogs play with each other. I couldn’t believe it. I tried to think if we’d ever let them out in the yard together before. So far they’d only seen each other in the house, or on leashes. Maybe they just needed enough space to run around in order to figure out that they could actually play together. Or maybe they both felt like they had to defend the territory where the food was, but out here they could relax and be friends.
Whatever the reason, it was pretty awesome. David and I sat there watching them for at least twenty minutes before they got tired. And even then you could tell they both wanted to keep playing. They were lying down facing each other and panting like crazy, but whenever one of them twitched, the other would snap to attention in case it was time to play again. Bowser flopped over in the grass first. This was probably more exercise than he’d had in his whole life.
David rubbed his head and looked at me sideways. “OK, wait here,” he said suddenly.
He got up and went inside. While he was gone, I filled the outside dish with water so both dogs could get a drink. King licked my hand and rubbed his wet snout against my wrist as if he was saying, Gee boss, this was fun. Where’d this nice dog come from? Why don’t we do this every day? Even Bowser wagged his tail at me a little bit.
I looked up as the sliding door opened and David came out. He was carrying the plane and the remote controller that went with it.
I just barely managed not to jump up and yell “HOORAY!” the way Aidan totally would have done.
“Wow,” I said as David walked over to me. “That is — really, really cool.” The plane looked all put together and perfect. I guess he’d finished it with Harper the day before.
“It is kind of cool, huh?” David said, holding it up and studying it proudly.
“I can’t believe you built it,” I said. “The whole thing? By yourself? How did you even know what to do?”
“Well, there were instructions,” he said. “But it was pretty hard. I’ve been working on it for a while.” He turned it over to check the underside. “I’m sure it would have been easier with Dad’s help.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that, so I settled for “Yeah.”
“This was in his stuff,” David explained. “You probably don’t remember, but he built things all the time. He was great at explaining what he was doing while I watched him. He was always talking about turning half of the garage into a woodworking studio one day.”
“Really?” I said. I’d never known that about my dad, but it was cool to imagine him sawing and sanding and ha
mmering things together. “Maybe you should do that. I bet Mom would let you. It looks like you’re good at building things, like he was.” I nodded at the plane.
“Hmm,” David said. “Maybe I should. Harper seemed kind of into it, too.”
I decided not to ask if she was his girlfriend now. I was afraid that might send the conversation in a grumpy direction. “And the good news is,” I said instead, “if you’re working in the garage, King won’t be able to get in to steal parts of your projects.”
David actually laughed. “Good point,” he said. “Want to see it fly?”
“Yeah!” I said. “Kind of desperately!”
He grinned, and I had a weird feeling like I’d fallen through time and run into a much younger, nicer David, like he used to be when he was my age. I always forget about that David, because the one in the present day is so much bigger and more real.
David flew the plane around the yard and above the trees and in circles all around us. Bowser and King barked and tried to jump at it every time the plane flew low enough, which was really funny, but David kept it out of their reach. He even let me work the remote controller for a minute or two, and I didn’t crash the plane into anything, so that was sort of awesome and surprising.
“Do you think you could build a rocket, maybe?” I asked as I handed the controller back. “You know, like the ones on TV that shoot straight up in the air and come down on a little parachute?”
David shrugged, steering the plane around a tall tree. “Yeah, I probably could,” he said. “I’d just need a kit.”
“Well, if you did,” I said, “and if you ever needed help with it, I could, like … help you with that. I mean … if you wanted to.” I was trying not to let on how exciting that would be. Building our own rocket! Maybe Mom would get us a kit for Christmas if I convinced her that David and I could build it together.
“Maybe,” David said vaguely. He swooped the plane down low across the grass and King leaped to his paws, barking wildly at it as it shot over his head.
“You know,” David said with a laugh. “King really is kind of a silly name for that dog.”
I sighed and finally admitted what I’d been thinking for three days. “He doesn’t seem to like it, either,” I said. “He never comes when I call him.”
“Well, that just takes practice,” David said, his eyes fixed on the plane above us. “It took about a hundred treats before Bowser figured out his name. But King is a name for a German shepherd or a Dalmatian, not a wiener dog.”
“I’m not calling him Mr. Meanie-Weenie,” I said.
David laughed a little, but not in a mean way. “Sure,” he said. “But there must be something in between. Earl of Mustard or something.”
“Yeah, I can just see myself yelling ‘EARL OF MUSTARD!’ across the park,” I said.
“Hot Dog Duke,” David mused.
“Emperor Wiener,” I suggested.
“I know!” David said. “You should call him Lord Sausage.”
I laughed. I actually kind of liked that. But I still couldn’t imagine shouting it across the yard when I wanted him to come inside. “That’s not bad,” I said. “But maybe in front of people I’ll keep calling him King for short.”
David shrugged. “Yeah, I guess that’s a bit more normal.”
I wasn’t crazy enough to think that this meant David and I were best friends now. I was sure he’d be grumpy about something else before long. I knew I would accidentally make him mad, or Harper would break up with him, or King would get on his nerves, and rotten, scary David would come out again.
But one thing had changed. King and Bowser were friends now. They might still growl at each other inside, but if we let them outside together, I was sure we’d see a lot more romping and playing like what had happened today. And if that made David even a tiny bit happier, then there was hope that every once in a while I’d get to hang out with cool David, too.
I grinned at King, who was asleep with his ears flopped out on the grass on either side of his head. Who knew that the best part of having my own dog would be the part where he made friends with someone else?
When we finally headed back inside, I saw Aidan watching us through the glass doors. He was sitting at the table pretending to do homework by the time we got inside, though. King and Bowser trotted straight to their food bowls and gobbled up what was there. The kitchen smelled like Giovanni’s special meat lasagna. He says it’s a recipe handed down from his grandmother, but I’ve seen him reading the instructions off the pasta box.
David went upstairs with the plane. I stopped to wash my hands at the kitchen sink. Aidan kept his head bent over his worksheets.
“Charlie, can I talk to you for a minute?” Giovanni asked, waving me into the living room. When I followed him in there, he glanced behind me to make sure Aidan couldn’t see us, and then lowered his voice. “I found something a little odd in the laundry,” he said.
Whoops. I looked at the dented, chewed-up thing in his hands and winced. I’d totally forgotten about Aidan’s triceratops.
“I think I can guess what happened here,” Giovanni said wryly. “What I want to know is what you’re going to do about it.”
“Buy him a new one?” I said. “I could give it to him for his birthday next week. Mom always gives us twenty dollars each to spend on presents for each other.”
Giovanni looked disappointed in me. “So for his present you’ll give him something he already had — until your dog destroyed it. Is that what you’d want for your birthday?”
I shuffled my sneakers on the rug. “I guess not.”
“I think replacing it is a good idea, though,” Giovanni said, patting my shoulder. “I know you’ve been saving your allowance. Right?”
Yeah, for a telescope, I thought. But I knew Giovanni was right, and it wouldn’t cost very much to buy a plastic dinosaur. I’d come up with something else for Aidan’s birthday.
“OK,” I said.
“Aidan has chess club after school on Friday,” Giovanni said. “We can go to the toy store then and get a new dinosaur and his birthday presents at the same time.”
“Thanks, Giovanni,” I said. “Do I have to show him what happened to this one?”
Giovanni thought for a moment. “If he hasn’t noticed it’s missing yet,” he said, “then I think you can wait until you have the new one to replace it.” He gave me the ruined toy. “Dinner will be ready in an hour.”
I ran upstairs to the attic and hid the triceratops in one of the old trunks under some lacy napkins. Then I went back down to my room and found King snoozing on the red rug. I sat down on the floor and scratched behind his ears. I knew I should probably start my Spanish homework, but he looked so peaceful snuggled up next to my knees that I didn’t want to move and wake him up.
Just as I thought that, though, Aidan burst into the room and King sprang to his paws, blinking and staring about like he was wondering where the fire was.
“Aw, you woke him up,” I said, patting King’s back.
Aidan looked contrite. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I just finished my homework so I thought maybe I’d come up and see if you wanted to play cards or watch a video or look at my dinosaur drawings or —”
“I can’t,” I said. I climbed to my feet and picked up my Spanish workbook. “I’m going up to the attic to start my homework.”
Aidan crouched down on the floor and held out his hand to King. “I’m sorry, King,” he said. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
King lifted his nose like he couldn’t be bothered sniffing Aidan’s hand. He backed up and strutted in a wide circle around Aidan to follow me to the door.
“I wish he would let me say hi to him,” Aidan said, sitting back on his heels.
“He’s a little particular,” I said. “He chooses his friends carefully.”
“Yeah,” Aidan said quietly. “I guess it makes sense that King doesn’t like me any more than you do.”
I stopped in my tracks. What Aidan h
ad said was almost exactly what I’d said about Bowser to David — except Aidan’s was a much nicer version.
Suddenly I felt really, really terrible. Waves of guilt crashed over my head.
All this time I’d been thinking about how awful David was to me — and I’d never even noticed that I was being just as awful to my own little brother. He just wanted me to hang out with him, and instead I kept avoiding him or ignoring him.
Was that what Aidan thought … that I was as mean as David? Worse yet … was I?
I backed up and put my Spanish book down on my desk. “Actually,” I said, “I can do this after dinner. You want to come up to the attic with me?”
Aidan’s head popped up. He gave me a disbelieving, hopeful look. “You — seriously? You mean it?”
“Sure,” I said. “I can show you the game Satoshi and Midori and I played with King. We figured out a way to make him like them. I bet it would work with you, too.”
Aidan scrambled to his feet. “Really? There’s a way to make King like me?”
King was standing in the doorway wagging his tail. “Well, we can try!” I said. “But I don’t see why not.” I grinned at Aidan. “I mean, everybody else likes you.”
He ducked his head. “Not everybody!” But I could see the smile he was trying to hide.
I grabbed King’s toys and treats and we climbed up into the attic together. Aidan looked around with wide eyes, and I realized he hadn’t been up here in a really long time.
“Want to see something cool?” I said. “This box is full of photo albums from when we were little.” I dragged it over to the window and pulled out the one on top. I knew it was the one with the first photos of Aidan. “Look what a goofball you were,” I said, pointing at a photo of Aidan with a sheet tied around his shoulders like a cape. He was posed like a superhero about to leap off the couch. “Acting funny for the camera.”
Aidan sat down on the beanbag next to me as I turned the page. “And here’s you with Dad,” I said. “Your first Halloween. Hey, I remember that!” I suddenly had a really clear memory of Dad’s big hand holding mine as we walked from house to house with my Buzz Lightyear pants flapping around my boots. “You couldn’t believe that we could just knock on doors and get candy. You wanted to knock on doors for candy for, like, a month after that.”