Bad to the Bone Boxer

  “He’s all right, sweetheart, don’t worry.” Dad patted my knee. “A little freaked out, and he’ll seem woozy when you see him because Dr. Lee sedated him a little so she could x-ray him. Luckily we got him there in time so they could make him throw it all up, and she said there aren’t any big pieces left inside that might block his stomach. But it was very dangerous. We really need to figure out what to do to stop his anxious chewing.”

  I nearly started crying; I couldn’t believe poor Tombo had been in so much trouble, and I hadn’t even been there to hug him and tell him it would all be all right. Maybe my lucky scarf was out of power. I wasn’t supposed to have terrible days when I was wearing it.

  “Don’t worry, Michelle,” Dad said. “We’ll come up with something.”

  “You promise?” I said. “We’ll keep trying? You won’t take him back to the shelter?”

  Dad’s eyebrows went up. “Not until we’ve tried everything else,” he said. “We made a commitment to this dog, and I want to help him. Don’t you?”

  “Yes!” I said. “I really do!”

  “There’s a good dog inside Tombo,” Dad said. “Most dogs need a little help to be good, especially if they’ve had a tough life, but they’re worth it. I have faith in him.”

  “So he’s not bad to the bone?” I said, sniffling a little. We pulled into our driveway.

  Dad laughed. “I don’t think so,” he said. “I think almost all dogs have good hearts, if you treat them right and train them correctly.” He looked thoughtful. “Maybe we can find him an obedience class. I bet that would help.”

  “I’d go with him!” I said. “And I’d practice all the time to make sure he learns it all.”

  “He’d love that,” Dad said with a smile.

  I dropped my backpack inside the front door and ran out to the backyard. Tombo was lying on the grass in the sunshine, looking sleepy. Deandre sat in a deck chair beside him, reading A Midsummer Night’s Dream for his English class.

  Tombo lifted his head and gave me a lopsided grin with his tongue lolling out. His butt wiggled a bit like he wanted to get up and wag his tail, but he was too tired.

  I flung myself onto the grass beside him and put my arms around his neck. He licked my chin with his big slurpy tongue. His short, smooth brown fur brushed against my cheek.

  “Poor Tombo,” I said. “How are you feeling? Does your tummy hurt? Is it like that time I ate too much birthday cake at Kelly’s party? I was so sick — I hope you don’t feel that bad. Can you believe you’ve already had to go to the vet? Poor sad dog!”

  “I think he’s kind of loving the attention,” Deandre teased, poking Tombo gently with his toe.

  “Deandre, what are we going to do?” I asked. “I mean, even tomorrow — how can we leave him alone at all if he’s going to do crazy, dangerous, destructive things?”

  “We’ll have to put him in his crate and make sure there’s nothing he can reach from there,” Deandre said. “What other choice do we have?”

  The empty crate seemed like kind of a sad, uncomfortable place to leave Tombo, but I couldn’t think of any other options either. I thought about leaving him shut into my room, but there were way too many things he could eat in there, starting with all my scarves. I also thought about pretending to be sick so I could stay home with him. Then I could avoid Rosie and any questions from Ms. Applebaum about goats. The more I thought about it, the better that idea sounded to me.

  But then, miraculously, a solution came to us in a totally unexpected way.

  The phone rang while I was setting the table for dinner. I tensed, holding a glass of apple juice frozen over the table. Maybe it was Rosie, finally calling to say she was sorry and could we be friends again. If it was … what would I say?

  Before I could make myself move across the kitchen, Dad answered the phone. I stared at him while he listened and saw his eyes flicker to me. It was for me! It had to be Rosie!

  “Sure, hang on,” Dad said. He held the phone out to me. “Someone called Midori?” he whispered.

  I let out all my breath in a whoosh. I couldn’t decide if I was disappointed or relieved. I wanted Rosie to reach out to me, but it would certainly be much easier and less stressful to talk to Midori than Rosie right now.

  “Hey Midori!” I said, taking the phone into the den. I saw the wrecked couch and winced. Mom was hoping their warranty would help save it, but Dad was skeptical. I carried the phone into the living room instead and lay down on the long brown corduroy sofa in there.

  A moment later, Tombo came trotting in after me and stuck his nose in my face, snuffling loudly. I reached over and rubbed his head.

  “Hey!” Midori said. “I’m sorry about calling you — were you guys in the middle of dinner or anything?”

  “Not yet,” I said, “and whatever, you can call me anytime.” Tombo nudged my hand so I could scratch behind his ears. He tried to wedge his nose under my head, but I scooted away from him — no way was he getting his jaws on my lucky scarf!

  “Anytime?” she said. “Like three a.m.?”

  “Uh,” I said, “well, no, probably —”

  Midori laughed. “I’m just kidding. My parents are kind of strict about when we can take phone calls, so I always check, just in case. Hey, listen, I realized I forgot to tell you something about tomorrow.”

  “Yeah?” I hoped she wasn’t backing out. I really wanted to see Tombo and Chihiro play together some more. Besides, it would distract me from thinking about Rosie and Pippa hanging out and talking about me and having fun without me.

  “It’s just that, if you want Chihiro to come with me, we’ll have to pick her up from day care. Is that OK?”

  “Day care?” I said. “You mean, with lots of little kids? What?”

  She laughed again. “No, it’s a day care just for dogs. They watch her and take her out during the day while we’re at work and school. She loves it — she gets to play with other dogs and she doesn’t have to be alone all day.”

  I sat up so fast my head went dizzy for a minute. “That sounds perfect!” I cried. Tombo stood up on his hind legs and pawed the air, trying to share whatever I was so excited about. “Do they take other dogs? Will they take Tombo?”

  “Rroof!” Tombo added, hearing his name.

  “Uh …” Midori said. “They might. I can give you the phone number if you like.”

  “Yes, please!” I said. While she was looking for it, I told her about Tombo’s terrible behavior with the towel and his visit to the vet.

  “Aw, sad!” she said. “That won’t happen at Bark and Ride. They’re great about watching the dogs and taking care of them.”

  I found a notepad and scribbled “Bark and Ride” on it, followed by the phone number as Midori read it off to me. Tombo stood beside me with his butt wagging as I wrote. When I put the pen down, he tried to snag the notepad in his mouth, right off the coffee table. I grabbed it and lifted it out of his reach, and then I had to dive for the pen as well. Tombo gave me a disgruntled look, like he couldn’t believe how I kept thwarting him.

  “Thanks so much, Midori,” I said. “I’ll tell my parents. And I’m sure it’s no problem to pick up Chihiro from there tomorrow.”

  “Great!” she said. “OK, see you then!”

  I hung up and patted Tombo’s head. “This could be it, Tombo! Don’t you think you’ll be so happy at Bark and Ride?”

  He looked from my face to the notepad and licked his chops, as if eating a pad of paper and a pen were the things that would really make him happy, and if I cared about him, I’d let him have them.

  “Tombo, you’re a goof,” I said. “How can you possibly want to eat anything after your vet adventure today? I mean, seriously.”

  His head tilted to the left, then to the right, and then he made a mournful “Arroooo?” noise as if he was saying But I’m HUNGRY.

  “So eat your kibble!” I said. “Not towels and shoes and pens! Good grief, Tombo.”

  Tombo sighed like I was too hop
eless for words and trotted off to the kitchen.

  I ran to tell my parents about the dog day care. I never knew there was such a thing. But it sounded like exactly what Tombo needed. Now we just had to hope they would take him!

  Alicia at Bark and Ride Day Care told us to stop by early in the morning for an evaluation, so Dad and I took Tombo over there half an hour before school. It turned out to be the cutest place, with rainbow paw prints on the walls and lots of toys and room for the dogs to play together. Tombo was already twitching with excitement as we walked in, because he could hear dogs yapping and running around in the main room. His ears flopped forward and his face had that wrinkly, determined, ready-to-scout-ahead look.

  I liked how Alicia acted with Tombo too. She admired how handsome he was and let him sniff her hands, and then she brought out her own dogs to see how he’d react with them. I was pretty sure he’d be good, but it was a relief to see how funny and harmless and thrilled he was. He kept doing his little bow and rolling onto his back, and he stayed still while the little black one sniffed him intently.

  Alicia said he seemed like a good dog, and she’d be willing to give him a trial for the day, especially since the Takashis had vouched for him. I thought that was really nice of Midori and her family, considering they didn’t know Tombo that well. We also warned Alicia about his chewing problems and separation anxiety, and she said she’d seen plenty of that kind of thing.

  “Usually being around all the other dogs is stimulating enough to prevent that behavior,” she said. “Fingers crossed! We’ll call you if there are any problems.”

  I saw Midori and her family pull up as we were leaving, and we waved at each other. Chihiro’s sleek gray head poked out of a back window, her ears flapping in the breeze. I hoped Tombo would be happy to see her. More than that, I hoped he’d be good so the day care would let him come back!

  Unfortunately, not all my problems could be left at a day care. The minute I walked into class, Ms. Applebaum called me over to her desk.

  “Hey Michelle,” she said. “Are you excited about raking leaves this weekend?”

  I’d nearly forgotten about that part of the “Make a Difference” plan. We’d all been assigned to ask our family and friends if they knew anyone who wanted their lawn raked for twenty dollars, and we’d put up signs around town so other people could ask for us too. We already had ten houses signed up, including my grandparents’. That was two hundred dollars! I thought that had to be enough to buy a goat, especially with the bake sale money as well.

  “Oh, yeah,” I said. “That’ll be fun.” Except I knew what she was going to say next.

  “Have you figured out how we’re going to donate the goat?” Ms. Applebaum asked. “I think there’s more than one charity that will do that … do you know which one you want to use? Or how much it’ll cost?”

  “Um,” I said, poking the floor tiles with my sneaker. “I’m still working on that.”

  “All right,” she said with a smile. “Let me know if you need help, OK?”

  I nodded and hurried back to my desk. I wished I’d thought through this idea a bit more before suggesting it.

  Rosie was at her desk with her nose in a book, ignoring me in a really obvious way. I tried not to look at her. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Pippa glancing at us both nervously.

  Ms. Applebaum stood up, tapping her ruler against her desk to make us be quiet.

  “It’s time to sign up for leaf-raking this weekend,” she said. “Right now it looks like we can have two or three of you to a house, so I’ve printed up a list and I’ll post it on the bulletin board. There are stars next to the bigger lawns, so if three of you want to rake together, please choose one of those houses. Try to sign up before the end of the day today, but if you need to talk to your parents first, let me know and you can sign up tomorrow.”

  I drew a spiral in the corner of my notebook, circling out from the center until it bumped into the edges. My pen felt wobbly in my hand. Rosie and Pippa and I had been planning to rake together. We’d talked about it last week, before Tombo arrived. Rosie’s dad was planning to bake cookies and my mom would make sandwiches for us and we’d jump into leaf piles together and then go inside for cider and doughnuts with my grandparents when we were done.

  But we couldn’t do that if we weren’t speaking to each other. Would we be friends again by Saturday? It was only Tuesday; maybe Rosie would say she was sorry in the next four days. But we had to sign up now. It was like Ms. Applebaum was making us decide about the future of our friendship before we were ready. I didn’t know what to do.

  I thought about it all morning, which made it kind of hard to concentrate on pilgrims or state capitals. By lunchtime, I was almost ready to go apologize to Rosie. Maybe if I just sat down next to her, she’d admit she was wrong and we could start over. We couldn’t keep fighting like this forever, after all.

  Maybe it wasn’t worth it to win this fight, if it meant missing out on our plans together, or raking leaves by myself.

  The bell rang, and we all got up to go to the cafeteria. Rosie marched over to the sign-up list and pulled out one of her pink pens with the feathers on the end. She wrote something on the sheet with a dramatic swish, and then turned and pulled Pippa out of the classroom. Pippa glanced back at me with a worried/sorry face.

  A few other kids were crowded around the sheet now, but I went over and got close enough to see what Rosie had written.

  She’d picked a house without a star next to it — a two-person house. And she’d written her name and Pippa’s on the line beside it.

  I scowled at the list. Well, that was just fine. I’d been prepared to be nice, but clearly she wasn’t interested in being friends. I’d find someone else who liked cider and leaf-pile jumping.

  My grandparents’ house had a star, which I’d expected because their lawn is pretty big. I wrote my name on the line next to it, just to make sure no one else took it. “Michelle Matiba” looked kind of lonely there by itself.

  I followed the rest of the class to the cafeteria, hoping Midori would want to rake leaves with me. But we’d need a third person, and most of the girls in class already had best friends. Who could we ask? One of the twins, Emmy or Kerri? I could barely tell the difference between them, and if we asked one the other would be mad at us.

  Still, I didn’t want to give Rosie the satisfaction of seeing that she’d upset me. So I took my tray with my gravy-covered turkey and wobbly orange Jell-O and marched right past her to Midori’s table again. The boys still looked surprised to see me, but Midori scooted right over so I could sit next to her.

  “I hope Tombo is having fun at Bark and Ride,” Midori said, smiling at me.

  “Me too!” I said. “He gave me such a funny look when we left, like, hey, where are you guys going? You’ll miss out! All the fun is here!” I tucked my hair scarf out of the way so I wouldn’t get gravy on it. Today I was wearing one with a diamond pattern in black and green and red and yellow. The red matched my fleece, the dark green matched my shirt underneath, and the yellow matched my backpack.

  “Are we all going to fit in your mom’s car?” Midori asked. “Chihiro, Tombo, you, me, and Satoshi?”

  I blinked for a minute. I hadn’t realized that Satoshi was coming over to my house too. I tried to remember what we’d talked about and if that had come up. But I couldn’t exactly uninvite him.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said. “We’ll squish in.” Then I realized who our third leaf-raking person could be — maybe had to be, if they always did everything together. “Hey,” I said, “do you and Satoshi want to rake with me on Saturday? I signed up for my grandparents’ house, so if you join me, they’ll give us cider and doughnuts after we’re done. And I bet we could bring the dogs, as long as they mostly stay in the yard … Grandma and Grandpa have a kind of cluttered house.”

  “Doughnuts!” Satoshi said from across the table. “I’m in!”

  “What?” Arnold said, perking up. “Doughnuts?
Who’s got doughnuts?”

  “That sounds awesome,” Midori said to me. “We’ll check with our parents tonight, but it should be OK. As long as we’re home in time to clean the house for my grandparents’ big anniversary dinner on Sunday.”

  Satoshi groaned and put his head on the table. “Every relative in the universe is coming,” he said. “We’ll have to be polite all day.”

  “At least Ray and Kai will be there,” Midori pointed out. “Our cousins are visiting all the way from Japan,” she explained to me. “They’re really cool. And Chihiro loves them. I don’t know what you’re complaining about, Satoshi. You’ll be in charge of playing with the cousins and the dog outside, so her fur doesn’t bother Aunt Lisa’s allergies. I’ll have to make noodles and play the cello for Mee-maw and Paw-paw.”

  “Your fault for being a prodigy,” he said, lifting his head up again with a teasing expression.

  I liked the way Midori and Satoshi got along with each other. It reminded me of me and Deandre. Rosie always acted like it was so weird that I didn’t hate my brother. She fights with all her brothers all the time, so she can’t understand how Deandre and I don’t fight that way too. But clearly we weren’t so weird, if the Takashi twins could also be nice to each other.

  When we got to Bark and Ride after school, I was as nervous as I felt the day of the spelling bee or before my chorus solo. It was like Tombo and I were being judged — Alicia even had some of the same facial expressions as Simon Cowell on American Idol. I really, really hoped Tombo had been good.

  Alicia was smiling when we walked in the door.

  “Well, your two dogs are certainly soul mates,” she said. “We decided to let them share a cage during naptime — they didn’t want to be parted from each other!”

  “Awww,” Midori and I said at the same time. Satoshi rolled his eyes, but he was smiling too.

  “How was Tombo?” Mom asked Alicia.

  “Did he fit in?” I asked. “Was he shy? Did he miss us? Did he mesh well with the established dynamics of the other dogs?”