Bobby came over the next day, and they spent most of the
afternoon out on the deck, taking turns throwing a tennis ball for Zack to fetch. Emily had known that he was finally starting to feel well enough to play games when he'd pointedly brought a ball to her that morning and dropped it right in her lap.
They got hungry after a while, and went inside to get some cookies and juiceâand give Zack a couple of Milk-Bones while they were at it. Josephine appeared in the kitchen at once, and Emily found a couple of tuna cat treats for her.
She hadn't told anyone about some of the things that had been happening lately, and since Bobby was the kind of person who usually had an “okay, whatever, cool” reaction to most things, maybe he would be the ideal person to confide in. So she decided to bring up the subject she had been avoiding with everyone else.
“Do you believe in ESP?” she asked, tentatively.
Bobby shrugged, stuffing another chocolate chip cookie into his mouth. “You mean, reading minds and all that? Yeah. I guess so.” He frowned. “Unless it's, like,
fake
.”
That wasn't really a helpful answer. “Has it ever happened to you?” Emily asked.
Bobby shrugged again. “Not really. Like, does it count, if the phone rings, and you're pretty sure you know who it is?”
“Not if you have caller ID,” Emily said.
Bobby laughed. “And not if you were, like, expecting the call.”
That was true, too.
“You know how my mother gets all Irish and superstitious and everything? She totally believes in all that stuff,” Bobby said. “She says it runs in families, andâ” He stopped.
It was awkwardly quiet for a few seconds.
“Yeah, maybe it runs in my family,” Emily said quickly, to try and smooth over the silence.
Bobby looked guilty. “I didn't mean to, you knowâ”
“It's fine,” Emily said. “You
know
it's fine.” In fact, it was the sort of thing that happened all the time, and it wasn't a big deal. It might have bothered her a little coming from someone other than Bobby
or her parents or other people she knew really well, but even then, it was just the kind of thing people said without thinking. Her cousin Mike was blind, and during a conversation with him, Emily had once said, “See what I mean?” She had felt completely awful about it, but luckily, he had thought it was funny.
It was still too quiet in the room.
“Yeah, I wonder about them,” Emily said, finally, “and I wish I knew who they were, and what they're likeâbut I
have
parents.” And traditions, and pieces of history, and all of those things that made a family a
family
. “So, it's really notâjust forget it. Anyway, it's the ESP thing I'm worried about.”
Bobby looked puzzled. “What, are you, like, reading minds and stuff? Like, can you read
my
mind?”
Emily looked at the door to make sure neither of her parents was listening, especially since her mother had gone out running and might pop in through the back door any minute now. “Promise you won't tell anyone, okay?” she said. “Because it's going to sound strange.”
“Hey, cool!” Bobby said. “You
can
read minds? Hey, can you teach me? If I could read
your
mind, I'd never have to study for tests or anything again. I could just, like,
hear
the answers.”
Emily shook her head. “No, it's, umâwellâ
Zack
.”
Bobby glanced down at Zackâwho was asleep on a beach towel Emily had spread out on the linoleum. “What, you mean, Zack's all psychic and stuff?”
Wellâyeah. Kind of. Emily nodded. “I think both of us are.”
“Wow,” Bobby said, sounding impressed. “That is
wicked
excellent. Like how?”
Where should she begin? “Like when I was dreaming about drowning, he was
actually
drowning,” Emily said. “And I felt like I
had
to go outside, even though it was raining like crazy.”
Bobby frowned. “Couldn't you have just, you know,
guessed
that, or, like, heard him bark or something?”
“Yeah, that's what I thought,” Emily said. “But, it keeps happening, and I don't knowâI think it's
real
. I could smell the medicine they were giving him at the vet's office, even though I wasn't in there, I know what food he likes, and the kind of bowl he wanted, andâI don't know if it's really cool, or totally
creepy
.”
“Way weird.” Bobby frowned again. “Is it scary?”
“Scary” wasn't quite the right word. “It kind of was when I first figured it out,” Emily said, “because
I was feeling all this stuff that wasn't even happening to me. Like I really
was
drowning, but I was right there in my room, so it didn't make sense.”
“Hunh. He doesn't, you know,
talk
or anything, does he?” Bobby asked. “You know, like E.T.?”
Emily shook her head. “No.” Which was good, because then she'd think she was
really
losing it. “He sends me ideas, sort of. Like, I think something I know I wasn't thinking, and then it turns out to be because he's trying to tell me something. I was thinking how mean Mrs. Griswold was, and he was thinking that she needed us to be nice to her, andâit's almost like having an argument, but in
pictures
.”
“Wow,” Bobby said. “That is wicked freaky.”
Emily grinned. “Far out, man.”
Bobby nodded in complete seriousness. “Wicked far out. What do your parents think?”
Emily gave him a sheepish look. “I haven't told them yet. I want to be sure it's
not
just coincidences and stuff.”
Bobby nodded again and glanced at Zack, who seemed to be half listening, but mostly napping. “Hey, maybe he's an alien! Or an angel, or something! Something all magical, and stuff. Likeâparallel dimensions!”
Emily looked at Zack dubiously, and then patted
his head. He wagged his tail, but didn't move otherwise, until she offered him a piece of a cookie, which he gulped down before closing his eyes again. “No, I think he's a dog. A regular dog, I mean. We justâconnect, somehow.”
“Hunh,” Bobby said again, and then grinned. “That is
so
cool. Do you think he was like,
sent
to you or something? Or picked
you
for a reason?”
Bobby was one of her very closest friends in the worldâif not
the
closestâso there was no reason not to tell him the truth.
Emily nodded. “Yeah. I don't know what the reason is, or why it's me, but yeah. I
do
think that.”
“Wow, you're really lucky,” Bobby said, looking very impressed. “Who knows what kind of cool stuff might happen because of all of this?”
Emily nodded. “I know. So far, it's pretty great.”
In fact, it might be the best thing that had ever happened to her!
Â
After Bobby's big brother came over to pick him up, Emily
went out to the backyard to throw the tennis ball for Zack some more. It seemed as though, even with his cast, he would play for twenty hours straight, but her arm got tired after a while. So they headed back inside to see what was for dinner.
She found her mother sitting at the kitchen table, going over a bunch of bills and other papers.
“Are we going to eat soon?” Emily asked.
“In about an hour,” her mother said, sounding distracted. “I'd like to finish this first, and get it out of the way.”
Emily shrugged, and opened the refrigerator to find a snack. Despite all of the food she and Bobby had eaten during the afternoon, she was still pretty hungry.
Just as she was opening a peach yogurt, the phone rang.
“I'll get it,” Emily said, and her mother nodded without really looking up from what she was doing.
The number was from Oceanside Animal Hospital, and Emily picked up, assuming that they wanted to confirm Zack's next appointment, or something like that.
“Hello?” she asked.
“Hi, Emily,” Dr. Kasanofsky said, his voice rather strained. “This is Dr. K. Could I speak to one of your parents for a minute?”
That didn't sound good at all. “What's wrong?” Emily said uneasily. “Is something wrong with one of Zack's tests, orâ”
“No,” Dr. Kasanofsky said. “It's nothing like
that. It's just thatâI don't know how to tell you this, but some people just called the office, andâwell, they're looking for their dog.”
Oh?
Oh.
Oh.
Emily's legs suddenly felt weak, and she had to grab the side of the counter to keep her balance. “I, uhâjust a minute.” She turned towards the table, covering the receiver with her hand. “Mom, it's Dr. K. He says someone wants
Zack
.”
Her mother's eyes widened, and then she quickly got up and took the phone from her.
As Emily listened to her mother's side of the conversation, she started crying.
Hard
.
Zack, who had been noisily drinking water from his dish, trotted over, and Emily sat down on the floor to hug him, crying even harder.
Just as her mother was hanging up, her father came in from the den.
“What's going on?” he asked.
“That was Dr. K.,” Emily's mother said, and looked at them miserably. “Zack's owners called to claim him, and they want to come over to Oceanside tomorrow to pick him up.”
No matter what her parents did, or said, Emily couldn't
stop crying.
It had been days. How could his owners show up, out of nowhere, after
days
? It wasn't fair. It wasn't
right
. It had to be a mistake.
“The people say their dog fell off their fishing boat,” her mother told her gently. “And that they tried to save him, but they couldn't. They thought he had drowned.”
Emily dragged her sleeve across her eyes. “Why didn't they
look
for him? Didn't they care?”
“I'm sure they tried, Em,” her father said. “But, if they thought he had drowned, theyâ”
“So, they took bad care of him,” Emily said bitterly. “If he was on a boat, he should have had a life jacket. He should have had a collar and a license, too. Do they even
love
him?”
Her parents exchanged glances.
“People take care of their pets in different ways,” her mother said finally. “We can't judgeâ”
Oh, yes, they
could
. Emily hugged her dog more tightly. “Well, I'm
not
giving him back. No way.”
Her father sighed, and sat down on the floor next to her. “Emily, I know this is awful, but there really isn't anything we canâ”
“I'm
not
,” she said. “Not ever.”
Not to
anyone
.
No matter what.
She spent the next few hours in the den crying, with her arm wrapped tightly around her dog. Zack stayed very close to her the entire time, and the fact that there was no way to explain what was going to happen to himâto both of them!âthe next day made things even worse. She did take time to send short, miserable emails to Bobby and a few of her other friends, so that no one would ask her “Hey, how's Zack?” questions ever again, but other than that, she just cried.
And cried. And cried some more.
Her parents came in, together and separately, but she didn't talk to them, and after they kept checking on her endlessly, she turned out the light and huddled on her side on the couch, so that she
could pretend to be asleep. She knew they were trying to help her, but right now, she didn't care. All that mattered was that she was going to lose her dog, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
Â
Crying so much was exhausting, but she never fell asleep.
If they were going to take her dog away from her, she didn't want to miss even a second of the time they had left together. Losing him was going to be like losing
herself,
and she couldn't imagine what life would be like without him.
It was just starting to get light out, when she heard a small object smack against the window, and then, a really fake loon call.
Which could only be Bobby.
But, at six in the morning?
She peeked outside through the curtains, and saw him standing down in the yard.
He held a finger to his mouth, then motioned for her to come out.
So she grabbed a hoodie and stepped into her Converse high-tops.
“Shhh,” she whispered to Zack, who followed her as she crept softly into the kitchen, and then slipped outside.
“What's going on?” she whispered, walking over to where her friend was waiting for her. “It's really early.”
Bobby's hair was all rumpled and uncombed, and he was still wearing the same shirt and jeans he had had on the day before, so she was pretty sure that
he
hadn't slept all night, either.
“Let me take him,” Bobby said urgently. “You can tell the people he got lost again, and you don't know where he is. And I won't tell
you
where I take him, so you won't even be lying.”
It might be wrong, but it was a
great
idea. It was a
solution
. Even though she was sure they were alone, Emily glanced around to make
sure
that no one was around to hear them. “I don't think we can get away with it.”
“Sure we can,” Bobby said. “Then, I'll bring him back tomorrow, and you can pretend like you found him.”
Even though she really wanted to do it, would the plan even work? “But then, won't the people just come right back?” she asked.
“Maybe, yeah,” Bobby said, and frowned. “Okay. So I'll keep him longer. Maybe even a whole week! Or until they stop calling.”
She
wished
that would workâwished it with all
of her heartâbut she knew it wouldn't. Emily shook her head. “The people might fall for it, but my parents and Dr. K. won't. They'll
make
me give him back to them.”
“Maybe,” Bobby agreed. “But, it's still worth a try.”
It was possibly the only chance she
had
to keep him.
The
only
chance.
But it was wrong.
Not that she cared.
But it was still wrong.
She let out her breath. “We can't, Bobby,” she said. “He was their dog, first. I mean, I wouldn't want someone to do that to
me
.”
Bobby shrugged. “It's different.
You
take really good care of him. They totally didn't, so he shouldn't be theirs anymore.”
Emily suddenly felt more tired and sad than ever, because it occurred to her that
Zack
was adopted, too. It wasn't exactly the same as her situationâbut, in a lot of ways, it was. And maybe her parents worried that someday, when they least expected it,
they
were going to get a “We want her back!” phone call. “I know,” she said. “But we can't. I wish we could.”
It was quiet for a minute.
“Are you sure?” Bobby asked. “I'd totally do it. You
know
I would.”
And, at the very least, it might mean that she'd get to have a few extra days with her dog. Zack was leaning against her leg, and she rubbed his ears gently, just the way he liked it.
“I know,” she said. “ButâI'm sorry. We just can't.”
Bobby looked very disappointed, but he nodded.
“But I'm really glad you
wanted
to do it,” Emily said.
“We're
friends
, Emily,” Bobby said. “I'd always help you.”
And, if he ever needed it, she would always help
him
.
Unfortunately, this time, there was nothing either of them could do to make things better.
When she walked back into the house, Zack keeping stride with her the whole way, it took every bit of strength she had not to run outside again and say, “Bobby, I changed my mind, let's do it!” If the people had taken all of this time to look at adsâand hadn't even called the animal shelters to see if anyone had found him, did they
deserve
to have him?
And, when they showed up in a few hours, was
Zack going to be happy to see them, and glad to go? That was almost the worst thought of all.
Her mother was sitting at the kitchen table, with a very serious expression on her face.
“Was that Bobby out there?” she asked.
Obviously, she had looked out the window and seen them together, so Emily nodded. “Yeah. He just came over to say hi.”
Her mother made a point of checking the clock. “Early bird.”
They both knew that Bobby was notorious for oversleepingâeven on his birthday, and Christmas morning.
“Yeah,” Emily said.
Her mother got up, poured her a cup of juice, and then gestured for her to join her at the table.
“Hatching up a plan to have Zack conveniently disappear for a while?” her mother asked, once they were both sitting down.
Emily shrugged, avoiding her eyes.
“You could probably pull it off for a few days,” her mother said.
Emily nodded. There was no question in her mind that she and Bobby couldâand quite easily.
They sat there.
“What did you decide to do?” her mother asked finally.
Wait, did that mean she had
permission
to hide Zack away from the people? Emily checked her mother's expression, and saw that she was just asking for an honest answer. “Nothing. The people would just come back and take him when he showed up again,” she said.
“Ah.” Her mother nodded. “Would you have done it if you were
sure
you could get away with it?”
Would she? “I'm not sure,” Emily said. “Maybe.”
Her mother nodded. “Okay, that's honest. I understand why you would want to, but if you did it, how do you think it would make you feel?”
Very, very guilty. “Like I was stealing someone's dog,” Emily said quietly, and her mother nodded.
They sat silently at the table for what seemed like a long time. Zack stayed by her side every second, and she patted him nonstop.
“It's awful, and my heart is broken for you,” her mother said, “but we always knew that this was a possibility.”
Emily nodded. “I thought it was okay, though. Because it had been so long.” Almost two weeks, in fact, since the morning she had found him.
“Your father and I thought so, too,” her mother said.
She wasn't sure which would be worseâif Zack
did
want to go with them, and leave her, or if he
didn't
want to go with them.
“Is there any way at all I can help?” her mother asked.
Emily shook her head.
All they could do now was wait for the people who were going to come and
take her dog away forever.