The Boy Who Ate Dog Biscuits (4 page)

That afternoon Billy sat on the kitchen steps. The sun beat down. The heat made it hard to think about a good dog name.

Through the open door he could hear his mother in the kitchen. She was talking to his grandfather. “Are you sure you can manage, Dad?”

“Yes, yes, of course,” he said. “Have a good time at the mall.”

“Sarah should sleep until we get back. I don’t think you’ll have any problems.”

Mrs. Getten came outside. “Help Grandpa if he needs it, Billy.” She started down the walk.

“Okay.”

Mrs. Getten turned around. “I mean it, Billy. Don’t just disappear.”

“I won’t.”

Billy stood up so his grandmother could pass by him. “See you later, darling,” she said.

Grandpa Stewie came out and sat on the porch. The crickets chirped in the grass.

Billy could hear laughing and screaming. The little kids next door were playing under the sprinkler.

“Cat got your tongue?” asked Grandpa Stewie.

“What?”

“That means you seem quiet.”

“Oh,” Billy said. “I wish the new dog at Dr. Mike’s was mine.”

“He does seem to have taken a shine to you.”

“Yeah.”

“Well, start saving your money, if you want a dog.”

“You mean like for food and stuff?”

“Shots, leashes. Dogs are expensive.”

“You think if I had lots of money, Mom and Dad would let me have a dog?”

“Money is only part of it.”

“What else?”

“You have to take care of a dog. All the time, every day. Like you would a baby.”

“I take care of dogs every day.”

“That’s true.” Grandpa Stewie nodded. “Do your parents know how responsible you are about going to Dr. Mike’s?”

“That’s being responsible?”

“Sure.”

“But I’m having fun.”

“You’re allowed to.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“You should let your folks know.”

“They’d never believe me.”

“You have to speak up, my boy. Let people know what you’re doing.”

Billy wasn’t sure he could do what his grandfather said. There was something else he needed to know. “You think if Dr. Mike gave me a job, I could buy that dog?”

“You don’t need a job. I bet your parents would get you a dog if you’d just help out.”

“You mean like if I cleaned my room? The boring stuff?”

“Might be boring, but it would show your parents you’re willing to help. Like you do at Dr. Mike’s.”

“But cleaning’s no fun.”

“Being responsible isn’t terrible all the time or fun all the time.”

“Oh,” said Billy.

“Give it a whirl. What have you got to lose?”

“Nothing,” said Billy. “Except my dirty bedroom.”

Inside the house Sarah started to cry.

“Uh-oh,” Grandpa said. “She’s not supposed to do that.”

“My mom lets her cry sometimes.” Sarah’s wailing got louder.

“I don’t know. That doesn’t sound good to me.”

“She might have pooped in her diaper.”

“Do you know how to change her?”

Billy made a face. “Yuck.”

“Well, let’s go see.”

Billy took the stairs two at a time. He opened the baby’s bedroom door and peeked in. Sarah’s face was red. There were tears on
her cheeks. Her damp red hair was stuck to her head.

“Hey, Sarah.” She stopped crying the minute she saw Billy.

“It doesn’t smell bad in here,” Billy said over his shoulder. “So I guess she didn’t.”

Grandpa Stewie took a deep breath and leaned on the doorknob. “Good thing. I was leaving town if she did.”

Billy smiled. So he wasn’t the only one who hated dirty diapers.

Sarah held up both hands. She looked at Billy. She made a sound like “Ah. Ah.”

“What does she want?” asked Grandpa Stewie.

“That’s her way of saying she wants to get up.”

“Can you carry her?”

“Yeah. I’m allowed.”

“Let’s bring her downstairs.”

Billy dropped the bars on the crib. He picked up Sarah. She weighed about the same as a good-size puppy.

Grandpa Stewie started down the hall. Billy and Sarah followed. “I’m glad you’re here,” Grandpa said. “I hate to admit it, but I could never have managed the stairs and a squirmy baby all by myself.”

Billy didn’t know what to say. His grandfather’s words made him feel really good. Maybe being responsible wasn’t so terrible after all.

8
  

Billy and Sarah followed Grandpa Stewie into the kitchen.

“Maybe she’s hungry,” Billy said. He strapped Sarah into her high chair.

Grandpa Stewie opened the refrigerator. “Think she’d like a beer?”

“Grandpa!” Billy laughed. “She can’t have that!”

“Oh, I know.”

Billy stood beside his grandfather. “See that little jar with green stuff? That’s hers.”

Billy got a spoon and put the baby food in a bowl. He sat in front of Sarah’s high chair, like his mother did.

He put some mashed pea on the spoon. He tried to put some in Sarah’s mouth.

She made a face. “Poo. Poo.”

“No,” said Billy. “Not poo-poo. Food, Sarah.
Food.
”

“Poo. Poo,” said Sarah.

“Open wide,” Grandpa Stewie said. He opened his mouth and wagged his tongue at her.

“Ahh,” Billy said with his mouth wide open too.

Sarah smiled. She opened her mouth.

Billy put the spoon in her mouth. “That was easy.”

Sarah made a face. She spit pea all over Billy.

“Oh, yuckers!” Billy wiped his face on his T-shirt.

He tasted Sarah’s food. “This stuff is gross. No wonder she hates it.”

Grandpa Stewie opened the refrigerator again. “How about something to drink? Your mother said her cup had juice in it.”

“Yeah, okay.” Billy left the bowl sitting on Sarah’s tray.

He gave the plastic cup with the top on it to Sarah. She knew how to hold it in her fat hands. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes as she swallowed.

Billy took a deep breath. “That must be what she wanted.”

He leaned back in the chair, watching his baby sister. She was okay, he thought. Not as great as a dog, but okay, sort of.

“Good work, son.” His grandfather sat near Sarah’s high chair.

“Thanks.”

Sarah threw her cup on the floor. She smiled at Grandpa Stewie.

“Ba. Ba.” She pointed to it.

Grandpa Stewie leaned over. As he was picking up the cup, Sarah grabbed a handful of mashed pea. She flung it across the room.

“No!” shouted Billy. A blob of mashed pea landed on Grandpa Stewie.

“Stop, Sarah!” Billy yelled. She threw another handful.

There was food all over Sarah’s face, and all over Billy, too. The floor was covered with green plops.

“Mom’s going to kill me!”

Grandpa Stewie burst out laughing. “This reminds me of when your mother was young. She did the same thing. All the time.”

“My mother!” Billy couldn’t believe it.

Grandpa Stewie chuckled. “She was the messiest of all the kids.”

Billy wiped the floor. He tried to imagine his mother as a baby. Grandpa Stewie held Sarah while Billy cleaned off her high chair.

Billy washed Sarah’s face with a cloth. She giggled and wrapped her hand around his finger. She tried to put it in her mouth.

“I think she’s still hungry,” Billy said.

“You know, I have this funny feeling she’s teething.”

Gently Billy put his finger into her mouth. He checked her gums the way he did the puppies at Dr. Mike’s. “Hey, I feel a tooth!”

“Got a cracker or something she can suck on?”

Billy looked in the cabinets. “How about a chocolate-chip cookie?”

“Nope. It’s got to be a biscuit or something hard.”

Billy laughed. “I have dog biscuits.”

“Give her one,” Grandpa Stewie said.

“Really? You think it’s okay?”

“I don’t see why not. You eat them.”

Billy handed Sarah a dog-bone-shaped biscuit. She put it in her mouth.

“She looks great.” Billy laughed. “She’s getting to be as good as a dog.”

“Would you take her?” Grandpa Stewie asked. “My leg is starting to hurt.”

Billy picked her up. “Good Sarah,” he said. He brushed his lips against her hair. She smelled like a warm puppy.

There was a knock on the back door. “Hey, Billy. Can you come out?”

It was Howard. Billy paused for a moment. Then he walked to the door.

“No,” he said through the screen. “You want to come in?”

Howard opened the door. He looked at Sarah. He looked at Billy.

“What are
you
doing?”

“Messing around with Sarah.”

“Why?” Howard looked puzzled.

“ ’Cause I want to.”

“You do?”

“Sure! You should have seen the mess she made before. It was great.”

“What’s she got in her mouth?”

“A dog biscuit. She’s teething.”

“She’s eating dog biscuits! That’s better than anything Frankie ever did.”

“Yeah,” said Billy. “I know.”

Grandpa Stewie stood up slowly. “I think Sarah and I will take a little nap. Let’s put her upstairs. Then you can go out, if you like.”

“Great,” Billy said.

9
  

A few minutes later Billy jumped off the back-porch steps. He ran across the grass and down the driveway.