The dog hadn’t run far when he stopped to rest among the pine trees.
It felt great to run free, but now his hip was bothering him again.
That hip that had been hurting for quite a while, making him limp sometimes.
His fur was matted with burs, and his stomach was empty.
After a while, he decided to return to the spot where the freckled arm had reached through the wrought-iron fence. Something about the memory of that soothing whisper drew him back.
Now someone was crossing the green lawn on the other side of the fence, heading toward the woods.
The dog crouched down low behind a tangle of wild shrubs.
He stayed very, very still. He put his chin on the ground and breathed in the rich earthiness. He wanted to get closer to the fence, but he didn’t dare.
What if this wasn’t the person with the soothing whisper?
He could hear footsteps on the grass.
He peered through the bushes.
Someone put something on the ground and pushed it toward him, under a nearby rhododendron, and said, “Here you go, Henry.”
That same someone with the freckled arm.
A girl.
Calling him Henry.
His nose twitched.
His mouth watered.
Food.
The girl had placed food right there on the ground near him.
“Goodbye, Henry,” the girl whispered.
He heard the soft steps on the lawn get fainter and fainter.
He waited until there was only the sound of a wren singing in the trees above him, and then he walked slowly over to the rhododendron.
There on the ground was a small plastic bowl filled to the brim with food.
Chopped up hot dogs.
A small piece of waffle.
Part of a boiled egg.
Little orange crackers shaped like fish.
He had never seen food like this.
He gobbled up every bite.
Then he sat by the wrought-iron fence wishing that the freckled girl would come back and call him Henry again.
He was feeling scared and lonely.
If being Henry would bring the girl back to whisper to him and give him food, then he would be Henry.
* * *
That night it rained. A soft, quiet summer rain that rinsed the leaves and soaked the moss and weighed down the ferns …
… and filled the plastic bowl with water for Henry.