Mavis could hardly believe her eyes when Rose had flung her sandals up in the air like that. So unlike her. And then she’d gone and run around the yard barefoot as if she’d never even heard the word ringworm.
This was a new Rose.
And best of all, a Rose who wasn’t mad at her anymore.
Mavis was relieved.
Now they could get back to being best friends again.
When they reached the gatehouse, Mavis hopped off the skateboard and said, “Okay, here’s plan B. We’ll do the ole guilt trip.”
Rose looked puzzled. “What guilt trip?”
“You know, like, make Mr. Duffy think his heart really is a thumping gizzard if he can go and let a poor, innocent dog have no home of his own and nobody to love him.”
“I don’t know,” Rose said. “That seems kind of mean.”
“No, it’s not,” Mavis said. “I’m really good at guilt-tripping.”
When they got inside the gatehouse, Mr. Duffy was on the phone telling somebody he was certain he had never had the names Joleen and Travis Bivens on the guest list. Then he held the phone away from his ear and rolled his eyes.
The person on the other end of the phone was mad. Mavis could hear snatches of loud, angry words.
“I told you—”
“How many times—”
“—so embarrassing—”
Mr. Duffy shook his head and winked at Rose and Mavis. Then he put the phone back to his ear and said, “Yes, ma’am,” and hung up.
“You don’t have to hang from a tree to be a nut,” he said. “And that woman is most definitely a nut. I swear she could start an argument with an empty room.”
Then he turned to Rose and said, “Rose Tully! What got into you, running out of here like you done the other day? You trying to make an old man older?”
Rose blushed. “No, sir.”
Mavis jumped in quick before the old worried Rose came back and took over the new brave Rose.
“Everything’s good now. Right, Rose?” she said.
Rose nodded.
“We want to talk to you about Henry,” Mavis said.
Before Mr. Duffy had a chance to say anything, Mavis started working on the guilt trip. She told Mr. Duffy how Henry was all alone in this world. How he’d devoted his whole life to racing, and now he was a has-been and nobody wanted him. How all he wanted was a little love and a home of his own. Was that so wrong?
On and on.
Guilt-tripping like crazy.
A couple of times Mr. Duffy opened his mouth to say something, but Mavis kept right on going. Every now and then she said, “Right, Rose?” but she didn’t stop long enough for Rose to do more than nod.
When she finally felt like that guilt trip was the best that it could be, Mavis stopped.
Mr. Duffy took his cap off, ran his hand over his bald head, and put it back on again. He looked out the window and up at the ceiling and down at the floor.
Then he took a breath and opened his mouth to speak, but a noise at the screen door made him stop.
He looked at the door.
Rose looked at the door.
Mavis looked at the door.
There, scratching on the screen, was Henry.