Sydney and Devon got shipped off to her uncle Bob’s for a couple days, so this morning I biked over to Poppy’s. I love having keys to two houses. We’re having a heat wave, but Poppy’s house is always cool.
At times like this I wish he didn’t work all day, but at least he’s got Wii now. I talked him into it. We do sword fights and Ping-Pong and stuff. It’s not as much fun by myself, but it’s okay. The only thing I don’t like is that it’s hard to cheat with Wii. I did some bowling for a while, then beat myself in tennis.
I made a sardine sandwich with onion and mustard. Poppy says it’s a big world, I need to try new stuff. Then I headed to the basement to play darts. It occurred to me to go out back and weed Poppy’s flower garden. It’s his least favorite job. I was torn, because I wanted to do it and surprise him, but I’m terrified of that big black devil dog in the next yard.
I looked out the back window. I didn’t see the dog. I opened the back door and peeked. No dog. I slunk into the yard, ready to bolt back in. No dog. I pulled as many weeds as I could hold in two hands and ran back inside.
TV was boring. Every channel. I was starting to talk to myself. I kept thinking about Jake telling me I should come over to the orange clubhouse. On the TV a cartoon dog was chasing a cartoon squirrel around a cartoon tree. “That’s it,” I said out loud. I clicked off the TV. I missed Sydney. I was so bored I was ready to look up Anna Matuzak.
I must have backed out the front door, because when I pulled it shut and turned around, I found myself staring at the devil dog. He was sitting at the foot of the porch steps, right next to my bike. A bird was chirping somewhere and the street was all sunny and nice, but my world stopped at the beast. Then I heard something that wasn’t the bird chirping. It was so low I didn’t realize at first what it was. Then I did. It was the dog. Growling. It’s hard to explain, but a low, soft growl is more terrifying than a roar. I never got so much attention in my life as I did from those two little brown eyes. They didn’t blink, only stared. The big black head never moved. And neither did I. I froze. Suddenly I had to pee. I clenched up. Poppy’s front door locks automatically when you close it. The key was in my pocket. But I knew that if I so much as twitched a finger, the monster would be leaping at my throat.