7

Tim missed Sherlock the whole week he was visiting his mom. He missed his dad too. That was worse because it was all mixed up: it was homesick hurting and being guilty for having a good time and feeling sorry for his dad, all rolled into one. Matt tried to sound happy when he talked to Tim on the phone, but he wasn’t a good actor, and Tim hated having to pretend back. It made him feel like his head was going to explode.

Missing Sherlock was different. It was a simple kind of missing. He just wished he could put his arms around the dog’s warm, solid body.

His mother didn’t like dogs. That’s why they hadn’t had one when she’d lived with them. Dogs weren’t hygienic, according to his mom. She talked a lot about cleanliness and hygiene, and even without a dog in sight, she kept scrubbing everything in case the baby got sick.

Tim thought she was probably right about dogs. Sherlock did all the unhygienic things she complained about: he licked his own bottom, sniffed telephone poles where other dogs had peed, and ate disgusting bits of squashed food on the sidewalk.

His mom didn’t seem to know that dogs could also make the most revolting smells in the world, so Tim didn’t tell her that Sherlock was a champion at them. He didn’t tell her that he and his dad just groaned, “Gross, Sherlock!” and opened the windows when it happened.

But he told her all the good things about Sherlock. Even if she didn’t like dogs, she wanted to hear all about Tim’s life, and Sherlock was part of it. They talked about school and soccer and his friends too. She asked about Josh and said to say hello to Mrs. Gunther.

On Saturday afternoon, Chad looked after Bentley while Tim and his mom went to the aquarium. They rode in a glass-bottomed boat and were given fish-feed pellets to throw in. Looking through the glass beneath their feet made it feel as if they were floating in the water with the hungry, brightly colored fish.

At the next tank, the guide chose Tim to ring a bell. Four giant stingrays swam to the surface to be fed. Tim and his mom learned how to hold the fish, sticking out through their fists, so that the stingrays could take them before flapping away on their great white wings. One of them spurted water back at them. Tim laughed, and his mom didn’t even complain that it wasn’t hygienic.

But that evening, and Sunday morning before they went to the airport, she kept talking about the baby, as if she wanted to make sure that Tim would remember all about him when he was home with his dad.

“Bentley’s lucky to have a big brother like you,” she kept saying. She showed him pictures of when he was a baby. “See how much you look alike? You’ll be great buddies when he’s older.”

Tim couldn’t really tell if his baby pictures looked like his brother or not. They were both round pink faces sticking out of blue-wrapped bundles. He knew it was true that Bentley was going to grow into a toddler, learn to walk and talk, and get old enough to go to school and be a normal kid, but it was still hard to believe.

And right now Bentley was a baby, who threw up every time he was fed and needed his diapers changed. He wasn’t any more hygienic than Sherlock—and a lot less fun.

But it was just as hard saying good-bye to his mom as it had been saying good-bye to his dad the week before. Tim even felt a little bit sad about saying good-bye to Bentley.

*   *   *

Matt and Sherlock met Tim at the airport, though Sherlock had to stay in the car in the parking lot. When Tim got there, the dog sniffed him all over, and then sniffed his backpack all over too, as if to prove he could still do it.

But then he licked Tim’s face, and sniffer dogs never do that when they’re working. He was very, very happy to have his boy home.

“Almost as happy as I am!” Matt laughed, and hugged Tim again.

Tim hadn’t seen his dad this happy for a long time. “Are you getting another dog to work with?” he asked.

“Still waiting,” said his dad. “There just aren’t enough dogs to go around right now.”

“It’s too bad Sherlock couldn’t still go to work with you sometimes.”

His dad rubbed the beagle’s floppy ears. “This guy’s earned his retirement. And it’s good having him at home, isn’t it?”

Tim nodded. He would have hated for Sherlock not to be there when he got home from school in the afternoon, or not to wake him up with his wet beagle nose in the morning. At his mom’s house, he’d usually woken up because Bentley was crying, and if the baby wasn’t crying, his mom tried to sleep in, so Tim had to stay in his room and be quiet. But Sherlock’s funny face and wagging tail made him laugh every morning—and there was no point staying in bed any longer than he wanted to, because he knew that the dog would have already woken up his dad, at seven o’clock on the dot.

*   *   *

In her run at the Rainbow Street Animal Shelter, Bella was watching Juan. He was feeding all the dogs in turn, but there were still three more ahead of her. She was already drooling by the time he opened her gate.

“You’re not hungry, are you, Bella?” Juan teased, hiding the scoop behind his back.

Bella licked her lips, nosing around his legs.

“Can’t fool you,” he laughed. “If I can’t hide a ball from you, I should have known you’d sniff out food anywhere!”