I couldn’t stand wondering anymore . . .

. . . so I decided to round up The Boys and go for a walk as soon as I got home from school. Was there going to be a note on Jennifer’s front door saying I was fired? If there was, should I bill for the last two walks, or just let it go? By the time we got to his house, I’d already resigned myself to losing Jennifer’s business. Felix and Buster panted and strained at their leashes for the friend they could practically smell, he was so close.

There was the note on the door. No surprise. But when I got close enough to read it, the surprise was mine.

Hudson, Missy is home sick from school today. Please ring bell for Jennifer. Carol

Ding dong. Missy opened the door halfway through the dong part. There was Jennifer, his pink collar sparkling with rhinestones. His pink tongue lolling with wild anticipation of fun times ahead. Paws and muzzle . . . white as rice. Missy passed me the leash through the door.

“I shampooed him before my mom got home yesterday,” she said.

“Thanks.” I was truly touched. This girl who seemed to have only hostility for me on the few occasions we met—why would she do such a thing for me?

“Why’d you do it?”

“Who’s going to walk Jennifer if Mom fires you?”

I decided not to inform her of the abundance of dog-walkers in our city. Or bother with the fact that either she or her mother were perfectly free to walk him themselves.

“And her name is Jennifer which is why I call her a her,” Missy continued. Maybe that’s why she saved my job. So she could enlighten me on that point. “After Jennifer Aniston.”

I wasn’t going to touch that one, but before I could think of an appropriate response, Missy let me off the hook.

“I’m supposed to keep the door locked while I’m home alone,” she said while closing it firmly on my face. Once again, I was staring at the peephole with my mouth open mid-speech, but this time I didn’t wait around to see what would happen next.

Since it was still early, we walked all the way to Alana’s house, this time keeping to the sidewalks and avoiding the dirt path. No chance of running into Alana at that hour. I honestly don’t think I determined the route of our walk. I think the dogs pulled me along to the spot, two houses down from the location of Jennifer’s rapture. The place where Jennifer was finally allowed to become just one of The Boys. Just Jim with muddy paws and nothing else to prove.