Jude

Gladys? Jude?” It was Ms. Suza. “What in the name of heaven?”

Busted.

Pookie bounced up. Her eyes rolled and her crazy-colored fur bristled along her spine. Ears flat and tail down, she hid under the slide.

He knew how she felt.

“What is going on?” Ms. Suza was pulling a shawl around herself. “Are you all right?”

“Mama! I’m sorry, I was going to tell you eventually. Her name is True. Isn’t she beautiful?”

“What are you talking about? Where did that dog come from?”

“She was lost, but she came back! She found her way back to Jude!”

“A stray dog?”

“She doesn’t bite,” Jude said. “She’s just scared now, that’s all.”

Ms. Suza looked at Pookie, trembling beneath the slide. “I want you both to stand over here next to the door. No arguing! Stay right here till I come back.”

Gladys’s father stumbled outside then, blinking and scratching his beard. He held the door when Ms. Suza came back with a tray of plates, cups, juice, and hot buttered toast. That toast smelled really, really good. Pookie thought so, too. She edged out from under the slide.

“Sit,” Jude said.

And she did.

“Well,” Gladys’s father said. “Will you look at that.”

Ms. Suza poured the juice and set out the toast. Ms. Suza—she was all about taking care of you.

Jude dug in but Gladys was too busy talking. And talking. Jude thought he’d heard her talk a lot before but she was shooting for her personal record. She told her parents everything. Bringing Sophie and Mateo to his house. The lady saying she’d eat them raw. The fortress on the other side of the tracks. When she got to the part about Jude and the reward, she sped up, like she was trying to protect his feelings.

Still, it all added up to one thing: a massive pile of lies she’d told her parents. Who sat there listening. Not interrupting once. He’d never seen anything like it.

An alien. He was an alien on planet Gladys.

Meanwhile, Pookie slunk within striking distance of the toast. Gladys’s allergic father sneezed a few times, but he and Ms. Suza didn’t say anything as Jude fed Pookie toast bits, then let her lick his fingers. The falling-star happiness showered over him again and for a few moments he forgot everything else.

Then Gladys said something that made him doubt his own ears.

She’d researched animal shelters. She’d been ready to convince Jude they should take True to a no-kill one in the next town.

“What?” He stared at her. “You what?”

“I was thinking it,” she said. “Past tense, Jude. Because now I know I was so wrong. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things, but this was the biggest. You think you found her by chance? No way! You were meant to be together. She knew it way before you did. I told you she was an exceptional dog! True belongs with you, no place else.”

He stared at her, her elf face and hyper hair. He knew his own stupid face was turning red and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“You’re good at taking care of things, way better than I am,” she told him. “All I ever wanted was...” She looked away, and he watched her choose her words. Find the exact ones to explain what she meant. Explain it to herself, not just him. When she started talking again, her voice was so soft he could hardly hear it.

“I wanted her to love me,” Gladys said. “Love me best. I did. But mostly...mostly what I wanted was for her to find the person she was waiting for. The person who’d give her a true, forever home.”

Gladys’s father reached for her. Her parents were both big, and she looked smaller than ever, settling against him, sheltering in the cave of his arms.

Pookie licked the last of the butter off Jude’s fingers. Set her muzzle on his knee. He got super busy scratching that spot between her ears. He didn’t want to look at Gladys or her parents. He felt the tears gathering at the backs of his eyes. He knew what was coming next.

But Ms. Suza was watching him. You could try, but you couldn’t hold out long against her. He had to look up. There was her face, calm as the moon. But the moon, Jude realized now, always looked a little sad.

“Jude,” Ms. Suza said gently. “Here’s what I think we need to do. First, find her owner and see if she wants her dog back.”

“But Mama!” Gladys busted out. “She skipped town! She abandoned True!”

“Don’t forget, she offered a reward.”

“I don’t care. She’s wicked.”

“I don’t like that word, Gladys. From the way you describe her, she sounds like someone who was badly hurt.”

“She hurt True!”

“Someone had hurt her. We teach each other how to hurt,” Mama said, “just as surely as we teach each other how to love.”

“Anyway,” Jude said. Rubbing his eyes, pushing back the tears. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”

“What do you mean?” Gladys cried. “Of course it matters! Don’t say that!”

“Why don’t you believe me?” He tried one more time to make her understand. “No way I can keep her. This was all for nothing.”

Gladys was the one who burst into tears.