Chapter 15/ You Mustn’t Bite People
Lily was in the bathroom peering at her new tooth in the mirror. It was much bigger than the baby tooth it had dislodged earlier in the summer. The new tooth was descending from her upper gum but lately it had stopped descending. Lily was worried it was stuck. What if she had to go through the rest of her life with a big tooth stuck halfway down, messing up her smile? If her mom took her to the dentist, he could yank her new tooth down to where it ought to be. That might work. Of course, her mom would probably just tell her they couldn’t afford a dentist. Because of Mom’s broken engagement to Larry, they no longer got free dental care.
Gramma appeared in the bathroom doorway and asked Lily why she was just standing there admiring herself in the mirror. Did she need something to do?
Lily said, “Leave me alone.”
Gramma told her Otway was standing at the front door and whining. “Take him for a walk, for Pete’s sake.”
Lily didn’t want to take the dog for a walk, so she just took Otway outside and sat on the porch with her book, Matilda. She was reading it for the third time.
Otway peed on the yard, but he did not poop which was a relief because if he did, Gramma would probably notice and make her bag the poop and throw it in the garbage can. Lily felt that she ought to get paid for picking up poop. At least a quarter for every dog turd. What did Gramma think she was, a slave?
Ten minutes later, Otway was sleeping peacefully in the sunshine in front of Gramma’s old car which was parked in their driveway. Lily was sitting on a porch chair, reading Matilda. In fact, she was not reading it but thinking about her friends, June Mae and Raven. Lately, they had been ignoring her. They were addicted to a video game called Sims 2. First, Raven got one and fell in love with it. She was spending hours every day creating a town and inhabiting it with people. She did all sorts of fun things like create robots, even fly kites outdoors. If you had a Sims 2 and a computer, you could invent an entire world. Every kid in town wanted one.
June Mae begged her parents, begged them and begged them until she got the game too. Lily begged her mom for one, but her mom said no, they couldn’t afford it. They didn’t even have a home computer, so how could Lily play it anyway?
Lily patiently explained she could play it on their TV. All they had to do was buy her an Xbox console, then she could play it on that, a console would be much cheaper than a computer, plus she could play lots of the other Xbox games too.
“All the kids are getting them.”
Lily’s mom laughed out loud and said, “What else does Your Majesty need, a golden throne to sit on? Maybe you’ll get one for Christmas. If you’re good.”
Lily closed her book and looked across the street. Pauline was on her knees in her yard, pulling weeds out of her little flower garden.
Lily thought maybe she could get a job and make enough money to buy a console and her own Sims game. She tried to imagine chores she might do for the neighbors. She was ten years old now, maybe she could get a job babysitting. Maybe she could walk across the street and offer to help Pauline with her flowers. She could pick bugs off them. Or something.
Then, the unfortunate incident occurred. They did not have their usual mailman but a new one, a substitute, a short man who had a blond moustache and was wearing grey shorts with a little red stripe running down each pantleg and knee socks. While he walked toward her house, he was also sorting mail. He came around the front of Gramma’s car. Probably he would have just handed the letters to Lily but unfortunately, before he could, he tripped over Otway. The dog woke up out of a sound sleep, panicked, believed he was under attack, jumped up, and bit the mailman just below the knee.
The mailman yelped and dropped the letters he’d had in his hand. Otway started barking. Lily had to run over there. She tried to get hold of the dog, but Otway dodged out of her grasp and ran into the street.
Pauline stood up to see what was going on.
The mailman said, “Your dog bit me! He bit me!” He peeled down his knee sock and displayed the bite mark. It was bleeding, just a little, not really that bad.
Otway realized he was not on a leash and started running around the neighborhood. When the dog got loose, he didn’t run very far usually, just around the neighborhood.
Gramma Grace came out of the house to see what was going on. By then, Otway had vanished. Probably he was in one of the neighbor’s backyards. Up and down their street, other dogs inside other houses realized something was going on. They started barking like crazy and flinging themselves against doors and windows.
The mailman knelt down and picked up the mail he had dropped. “Your dumb dog bit me! I’m gonna have to tell my supervisor.”
Raven came out of her front door and yelled, “Otway’s in our back yard! My dad’s trying to catch him!”
Lily ran back into her house and got a raw hotdog out of the refrigerator. Usually, when Otway got loose and started running around the neighborhood, the best thing to do was wait for him to appear and wave a hotdog at him. Otway loved hotdogs. He found them irresistible and ate them whole, in one big gulp.
An hour later, when the mailman’s supervisor knocked on their door, Otway was up in Lily’s room. Gramma had given strict orders that the dog was not to cause any more trouble. “I don’t want to hear one single bark out of him. You hear me?”
Lily sat on the floor and told Otway, “Don’t worry, sweetie. I won’t let the bad supervisor hurt you. It wasn’t even your fault.”
Gramma invited the supervisor into the house. The two women discussed the situation. Gramma explained Otway had never bit anyone before. He was an old dog, sleeping in the sunshine. “He just got startled.” Gramma was careful not to mention the fact that Llly had neglected to put Otway on a leash.
The supervisor, a skinny woman who wore her hair in a bun, said these things happen.
“But your dog drew blood, see, and we had to send Robert to Acute Care to have the bite checked. He didn’t need stitches, but I’ve got to report the occurrence to Animal Control. Your dog’s gonna have to be quarantined. I’m going to have to list this address as the residence of a dangerous animal. It’s the rules.”
Gramma agreed that we all have to follow the rules.
The supervisor said Gramma wouldn’t have to pay anything because, at the post office, they had good health insurance. “Like I said, these things happen.”
After the supervisor left, Lily put her arm around Otway and pressed her face into his side. “You mustn’t bite people. I told you a million times.”
Darcy and Marcie met in the second grade. Marcie and Darcy. Darcy and Marcie. That’s what their friends called them. They were inseparable all though elementary, middle, and high school. After graduating from high school, they got jobs at the mall and moved into an apartment together. Darcy knew all about Marcie’s crush on Greg Booser.
During a break, Marcie rang her up and told her she had a date with Greg. With Greg Booser! Unbelievable. After all this time. So cool. Dreams do come true.
When Marcie did not come home after her date, Darcy got worried but not that worried because she thought Marcie must have gone over to Greg’s and who knows what happened. Love finds a way.
Then, the next morning around 9:30 the phone rang. It was Lori, Marcie’s manager at Sam Goody. Where was Marcie? She was supposed to work the morning shift today. Plus, Marcie was the one who took the cash bag over to the bank last night after closing. Now, the bank was saying they never got the deposit. Lori said if Marcy did not appear with the bag in the next half hour, she was calling the cops.
Darcy called Hot Topic and asked to speak to the manager. Greg came to the phone and told her no he didn’t know what happened to Marcie last night because she stood him up. He waited for her in the bar for an hour. No Marcie. He was still kind of butt hurt about it, and he didn’t have time to talk. He had customers.
Darcy drove to the mall. She drove around the parking lot until she found Marcy’s car. It was parked beside the bank. Just sitting there. A red Honda with a scratch on the fender. Darcy parked, got out of her car, and walked over to Marcie’s car.
The Honda wasn’t even locked. A canvas bag was lying in the passenger seat.