Just Grace Walks the Dog

by Charise Mericle Harper

  I gave my comic to Mrs. M. because Mr. Harris wasn't in his office. She gave me her you-are-in-trouble look. It was as if she could tell that all the unluckiness in my life was in no way nearly over.

  It's really hard to concentrate when you are waiting for bad things that you know are for sure going to happen. Miss Lois could tell that I wasn't paying good attention because she kept saying, "Just Grace, are you with us?" I was trying to think of something super special and great to do so that Dad would have to 100 percent lose his angry feelings.

  It's not easy to think of super amazing get-out-of-trouble ideas. I couldn't think of anything.

  On my way out of the school I noticed that Mr. Harris had taped my comic on his door. This was a total surprise and it made me smile for half a second. It was one lucky thing in a very unlucky-looking day.

  NO SADNESS FOR ME

  All the way home Mimi and Max and Sammy wanted to talk about taking Chip-Up to the park. They were not filled with sadness like I was, and they did not have any sympathy for me. Sympathy is when you feel bad because someone else feels bad and you want to show you care about that. All they cared about were dogs.

  I was surprised that Sammy even wanted to go back to the park. When we got to my house I tried to stay outside on the front lawn for as long as I could. Max finally said, "Come on! Go get Chip-Up so we can go." Mimi offered to go with me because it's a fact that a parent yells at you less if you have a friend standing right next to you. As soon as we walked into the kitchen, because Max and Sammy wanted us to bring a snack too, Mom said, "Your father is working late tonight." That was two lucky things. Now all I wanted was one more lucky thing, and that last lucky thing was a not-mad Dad.

  THE WALK TO THE DOG PARK

  We taped Chip-Up to the skateboard, gave out the crackers, and then finally we were walking to the park. When we walked past Mrs. Witkins's house, I totally remembered that I had forgotten to tell Mimi about Mrs. Witkins coming back out the window. So I told the whole story to Max and Sammy too so they would know what we were talking about. It's good manners to include everyone in a conversation if you can remember to do it.

  Sammy said it would be cool if Mrs. Witkins was a spy. I said I didn't think she looked like she could do any cool spy stuff because even getting in the window seemed like it was hard for her to do. Plus, who would she be spying on, anyway? Her family? Sammy said, "Yeah, I guess you're right, but still, it would be cool if it was true."

  He was right about that, but it was too hard to imagine that it could be true. Mrs. Witkins was definitely not like an M&M. She was not a superspy underneath and a regular mom on top. You could just tell about that.

  IF MRS. WITKINS WAS A SPY

  DOG THOUGHTS

  "I hope Emma will be there!" I said. I wanted to talk about something that was 100 percent for sure good. "Me too," said Max. "Her owner said he's going to help me teach her how to do a flip." Mimi and Sammy didn't say anything, probably because Mimi was thinking big-dog thoughts, and Sammy was thinking no-dog thoughts, and both those thoughts were not really group thoughts right now at that moment.

  THE WORST DOG EVER

  Sometimes a day can start off bad, but then other things happen and you think that maybe in the end you will be lucky and it will not be so bad after all. This is the kind of day I was hoping I would get, but this was not what happened, because as soon as Emma saw Chip-Up rolling in the park, she attacked him!

  First she tried to bite the skateboard wheels as I was trying to pull him away, and then she grabbed Chip-Up's leg. She had it in her teeth and she was shaking it so hard, she pulled him right off the skateboard. She would have run away with his whole entire body except that Sammy was brave and grabbed Chip-Up's middle. Emma was growling and we were all screaming—it was terrible! Emma had Chip-Up's leg in her mouth and no matter how hard Sammy pulled on Chip-Up she wouldn't let go. Finally she ripped his whole complete leg right off his body! Emma turned around and took off with it. Max tried to catch her, but she was too sneaky and speedy for him. She ran to the middle of the park and chewed it up until there was nothing left but little pieces of litter. I couldn't believe it! She was Horrible!

  WHO IS VERY SORRY NOW

  Mr. Scott, who is the man that owns Emma, said he was sorry about a billion times and we could tell he felt really guilty that his dog had turned into a crazy, horrible creature. It took him forever to get Emma back on her leash. I guess her two favorite games are soccer and chase me. Max helped chase her down while Mimi and I inspected Chip-Up. We were too surprised about what had happened to even cry. Sammy went to pick up the little pieces of Chip-Up's leg because he is good about not littering, and all the dog park people were coming over to us with their dogs and Sammy didn't want to be close to any dogs. Chip-Up looked terrible. His new name could be Rip-Up!

  Mr. Scott offered to pay to get Chip-Up fixed, but since Mimi and I just made him out of cardboard we couldn't take any money. Everyone was super nice and trying to make us feel better with their words. Finally someone asked why we had made Chip-Up in the first place.

  It was nice to talk about something different because all the sorry talking was starting to make me feel like I was going to cry. I told them about how Chip-Up was going to show my parents I was responsible and dependable, and once that had happened they were going to have to buy me a real dog.

  I think this made Mr. Scott feel even worse because he started saying "I'm so sorry" again. The man that owns Bernie said he had some ideas to help and that he wanted us to come back to the park tomorrow to talk about them. Mimi was holding Chip-Up and she was starting to cry, so we had to leave. It was a very sad walk home. By the time we got to my front door, I was crying too.

  HOW CHIP-UP SAVED MY LIFE

  Dad opened the door like he had maybe been waiting for me, and I guessed that he was, because he had his chewed-up shoelaces in his hand. What he saw was not at all what he had been expecting, because he dropped the shoelaces and said, "Grace, are you all right? Tell me what happened. What's wrong?"

  And then I couldn't help it. I started crying so hard I couldn't even talk. Mom and Dad were really upset about Chip-Up. I was 100 percent surprised that they cared so much. They wanted to go back to the park and talk to Mr. Scott about Emma and her attacking ways. This was not something I wanted. Even though I was newly filled up with mean feelings about Emma, I didn't want her to get in trouble or have something bad happen to her.

  It took a long time, but finally Mom and Dad said they would not complain to Mr. Scott. After supper Dad totally surprised me when he said he wanted to help me fix Chip-Up's leg. It was nice of him because he is much better at glueing and taping than I am. When Chip-Up had his parts all together again we put him on my bed. Then Dad said, "Now, Chip-Up, there will be no more shoelace chewing, or chewing of anything else in this house! Understood?" Of course Chip-Up couldn't say anything, so Dad looked at me. I was kind of too nervous to talk, so I just nodded my head up and down in the yes way. "Good," said Dad, and then he patted Chip-Up on the head, smiled at me, and left my room.

  It is pretty hard for a dad to be mad at you when you are already crying really hard about another bad thing that has already happened, so I guess I was lucky about that.

  He fixed everything for me.

  EVERYTHING BACK TO NORMAL

  At journal time I was looking out my window and watching Mrs. Witkins climb in her window again. Only this time it didn't seem so strange, because I was already kind of used to it and was expecting it. Right after Mrs. Witkins went in through the window, Mr. Hurley came out of his house with Oliver. I couldn't write about Mrs. Witkins again, so I decided to write about Oliver instead.

  Oliver is a dog who lives right across the street from me. He lives with Mr. Hurley, who is his owner. Oliver does not like children, but Oliver does like to eat garbage he finds on the street. If Mr. Hurley let him, Oliver would probably eat all the garbage he found everywhere.

  Mimi and I did not look at e
ach other through our windows before bed. I was sort of glad about that because I was super tired and I just wanted to go to sleep. This is not something that happens very often. I even let Chip-Up sleep next to me, and this time he was hardly even pointy or in the way at all.

  MY MORNING

  At breakfast time Mom said she was happy to see that Chip-Up was back to normal. And even Dad said good morning to him. Somehow, it was weird to have Mom and Dad being so nice to Chip-Up. I couldn't tell if that meant I was closer to getting a dog or further away from getting a dog. Parents are hard to understand. Plus, the awful part was that if I was closer to getting a dog, now I wouldn't even know what kind of dog to get. Emma had ruined everything.

  DOG PARK

  Since today was not a school day, Mimi, Max, Sammy, and I decided to go to the dog park first thing in the morning. Of course we left Chip-Up at home. We didn't want Emma to stick her teeth into him again. Max said that dog people like to walk their dogs first thing in the morning, so he was pretty sure that Bernie and his owner would be there. We were curious with wanting to know how Bernie's owner was going to help us.

  On the way we saw Mr. Hurley walking back with Oliver. We all crossed the street so we wouldn't have to walk by them because of Oliver not being friendly to kids.

  When we got to the park the dog people were all talking together in a circle and they did not look happy and smiley like usual. Mimi said that it was probably going to be bad news for us, because Bernie's owner was doing some pointing, and his pointing was in our direction.

  WHAT WAS A SURPRISE

  I was not wanting to have any more bad news in my life, so I said, "Let's just go home right now." I guess Mimi was thinking the same thing, because she said, "Okay." We were just starting to walk back when Max said, "Wait! They want us to come over. Look!"

  We looked, and he was right: the dog people were moving their arms and hands in that come-over-here way. So we all had to walk over, even Sammy. "Sorry, kids," said Bernie's owner. "We've had some sad news. We were just talking about our friend August and his dog, Oliver."

  I couldn't believe it. "Mr. Hurley's Oliver?" "That's right," said the man. "Well, I suppose you'd know him, what with you kids being so excited about dogs." "Well, we don't know him know him," said Sammy. "Oliver doesn't like kids." "Well, that may be true," said the man. "I don't know about that."

  And then he told us the sad story of how Oliver was not eating his food anymore, and no matter what Mr. Hurley did, he could not get him to eat. And how Mr. Hurley was so worried that he was even making Oliver special meals of people food, but still that was not working either. Bernie's owner didn't say it, but I could tell that he was thinking that Oliver might even die!

  Then he said, "Uh-oh, here comes trouble." And he was right. Trouble was running up to us at top speed. Emma jumped all over me like I was her favorite person in the whole world and she had not only yesterday ripped the leg off of my special homemade pretend dog. It's surprisingly hard to be mad at a real dog when it is showing 100 percent love for you.

  WHAT HAPPENED NEXT

  Mr. Scott said that he was really sorry again, but this time it did not make me sad because Emma was licking my hand. Mr. Scott said that Emma was still young and she still had some things she needed to learn, and one of those things was to not chase skateboards. He said she loved to bite skateboard wheels and was probably so excited about the skateboard that she bit Chip-Up by accident and then unfortunately it just got worse from there.

  I don't know why, but suddenly I was 100 percent forgiving her. Mimi did not feel the same, because when Emma came over to her, she just looked down at her and did not even give her a pat.

  Mr. Scott didn't notice Mimi still being mad, because he said, "You kids are great. I want you to have these." Then he gave us each a free movie pass and some coupons for treats at the movie candy counter. Mimi couldn't be mad about that, and she wasn't, because now she was smiling too. I thought that was our big surprise, but then Bernie's owner said, "Do you kids want to hear my idea?" Of course you can't say no to something like that.

  BERNIE'S OWNER'S IDEA

  Bernie's owner's name was John. It was a lot easier to ask him questions about his idea once we knew what his name was. He told us what to call him after Max said, "Excuse me, Bernie's owner, do you mean you are going to pay us real money?" Max was asking that question because John wanted to know if we would walk his dog, Bernie, in the park on Mondays and Wednesdays after school. He said he had to work late those days for the next two weeks and would not be able to take Bernie out.

  I couldn't believe that he was offering us a real job for money. And after he said he thought we were responsible and dependable, I totally knew we couldn't say no. John said that he lived across the street from the park so his house would not be hard for us to get to. Then the other dog people said that they would be there every day to help out if we had any problems. It was amazing. Suddenly we were in the dog club and we didn't even have to have our own dog.

  PERFECT

  On the way home I was so happy, I almost felt like if I tried it I would maybe even be able to fly. There was no way that Mom and Dad could say that I was not 100 percent responsible and dependable if I had a real job. Plus, the job was going to be amazing practice for when I got my own dog. It was so, so, so perfect! Mimi was happy too. She said she was going to save up all her money and buy something really great. She didn't know what it was going to be yet, but it was going to be fantastic. Max said that he was going to try to teach Bernie a new trick as a surprise for John when he got back. The only person who was not excited and not saying anything was Sammy.

  MOM AND DAD HAVE IDEAS TOO

  Mom and Dad were even more surprised about the idea than we were, and they were full of questions, because it is not every day that you get to have the most perfect job in the whole world given to you as a surprise. It was lucky that John gave us a note to give to them, because after a while I got tired of answering all their questions about it.

  Dad called John on the phone and made a plan for us all to meet the next day to go over what we would have to do on Monday. Mom let me break the rule about no phone calls after 8:00 p.m. so I could call Mimi, Max, and Sammy to tell them about it. Sammy was the only one who didn't sound excited. I told him he had to come but that he did not have to touch Bernie if he didn't want to. Even then he did not sound very happy or filled with joy.

  WHAT I FORGOT ABOUT

  I could hardly wait to work on my journal and write down all the things that had happened, because these were not things I wanted to forget about when I was old and couldn't remember anything. It was going to be fun to read all about my first job, that part I was sure of.

  Today the most amazing thing ever happened and it was right when I wasn't expecting anything. John, who is one of the dog people, offered Mimi, Max, and Sammy and me a job to do dog walking. The two great things about this job are that we get paid and that it proves that I am responsible and dependable at 100 percent. Mom and Dad will get me a dog for sure!

  I was just finished writing my journal when I heard Oliver barking. I couldn't see Mrs. Witkins anywhere, but then I saw Mr. Hurley walking down the steps with Oliver. The next thing I thought in my head was the perfect idea to help Mr. Hurley, and that is because my empathy power was just suddenly working.

  My thought was "Poor Oliver, if only Mr. Hurley let him eat garbage. Then he wouldn't die from not eating." This may not sound like an amazing idea, but it really was, and it was an idea that could save Oliver's life.

  I ran downstairs and made Dad come across the street with me so I could talk to Mr. Hurley. I was a little bit scared because I knew that Oliver didn't like me, and Mr. Hurley does not seem super friendly either. But when you are using your superpower, you really can't worry too much about stuff like that.

  MY EMPATHY SYMBOL IF I HAD A SYMBOL LIKE SUPERMAN'S

  AN IDEA THAT COULD SAVE A LIFE

  I decided to say the idea reall
y fast—that way Dad and I wouldn't have to stand there, with Oliver not liking me, for very long. So I said, "Mr. Hurley, I think you should try hiding Oliver's food outside on the street. That way when you take Oliver for a walk he will think it's garbage and eat it." Mr. Hurley was totally surprised! He asked me what my name was and then he said, "Grace, I don't know how you thought of it, but I think I'm going to have to try your idea right now. If you'll excuse me, I have some food to hide. Thank you so much for thinking of Oliver."

  Dad and I walked back to the house and Dad was looking at me like he was surprised too and he said, "You know, when I was a kid I really liked dogs too." This was a great moment, because Dad's non-animal person outside shell was suddenly peeling off, and he didn't even notice it yet.

  WHAT MR. HURLEY DID

  I went upstairs and spied on Mr. Hurley from my window. I wanted to see if he was really going to do my idea. If I didn't know what he was doing, I would have said that Mr. Hurley looked like a big litterbug! He was walking around outside dropping food in little piles on the sidewalk and by the curb. After he was finished, he brought Oliver out. At first I couldn't tell what was happening or if it was working, but then when Mr. Hurley walked under one of the streetlights, I could see that he was smiling. Oliver was truly a garbage-loving dog. He even loved pretend garbage.