Brilliant by Roddy Doyle Read Free Book Online Page A

Gloria.
    â€œWhere now, Rayzer?” she said.
    They were at the gate. They could go left or right, or straight across the road.
    â€œThere are three black dogs on our road,” said Raymond.
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAnd they all live down this way,” said Raymond.
    He pointed right.
    â€œCome on.”
    They ran.
    There was something about nighttime. It seemed to make the noise of their shoes much louder. They could hear their steps bouncing off the walls of all the houses. It sounded like there were other people coming up behind them. Gloria looked, but there was no one else.
    They ran past three more gates, to Mooney’s house. The gate was open. They went—they tiptoed—to the front door. They got down on their knees. Raymond pushed open the letterbox, and, together, they looked through the opening.
    They saw two black eyes—and a tongue. The eyes and tongue belonged to Lulu Mooney. The tongue tried to lick their faces through the mail slot. Raymond was very careful letting the flap of the letterbox back down. Lulu was licking his fingers, and he wanted to laugh. He pushed her nose away with a finger and shut the flap. They could hear little happy whimpers from the other side of the door.
    â€œI don’t think Lulu’s the Black Dog of Depression,” said Gloria.
    â€œNo,” Raymond agreed.
    Lulu started barking.
    â€œRun!”
    â€œI am!”
    They dashed back to the street. They could hear Mr. Mooney from inside the house.
    â€œShut up! Or I’ll go down there and take that bloody bone from you!”
    Gloria stopped running.
    â€œThe funny bone!”
    â€œNo,” said Raymond. “It’s just an ordinary bone. It’s Lulu’s. She’s been minding it for years. And it isn’t funny. It’s disgusting. Come on.”
    They ran to the next house, the Simpsons’. Gloria stopped again.
    â€œThey’re not there,” she remembered.
    Melanie Simpson was in her class at school.
    â€œThey’ve gone away for Saint Patrick’s Day,” she said.
    â€œWhere?”
    â€œDon’t know. To the country.”
    â€œAll of them?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œAmigo as well?”
    Amigo was the Simpsons’ dog.
    â€œS’pose,” said Gloria. “They wouldn’t leave him on his own. Unless they’ve trained him to use a can opener.”
    â€œOkay,” said Raymond.
    They hadn’t moved while they were talking, and they both thought the same thing—it was better to keep moving. While they ran, they felt like they were hidden, or at least harder to see, if anyone—an adult—was looking out a window.
    â€œCome on.”
    They ran to the next house, the O’Driscolls’. The O’Driscolls’ black dog, Fang, slept in a shed in the back. So this was a tricky mission, harder than just opening a letterbox.
    They walked carefully to the side gate. It wasn’t locked.
    â€œSweet.”
    But it was creaky. The hinges were old and rusty. Raymond held the handle so he could lift the gate a little bit and slowly push it forward.
    It worked. The gate made hardly any noise, but the noise it did make was horrible.
    He stopped.
    They waited.
    No lights came on.
    Raymond lifted the gate again and pushed till he thought there’d be enough room for them to slide through.
    They waited again.
    They heard no voices, or feet.
    â€œCome on.”
    They were able to squeeze through sideways, one at a time. Raymond went first, and they crept down the dark side passage. There was lots of stuff in their way: two bikes, a dead fridge, and smaller things that Raymond couldn’t make out.
    â€œCan’t see properly.”
    â€œBrilliant.”
    The shed was suddenly bright.
    â€œNow I can.”
    It stayed bright till they got to the backyard, where it was already bright enough for them to see the things that were in their way: a lawn mower, a wheelbarrow, a fork, an empty bucket. The