Movie For Dogs by Lois Duncan Read Free Book Online Page B

ones.”
    That scene dissolved, and Aunt Alice appeared with Frisky.
“At-choo!”
She sneezed so hard that she almost blew the mask off.
    “Mrs. Rinkle’s allergies were making her life miserable,”
Andi’s voice informed viewers.
“She knew she could not survive with a shed filled with dogs. So she left them behind and moved to China, where most of the dogs are hairless.”
    “We’re missing a part,” Debbie said. “Where’sthe scene where I grieve for Frisky? That was a good one, because I was wearing Mom’s hair extensions. I looked like a Mid-Evil princess.”
    “I had to cut that scene,” Bruce said. “There are restrictions on the length of the video. I needed to save time for the finale.
And here it comes!
”
    The blue sky onscreen was replaced by a blanket of rose-colored clouds. Then the camera panned down to show a huge ball of fire that was surfacing above the treetops. There was a sound like the breaking of boards (“I got that by snapping a handful of twigs,” Bruce informed them), and Red Rover’s head rose from the top of the shed.
    Andi’s voice took up the narrative:
“Bobby stuck his head out through what was left of the toolshed roof, and he felt the morning breeze, and he smelled good smells that he hadn’t smelled for so long that he had forgotten what they smelled like. He wished that he was a basset so he could bay at the rising sun, but Irish setters can’t do that, so he had to make do with singing to the sun in his heart. Then he jumped down to release his friends from captivity.”
    At that point Tim, who had been crouching behind the facade, had given Red a great boost. Thedog appeared to literally fly off the roof. Then, with his long ears flapping like wings, he descended slowly (“Mr. Talbert showed me how to make that into slow motion,” Bruce said) and landed gracefully in a bed of Mrs. Walker’s best yellow tulips. Bruce had replaced the sound of his voice shouting, “Open, sesame!” with a stirring chorus of “We Shall Overcome.” Red raced to the door of the shed and lifted the latch, and the dogs poured out in what seemed like an endless stream. Bruce had stepped back with his camera to get a long shot of the exodus, and nobody who was unaware of what was happening behind the facade would have guessed that the same dogs were being sent through that door over and over again.
    The music rose to a crescendo, and final credits began to roll.
    Red Rover
    Snowflake
    Lola
    Frisky
    Bebe
    Trixie
    MacTavish
    Fifi
    Foxy
    Curly
    There had been some discussion about whether to place Curly’s name on the list of credits, since he hadn’t actually been in the movie, but they had finally agreed that they should include him as a courtesy. Poor Curly could not help that his owner didn’t bathe him.
    Andi’s voice said,
“The dogs lived happily ever after, and Mrs. Rinkle fell into a volcano in China and was never seen again.”
    Then the screen went black.
    For a moment they all just sat there, too overwhelmed to utter a single word. Then Aunt Alice began to applaud, and the rest joined in, clapping until their palms stung.
    Aunt Alice cried, “Author! Author!” and Andi rose proudly to her feet, feeling as if she were accepting an Academy Award.
    “I want to thank everyone,” she said. “The producers, the actors, and, above all, the wonderful photographer, Bruce Walker!”
    “That film ran fourteen and three-quartersminutes,” Tim told them, consulting his watch. “It’s just the right length. We got in under the wire.”
    “In more ways than one,” Bruce said. “The deadline’s two days from now and we’ve got to include release forms. Everybody who appears in the film or whose voice is heard has to sign one, so that’s Andi and Debbie and Aunt Alice. Do you think we need to get permission from the owners of the dogs?”
    “That might be a good idea,” Aunt Alice told him. “We can’t risk anything that might get this video disqualified.”
    “I’ll