The Invisible Harry by Marthe Jocelyn Read Free Book Online Page B

his new home. Except it wasn’t going to be his home, so it was also his last night. How could I ever have imagined that I could keep a dog a secret? It was kind of thrilling to have a secret from Mom and Jane, but I was exhausted after only two days. I guess I hadn’t realized that a dog is a whole person who can’t live happily in hiding.
    I’d had four minutes from the time my father buzzed till he climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. I grabbed the ingredients together and shoveled them into a plastic bag from under Hubert’s sink. I stopped Harry from chewing the kitchen table leg and put him in my pack, which was getting crowded, by the way. And I issued orders to Hubert, who was standing like a tree in the Petrified Forest.
    “Get the gum. Do you have any money?” He nodded.
    “Good. Get the gum. Chew like crazy all through homework and save the globs, still with flavor, remember? Save them in a Ziploc bag. Do you have Ziploc bags?”
    He nodded.
    “And bring it to school tomorrow. We’ll have to do it at school, first thing. Oh, my God, this means I have to have him at home tonight! Good luck, and make sure you chew enough.”
    There was a knock.
    “Oh, hi, Dad!”
    We had to pick up Jane from her friend Katie’s house on the way home to our loft on Broadway. When we got in, Dad stood for a minute in the doorway, looking around. Then he put down his overnight bag next to the sofa.
    “It’s okay if you sleep in your old bed, Dad,” I said quietly.
    “I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ll be fine out here.”
    “I’m hungry,” moaned Jane. She doesn’t even remember when Dad used to live there, so she didn’t care where he slept.
    “Uh, just give me a minute, sweetie,” said Dad. “I have to find my way around again.”
    I quickly put my pack in my room and released Harry.
    “Stay here,” I whispered. “I’ll be right back.”
    I got Jane a bowl of Kix while Dad unpacked the groceries he’d brought for supper. Once Jane was chewing away at the table, I made my move. I said I wasn’t hungry and that I had loads of homework, and please leave me alone.
    I should explain that our loft used to be a factory in the olden days. Now it’s like an apartment, except with no real walls and no privacy. The only doors are on the bathroom and my mom’s room. Everything else is open.Jane and I live together, hidden from the rest of the space by a half wall as high as my dad’s head.
    So I went to my room, but it’s not like I was alone or anything. It took four seconds to find Harry. He was jumping around and sniffing everywhere.
    I could sort of follow his path, as the Lego tower wobbled, and the revolver from Clue skidded off the board, and the middle of Jane’s bed bounced, and my new fleece slipper disappeared completely until I ran over and got it away from him. I scolded him and took him back to my desk.
    I unpacked my bag, retrieving the squished homework folder and the water bottle from the bottom. Harry lay across my knees like an old lady’s lap rug, panting and adjusting his paws.
    I rubbed his head while I tackled my first worksheet. We had to find definitions for big words from the text we’d read in class.
    Indignant
. That was an easy one, since I feel it ten times a day. I kept stroking Harry while I flipped the pages of the dictionary for the official meaning:
angry at something unworthy, unjust, or mean
.
    Yearning
. Oh, dear.
A longing or desire; desire earnestly.
I was overcome suddenly with an earnest desire to see Harry. I imagined him in the last position I’d actually seen him, with his paws folded over his nose. I yearned for him.
    I pulled up the stopper on my water bottle and had a drink. Harry’s panting became louder, and I could feel those oversize paws trying to stand up on my knees. I tipped the bottle and squirted a dribble of water in the general direction of his mouth so that he’d get the idea. I guess I was thinking he could suck it like a baby, but