The Secret Dog by Joe Friedman Read Free Book Online Page A

the rest away  . . .
    Without thinking, he whistled. After a moment he recognised the tune. It was ‘The Harder They Come’. He smiled to himself.
    He started chopping the now (relatively) clean carrots. His uncle came into the kitchen, wearing a clean shirt and trousers, his hair still wet from a freezing cold shower. His uncle thought these showers helped you avoid colds. He was a pretty good advertisement for this theory. He’d only been ill once in the five years Josh had known him.
    ‘What’s left to do?’ Calum asked.
    ‘We just need to clean and steam the broccoli,’ Josh replied. ‘I’ll cook the lamb steaks.’
    Calum nodded, went to the vegetable larder and pulled out a large head of broccoli. It did well on the island, so they ate quite a lot of it. Fortunately, Josh had grown to like it.
    ‘Broccoli’s very good for you,’ his uncle remarked as he put it under the cold tap to clean it.
    ‘Really?’ Josh replied. His uncle told him this almost every time they ate it, roughly a hundred times a year  . . .  He moved to the Aga, pulled down a frying pan, and added some oil to it. As it warmed, he went to the meat fridge and pulled out some lamb steaks.
    The steaks, broccoli and carrots were ready more or less at the same time. Josh took out a couple of large plates from one of the dark cupboards, and put a steak on each. Calum added the vegetables, while Josh removed a couple of baked potatoes from inside the Aga’s oven. A feast. Calum liked having a special meal on Friday night.
    But Josh had a feeling he wasn’t going to enjoy it much.
     
    * * *
    They sat at the small round dining table in silence as usual. The envelope seemed be growing in the rear pocket of Josh’s jeans. He’d fluffed the chance to give it to his uncle before his shower.
    Now he had to wait until the meal was finished. And his uncle would be angry not only about what was in the report but also the delay in giving it to him. But as the fresh butter from his cousin’s farm melted onto the floury Maris Piper he’d collected earlier from the potato store in the cellar, the smell of the food and his hunger helped him put the envelope out of his mind.
    As he watched his uncle mopping up the remaininggravy on his now empty plate Josh knew he couldn’t put it off any longer. He pulled the now heavily crumpled envelope from his back pocket and handed it to his uncle. His hand shook. As soon as his uncle took the envelope, Josh pulled his hand away and sat on it.
    His uncle’s nose wrinkled at the sight of the scrunched-up envelope.
    ‘You should have taken better care of this. It’s from the school,’ he said, as he got up to search the sideboard for his reading glasses. When he found them, he went to his writing desk and found the paper knife he’d inherited from Josh’s grandfather. He came back to the kitchen table, sat down, and slit the envelope open. His big hands carefully took the paper from inside and unfolded it.
    Josh had forced himself to keep breathing as his uncle searched for his glasses, then the paper knife. But now the moment of truth had come. His uncle took his time reading (and probably re-reading) the report. Then he got up, went to the writing desk and pulled out Josh’s last report. He brought it back to the table, and put them side by side. He took his time comparing the two.
    Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he looked up at Josh. His eyes were full of disappointment. ‘Is something wrong at school?’
    Josh shook his head.
    His uncle looked at him steadily. ‘Your attendance has been good.’ Josh knew he must have searched for something positive to say. ‘But, your work in English, history and maths are still unsatisfactory. And your expected level of achievement has gone down, rather than up in the most important subjects.’
     

    Josh knew all this. What he didn’t know, and was waiting to find out, was what his uncle proposed to do about this.
    ‘We’ve talked about this