chance of her and Dad getting together again—of us being a family. Of course, this one phone call didn’t mean they were going to start dating. And then, I wasn’t feeling too great about Dad anyway. And there was old Phoebe.
“Did he ask you out, Mrs. Halston?” Grace asked, all wide eyed and innocent.
“Oh, well …” Mom said vaguely, but she pinked even more.
I helped her out. “What was that name you wrote down?”
She put the paper down on the table. “Joel Bell. He’s a lawyer. Stephen says he’s good and he doesn’t charge killer rates. Plus, he put in an appeal for another dog, kind of like Riley’s case, a couple years ago, so he has some experience.” She went on telling us things—things Stephen thought. Stephen, Stephen. What was this with saying his name so much?
“What about the other dog a couple of years ago? Did he get him off?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, no.” Mom sat down. “But that was different. The dog had bitten two people and there was some evidence that it had killed sheep.”
I tapped my fingers on the table. “Are we sure that lawyer’s all that great? It doesn’t sound like it.”
“And here’s the very best part.” She touched the paper with her finger. “Stephen says when there’s an appeal, they usually give the dog more time because what if the appeal worked, but it was too late for the dog?”
“How awful!” Grace shuddered.
I couldn’t bear to think about it. I couldn’t.
“What was it you were supposed to tell me?” I asked. “Something else that Stephen said.”
“Oh, yes. He saw Riley this morning, and he’s fine and doesn’t look too unhappy.”
“That’s because he doesn’t know,” I said. “I bet nobody’s told him he only has four dog days left to live.” I felt like I was choking.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to know,” Grace said. She counted off on her fingers. “Four days from now is next Saturday. We’ve got to get started, William.”
“I’m going to call Mr. Bell right away,” Mom said.
We listened again while she talked to the lawyer.
“Absolutely,” she said, and waved for the paper and pencil. “Give me your e-mail address again, please. I’ll send the details right away. Thank you so much for taking us on.”
When she hung up she told us, “Mr. Bell has a son and a dog too. He says he knows how we feel. He’s going to get that appeal in as quickly as possible. It goes to the county commissioners.”
“Who the heck are they?” Grace asked.
Mom shrugged. “Officials. They kind of run the county. They’ll be the ones making the decision.”
That scared me just to think of it. A bunch of people who didn’t know us and didn’t know Riley having all that power.
Grace and I helped compose the e-mail letter.
“Tell the lawyer how unreasonable Peachie was,” I urged.
But Mom shook her head. “That’s not necessary, William. He just needs to have the facts.”
When she’d sent it, Grace and I went up to my room and I showed her my list.
I read it out loud:
‘“Number one. Write to the judge.’” I considered this. “Strike that. ‘Write to the county commissioners. Dear Sirs, et cetera, et cetera.”’
I continued. ‘“Number two. Grace and I both send e-mails to everybody we know and ask them to send e-mails to their friends about Riley and how he needs to have a full pardon.’ And tell them to write to the commissioners. You know, put on the pressure.”
Grace grinned. “Wow! Our own World Wide Web covering Planet Earth.”
‘“Number three. Grace and I make big signs and stand by the bank or by Jane’s Market….’ Somewhere busy, and we’ll have a clipboard and a petition andwe’ll get people to sign it. And then we can send all the names to those commissioner guys, too.”
“Perfect,” Grace said.
“And then …” I stopped. “This is a really great one. When Riley first came, Mom took some pictures of him and some of him and me. In the yard. The film’s
Laramie Briscoe, Seraphina Donavan