When Dogs Cry by Markus Zusak Read Free Book Online

load of people what he’d just told me. I couldn’t be sure. As usual.
    Finally, when I got out of the car, I wondered if anyone knew my brother. I wondered if Sal knew him.
    I just knew that Steve was talking to me that day and it felt okay.
    No, it felt good.
    When he left, I waved to him but he was already halfway up the street. In the house, Octavia was sitting in our kitchen.
    Rube wasn’t.
    They were as good as over.
    She looked beautiful.

    Â 
    alley boys
    There must be thousands of alleys in here, in this city of my mind.
    Dark alleys everywhere.
    In each one of them there are people fighting, cutting each other down and placing punches and kicks to bodies that have already fallen.
    We go past each one, watching and learning that some people are beaten down for good, and that some get up and keep fighting . . .
    Finally, we arrive in an alley that’s empty. It’s alone and uncaring, and a slight breeze wades across the floor of it. It whispers to the rubbish, then picks it all up and moves it along.
    Just like I have been.
    Right now.
    By this dog.
    He skulks away as a group of young men enter the alley.
    Only their footsteps speak as they approach me and throw me immediately to the ground. They level their fists and feet at my face, and at my body.
    My ribcage shatters.
    My heart fights to stay in.
    I look to the dog, pleading for help, but nothing arrives.
    The help’s already here.
    It’s in the hands, the feet, the breath-covered voicesof my attackers, and when they leave, they step over me and walk back up the alley as if nothing has happened.
    My blood runs.
    The road is cold.
    The dog shows up above me, looking down. He makes me think of all the other beaten down people in the alleys. All the winners. All the fighters. All the losers. And all the ones that refuse to lie down.
    He waits.
    He watches me.
    It takes a while, but I get to my feet.
    I look at him
—
a decision has to be made.
    Desire reaches through me.
    It fills me up.
    Spills over.
    It catches fire in my eyes and I look up through the alley. I start walking across the pain, deciding all the time. Choosing. Knowing.
    Telling the dog that I’ll fight.
    With desire written in my eyes.

6
    T HREE WORDS:
    God damn Miffy.
    I wasn’t really in the mood for walking him, especially when I had to wait around quite a while for Rube.
    At first, I sat in the kitchen with Octavia.
    She didn’t look too impressed with things, considering she and Rube were supposed to be going out that afternoon. It must have slipped Rube’s mind. At least, that was what I told her. Me though? I knew. Rube was away from her on purpose. I’d seen him do this before.
    Come in late.
    Argue.
    Tell them he doesn’t need this garbage.
    It was a pretty good technique for Rube. He didn’t mind being the villain.
    There were leftovers on offer, but Octavia didn’t stay for them. I walked out with her and we remained on thefront porch a while, talking, and even managing to laugh now and then.
    I took off my jacket and offered it to her. She accepted it, and soon after she said, ‘It’s warm, Cam.’ She looked just past me. ‘It’s the warmest I’ve felt for a while . . .’
    In a way, I hoped she wasn’t just talking about the jacket, but it was better not to think like that. When you think like that, you end up standing outside people’s houses, waiting for something that never comes.
    Either which way, she gave it back when we walked down to the gate and I opened it for her.
    The moon was stuck to the sky and Octavia said, ‘There’s no point coming back really, is there?’
    â€˜Why?’ I replied.
    â€˜Don’t why me Cameron.’ She looked away and glanced back. ‘It’s okay.’ Even when she leaned onto the gate with her hands and her voice became unsteady, Octavia looked great, and I don’t mean that in a dirty kind of way. I just mean