Free Shiloh Season by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor Page A

wonder if he's even breathing.
    "See?" chirps Dara Lynn. "He won't even come out!" and she points to the steps. I could have drowned Dara Lynn.
    Judd goes over to the side and gets down on all fours. I'm just close enough I can smell the beer on his breath. Don't think he's drunk, but he's been drinking.
    "Here, you!" Judd yells, and whistles again. "Come on outta there, boy! Come on!"
    I'm wondering what Shiloh's thinking right now. Does he think I'm lettin' this man come get him?
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    Stay there, Shiloh, I whisper. But I'm remembering the way he looked first day I found him back in the weeds over near Judd's, crawling along on his belly. Only thing that brought him to me was to whistle. What if he's so scared of Judd, of what will happen if he doesn't obey, that he comes out? Am I going to just sit here and let Judd take my dog, even for ten days? Will Dad let him?
    I'm glad to see that nothing's happening. Shiloh's probably scrunched up in the far corner beneath the steps as far away as he can get.
    Judd gets up off his hands and knees, cussing to himself, and goes to get the clothes pole. He comes back with it, ready to poke my dog out.
    "No!" I say again, and this time I stand up. "You ain't goin' after my dog with that pole."
    "Now, Judd, put that down." Dad gets up too, and his voice is strong. "That dog belongs to Marty now and you don't have permission to take him. I know you're upset about your dogs getting loose, but acting this way is not going to help."
    And Ma says, "We got a daughter with a bite on her arm, but we're not going to press charges, so there's no 'cause for us to be mad at each other."
    Judd stands there a full fifteen seconds, the pole in his hand. He glares at Dad. Then at me. He even glares at Ma and the girls.
    Suddenly he throws the clothes pole to the ground.
    "I ain't through with you, Ray Preston," he says. "I know you and that boy are behind this, I'll bet a week's pay. You ain't heard the last from me, you ain't seen the last, and I'm tellin' you now you'll be sorry."
    He goes back across the yard, gets in his pickup, turns
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    around on our grass, and with a loud roar and a squeal of tires, he barrels on down our driveway, the dust from the gravel rolling off to the left.
    Shiloh creeps out and comes up the steps, tail between his legs. He huddles against me, 'bout as close as he can get, and I put my arm around him.
    We don't say a word, none of us. Just sit there watching that cloud of dust till Judd gets out to the road again and makes his turn.
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    Twelve
    Everybody's talking about Judd's dogs the next day on the school bus. Dara Lynn, of course, had to go up and down the aisle showing off the place where Judd's black-and-white dog had bit her. To hear Dara Lynn tell the story, it had her arm in its teeth and had twisted it almost off before Ma whacked the dog with the clothes prop.
    It was Michael Sholt's daddy who caught the black-and-white dog. After that the two other dogs scattered and were soon picked up. Michael's daddy said if someone else hadn't let loose Judd's dogs, he might have been mad enough to do it himself, on account of Judd's running into his mailbox twice. Guess there were a lot of folks starting to get mad at Judd Travers.
    We all felt bad about the cat, though. Belonged to Mrs. Donaldson over there near Judd. Sarah heard that the cat had just been sitting out on the steps, sunning itself, when
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    those dogs got hold of it and broke its neck. I reckon Mrs. Donaldson buried it back in her private cemetery with the rest of the Donaldson. Don't know how many of 'em were cats.
    Fred Niles heard that it was the man who'd got in a fistfight with Judd down in Bens Run who went up there and turned those dogs loose while Judd was at work, but I don't know that anyone could prove it.
    David Howard's imagination gets going, though, it just never stops. After he got on the bus and heard the story about Mrs. Donaldson's cat and Dara Lynn's arm and the man from Bens Run, he