Free Notes From a Liar and Her Dog by Gennifer Choldenko Page A

fence, trying to grab him. My fingers graze his fur, but I get hold of nothing.
    “What? What? Are you nuts?” Just Carol screams. I hear her rubber boots pounding toward me.
    I am flat on the dirt with my arm as far under the fence as it will go. “PISTACHIO! PISTACHIO!” I call. The chain link is tearing my arm. I try to push closer to Pistachio. I touch his fur again, trying to grab ahold, but he jumps out of my reach. Just Carol tugsat my other arm. “GET YOUR ARM OUT OF THERE!” she cries.
    “LET GO!” I scream. The lion is there now. She has covered the ground in a flash. She lets out a terrifying roar and sails through the air. Pistachio is bark, bark, barking. I snap my eyes shut and yank my arm back without even thinking. I can’t help myself. It’s pure fear. Then I force myself to open my eyes. Oh, my God. She’s eaten him. I hear a terrible noise as if someone is sobbing or moaning. It’s coming from me. I want him back. I have to hold him again. I will do anything for this, and then I feel a scratching at my boot. I look down and there he is. Panting hard, wagging his tail a million miles an hour, looking eagerly at me as if he has just had a lot of fun.
    “Holy Jesus!” Just Carol says.
    I pick up Pistachio and hold him tight against me. I am never going to let him go again. I smell his dog smell, like leaves burning. He licks my finger with his small, wet, raspy tongue. The lioness is still watching him. She is pacing on the other side of the fence. Back and forth. Back and forth. I shudder. My whole body feels stiff, as if I’ve taken a hard fall. And my arm is bleeding a little where I scratched it on the chain link.
    “What the hell were you doing?” Just Carol asks.
    I don’t say anything. I don’t feel able to explain right now. I don’t think my mouth will work. All I know is that Pistachio is here with me. I stroke his fur. He curls his body against mine and licks my hand all over as if it’s dirty and he needs to make it clean. He seems proud of himself. I would hate him for thisif I weren’t so glad to have him safe. I’m shaking, I’m so grateful he is all right.
    Just Carol is watching me. She is very quiet.
    I get my coat, put it on, and pour Pistachio back in the pocket.
    “So,” she says. She’s not moving. Not blinking. She is so still, I wonder if she is even breathing, but then I see her eyes are jumping mad. “He’s been there all morning,” she declares in a hard little voice.
    She’s walking now, and my legs are moving, too. We go around to the front and step in the bleach tub and walk down to the main zoo, through the gate that says Danger: Do Not Enter.
    Just Carol doesn’t say anything else. I steal a glance at her, wondering what will happen now. Her face is blank, it’s only her teeth that give her away. They grind as we walk.
    We are approaching the big feed room and the locker room. Harrison is sitting with Mary-Judy and three keepers at a picnic table just outside the door of the kitchen.
    A khaki man is walking behind us. “Hey, what was all that commotion over by the lions?” he asks.
    “What commotion?” Mary-Judy’s hand freezes, holding the waxed paper from her sandwich.
    “I don’t know…sounded like maybe a keeper was in there.” The man laughed.
    “Yeah,” said Just Carol. “It was Peggy. She climbed a tree after a squirrel. It was something.” Just Carol smiles.
    “Oh, is that all.” Mary-Judy relaxes. “Did she get it?”
    “Nope. Got to a high skinny branch where Peggy couldn’t get her.”
    “Treed her, huh? Well, it’s only a matter of time, then. That Peggy, she’s good. I’ve seen her climb halfway up the chain link to get a squirrel. Scared me to death. I had maintenance double string the top of the whole exhibit after that.”
    “Well, so long as it’s not you up there in that tree, Mary-Judy.” The man laughs.
    “If it is, you’ll be the first to hear about it, Joe.” Mary-Judy takes a banana out of her