Free The Dog Days of Charlotte Hayes by Marlane Kennedy Page A

breaths; then whoever it is says, “I’m calling about the Saint Bernard for sale.”
    Oh, Lord. Daddy must have already put an ad in the paper. He just mentioned it two days ago! I thought I’d have more time to talk things over with him.
    There’s another raspy breath. No way I’m letting someone who sounds like Darth Vader buy Beauregard.
    â€œYou must have the wrong phone number,” I say.
    There is an abrupt “sorry,” then a click.
    I hang up the phone.
    â€œWhat was that about?” Mama asks.
    I shrug. “Some guy asking for someone named Mary.” I say a silent prayer Darth Vader doesn’t call back.
    The Greater Oaks Record is lying on the kitchen table. I busy myself with reading the funnies until Mama and Justin Lee leave the room. Then I flip through the pages until I find the classifieds. I follow my finger up and down through columns of tiny print until I come across the pet section. Andthere it is. Daddy’s ad. It simply says: “Saint Bernard $350.00 or best offer.” Underneath it is an ad for a golden retriever. It says: “Great disposition, loves children, needs a large yard, good home only, references required.” I close the paper wishing Daddy would have at least mentioned “good home only” just like the other ad. “Or best offer” sounds like he is trying to sell a car. Who knows who else will be calling besides Darth Vader? Maybe the Wicked Witch of the West; she wasn’t exactly kind to Toto.
    Â 
    I spend the next hour hanging out in the kitchen by myself. It’s boring just sitting at the table—I finished my cereal long ago and every article in the paper, too—but I want to reach the phone before anyone else can, just in case it happens to ring again. But there has been nothing but silence.
    I find a pencil in our kitchen junk drawer so I can draw on the borders of the comic page. I sit back at the table and create little pictures of Snoopy, Beetle Bailey, Garfield, and Hagar the Horrible. Soon there is no white space left. I begin wondering if I shouldrun upstairs to grab my library book, even though I can’t seem to get past the third chapter. At least it would be more interesting than the city council meeting notes I read earlier. I’m desperate for anything to pass the time—
    A shrill sound makes me nearly jump out of my skin.
    The phone. I stumble to my feet and make a mad dash for it, but Agnes whips around the corner, out of nowhere, and grabs it before me.
    â€œHello?” she says, all breathless and hopeful.
    I’m standing next to her, staring, my heart pounding.
    She frowns at me and cups her hand over the receiver. “It’s Tom,” she says. “Go away.”
    I figure she will be on the phone for a while, so I slip upstairs for my book.
    After Agnes finally finishes talking to her true love (at least for the moment), I settle in at the kitchen table, open my book, and before long I finally get sucked into the story. It’s turning out to be a good book after all. Maddie, the main character, who isselfish and has always had servants taking care of her, has become lost in the woods. It’s starting to get cold and dark. She’s hungry. And she needs to use the bathroom—
    Uh-oh, I suddenly realize I need to use the bathroom, too.
    I stare at the phone and try to wait it out, but after ten minutes I can’t stand it. I bolt for the downstairs half bath, and the second I’m sitting on the toilet with my jeans below my knees the phone rings. I mutter a word my mama wouldn’t approve of and jump up, pulling my jeans back to my waist. I fling the door open, but it’s too late. I hear Daddy’s voice booming “hello.”

Chapter 18
    â€œY es,” I hear Daddy say, “he’s a purebred. I have his AKC papers.”
    I run full speed over to him, never minding my still-full bladder, and tug on his sleeve.