Free The Invisible Harry by Marthe Jocelyn Page B

looking after him this weekend, I hardly even knew he was there.”
    Jane prodded my back. “He didn’t know at all!” she whispered.
    “Just go along,” I muttered back. “He believes his own story. He doesn’t want to admit he didn’t notice.”
    Jody was talking to Mom. “I’ve been very impressed with Billie’s, um, intuition about Harry,” she said with a straight face. “I think she’s a true animal friend.”
    “I gotta say,” said Sam suddenly, “I never knew an eleven-year-old kid who was smart enough to hire a dog walker before. And you can’t send him back now. I got him a present.”
    Sam dipped his hand into his jeans and pulled out a collar. A red leather collar with a medallion on it, engraved with an H.
    “Oh, Sam,” I gasped. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
    “Cool,” said Hubert.
    “Wow,” said Jody.
    Jody and Sam looked at each other like Archie and Veronica in the comic books. I could practically see the little hearts spinning around their heads.
    “So, Mary?” prodded my father.
    I used my final ploy. “Can we make a deal, Mom? Can we have a trial period? And if I do a good job, for a month, or something, I can keep him?”
    My mother sighed. She reached out to touch my hair and let her hand fall gentlyonto Harry’s head. I should have thought of that before. As soon as she felt his silky ears, and his curious nose, her heart would bump just like mine did.
    “Okay, honey. I’ll give you a month.”
    Jane squealed and jumped up and down. Hubert slapped me on the back. Sam and Jody said “Yes!” in unison, clenching their fists in triumph. My father gave her a thumbs-up sign.
    She smiled at us all, with her warm, crinkly-eyed smile.
    “Let’s just see what happens,” she said.
    “You won’t even know we have him, Mom,” I promised. “It will be just like he’s invisible.”

Epilogue
    O kay, the bad part is that I had to buy Alyssa a new pair of ugly shoes fromDelia’s, using my birthday savings. The good part is she hasn’t spoken to me since.
    But Sam I see every day. Harry stays home when we leave in the morning. Sam has the keys and picks him up later. Harry plays with the other dogs on the route, and then Sam delivers him to me after school.
    Sam and Jody have been to the movies twice together, and they walk Pepper with Sam’s clients every Saturday in Central Park. This weekend, I’m going to take Harry uptown for a reunion with his mother. My mom is going to take Jane to the zoo, and I’m just going to, you know, hang out with the big kids.
    My mom and dad are trying to be better with each other. We even all had supper together after Jane’s recorder recital, and nobody said a single mean thing. I’ve read enough magazines to know that only movie stars marry each other twice, so I’m not holding out for that. But it would be nice if my parents could have a conversation. We’llnever be a family living in the same house again, but I think we’ll be pieces of a family that still connect sometimes.
    The best thing is that Harry’s trial period is over. It is hard work taking care of someone smaller than you, but it is
so
worth it. Even Hubert agrees that Harry is the cutest dog. And I added him to my personal coat of arms. My mother has said that he can be mine forever.

Text copyright © 1998 by Marthe Jocelyn
Illustrations copyright © 1998 by Abby Carter
    Published in Canada by Tundra Books,
McClelland & Stewart Young Readers
,
75 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 2P9
    All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced,
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system,
without the prior written consent of the publisher – or, in case of
photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the
Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency – is an infringement of
the copyright law.
    Canadian Cataloguing in Publication