Free The Secret Dog by Joe Friedman

the first half of the day. At the end of English, he’d seen her getting up to follow him, but he’d given her the slip in the crowded hallway.
    Now there was just lunch and one more class to go. He headed for the library and was completely absorbed in watching a video showing a dog trainer teaching ‘driving’ when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
    He looked up. Yvonne. Her face was flushed and her lips tight.
    ‘What’s going on?’ she demanded.
    ‘Going on?’
    ‘You know what I mean. You’ve been avoiding me all day. And yesterday.’
    ‘Quiet!’ the librarian shouted. Yvonne flushed even deeper. But she didn’t take her angry eyes off Josh. Everyone in the library was staring at them.
    Josh’s brain felt as if it had short-circuited. Why was Yvonne making a fuss? He was giving her ‘space’, wasn’t he? He couldn’t compete with the likes of Eric.
    Yvonne’s face got darker. Somehow she managedto whisper even louder than she had spoken earlier. ‘I asked, what is going on?’
    Josh blurted out, ‘But you like Eric!’
    For a moment, Yvonne looked bewildered. Then in quick succession, a light came into her eyes, she looked up at the ceiling and sat heavily on the chair next to Josh.
    ‘Is that what this is all about?’
    ‘I didn’t want to get in the way,’ Josh explained.
    ‘Get in the way of what?’
    ‘You and Eric.’
    ‘Me and Eric what?’
    ‘You like him  . . . ’
    Yvonne rolled her eyes. ‘We’re doing a maths project together.’
    ‘He’s smart, like you.’
    Yvonne giggled. The librarian gave her another look. ‘You’re getting me in a lot of trouble,’ she whispered, as she tried to get control of herself.
    ‘I don’t mean to.’
    ‘Do you really think I’d disappear the day after I met your lovely dog?’
    ‘People
do
just disappear  . . . ’ Josh blurted out. And suddenly his eyes started to water. Desperately, he fought back the unexpected emotion.
    ‘Oh,’ Yvonne said.
    His hand felt the whisper of her touch. He turned away towards the computer monitor.
Why
did all these feelings about his mother keep coming up? On the screen, he watched the trainer kneeling, rubbing his dog’s tummy. Somehow this calmed him.
    Yvonne continued to sit next to him, watching him intently.
    The bell rang.
    ‘Are you okay?’ Yvonne asked.
    ‘He’s really good,’ Josh said, pointing at the trainer in the video.
    Yvonne sighed, nodding. Then she persisted. ‘Are
we
okay?’
    Josh nodded but he didn’t meet her eye. He didn’t trust himself to speak.
    ‘Do you want to walk to music class?’ Yvonne picked up her bag.
    Josh closed the browser and stood.
     
    * * *
    A few days later, Josh powered up the steep valley slope, with Reggae bounding along by his side. Just above the secret valley, he stopped to survey the surrounding area. There was no one in sight.
    Josh knelt down so that he was on Reggae’s level. He could feel the warm sun on his face. ‘Today, you’re going to learn how to drive sheep,’ he told her. ‘That’s when you work on the same side of the sheep as me. In the Gathering, once we’ve collected the sheep, we get behind them and drive them to the pens where they’re tagged and treated.’
    Josh led Reggae down the slope, until they were relatively close to a group of sheep. He stopped. Reggae’s body tensed as she awaited the command to go off to her right.
    ‘Heel,’ Josh said. He took a step forward. Reggae stayed where she was, looking off to their right. Josh turned and gave her a stern look, pointing to his side. Reluctantly, Reggae took a step forward.
    Josh took another stop. Reggae hesitated again. She was still expecting to do an outrun.
    Then, with a terrible shock, Josh became aware of somebody coming over the hill! Somebody with two dogs. He’d been concentrating so much on Reggae, he’d forgotten to keep an eye out.
    ‘Down!’ he whispered urgently and he followed his own command, plunging to the ground. Had they seen him?
Had