Tale of a lonely child and a dog named Buddy

A dog named Buddy, who may or may not have been some sort of beagle or hound mixture, lived in a suburban house on a grassy knoll, belonging to the rich relations. He was the color of a sundried mud puddle, kind of a chalky chocolate brown. His was a childless household so all adult adulation was focused on him. The youngest guest to visit his household was a 7-year-old child who cried the entire two-hour ride to the rich relations' house. She suffered from carsickness, and was shy and self-conscious about being chubby because everyone teased her about this.

In the car her older brother rolled up his sleeve revealing his skinny biceps and urged her to make a fist and hit him with all her might then said "Now it's my turn." Her parents were often engaged in ferocious arguments with one another. "You have a smart mouth!" their father would scream, hurling a glass bottle of Welch's tomato juice across the kitchen at their mother, who dodged and ran outside as the juice puddled around the shattered glass on the linoleum floor. Following these incidents they lapsed into silences that lasted for days. Twice her mother, who was the driver in the family, had to pull over so the little girl could throw up, which made her parents twitchy with unspoken annoyance. Her brother tripped her as she was climbing back inside the car, causing her to bump her head. By the time they pulled into the rich relations' driveway, she had dried spittle on her chin and a pink welt on her right temple. One arm was black and blue.

At the rich relations' house folding tables had been set up in the backyard for an outdoor luncheon. Sunlight was soft and weak, blurring the crowns of alders that fringed the property, and the sky was the same shade of gray as the trees' bark. Air particles were clotted with humidity. Rivulets of sticky sweat filled creases in the little girl's throat and mid-section. The hostess had picked red geranium flowers and set them inside slender glass vases; they were the same shade of red as the paper plates, but had a heavy unpleasant odor, like that of a carpet drying out after a floodBut most of the guests it turned out had allergies or were afraid of bees or sunburn, so the meal had to be eaten inside. There was one cousin there, a hazel-eyed girl named Toby with teased red hair who was 12 years older than the little girl. Toby would patiently comb knots out of the girl's fine hair then fix it into a fanciful style she'd seen in a fashion magazineand brought her gifts of dolls she'd outgrown her attachment toBut that summer Toby had something called a fianc, named Arthurand she didn't know anyone else was alive but Arthur, who looked like a movie star, with a lantern jaw and wavy dark hair. Toby's father was a golf pro. He had sunbrowned skin mottled with pink healed skin cancer lesions and taunted the little girl for being chubby, making her the object of all sorts of jokes while he puffed on his cigar and pointed at her.

Buddy lived outside. He did not come into the house but slept in a garden shed under a table bearing gold and green boxes stenciled with the word Miracle on them. The little girl slipped away, into the backyard. Buddy did not know her well; her family was invited to visit about once a year. Yet he didn't growl or charge at her or hide behind the shed when she came toward him. He sat on his haunches, watching her approachShe dropped to her knees a few feet away and studied the dog, as he studied her. She called him by name and his stub of a tail rustled the grass briefly. Suddenly she opened her arms very wideBuddy launched himself at hergetting mud and grass stains all over her "formal" outfit, a pink and yellow sundress with a halter top and ruffled skirt that fit too snugly because she was heavy. She locked him in her pale fleshy arms as he licked at her chin, his

front paws scrabbling against her belly, and they rolled down the grassy hill that way together, scraping over pebbles, skidding on damp grass blades, spinning and spinning through the moist hazy air.