Read Online Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde - Free Book Online

here.”
    “Yeah,” she says. “But now I live here.”
    Bruno is already snoring. Also, it doesn’t take long to discover that flatulence is a Bruno concern. But I know better than to complain. I snore sometimes, and Chloe doesn’t make me sleep out in the snow.
    It’s a few months later. Nearly spring. I’m on my way to check on the old guy, who lets us call him by his first name now. Otis. I’m on my way to check on Otis, because it’s my job. He’s going downhill. Chloe is lying on the bed watching I Love Lucy. We have a TV now, but as far as Chloe is concerned, there’s only one program on, ever. Everything else bores her to tears.
    “I’m going to check on Otis now,” I say.
    “Check on Bruno, too. Okay, Jordy? Will you see if Bruno’s okay?”
    “Why? Doesn’t he seem okay to you?”
    “Not really.”
    “What’s he doing?”
    “Nothing. He’s not doing anything. He just doesn’t feel good.”
    “Well, he’s an old dog, Chlo.”
    “He was old when I met him,” she says. “Today he doesn’t feel good.”
    Otis is asleep, and I have to shake him to wake him up. Even though it’s only a little after seven.
    “Oh, did I fall asleep?”
    “Otis,” I say. “I think there’s a problem with Bruno.”
    “What kind of problem?”
    This is a hard one to field. The kind that only Chloe could put her finger on. But after going out to check on Bruno, I agree.
    He’s not himself at all.
    “I’m not sure, Otis. But I think you need to look at him.”
    “I can’t walk all the way out there.”
    “I could bring him in. If he could just come in this one time.”
    “Well, sure,” Otis says. “If you think it’s serious.” He’s caught the mood of concern from me now. It has him awake and he’s worried. “You think it’s serious, huh?”
    “Yeah, I think so, Otis. I think he’s . . .”
    And then I can’t bring myself to say it. Which is funny, because I faced death every day for years. I came within an inch of it, right before I left this town, and I recently returned to the scene of the crime. I might have even dealt it out to somebody else. But right now, tonight, I can’t make myself say the word.
    “I think he’s in trouble,” I say.
    ❃ ❃ ❃
    When I get back out to Bruno’s run, it’s dark and still pouring rain. At first I can’t find him. At first I think he’s just up and disappeared.
    Like someone or something beamed him out of here.
    But I do find him in time. But of course by the time I find him I’m cold and soaked to the skin.
    He’s managed to crawl into the narrow space between his doghouse and the fence. And there’s no getting in there after him. I have to move the doghouse aside. I have to pull it into the center of the run. It’s been at the end of the run for a long time. It was comfortable there. It had dug a rut for itself. Now I’m cold, wet, and out of breath.
    “Bruno,” I say. His head doesn’t even come up.
    As I take hold of his collar it occurs to me that he might bite.
    Even though he hasn’t bitten me for a long time. Instead he just turns his big eyes up to me. Opens his eyes to the rain. Gives me this look, like, Do I have to, Jordan? I’m tired. Couldn’t I just stay here?
    I encourage him to take a couple of steps. He does. Two.
    Exactly. Then he goes into a sprawl, each leg pointing a different direction, like Bambi on the ice. Except when Bambi did it, it was cute. I give up and carry him.
    Chloe is standing at the front door to Otis’s house, holding the door open for me.
    “Get a blanket,” I say.
    She goes to find one. I stand in the entryway holding Bruno.
    We’re both dripping buckets of water onto the mat. Muscles in my back are straining. My arms are beginning to tremble.
    “Hurry up, okay, Chlo?”
    I can’t bring myself to set him down on the carpet because he’s covered with mud.
    “I don’t even know where Otis keeps blankets. Where do you keep blankets, Otis?”
    “Hall closet,” Otis calls. After a