Read Online The Genie of Sutton Place by George Selden - Free Book Online Page B

just yesterday.”
    â€œWhy, Sam—” I was rather disappointed—“I thought you enjoyed them.” That was the first time I learned there was more to Sam than Sam.
    â€œWell, I don’t,” he said. “I put up with them only because I knew you liked them so much.”
    â€œBut it’s different for men.” I thought I could coax him into it. “And I’d like a bath, too. Wouldn’t you, Dooley?”
    â€œYes, master!” said Dooley enthusiastically. “I used to visit the Wizard’s Chamber of Steaming Delights frequently.”
    â€œI think a local Turkish bath will do enough for now,” I said.
    We found one in midtown and went in. That was really a happy two hours! I’d never been to a steam bath before, with all the white tiles shining. At first I didn’t like the steam room—and neither did Sam—but Dooley enjoyed it so much, slapping himself around and dashing from a hot shower into a freezing cold one, that Sam and I caught the fun of it, too.
    â€œHow do you like it, Sam?” I asked.
    â€œIt’s great!” Of course he knew better by now, but he threw back his head and barked for the heck of it.
    That brought the bath attendant in. “You got a dog in here?” he asked suspiciously.
    â€œNo, sir!” said Sam, very earnest now. “There’s nobody here but us humans.”
    That set the three of us off on a binge of laughing.
    They had a swimming pool, too. To begin with, Sam could only do the dog paddle, but in half an hour Dooley and I had him managing the Australian crawl.
    Then came cleanup time. Dooley got a razor and scissors from the attendant and gave Sam a shave and a haircut. He still looked pretty scraggly. I asked Dooley why he just didn’t do it all by magic, and he said there was no point in doing by magic what you could do by hand. Which makes sense. The only magic he did right then was to snap his fingers and find in one hand a little vial—“containing a very sweet scent,” he said, “distilled from the Wizard’s spice garden,” which he proceeded to slap all over Sam’s face. Among other things, Dooley proved to be an excellent barber.
    I got to comb Sam’s hair. I always liked to brush him—when he was a dog, I mean—and he must have known, because he bent over obediently, and we tried the part on both sides. We all preferred the left. “There!” I said. “Now I call that a handsome man.” And he was, too. He still had something of a stomach, but not too much, in my opinion. “It’s time to go home.”
    Sam whimpered dismally.
    â€œSam, stop that!” I said. “Dooley fixed your voice.”
    â€œI know,” he groaned, man-style now, “but I’m scared.”
    â€œThe whole point of making you a man was so I could still own you. That is—keep you.” I felt queasy about owning Sam the man. “I mean—so we could be together. Isn’t that right?”
    â€œYes, Tim.”
    â€œWhat we’ll do is, we’ll tell Aunt Lucy that you’re an old friend of Lorenzo’s. Because that’s true enough to say, isn’t it?”
    â€œOh, yes!” said Sam. “Ever since that first day when he found me in the garbage can on Bleecker Street.”
    â€œWell, we don’t need to tell her that! There’s no point in being too honest. We’ll say that Dooley and I just ran into you while we were driving around this morning.”
    â€œDo you think she’ll like me, Timmy?” Sam was worried. “You know—as a man?”
    â€œI don’t know, Sam,” I said. “But I hope you make a better impression than you did as a dog.”
    During the drive back to Sutton Place we all were quiet. The Cadillac was full of Sam’s anxiety.
    And in the elevator, I remembered something else. “Sam, you have to have a last name. What one do you