The Invisible Harry Read online

  “You’re Jody?” asked Sam. “You’re the whiz kid?” He looked impressed.

  “Congratulations, Jody!” said my father. “Whatever you won, I’m sure you deserved it.” He was trying to talk normally, but he was surrounded by large, sniffing dogs. His ankles must give off some enticing scent. Jane begged the leads from Sam, and they were soon hopelessly tangled.

  A taxi pulled up at the curb.

  “Yikes!” said Hubert.

  My mother climbed out.

  Jane dropped all the leashes to hurl herself at Mom. The barking doubled as the dogs realized they were free and tried to pull apart.

  “Quite a reception!” laughed my mother, hanging on to Jane and tugging her bag out of the cab at the same time.

  Sam and Jody called the dogs firmly to attention and sorted out the leads, while Harry watched, panting.

  “Welcome back, Mary,” said my father.

  She gave him a cheerful, polite smile. It was hard to believe they had ever been madly in love.

  “Thanks for taking the girls, Alex,” said my mother.

  I could hardly bear to watch them, even though I was dying to. They were hardly ever together to provide this dilemma.

  My mother focused on me.

  “You’re dressed for the pageant already! But why are you wet?”

  “The pageant’s over, Mommy,” Jane said, as if that explained everything. “They did it this morning.”

  Harry chose that moment to start licking my face.

  “And who’s this?” my mother asked.

  I felt myself fill up with sudden, electric resolve. It was now or never.

  “Mom, this is Harry. He’s, well, he’s—”

  “Hello, Ms. Stoner, I’m Jody,” said Jody, extending her hand, with professional good manners. “My dog, Pepper, is Harry’s mother.”

  “Oh, you must be Hubert’s friend.” My mother remembered my lie after Jody’s original phone call.

  “And I’m Sam,” said Sam, extending his hand. “I work for Billie.”

  My mother’s eyes drilled into mine.

  “Mom.” I cleared my throat.

  “Can we keep Harry, Mommy? Please, pretty please?” Jane jumped to the punch line. My mother’s eyebrows went up. She put her bag down.

  “Mom,” I said again, “I’ve been doing Jody a favor while she tries to find homes for her puppies. But I want it to be us who gives Harry a home. And before you say anything, I’ve had Harry since Saturday night, and—”

  My mother shot a look of irritation at Dad. “Oh, Alex, how could you? You have the common sense of a, of a puppy dog! We agreed we would discuss—”

  “Mom!” I interrupted. “You’re not letting me tell you! You’re just flipping out at Dad instead of listening to me. I’m the person who’s talking to you. I’m the person you live with!”

  There was silence.

  “You’re right, Billie. But it’s my house. Don’t I get to choose how many … living creatures I have to look after?”

  “But you don’t have to look after him. That will be my job. With some help from Sam. And Jane,” I added quickly.

  “I’ll tell you the truth, Mary,” my father said placidly. “These kids did such a good job 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 gently onto 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

  Okay, the bad part is that I had to buy Alyssa a new pair of ugly shoes from Delia’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’ll never 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 Data

  Jocelyn, Marthe

  The invisible Harry

  eISBN: 978-1-77049-038-3

  I. Carter, Abby. II. Title.

  PS8569.0254I585 2000 jC813’.54 C98-931329-8

  PZ7.J63In 2000

  We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the

  Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.

  We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada

  through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our

  publishing activities.

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