3 Heads & a Tail (4 page)

Now
we
'
re h
eading into the park. Heading, h
eading.
..
Yep
,
we
'
re in the park. I love the smell of those flowers and the trees
. Ah,
I could
stay here all day
, but I count my pleasures here by the hour. It
'
s the best part of
my
day – my walkies with Ben.

“
Voof.
”
See
,
he
'
s smiling again because he knows I love it
here
. I hope he brought the Fris
bee. Oh, no, he didn
'
t bring it!
“
Grrrr.
”
Sorry Ben, I
'
m not angry
, really
.
Don
'
t look at me sadly.
“
Voof Voof,
”
wag, wag. Now I
'
m total
ly overdoing my enthusiasm. I hear
bees.
Buzz buzz.
Ah,
not so close.
Get away!
Good bees. Yikes!
“
Voof.
”

Ah, now we
'
re talking. Looky
,
lady doggy, look at her!
She
'
s here every
time
I come
here
. She
'
s a golden Labrador
,
just
like me, but I think she
'
s a bit younger
, maybe four, and so much better looking!
So much!
Ah, o
ff she goes –
every time, every single time, s
he just walks on by
,
never
noticing
. Her owner looks a bit of a hippy girl. Wonder what Ben thinks. Ah, he
'
s staring. He must like the hippy girl. Wonder why she never notices me? We
'
re both golden labs. We
'
re the best dogs around.
“
Voof!
”
Nope
. S
he didn
'
t even blink.
I
'
ll try a bit louder –
“
Voof!
”
Not even
one
ear
perked. Off she goes.
Guess I
'
ll have to live with that
beautiful memory until tomorrow.

“
You ok
ay
,
boy?
”
Ben
asks
, bending down again. He
gives
me a tickle
under
the chin. I love those tickles! As long as she didn
'
t see! Not too doggy manly!

“
Do you want to go home
,
Glen?
”

No, no, nooo
!
“
Voof, voof, voof!
”
I start chasing my
tail again in some crazy circle, which
makes me feel slightly
w
oozy
,
but
it works
because
he
'
s smiling again and letting me off
the lead for a run. Cool!

W
hoosh!
I
'
m off, hurtling across the grass as
fast as my
paws
can carry me, b
ut not in her direction. No way. That would make me a doggy stalker and I
'
m not on
e of those. I
'
m not desperate
a
nd I
'
m running. Freedom! I
'
m
running with the breeze lifting
my ears,
my tongue hanging stupidly
out of my mouth and my tail
whirling in funny cir
cles behind me. Dog
gy
cool
!

Josie str
etched and yawned. Daylight spilled
through
the
curtains. Nice, but a little
bit too bright. Why h
adn
'
t she fixed tha
t? T
hen she remembered
: s
he was in a different room, a new room with
new windows. She
really needed to buy some darker curtains today or
at least some backing for the ones already there
.

The morning was starting a little too early for a Saturday. She snuggled back into the
soft depths of the
duvet, wrappin
g it around her neck and dragging
her feet up towards her waist. Nice and warm
,
and cosy. She would stay like this for at least an hour longer. Sighing
,
she pulled the cover over her head. There was more than one way to block
out
sunlight!

W
hat was that? The blissful silence was sliced by the grizzled sound of a loud, dull bass. Ugh. She pulled the duvet
over
her ears. Go away! But the bass carried on. It even seemed to get louder. Put a sock in it
,
man, she thought, people are trying to sleep. More importantly,
she was trying to sleep! Josie added earplugs to
her shopp
ing list for the day. Annoyingly, the
bass took a swerving, eeling tone and became even louder.

That
'
s it
, she thought.
Launching
the duvet, she grabbed her dressing gown and wrapped it round her waist. Peering in the mirror, she thought she really
could
ha
ve done with
that extra hour of sleep
. Josi
e grabbed her bag of toiletries and
toothbrush, stifled a yawn,
slipped her feet into her
fluffy
purple slippers and wandered
trance
-like
to
wards
the bathroom.
It was far too early
for this
.
She pressed down the handle of the bathroom door and pushed it open.

“
Yow
-ow
!
”
issued
a somewhat manly scream from behind the door.

“
S
-s-sorr
y!
”
Josie
stammered,
shocked into wakefulness
. Luckily
,
the room was full of steam, but the door was directly opposite the shower. In her sleepy state she could see Ben
'
s worried expression peering through the shower curtain he had somehow
managed to grab and wrap around himself
in the nick o
f time.
Rather than thinking how embarrassing
it
all
was
, she was amazed at the man
'
s lightning reactions. What dexterity! If the situation had been reversed he would have s
een all of her morning glory – or
not so glorious
, she thought, remembering
her crumpled image in the mirror.

Inside the bathr
oom, Ben cowered for a few
seconds, listening to
Josie
'
s
f
ootsteps
fade
away
. Dripping water, h
e legged it to the doo
r
and pushed the lock along. N
ow there was a girl in the house
,
he was going to have to be
a bit more careful. Poor girl!
S
he
'
d only just moved in and she
'
d almost seen his morning rise! Shame it wasn
'
t the other way round, he
thought
. He smirked
,
and then told himself off for being so disgusting and chauvinistic. That
'
s something
he
'
d
expect from Dave
.

About an hour later,
a
showered, somewhat
more
awake and
refreshed
Josi
e wandered down
stairs to be greeted
by an
excited
,
hairy animal.

“
Well
,
hello Glen, he
y!
”
she said, bending down and giving the dog a big hug. He replied by wagging his tail, his tongue rolling out of his m
outh. His bright eyes widened – b
ig
,
brown pools. They were so shiny.
“
Who
'
s a good boy?
”

“
Well it certainly isn
'
t me as I forgot to
lock the bathroom door!
”
said Ben, sticking his head out of the kitchen.
“
I
'
m sorry.
I promise to start remembering!
”

Josie grinned.
“
That
'
s ok
ay
. I didn
'
t see anything –
honest!
I was amazed at your speed – how did you manage to grab the curtain in time? I
'
m sure I wouldn
'
t have!
”

“
My
amazing,
inhuman reflexes – n
ah,
I think I was just lucky.
”

Glen looked up with a quizzical expression. So she
'
d almost seen him in the sh
ower?
I bet he wishes it had been the other way round!
He let out a small whine.

“
What
'
s up
,
boy? You want to go out?
”
asked Ben, noticing him staring.

“
Voof!
”

“
I think that
'
s a yes!
”
said Josie.

“
Want t
o come for
a
walk?
”

“
You know, that
'
s not a bad idea,
”
she replied.
“
But first I could kill for a cup of coffee.
I
'
m still waking up!
”

Glen
'
s ears perked up and he scurried off into the lounge.

“
Was it something I said?
”
Josie
laughed
.

“
Yeah,
'
cos
he
speaks English!
”
grinne
d Ben.
“
I think he
'
s just dying to go out
.
”

“
I better hurry up and find that coffee then!
”
said Josie, opening another cupboard.

“
Here,
”
said Ben, placing a mug in front of her.

“
Thanks,
”
she said, looking up. He had really nice eyes, she thought, and then erased the thought straight away. No
!
We live in the same house
, she told herself
. Forget it.

Twenty minutes later, Ben was being dragged down the steps by a very enthusiastic golden Labrador doing tail spins, with Josie hopping down behind them. She couldn
'
t help laughing, watching their bums boing-ing down
wards
.
She
squinted under the glare of the shimmering yellow sun.
July
was her fa
vourite month, most definitely; it was
so bright and cheerful.
Green leaves
twisted in the breeze, which was warm but
had
a refreshing edge. She liked
the look of this street. C
lean and quiet,
lined by trees
,
it was kind of old-fashioned.