Moose (4 page)

There wasn’t much in the yoga room, just a futon couch, a thick red rug, and a low table holding a CD player and a stack of CDs. Moose paced up and down, panting and whining quietly. Even with the door closed, Charles could still hear thunder rumbling. He knew Moose could, too.

“I’d sing some more for you,” he rasped to Moose, “but my throat’s too sore.” Charles rummaged through the pile of CDs and found one by the Beatles. Soon, happy, upbeat music filled the room, covering any other sounds from outside.

“That’s better, isn’t it?” Charles asked Moose. They sat on the couch together, Charles with his
legs crossed, and Moose with his front legs on the floor and his haunches up on the couch. Charles had to reach way up to scratch Moose’s big head.

By the time Aunt Amanda came in to bring Charles a towel and some dry clothes, Moose was actually napping, even though the music still blasted. “Good work. I’m glad he’s calmer,” she said. “The storm is nearly over now. It’s moving farther away every minute.”

“I think we’ll stay in here a while anyway,” said Charles. “Can you bring me a deck of cards?” He might as well practice his trick while he sat out the storm with Moose.

Charles changed his clothes while he waited. It felt great to be dry again. Moose’s short fur was already dry, too, after the rubdown Charles had given him with the towel.

When Aunt Amanda came back with the cards, Charles shook them out of their box and shuffled.
Moose woke up and stared wild-eyed at the cards.

“Oh, did that scare you?” Charles asked. “They’re just cards, see?” Gently, he held out the cards so Moose could sniff them. He riffled their edges to make a little sound. Then he shuffled again, trying to do it more quietly. Moose jumped up and began to pace around.

“Sit, Moose,” said Charles. Moose sat, right in front of the couch where Charles was sitting. He stared at Charles, waiting for another command. “Sit, stay, and watch,” said Charles. He shuffled again. Moose’s ears went back, but he stayed put. “Good boy,” said Charles. “Down.”

Moose lay down, his eyes darting between Charles’s face and his hands. Charles shuffled again, and this time Moose didn’t flinch. Having a job to do — even if it was only lying down and staying put — seemed to help. It made Moose
concentrate on something besides whatever it was that was scaring him. It had worked outside in the rain, and it was working again now.

“Good boy,” said Charles. He put Moose through a few more “sits” and “downs” while he shuffled, until Moose didn’t seem to mind the cards at all. In fact, he seemed fascinated by them, and watched every move that Charles made.

Charles began to practice the Count-‘Em-Out trick from his book. First you had to know which card was on top of the deck; then you had to
pretend
to shuffle while keeping that card on top. The whole trick depended on that. Charles put the two of diamonds on top, then tried to shuffle so that it stayed there.

Moose watched closely as Charles shuffled the cards, over and over again. They were both so focused on the cards that Charles was surprised when the Beatles CD ended. He realized that it
was quiet outside. The storm had passed. He got up to put some more music on anyway, since he wanted to keep practicing his trick.

He flipped through the CDs — and then stopped, staring at one of them.
Sounds of Nature
, it was called, and it had a dramatic picture of a lightning strike on the cover. He flipped it over and looked at the contents. “'Rushing Stream,’ ‘Loons Calling at Dusk,’ ‘Crashing Surf,' — hey, look. ‘Summer Thunderstorm,'“ he read out loud to Moose.

Moose ambled over to see what Charles was talking about.

“Maybe we can use this to de-sensify, de-whatever-it-was you to the sound of thunder,” said Charles. Moose cocked his head and stared at him.

Huh
?

“See,” Charles explained, “if I put this CD on with the volume way down, you’ll hear the thunder — but just barely. We can do some obedience things like sit and come and down and stay to keep you distracted while it’s playing. I’ll give you some treats, too. And a lot of petting. Then, little by little, I can turn up the volume — just like I shuffled the cards quietly at first and then more loudly. After a while, maybe you won’t mind the sound of thunder anymore.”

Moose cocked his head the other way. Charles knew there was no way the big pup could actually understand what he was saying. But now Charles was excited. He really thought he might be onto something. Maybe this was the way to help Moose overcome his fears.

Charles and Moose spent the rest of that afternoon in the yoga room. They worked for a while on getting Moose used to the thunder sounds on
the CD. Then Charles practiced his card trick some more, with Moose watching every move. Then they worked on the thunder sounds again. By the time Aunt Amanda poked her head in to say that dinner was almost ready, Charles thought he and Moose were almost ready, too: ready to show off everything they had learned.

“Ready?” As soon as they’d finished dinner and cleared away the dishes and made sure all the dogs were fed and walked and comfortable, Charles held up the deck of cards and waved it at his aunt. His heart thumped and his hands were sweaty. Doing a trick in front of another person was a lot harder than doing it alone, or in front of a dog. “Okay, here’s my card trick. I want you to take this deck and deal out eight cards, just like this.” Charles dealt out eight cards, counting out loud, “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” Then he picked up the little pile, put it on top of the rest of the deck, and handed it over to Aunt Amanda. “Now you do it.”

Moose watched closely as the deck changed hands.

Aunt Amanda paused. “Why eight cards?” Amanda asked.

“Um, because eight is my lucky number?” Charles said. He had already started to worry that the trick was not going to go right. Now he remembered that the bit about his lucky number should have been part of his patter. “Patter” was all the things a magician said while he was working with the cards, and it was a big part of magic. If you talked quickly and made funny jokes, it took people’s minds off what your hands were doing. Mysterioso had excellent patter.

“Okay,” said Aunt Amanda. She got ready to count out the cards, but then she stopped. “So, can I shuffle these?”

Charles gulped. He’d been so nervous, and in so much of a rush, that he had totally forgotten the very first step.
He
was supposed to shuffle
the cards, in front of his audience, so that they would think the cards were all shuffled — even though he knew that the two of diamonds was on top, because he had put it there. He had practiced all day. How could he have forgotten?

Moose stepped forward and nuzzled Charles’s ear.

Everything okay? You seem upset
.

Charles smiled at Moose. The big dog seemed to sense that something was wrong. “It’s okay, Moose. No big deal.” He turned to Aunt Amanda. “Sure, go ahead and shuffle,” he said, even though he knew he had totally messed up the trick.

If he were a real magician like Mysterioso, he would have some other trick he could do now, to cover his mistake. But he had only learned one trick so far, and as Charles watched Aunt Amanda shuffle the cards, he knew he had botched it.
Sure, he could try to set up another card on top of the deck, but it would be hard without her noticing. He would just have to practice a whole lot more until he got this trick right.

“So, now I count out the cards?” Aunt Amanda asked when she was done shuffling.

“Know what?” Charles asked. “Never mind. I want to show you what Moose has learned. That’s better than any magic trick.”

Aunt Amanda smiled and put the cards down. “Great,” she said. “I can’t wait.”

Charles began by telling Moose to sit, then lie down.

Aunt Amanda raised an eyebrow, as if she were wondering what the big deal was.

“That’s not the good part,” Charles said. “Watch this. Stay,” he told the big dog. Charles had brought the CD player into the living room. Now, while Moose lay perfectly still with his huge paws crossed in front of him, Charles went over and
pushed “play,” so that the thunderstorm noises would begin.

Very softly, a rumbling sound filled the room. Charles went back to Moose and had him stand up, then sit again, then heel for a while around the room. He doled out treats from his pocket, along with lots of petting and lots of praise. Moose was doing great. He barely seemed to notice the rumblings and booms of recorded thunder. Each time Charles passed the CD player, he turned it up just a notch. Now Aunt Amanda nodded and smiled as she watched.

Charles took Moose on one more lap around the room, then told him to sit and stay. Moose sat very still, his head tilted and his ears perked, waiting for the next command. Charles walked over to turn up the CD player a tiny bit more, then turned and called, “Come, Moose.”

Moose came charging over in his usual way. But instead of landing in a perfect sit in front
of Charles, he skidded across the bare wood floor. Charles stepped backward to get out of the way and collided with a coatrack, knocking it over with a loud clatter. Moose leapt high into the air.

Yikes-a-rooni! Save me!

The big puppy dashed behind the couch and crouched there, trembling and whining.

Charles groaned. They’d been doing so well. He went over to turn off the CD player — and turned
up
the volume by mistake.
Bang! Crash!
Rolls of thunder and the flash of lightning filled the room. Charles fumbled with the buttons and finally managed to turn the CD off, but by then Moose was trying to get
under
the couch. “Sorry, sorry, sorry, Moose,” said Charles, running over to pet him. “It’s okay. The storm is over. You’re okay.”

Moose trembled and shook.

I’m not so sure about that. The noise is coming to get me!

Aunt Amanda knelt down by Moose, too. “He’ll be fine,” she told Charles.

“But now he’s worse than ever. I ruined everything. All that work we did is wasted.” Charles was so frustrated he almost felt like crying.

Aunt Amanda put her arms around Charles. “No, it’s not,” she said. “It’s just like your magic trick. It takes a long time and a lot of practice to get a trick right. And it will take a long time and a lot of work to help Moose get over his fears. But you’ve made a great start. I can see that. And the Brewers would be able to use your method with all his other fears, too.”

“Moose really is a great dog,” Charles said,
sniffing. “If the Brewers decide not to keep him, I’m going to ask Mom and Dad if we can. I’ve only known him a few days, but he’s already my pal.” Charles blurted it out, surprising even himself. He had not realized until that moment how much Moose already meant to him.

Aunt Amanda raised an eyebrow.

Charles knew what that meant. Good luck convincing his parents that they needed another dog. Especially one the size of a small pony. Especially one who was scared of his own shadow. Charles sighed and trudged off to bed, with Moose tagging along behind him.

Charles woke up early the next morning, just as the sun’s first rays were working their way through the window shades. “Come on, Moose,” he said. “We were cooped up inside all afternoon yesterday. Let’s get outside while the sun is shining.” Who knew how long it would be before the next storm blew in?

He slipped into his jeans and sneakers, clipped Moose’s leash on, and grabbed a banana for himself and a handful of dog biscuits for the big puppy. “I bet we’ll be back before Aunt Amanda even wakes up,” he whispered to Moose, but he scrawled a quick note just in case.
Off to the stream. Be back soon. — Charles and Moose
.

They set off across the meadow, Moose ambling at Charles’s side. The long grass was wet with dew and Charles’s sneakers were soaked through in seconds. But he didn’t care. It was a beautiful morning, totally quiet except for the birdsong echoing from the trees along the edges of the field.

Charles had not forgotten his failures from the night before, but now he could not help feeling better and more hopeful as he and Moose walked along. It was hard to be in a bad mood on such a perfect morning.

They entered the woods, and soon Charles was busy watching his footing on the rocky, rooty path. He remembered being pulled along this very path on his belly just two days earlier, when Moose had freaked out over seeing a snake. “Hey,” Charles said to Moose now. “I just realized something. We passed the spot where the snake was, and you didn’t even pause.” He
reached into his pocket. “Good boy, Moose,” he said, tossing a biscuit into the big dog’s mouth. “Maybe you really are learning.”

Moose snapped up the biscuit and swallowed it within seconds.

Yum! How about another one
?

Charles laughed. “You want another, don’t you?” He tossed Moose one more biscuit. Then they walked on down to the little pool by the waterfall, and Moose waded in and took a long, slurping drink.

The sky was still blue overhead, so Charles decided to follow the stream a little farther, just to see where it went. “Come on, Moose.” He tugged on the leash when the big dog hesitated.

We never went that way before. Will it be scary
?

“It’s okay, Moose. I’ll take care of you,” said Charles. “Let’s go.” He tapped his thigh and Moose began to trot at his side as they made their way through the ferns and mossy boulders along the little stream.

Soon they came out into a little clearing. The stream trickled along one side and deep woods grew up along the other. “I don’t see a trail,” Charles said to Moose. “I guess we’d better go back.” But just as he turned around, something stepped out of the woods. An animal — a
big
animal. What was it? A deer? A horse? Charles felt his heart pounding hard. Then it dawned on him: it was a moose! A real, live, hairy brown moose, with antlers and everything. It was huge, way bigger than Charles ever could have imagined.

The moose did not look their way as it strode toward the stream. Charles froze. If they were very quiet, and if they did not move, maybe it
would not see them. If it did, what would it do, Charles wondered? Would it charge them? Charles did not know anything about mooses. Meese? Mice? He giggled nervously, realizing he didn’t even know the right term for more than one moose. Then he realized he’d better make sure
his
Moose didn’t freak out. “Sit,” Charles whispered to Moose.

Moose sat instantly at Charles’s side, looking up at him for further instruction. “Good boy. Stay,” whispered Charles.

The real moose must have heard him. It swung its huge head in their direction and began to move slowly toward them, its long legs bending in the most peculiar way as it ambled along.

Moose the puppy did not freak out. He did not try to run away. He did not whine and cower behind Charles. Instead, he scooted around so that he was sitting between Charles and the approaching animal.

Don’t worry. I’ll protect you
.

A second later, the moose seemed to lose interest. It veered off toward the woods and disappeared into the thick undergrowth.

“Oh, Moose.” Charles knelt down to throw his arms around the big dog. “You were so brave.” Charles hugged Moose for a long time, until his pounding heart settled down. No dog had ever done anything like that for him before. Then he and Moose ran as fast as they could, all the way up the trail, through the meadow, and back to the cabin.

“Aunt Amanda!” Charles was already talking as he burst through the back door. “You won’t believe what happened. Moose is the bravest puppy ever!” He stopped short when he saw that there were three other people in the kitchen: a man, a woman, and a little girl.

Moose galloped over to the girl and began to cover her face with huge, slobbery kisses. He towered over her, but she didn’t seem frightened. Instead, she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his neck. “Moosey!” she said. “I missed you.”

Charles looked at his aunt. “Charles, these are Moose’s owners, the Brewers,” she said. “They have been missing Moose so much that they decided to drive all the way up here this morning to get him.”

“But I thought —” Charles began.

Al Brewer nodded. “We weren’t sure we could deal with Moose’s fearfulness anymore. But when he was gone this weekend the house felt so empty. We realized how much a part of our family he really is. We talked about it, and decided we want to do whatever it takes to keep him.” He gave Charles a curious look.
“What did you mean about Moose being brave?” he asked.

Charles spilled out the whole story, and Aunt Amanda chimed in with her own stories about all the training Charles had done with Moose. “He really has worked magic,” she told the Brewers. “I think you’ll find that Moose is already well on his way to being a happier, more confident puppy.”

Mr. Brewer shook Charles’s hand. “We’re very grateful to you,” he said.

Charles tried to answer, but there was a lump in his throat. He was happy for Moose, but sad for himself. He knew his parents would probably never have agreed to keep the big pup, but he had allowed himself to dream about it.

Mrs. Brewer smiled at Charles. “You can visit him anytime,” she said, as if she had read Charles’s mind. “We’ll need you to help us learn how to work with him.”

Then the whole family surrounded Moose, petting him and kissing him and telling him how happy they were to see him again. Charles knew just how they felt about Moose, because he felt the same way about Buddy. He would miss Moose a lot, but he knew that the big puppy was going back where he belonged, with his forever family.

He reached into his pocket for his deck of cards. Caroline looked like someone who would enjoy a good magic trick.