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“Jack! Jack! Look what I found!” Alex yelled, more excited than she’d heard the kid since his uncle left on his latest business trip.
“Oh?” She called back, turning down the stove and removing the spoon from the pot. She’d learned the hard way that plastic on hot metal could have unfortunate consequences for a soup.
“Yeah, you’ll never believe it, Jack!” The kid’s voice was high pitched with excitement and if it were anyone else, Jack would start worrying about what sort of trouble he’d gotten in to. But Alex is a good kid. And anything that got him to cheer up again in his uncle’s absence had to be a good thing. Right?
As she rounded the corner to the entranceway, Jack saw Alex sitting on the ground with his backpack in his lap and the most ridiculously proud grin on his face. His shoes, she noted, were already properly stored in their cubby. Even in his excitement, he still followed Ian’s strict house rules. really was a good kid.
“Look, Jack!” Alex, if anything seemed even more excited now that she was here. He turned his head back to his bag, pulling at both zippers in his eagerness to show her what was inside, and in the process, jostling the bag quite a bit.
However, as the bag opened, Jack realised, with a growing sense of dread, that movement was not just coming from the hyperactive kid sitting in front of her, but also from the bag itself.
“Look, Jack, look!” Alex practically shouted -- and she was going to definitely have to remind him about indoor voices once this was over. And even without having seen the inside of the bag, she could already tell, that this, whatever exactly this was, was shaping up to be quite a thing.
“Tom and I found him alone in the field and Tom couldn’t take him because Tom’s brother’s apartment doesn’t allow pets and Tom’s parents are super mean. But Ian owns our house, so no one can tell him what he can’t have. And even Tom knew that I could take better care of him. I’ve already started to think about what we can call him. And I’ll take him on walks and feed him and water him. And he’s going to be my very best friend in the whole world! After Tom. And you two of course, Jack! My third very best friend. Look isn’t he the best!”
And now that she was close enough, Jack could see that there was, in fact, really something living inside of Alex’s backpack. As she cautiously pulled the opening of Alex’s bag wider open, she caught a glimpse of two large brown eyes set in a soft, tiny, golden head. And below that, four tiny golden paws and a surprisingly content fluffy tail, for all that the puppy was currently trapped in a school bag.
To say that Jack’s heart didn’t melt would have been a lie. And she was trying to give up lying to herself as her New Year’s Resolution. But as cute as the puppy was, and that was quite cute, there was no way Ian would let him stay. Still, no need to break the kid’s heart prematurely, maybe his uncle would be moved when he saw how much it meant to the kid. Anything was theoretically possible.
Scooping the tiny dog out of the backpack, Jack turned back to Alex. “It was a very brave thing rescuing a dog in need. But we’ll have to ask your uncle about keeping him. Dogs aren’t just a new fun toy, they’re living beings and they need a lot of attention and looking after.”
“I promise that I’ll take good care of him if we keep him. I’ll make sure he doesn’t cause any problems or distract Ian from his work. And I’ll walk him twice a day! No three times, that way he never gets bored. And I’ll play with him all the time to make sure he doesn’t get lonely in this big house. And I’ll feed him really well! And I promise I won’t even try to get him to eat my vegetables for me that I don’t like! I’d be really good at taking care of him. And having a dog would teach me to be more responsible, like Ian always says I should be! Please, Jack! Can I please keep him!”
Setting the dog carefully in the kid’s arms, Jack used her newly freed hand to ruffle his hair, “I know you would be a very responsible pet owner, kiddo, but we have to ask your uncle. He’s the one who gets to make these sorts of decisions. How about we make sure that the dog gets settled in tonight and I’ll text him about it in the morning?”
“Okay! Can you help me make him a bed? We can put it in my room that way if he gets scared of the dark, he can come sleep in my bed.”
“Alright, kiddo. We can see if there are any old pillows or blankets in the linen closet. I don’t think Ian’s even looked inside there for years, so I’m sure we can find something nobody will miss.”
It turned out her suspicion paid off. There were no less than 6 floral printed sheets which Jack had never seen used in the time she’d been living in the Rider house. And while she hadn’t been here forever, 2 years was a long time to never use bedlinens that you cared about.
When she arrived back in Alex’s room, it was to find a very excited puppy and an equally energetic boy playing tug-of-war with what looked like Alex’s pyjama top. She guessed that would be another thing to add to the shopping list.
“Alright, boys. Let’s get the bed set up.”
Some days were hard, and there were days and sometimes weeks when Jack felt overwhelmed with the direction her life had taken: her becoming the (often sole) caretaker for a 10-year-old boy. But moments like this, when Alex’s smile just lit up the whole room, made it worth everything. Even if she never had the courtroom career she’d dreamed of as a kid, she had Alex. And he was worth 10 stuffy judges any day of the week.