Must have been a good book. Ezra hardly noticed me at first. I stood at the entrance of his room, waiting. Finally he surfaced, took a second look. His full lips opened into a smile.

“What have you got?”

“Come and find out,” I said.

Ezra’s eyebrows shot up, disappearing under his curls. “You want me to check what you have under your sweater, Shep?”

I blushed, quickly pulling the puppy out. “He’s for you,” I said.

I expected—I don’t know what I’d expected. At least that he’d like the dog.

But Ezra’s smile left his face. “What do you mean bringing him in here?”

“He’s a present,” I said. “For you. From me and Gran.”

Ezra’s face took on a haunted look. “Get it out of here. Get it out!”

“Ezra, what’s the matter?”

“Take it away!”

His voice shrilled.

“Ezra, what’s wrong with you!” He frightened me.

“Get it out!” Ezra screamed. “Get it out!”

Pressing the puppy to my chest, I ran blindly from his room into the kitchen.

Holding the dog close, I tried to stop shaking.

Gran fixed up a box. She folded an old towel into the bottom and placed the makeshift dog bed by the stove.

The puppy should have spent the night with Ezra.

In another month it’d be out all the time. Guard dogs belonged outside, with the sheep. The cold and the puppy’s size would keep it inside for a while, but that couldn’t last forever.

I’d thought it’d be perfect, that puppy spending a month of nights alongside Ezra. They’d be ready to go out together, I’d thought, Ezra and the dog.

The puppy chewed a piece of cardboard dangling inside the box. He chewed and batted at the soggy paper with one large paw, then flopped down and fell asleep.

In the morning I led the puppy down to the flat pasture to spend the day with a flock of the older ewes. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Ezra’s curtain open. “I hope you’re watching,” I said under my breath as the puppy rolled and tumbled down the road. Muncie noticed the puppy, but she didn’t ask about it. She’d been keeping her distance ever since she saw Ezra in the window.

That afternoon I got off the school bus and crossed over to the flat pasture. The puppy bounded through the field and flung himself against my legs. He tugged at my bootlaces. I tended the sheep, then brought the puppy up the hill with me toward home.

“You taking the pup in to Ezra again tonight?” Gran asked.

I dangled a piece of old clothesline in front of the puppy. He swaggered up and barked at it. A high puppy bark.

I shrugged.

“Do it,” Gran said.

So when I visited Ezra that night, the puppy came too. I pulled a little wool cap over his head and fastened a bell around his thick neck.

Down on the floor of Ezra’s room, the puppy staggered under the weight of the hat. He knocked it off his head and onto the floor. The puppy took the hat in his teeth and dragged it around Ezra’s room. Lugging it along sideways, occasionally he’d trip over it and roll. His collar jingled with each step. He dropped the hat beside Ezra’s bed and started sniffing.