From the Bones of an Old Dog

By Robin Brande

A Robin Brande Single.

 

Tom Rubey's dog is gone. Hit by a car, and the driver never even stopped.

 

But maybe there is a way to get the dog back. To bring him back to life.

 

Maybe. If the story Tom heard is true.

 

Tom and his friend Billy Jane, the dog catcher's daughter, are willing to give it a try.

 

Even if it means believing in magic. And miracles. And the bones of an old dog.

 

[This story also appears in the collection THE LOVE OF A GOOD DOG: Stories for Dog Lovers.]

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ryer Publishing
• Release date: Oct 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781946627872

Robin Brande

Award-winning author Robin Brande is a former trial attorney, entrepreneur, martial artist, law instructor, yoga teacher, wilderness adventurer, and certified wilderness medic. Her novels have been named Best Fiction for Young Adults by the American Library Association. She was selected as the Judy Goddard/Libraries Ltd. Arizona Young Adult Author of the Year in 2013. She writes fantasy, science fiction, contemporary young adult fiction, and romance.   

Book preview

1

Tom Rubey knew it was probably a lie.

He wasn’t stupid and he was a fair judge of character, so whenever Nathan Weaver said something Tom automatically only half listened.

Nathan knew about Tom’s dog. The whole school did. How a truck ran over Rip and never even stopped to check. A rusted-out red truck, Billy Jane Culver said, left tail light busted, but she didn’t see the driver, the truck was gone before she could look.

She ran out onto the street to see if poor Rip was still alive.

He lifted his golden head, whimpered, then his head dropped heavy back to the ground and Rip was dead.

Only seven. He still had at least seven more years left, as far as Tom knew. Rip’s dad Sargent lived till he was fourteen.

That was old for a big dog, the vet said at the time. Sargent had slowed down and his teeth were rotting and his back legs couldn’t walk a straight line anymore, but he was still a good birder and he could give a shaky, palsy point. Labrador Retrievers aren’t normally good pointers, but Sargent learned the skill on his own. Tom and his dad had good hunting with him almost all the way to the end.

Rip was already in the understudy position, bringing up the rear. He came out of Sargent’s fourth stud litter, thirteen pups that time, and Tom got to pick out which one he wanted. Rip was the only one who looked Tom right in the eyes.

By the time Sargent died, Rip was in his prime. He could go all day, running up hillsides, chasing down doves across a mile of field, swimming across lakes to bring back ducks, you name it. Tom’s dad said he might be an even better hunter than Sargent.

But Rip was mostly Tom’s dog. He slept at the foot of Tom’s bed every night, even though over time both Tom and Rip got bigger and there wasn’t really room for them both. At some point during the night Tom would stretch out his legs in his sleep and Rip would jump down onto his dog bed on the floor, but both of them still started out every night together just like they did when Rip was a puppy.

And now after just seven years together, it was over.

After the red truck drove off, Billy Jane screamed out for people to help. They got Rip’s body off to the side of Dutch’s Frosty Stop Drive-In. One of the cooks brought out an armful of dish towels so they could cover him.

A crowd of kids gathered. But it was Billy Jane who took it upon herself to come running all the way to Tom’s house to tell him Rip was dead and she saw it.

Rip’s blood was still on her pale blue dress.

I’m sorry, Tom, she said, bawling. She could barely get out the words. Finally she told him the whole story. Everything she saw.

I don’t think he suffered, Billy Jane said, but Tom could see in her eyes she wasn’t being honest.

He didn’t want to cry in front of her, he had always liked her, but something like this, it was hard to stay strong.

He cleared