‘Does anyone ever feel close to tears?’ Geraldine asked, and Alice snapped back to attention. ‘Does anyone ever let those tears flow?’
Barry and Pam chuckled next door.
‘That’s quite normal. Dogs can be bloomin’ annoying. But the thing to remember is, they aren’t trying to be annoying, they just don’t understand our world. Imagine if one of your friends came over and wanted a cup of tea, but wouldn’t tell you in English, wouldn’t point it out, wouldn’t give you any hints apart from playing an elaborate game of ‘hot or cold’. That’s what it’s like for puppies. They’ll learn words and learn to associate them with certain things, but they don’t know what they mean just because you say them louder and louder. It takes patience and repetition, and a lot more patience. Don’t you wish sometimes people had more patience with you?’
Alice reached down and stroked the top of Bear’s head with her fingertips, and he tipped his nose right to the ceiling, his eyes sparkling.Thanks for being patient with me, she told him, silently.
It was beginning to get dark by the time Alice and Bear left their first training session that evening. ‘Autumn is really here, puppy,’ she told him as she led them both to the car.
She’d never been afraid of the dark, and on the outskirts of London it wasn’t ever really going to be dark, but an urgency to get back home into her bright nook of a flat washed over her.
With Bear in the back seat, lying down and sleepy, she sat for a moment trying to shake away the nasty feelings that were creeping into her consciousness. ‘Go away,’ she whispered. ‘Go away, I’ve had a nice evening.’
Alice plugged in her phone and found a playlist of soft late night moods, and for the first time since the concert she allowed music to flood her ears, providing an intoxicating distraction that meant before she knew it she was pulling out of the car park and making her way home.
She focused on the road and on the beat of the music reverberating around the car. She was coping. It wasn’t easy but she was out, and she was driving, and it was dark, and she was so lonely but then Bear’s nose poked through the gap between the seats and rested on her shoulder.
Maybe she wasn’t completely alone. She leant her cheek on him.
