Chapter 3
Alice and Jill’s travel plans were coming along nicely. They’d leave in September, when the sun was still warm but the French and Italian coasts had taken a breath after the August heat. Their route would then take them for a jaunt through the Croatian mountains, then up through Slovenia, Austria, Germany and the new puppy’s home country of Switzerland.
Alice was working hard from her desk in theFunny Packoffice, where the air conditioning was broken so all the windows were wide open letting in what little breeze there was on this stifling June day. She was on overdrive trying to get as many illustrations in the bank as she could so that the impact of taking two months off at the end of the season wouldn’t be too noticeable. With the political unrest at home and overseas, plus the changes in the air from ever-growing social movements, she had plenty of material.
‘This is your fault, you know,’ Kemi said, calling her out of the blue.
‘What did I do?’
‘You wished for a long, hot summer,’ she panted down the line. ‘I just tried to go for a lunchtime run and have had to stop for a Frappuccino.’
‘I take full responsibility for global warming,’ Alice replied, taking a drink from her water glass and leaving yet another red lipstick print on it. Today was an endless cycle of hydrating, weeing and putting lipstick back on. ‘Hey Kemi, have you heard about that outdoor concert they just announced for the summer?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Kemi took a long slurp. ‘What is it?’
‘It’s being put on by a women’s rights charity in Brookwick Park in the first week of August. I thought I might go. Shall I ask everyone?’
‘You can ask, but I think Bahira and her family are away that week.’
‘Ah, they couldn’t get a week outside school holidays in the end?’
‘No, she said that was wishful thinking. But send over the date and info and we’ll see.’
Alice hung up and sent the details straight over to her circle of friends. She was feeling fuelled by the same optimism she’d felt way back in January, but she just couldn’t put her finger on what she wanted to do about it.
As it turned out, Bahira was away, Theresa didn’t want to splash out on the ticket and Kemi had a family barbecue pencilled in with all her relations that day. Jill, though, good old Jill, was more than happy to chip a bit off their travel fund to go along with her. Before either of them could change their mind, Alice bought the tickets. Now she had something fun planned for August, before the big something fun that was planned for September.
Okay, back to the grind . . .
Alice had a car that she kept parked on a quiet street near her home that was used once in a blue moon. So the following week she was designated driver to head over to Tunbridge Wells with Jill for the first puppy visit, along with Theresa, who’d begged to come too.
‘On a scale of one to ten puppies, how excited are you?’ asked Alice on the journey.
‘A million puppies. Apparently the mum had three, two girls and a boy, and the girls are going to family members. So ours will be the little gentleman.’
‘Ours?’
Jill laughed. ‘Yes, ours.’
‘How old are they now?’ asked Theresa from the back seat.
‘About five weeks. I’m so sorry if I cry my eyes out or just make a run for it with all three.’
‘Well, don’t leave us there,’ answered Alice. ‘I don’t know these people. Are you sure it’s going to be okay you being away for the evening of the concert?’
‘In August? Yes, definitely. Sam will be home from uni then so I’m going to ask him to come and stay for a few nights.’ Sam was Jill’s younger brother, and little did he know he was being lined up to be a dog sitter.
They pulled into the driveway of a large home, where they rang the bell and were ushered in by a grinning, but sleepy, gentleman who introduced himself as Max and showed them out into the shaded garden. He opened a door and out of the house came the most ginormous dog Alice had ever seen: glossy dark fur bouncing sunlight, paws as big as side plates and a tail like a plume of smoke rising from a chimney. Her chest was coated with the thickest white fur and she had orange splodges on each ankle and above her eyes.
She woofed at the three women, a low, warning woof that echoed around Tunbridge Wells.
‘Sorry about that,’ said Max. ‘This is the mum, Betty. She’s just being a bit wary and protective because of the pups.’
Betty woofed again and then went up to each of them in turn to have a sniff and peer up at them with big eyes that said,can I trust you?Alice sat on one of the garden chairs and Betty seemed to like this, turning her back to Alice and sitting a million kilos of dog on her feet.
‘You’ve passed the test,’ Max grinned. ‘Shall I let the puppies out now?’
He opened the door again and three stumbling, chunky bear cubs tumbled out, their legs shorter than the threshold, their noses squished in and guinea-pig like. Jill almost fainted with happiness, and Theresa’s phone camera began working on overdrive.
