3 Heads & a Tail (5 page)

The trio
walked down the pavement in silence towards the turning that led to the park. Josie couldn
'
t think
of a thing to say, and simply enjoyed
the
fresh air
.
She glanced at
Ben
who wasn
'
t saying anything eithe
r and
had the feelin
g he was similar to her
. A
bit of a hippy
with his long hair around his shoulders
, he
looked as if he was
daydreaming
.
Glen
appeared to be
used to
his o
wner
'
s spaced-out
ways
and led him along, a bit like a guide dog. Now and then he
glanced
up
at
Ben
, who would be
staring off somewhere, and he
'
d make
a small whine. Josie was sure it
was Glen who
led
Ben around the turning
and checked the road for cars
.

They crossed the road. The pavement magically turned into grass and suddenly they were walking beneath
leafy
trees. Glen raised his nose into the air and took a big whiff.

“
I like it,
”
smiled Josie.
“
I love these trees and those flowers. They
'
re so cute.
”

Ben hadn
'
t thought of flowers being cute before, but he
nodded.
“
Best part of the day someti
mes is taking Glen for a walk.
”

Josie laughed.
“
I thought he was taking
you for a walk!
”

“
Aye
, s
o you noticed me drifting off?
”

“
Yeah, kind of.
”

Ben grinned.
“
I do that a lot. At school I was
nicknamed
Benjamin Dreamer. I don
'
t know how I don
'
t
walk into lampposts and stuff.
”

“
Probably
'
cos
your dog
steers
you!
”

Ben nodded,
smiling
. He patted Glen on the head.

“
No worries
'
cos I
'
m a bit of a daydreamer myself,
”
she said.
“
That
'
s why I can
'
t drive – I start
thinking about other things.
I
can
'
t keep my concentration.
I
'
d just
crash into
people!
”

“
Wow, remind me never to
teach you to drive.
I like being alive!
”

We
'
re in the park!
“
Voof.
”
We
'
re doing it. She
'
s come along and he
'
s walking right next to her, and they
'
re chatting. She seems interested in what he
'
s saying. Voofing good. And there was me thinking that she was going to like David the Poser because every girl in the world likes him. Mr Flicky. Mr Tight Jeans. Mr... well
...
w
hoa
! S
top! Turn around!

T
he
re she goes... my doggy baby. S
he
'
s so fine
, I wanna make her mine! T
hat
golden coat just gives me shivers
. O
ops
, b
est not pull the lead. Ouch!
Ben, you didn
'
t have to pull me back
,
you kn
ow. I
'
m not going anywhere. Yet!
Just going to give you an evil s
t
are now. Yeah, big evil stare.
“
G
rrrr.
”

Oh
, he didn
'
t get it. H
e
'
s patting my head. Jeez.
“
Voof
,
voof
, voof!
”
Miss Golden Coat
,
please turn
a
round, just once, please. Come on
Miss Poochy
, do an old dog a favour and
turn your lovely golden head just a little, mmm.

O
o
oh
,
F
risbee! Ben
'
s getting out the Frisbee!
Great!
Maybe I can do some really cool running and jumping, and show her how athletic and doggy manly I am.

Click goes the lead. I
'
m free! Detached!
Come on,
Ben
,
hurry up
, throw the damn Frisbee. Yikes!
There it goes. I wasn
'
t quite prepared for that... 
hmph... run ... come on legs... hffff hffff hfff...
here goes – I
'
m jumping! Eeek! I
t
'
s quite
high... higher than I thought! I
s she looking? Looking? Ah
,
no... no
oo! W
here
'
s she going
?
Ack! Tree! Hump
f
!

“
Glen, Glen, are you ok
ay,
boy?
”
cried Ben
,
running over to the
furry
golden
heap on the ground.
“
I
'
m sorry I threw it so high. I thought you
'
d get it.
”

“
He almost made it,
”
observed Josie,
“
b
ut then he lost concentration.
”

Glen yelped and rolled over on his back, as if he
'
d intended to do that all along.

“
What do you mean
?
”
asked Ben.

Josie giggled.
“
Didn
'
t you see?
”

“
See what?
”

“
Y
ou
guys! You don
'
t
notice
these things. He w
as looking at that other dog – I
guess she
'
s
a girl
!
”
Josie pointed
in the other direction, but the dog was
now
a speck in the distance.

“
Really?
”
asked
Ben, surpris
ed.
“
I really didn
'
t see that!
Glen, you dirty old dog!
”

They both started laughing and bent down
to tickle Glen
'
s belly. His big tongue
rolled this way and that.

How did she know
, thought Glen
?
How embarrassing!
He thought it was his little secret. And he would have made that jump if only he
'
d looked the other way and that tree hadn
'
t got in the way!

“
So
what do you
like doing, B
en?
”
as
ked Josie.
“
Or do? F
or a living, I mean.
”

“
What do you think?
”

“
Well,
it
'
s going to be something different
,
I reckon... and creative, not in an office.
”

Ben p
ushed his hair
behind his ears
and grinned.
“
Go on.
”

Even Glen rolled over, interested.

“
Er
m
, I reckon your job isn
'
t your real ambition
'
co
s you seem a bit of a dreamer. I
'
m guessing
you work in a shop and do something
else
on the s
ide... like being in a band? N
ope
, that
'
s David. Maybe
you write books or something?
”

Ben grinned.
“
Close, but no cigar – I
work in a florist.
I sort of half
own it and I
'
m half manager, and part-time
I sort of do some
ac
ting.
”

“
That
'
s cool.
”

“
It
'
s n
othing big, just an amateur dramatics thing, but we put on plays at the local theatre. You
'
ll have to come and see
us
some time.
We
'
re rehearsing
at the moment.
”

“
I
'
d
like that.
What
'
s the play?
”

“
N
othing
you will have
heard of,
”
said
Ben.
“
A fri
end of mine wrote it. Your turn!
”

Josie smiled.
“
Y
o
u ha
ve to try to guess too
!
”

Ben thought for a moment.
“
Right,
I
'
m
thinking that
you
do something
to do
with nature or animals.
”

“
Spot on
!
”
replied
Josie, patting Glen
'
s head. His big dopey eyes stared up
at her
.
“
How did you guess?
I w
ork on a magazine about animals and
I write articles. And
,
in my s
pare time, da
,
daa,
I
'
m a supe
rhero! Just kidding!
I work with deaf children and I know sign language!
”

“
W
ow!
”
said Ben.
“
Seriously, I
'
m impressed. Y
ou
'
re doing something good and worthwhile, an
d I
'
m clipping droopy flowers.
”

“
That
'
s one way of
looking at it, but
I
'
m sure you
do some pretty amazing displays.
”

“
Not bad,
”
admitted Ben.
“
And
I get to meet a lot of husbands who are
really
sorry for something!
”