Poochie

“Could you take over feeding duty today?” Yuki asked me.

Apparently the teacher had asked her to help with the class chores that afternoon.

“Sure,” I said happily.

“Thanks,” she said, looking relieved. “If we finish quickly, I’ll come along too.”

Yuki was super reliable and hadn’t missed a single feeding duty until now. I’d gotten her to take my turn lots of times when I had a piano lesson or needed to help Mom. I was happy that for once, she’d asked me to fill in for her.

After classes ended, I ran to the mountain behind our school. There was a small hut on the mountain where Yuki and I kept our secret pet. In my bag I had three bread rolls left over from lunch.

Poochie was waiting patiently for me.

“Sorry, Poochie. Are you hungry?”

Poochie lumbered around to face me and stared fixedly through his broken glasses at the bread rolls I was holding.

I didn’t know where Poochie had come from. One day Yuki had told me, “I’ve got a secret pet that I’m keeping up on the mountain. Do you want to come and see him, Mizuho?”

My heart pounded. Yuki was a quiet girl who never talked much about herself. She was a little different from my other classmates, seeming to live in a world of her own, and she always seemed so

detached when observing us classmates and our teacher. I had a secret crush on her.

And now she’d confided a secret just to me. I was ecstatic.

So when she led a man about the same age as my dad out of the shed saying, “This is Poochie,” I’d been utterly floored.

“This . . . is your pet, Yuki?”

“Yep. Cute, isn’t he?”

Seeing the middle-aged man staring at the ground as Yuki stroked his head, what I felt was fear.

“Shouldn’t you put a collar on him?”

My immediate response was that perhaps we should restrain this dangerous pet to make sure he couldn’t do us any harm.

“I guess so,” Yuki said, agreeing. “After all, he is a pet. Good thinking, Mizuho. It never even occurred to me.”

Next time I went to see Poochie, he was wearing a red collar. It didn’t make any sense to have a collar without a chain attached, but Yuki looked so pleased that I didn’t say anything.

“I decided on a red collar. Like that red dress you like so much, Mizuho.”

“My dress . . .”

“Yep. After all, he’s your pet as well as mine.”

Unusually for her she smiled, which completely obliterated any thought of danger I’d had before. Yuki had given my favorite color to her precious pet! I was so thrilled that I blushed.

“How sweet of you, Yuki, thanks. It’s a cute collar, isn’t it? It suits him.”

I cautiously went up to Poochie and stroked his head. Poochie gave off the stench of a wild animal, and the pale skin on the top of

his head felt sticky.

Poochie had just finished eating the bread rolls I’d given him when there was a knock on the door of the shed.

“Mizuho, are you there?”

Yuki came in, still wearing her school backpack. She’d obviously come here straight from finishing the class chores. “Poochie, come!

I’ve brought you some milk, too,” she said, taking a bottle of milk out of her backpack.

Poochie stared in delight, though slightly hesitantly, at the milk she held out to him.

“What’s up, Poochie? It’s for you. You can drink it!”

She poured some into his dish, and he started happily lapping it up.

“You’re eating a lot today, aren’t you, Poochie?” she said, stroking his head.

“He’s already eaten three bread rolls, you know.”

“He has? Poochie, you must have been hungry!”

I was in two minds about stroking Poochie’s head. He was cute in a way, but touching him felt a bit creepy. But Yuki seemed totally okay with stroking his head and his stubble.

Yuki and I met up an hour before school every day and headed to the mountain together.

Poochie wasn’t locked up at all, but he never ran away. He was always waiting obediently for us on all fours, and he never used his hands except to eat. Somehow I found that reassuring.

Yuki and I always held hands as we opened the door to the shed.

On all fours, Poochie would look up at us with watery eyes.

He hardly ever made a sound. Just occasionally he would cry,

“Finishitbytwo!” This was probably an order he used to issue before he became our pet.

I’d once asked Yuki where she’d found him. “Otemachi,” she said, referring to the business district near Tokyo Station. “I had a test for cram school and had gone there on my own. And I saw Poochie wandering around, lost. So I took him home with me and fed him, and he got very attached to me. Then I thought of you, Mizuho. I thought it’d be cute to look after him together.”

There was probably someone in Otemachi who was still looking for him. But even if his owner ever came to try to find him, Yuki and I were resolved to keeping him secret. Anyway, Poochie was really attached to us. He must like his life on the mountain behind our school better than his life in Otemachi.

One day we went to feed Poochie and found the door to the shed wide-open.

“Poochie?” Yuki called, running into the shed.

There were footprints from large shoes on the floor. Poochie was nowhere to be seen.

“Poochie? Poochie!”

“These footprints must be from Otemachi,” I said, peering at them cautiously.

“Oh, no!” Yuki said, going pale. “Maybe he’s gone back there?”

Yuki looked dejected, so I held out my arms to hug her, but just then there was a sound outside.

“Poochie!” Yuki cried, evading my clasp and running outside.

Crouching there was Poochie, his head and suit covered in leaves.

“Poochie, you’re back! You’re back!”

Yuki hugged him, stroking his head and back. He must have escaped his pursuer from Otemachi.

“Finishitbytwo!” Poochie cried quietly, closing his eyes in Yuki’s arms.