Lady by Melvin Burgess

Author:Melvin Burgess
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781448188031
Publisher: Andersen Press Ltd

six

Dogs don’t count the days. The pavements were warming up and the hedges were scented with baby mice and fledglings trying out their wings. There was the smell of young rabbits all over Southern Cemetery when I was – well. I’ll tell you.

It was morning. Terry and me were by the flowershop on Copson Street, begging as usual, but I was restless. I kept running up and down the pavement and sniffing at poles instead of sitting on the blanket at Terry’s feet, getting in the dough. Somehow, saying ‘Cheers, mate,’ ‘Thanks,’ and ‘Sausages!’ just wasn’t doing it for me that morning. Terry kept calling me back, and I did my best, but after a few minutes I’d be whining and running up and down again. In the end he had to tie me up to the bench. I was all over the place. I was forgetting everything. Was it sausages, or thank you, or cheers, mate! Or just a good old bark?

‘You need more exercise, I suppose,’ muttered Terry to himself. He never took me for a walk. All we did each day was walk from place to place, up and down the streets, and round and round, looking for places to sit, eat, sleep and piss. I kept thinking of Ed, who I used to keep in the house all day. It must have driven him mad!

The air that day was full of dogs. I could smell them everywhere, and every time I caught a whiff I was up, sniffing the air, pulling at the string, barking and yelping like a silly pup.

‘What, do you want to escape? Do you want to get put down?’ said Terry sternly. He knew what was going on – he must have seen it loads of times before. But even though it was only dogs and not bitches who were making me pull away, I still hadn’t picked up on what was happening to me.

And the dogs were noticing me. Well, the ones that mattered anyway. You see dogs everywhere, you’d think there’d be loads to choose from, but you’d be amazed. Half of them are bitches and half the rest of them have had their balls cut off. But there were still some about. There was this big black Alsatian went past, and as soon as he saw me he was dragging his owner towards me. He didn’t just want to sniff. He was well fit. His owner was a pale, skinny-looking bloke with bad skin and a smell of mint and bones on his breath. He had to drag him back with both hands until he stood on his hind legs. He barked at me and I barked back. He kept looking over his shoulder as he was pulled away down the road. His eyes were empty of any sense but I didn’t care. He smelled so good! – I was practically drooling as he disappeared round the corner. Then there was this scatty brown-and-white mongrel, and it was the same thing with him.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.