Page 50 of Shake the Habit

They walked for a while, and Sir took a big drink and went right to his soft pink bed when they got back. “He tired you out?” I asked sympathetically, and his tail wagged but his eyes stayed closed. I heard Caleb moving around in the kitchen before he joined me.

“I’m sorry for how I acted,” he told me right off.

“It’s ok,” I answered. “I just wanted you to like the class and see how well Sir was doing.” His tail swished once in response to his name.

Caleb sat next to me. “I did see, and he was great.”

“Neal may be too focused on some dogs over others, but he’s a good trainer.”

“You’ve also put in a lot of work, because I know how much you and Sir have been practicing what you’ve learned. You must have done better in school than you told me.”

“No, I really didn’t,” I said. “I think, maybe, if I’d put in time with academic stuff like I do with dog stuff, I could have gotten better grades.”

“I bet you would have done very well. You could go back, if you wanted.”

“I could,” I agreed, thinking about it. “I never even considered college, but I could. Thank you for saying that.”

“I mean it,” he told me. “I think you’ll do well in whatever you want to…uh, hell.”

“It’s just nice to hear,” I said, wiping off my cheeks. “I barely graduated. Barely, with the absolute minimum, and I like to think that I could have been a real student.”

“Why did you do poorly? You must have been as smart back then as you are…hell.” He got up and fetched some paper towels from the kitchen.

“Thank you,” I said again, and used them. “I did poorly in school because I was wild. I paid attention to boys and to the next party, and that was about it. I didn’t listen to anyone who told me to knock it off and settle down. I was terrible.”

“How bad could you have been?”

“Awful,” I assured him. “That’s why I ended up in rehab, twice.”

“I understand that. But you couldn’t have been thoroughly terrible, because a lot of people love you. When you walk in, they smile and come over to hug and kiss you,” he pointed out. “You’re still best friends with your two cousins, even if you don’t see them as much. I understand that you had problems with drugs and alcohol, but that wasn’t the only thing in you.”

I thought for a moment. “When I look back, all I can remember is how bad I acted, how I was rude and bratty and how I took so many risks.”

“Aunt Paula said that you were always her favorite.”

“What?” I turned to look at him. “Really?”

“Really, and it wasn’t because I was already buttering her up to get the cornbread recipe. She told me that she’d always liked you so much, and she listed off a whole bunch of reasons why. She said you used to organize singing parties for your grandmother when she was sick and you would talk to her for hours. She said you were fun and she looked forward to when you and your parents would come to events because you’d always make her smile. She thinks you have spunk.”

“That’s also nice,” I told him.

“There’s are a lot of reasons why people like you. Come over here and I’ll tell you more,” he invited. He opened his arm and I snuggled against him, and he kept telling me a whole lot of things. Some were obviously from Aunt Paula but he added others that were his own opinions.

It was all very, very nice, and it almost made me forget that feeling of something touching…but I didn’t think about that. I listened to Caleb talk about all the reasons that maybe, I wasn’t as bad as I’d believed.

Chapter 11

“Sir McCourt!”

Sir and I stood and walked sedately toward the front of the room to the sound of applause. He’d been very, very opposed to the cap and gown, so I’d done a lovely bow instead and he looked extremely handsome. Even better, he didn’t tug on the leash, not one time, and he also sat when I told him to. I took his certificate and we both shook hands with Neal, his instructor. Sir walked quietly to our seats, too, although I knew he was interested in one woman’s purse as we passed it. I thought that she might have put some snacks in there and he wanted to share.

It was a lovely ceremony and Caleb had taken a lot of pictures as we’d accepted Sir’s completion certificate and as we walked back to him. He also gave the dog a lot of scratches and whispered that he was very proud. After everyone had taken a turn and had shaken hands, we gave another round of applause to the dogsand then let them all play together in the back of the room. They liked that more than the other part.

Neal, Sir’s teacher, came over to say hello and that put a big frown on Caleb’s face. He even put his arm around me, as if I was somehow threatened. I didn’t mind that, though.

“Congratulations, y’all did great,” Neal said, smiling. He didn’t seem to notice the wary expression directed at him from the man on my right. “Sir had a good base of knowledge to begin with, so congratulations on that, too.”

“He came to me with that knowledge,” I explained. “He hasn’t been my dog for too long. He’s a rescue.”

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