Page 31 of The Good Boy

“You’re right, of course,” Nanna says.

“Do youstillthink the wish is a pretend, made-up thing?” she asks me, one eyebrow raised.

“Well.” I gesture at Rory, who gives a little cheer when he comes across a whole sausage under a piece of fried bread. “Not so much, no. I need your help, Nanna Maria, please.”

“I’ll do my best,” she says, looking Rory over sadly. I refuse to believe that things are as bad as Nanna’s face says they are.

“Anyway, where’s your ‘husband’ gone, Jayne?” I ask. “I don’t want a strange bloke coming in while we are in the middle of some naked rune casting or whatever we have to do to reverse the spell.”

“I’d rather rune cast with clothes on,” Miles says.

“Rupert has gone home,” Nanna says. “I think I wore him out a bit. But I’m not leaving until checkout time. I like to get my money’s worth, you know?”

She goes over to Rory and puts her hand on his head, closing her eyes for a moment, and then envelops him in a red satin embrace. Rory tolerates it for a moment then wriggles out to lick the butter off cold toast.

“You are coping amazingly well, Rory,” Nanna tells him fondly. “You really are. And so clever too, to be able to have your soul transformed into a male human body without your consent and not go completely Cujo on Genie’s backside. No one would have blamed you.”

“Don’t give him ideas,” I say. “Anyway, Rory’s not like that. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. He would hurt a squirrel, in theory, but he can’t catch one.”

“I could if I wanted to,” Rory says. “Thanks, Nanna Maria, I’m okay. Luckily I have Diego and toast. And Genie. She has helped me not be scared of most things since I went to live with her, and I trust her. I know she will get me back to my dog self in no time, won’t you, Genie?”

“I’ll really try, boy,” I say, looking from Rory to my nan. “Right, Nanna Maria?”

“Don’t get your hopes up. You may recall that the rules of the wish clearly state that once it is made there is no turning back.”

“I don’t want to be human, though,” Rory tells Nan. “Genie used to make me have a bath up to two times a year, and I don’t know why because it’s humans who stink—of stress and secrets and lying about things. You people think about thinking all day long, and it’s rubbish. I don’t want to think about thinking. I don’t want a job. I just want to be me. On the sofa with Diego. Anda biscuit.” He pauses for a moment, downcast. “I already told you how unhappy I was before Genie came and took me home. What I didn’t say was that I know she feels like I did before I found her lots of the time. She tries to hide it but she can’t.”

“You got that from me?” I ask Rory gently.

“Sorry,” he says, not able to look me in the eye.

“Before all this happened,” he says, gesturing at his human body, “being a dog meant that I could do something about it. That I could make your heart beat slower, make you smile and forget everything. Now I am just making everything worse for you and that sucks.”

“Oh, baby,” Kelly tells him, putting her arms around his shoulders. “You could never do that, babe. You got Genie out of her shell again, and that’s no mean feat, let me tell you.”

“I wasn’t in a shell,” I say.

“You were a bit,” Miles says.

“You’re at least half out now,” Kelly adds. “Like a snail.”

“Anyway,” I say, returning my focus to Rory with a shake of my head. “You are still helping me, honestly. If you hadn’t been so good at handling this mess I would probably have exploded with anxiety. And besides, it’s my job to look after you, Rory, not the other way around.”

“That’s not how it works, Genie,” he says. “Things that love look after one another.”

I know that he is right, and it hits me that all this time I have felt alone, I never have been. Not since the day Rory took up residence on my sofa.

“See?” I say to Nanna. “You need to turn him back. He’s not into it. I am not into it. We need things to go back to the way theywere on Friday before you gave me the wish. Normal, predictable, boring.”

“Darling,” Nanna says, throwing her hands up in despair, “if you had paid attention, you would know that there is no way to reverse the wish! I made that perfectly clear. I told you several times. You ignored me. Just like you are ignoring your own magical potential.”

“She did tell you,” Kelly says. “I wasn’t even there and I knew the rules by heart.”

“I know, I know I messed up,” I admit. “It’s just that I didn’t think that the wish would actually come true... I mean, would you?” I look to Miles for backup.

“Honestly, no, I don’t think many people would,” Miles says apologetically.

“I believe,” Kelly adds, glancing at me and then at my nan adoringly.

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