Every Boy Should Have a Man Read Online Free Page B

the field.
     
    * * *
     
    When he went into the backyard to feed her one morning before school, she was not there.
    He went to her sleeping tent under her favorite tree, and she was not there. He went back into the house to look for her because on evenings when it was cold, she would come inside and sleep under his bed or under the couch in the grand room near the fire. He looked everywhere in the house, and she was not there.
    He said to himself, Now , I hope she didn’t jump the fence again .
    Puzzled, he went back outside, and she was in her tent as if she’d been there all along.
    She was grateful for her food, which she devoured, and then she held out her bowl to him for more. He replenished her bowl with vegetables and grain, and as he watched her eat, he said, “I see you’re very hungry. I guess you jumped the fence to go look for food. Don’t do that. The authorities will pick you up. You’ll get in trouble. If you’re hungry, come into the house and wake me. Okay?”
    To make her understand, he knocked on the wooden fence that ran the perimeter of their backyard and shook his head.
    “Don’t go over the fence,” he repeated. “Obey me. Obey me.”
     
    * * *
     
    The next morning when he went to feed her before school, he caught her climbing down the fence and ducking into her tent. She had just returned from wherever it was she roamed at night.
    He spanked her and scolded her harshly. When he set out her food, she still had tears in her eyes, but he was at the end of his patience.
    “You’re going to get us in trouble! Don’t force me to tie you up or lock you in the house!” He pounded the wooden fence. “Don’t go over the fence! I know you understand! Obey me! Obey me!”
    She stared at him blankly, then went back to her food.
    He went into the house and came back out with an extra bowl of food and set it beside the first. “Now give me a hug,” he said to her.
    He held open his arms and she came for her hug. He lifted her for her hug. She is getting so heavy , he thought.
    “You’re my best friend in the whole world, you know?” He kissed her cheek, petted her head, and set her back on the ground.
    She looked at him with perfect understanding.
    She went back to her food and he left for school.
    When the boy got home from school that day, his mother had left a note: Meet me at the kennel .
    He checked the backyard. His female man was gone. He threw down his school sack and ran to the kennel.
     
    * * *
     
    They had put his female man in a large cage with several other mans.
    She was not the only female, but she was the biggest of the dozen or so mans in there, most of whom were screaming wildly at the top of their lungs or running around in circles like mad mans.
    One man, a pale talking one with dark sun spots burned into his cheeks, was proclaiming over and over, “I didn’t do it. I would never ever do it. Please believe me.”
    His female man ran to the front of the cage as soon as she saw the boy and he reached through the bars and petted her on the head. “It’s going to be okay, girl. Don’t worry. Mother and I will get you out of here.”
    The boy turned to watch his mother, who stood a few paces away talking to the boss of the kennel.
    The kennel boss had a long oval face and eyes that were set far apart. He was munching a green leafy vegetable as he talked to the boy’s mother. The mother was doing a lot of head shaking as her mouth opened and closed. The kennel boss inhaled another large green leaf into his mouth and crunched it between large, crooked teeth.
    “It’s out of my hands,” he explained to the mother. “When the man becomes a danger to society, then the law has to step in.”
    “I assure you,” said the mother, “this is all a misunderstanding. She is the most gentle of creatures. She is well mannered and well trained. She is a danger to no one. Mans get out of their yards all the time and wander. It is their nature. This is no reason for them to be