Brilliant (19 page)

Sometimes, though, they permitted the clouds to visit Dublin and rain, for days. The water was needed, and the tourists expected it.

So did the dogs.

“Will it ever, like, stop raining?” said Sadie.

“Probably not,” said Chester.

“It's flattening my fur,” said Sadie. “Oh my God.”

“It suits you,” said Chester.

They sat together outside the empty house, where that man, Ben Kelly, had lived. There was no one living there now. The grass was high. The paint on the front door was cracked. If a house could look sad, this one did. Especially in the rain.

“Look,” said Sadie. “Visitors.”

A van pulled up outside the house. They watched as the two children jumped out, the ones who called Ben “Uncle Ben.”

“Hi, dogs,” said the one that was a girl.

Then Ben got out. He smiled at the dogs, and dashed around in the wet to the back of the van. He opened it and took out a cardboard box.

He carried the box past Sadie and Chester, to the front door of the house. It was raining heavily and the box was already damp. The children followed him, running to get out of the rain. The boy patted Chester's wet head as he passed.

Ben balanced the box in one arm as he searched in a pocket for his key.

“He's coming home,” Sadie whispered.

“Looks like it,” said Chester.

He shrugged.

He liked those children.

Ben found the key just as the bottom of the box split open and everything in it dropped to the wet cement.

The laughter was like an explosion. Three human voices shook the whole street.

“Deadly!”

“I'm an eejit,” laughed Ben.

“Yes, he is,” said Chester.

They watched the humans go into the house. They heard the laughter from inside.

“Now's, like, probably a good time to tell you,” said Sadie.

“What?”

“You're going to be a daddy.”

Dogs don't smile or laugh.

So Chester barked instead.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

RODDY DOYLE is an internationally acclaimed novelist, screenwriter, and playwright. In 1993, he won the Man Booker Prize for
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
. He has also published many books for children, the most recent of which,
A Greyhound of a Girl
, was short-listed for the CILIP Carnegie Medal. He lives in Dublin. He wrote this novel, a love letter to the city, in honor of its Saint Patrick's Day celebration.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR

EMILY HUGHES was born in Hawaii but now lives in England. Her picture book debut,
Wild
, was on many “best of” lists for 2014.