Buster by Caleb Huett (ebook reader library txt) 📕

on her keyboard (which only had two big buttons). “Oh, hey, Buster. Welcome back, ya big nerd.”

“Hey, Jpeg! What’s up?”

She spun a sphere on the side of the computer with her nose to send the cursor flying across the screen, then clacked the keys some more. “Some rare bones showed up on the Bark Web. I’m trying to win the auction, ’cause I know a buyer who’ll want them.”

That gave me an idea. “Hey, if I, uh … if I wanted to sell something, would I talk to you about it?”

She gave me a sharp look. “Depends. What are you trying to sell?”

“Oh, I dunno.” I sat down in front of her and tilted my head, flopping my ears in a way I hoped looked innocent. “Just normal stuff. Like maybe … diamonds? Would you sell those?”

She gave me an even sharper look, closed her computer, and switched to Underspeak—a sign that we were talking about something she didn’t want anyone to hear. She twisted her paw, flapped her ear, and posed her tail in a series of directions that meant I don’t know what you’re talking about.

I’m not talking about anything! I posed back. Just asking a question!

Jpeg bared her teeth to show she disagreed. You’re talking about whether I would sell the diamonds that Mozart tried to steal from a store in town, and I don’t know anything about that or what you’re talking about.

I rolled my shoulders and twitched my ears with my tail posed for extra exclamation points. You obviously do know!!! You just said all the details!!!!

No idea what you’re talking about, she underspoke emphatically. I don’t know what a diamond is, and I definitely wouldn’t have sold any if Mozart brought them to me, no matter if it was for a good cause or not.

That was interesting. What cause?

I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. Jpeg opened her computer back up and resumed typing. Apparently our conversation was over. I wandered toward the fields to watch the wrestling tournament and think.

“Buster Pulaski?” a voice growled real close to my ear.

I jumped. A medium-sized dog with a dark brown coat and beige splotches had somehow kind of snuck up beside me. She looked me over with a serious expression. “I’m Officer Sergeant, your new pawrole officer. And this is my partner, Officer Grizzle. Care to see our credentials?”

A tiny gray dog with a long body like a dachshund but a much fluffier coat had come up on my other side. He bared his teeth up at me, as if daring me to cross him. Just to be safe, I sniffed their butts. They were legit. “ ‘Officer Sergeant’?” I repeated.

The splotchy dog looked embarrassed. “I know. A human named me Sergeant. And then when I started working for Dog Court …” She rolled her shoulders in a shrug. “The two of us keep an eye on Bellville, so we wanted to introduce ourselves.” She fixed me with an unwavering stare. “There will be no more funny business like the stunts you pulled in the city. Is that clear?”

“Clear as a glass door, Officers. I could walk right into it.”

Officer Sergeant, surprised by my joke, barked out a small laugh. I tried to wag my tail to keep up the energy, but she dropped back to a stony expression. “We’re here to keep an eye on you, but we’re also here to help. If you need anything, or you see anything suspicious, just let us know. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“BUSTER!” I turned to see Tonio walking out of the trees, hands cupped around his mouth. When I turned around, the officers were gone.

I trotted over to Tonio’s feet and licked his hands while he clipped on my leash. I was still trying to figure out what was going on with Mia and Mozart. And I was also trying to figure out how to help Tonio get out of the house more. Then I realized the answer to both problems might be the same answer. Friends get you out of the house! And if Tonio was going to make a new friend, why couldn’t it just happen to be Mia?

The top of Tonio’s sketchbook was poking out of the loose pocket of his shorts as we walked along the road. I waited for a few dogs to run past us, chasing one another, and while Tonio was distracted by the short burst of chaos, I grabbed the sketchbook between my teeth and dropped it on the ground, in clear sight of Mia’s house.

He didn’t notice, and my tail wagged the whole way home even though my stomach was flipping with nerves.

Tonio woke up buzzing. That’s the best way I can describe it—I wasn’t feeling an actual, solid vibration or seeing him bounce or anything, but the way he was acting from the second his eyes opened just felt like buzzing. He was tense, his breathing sounded shallow and difficult, and he wouldn’t stop moving.

He’d describe this feeling later like something in his stomach had grabbed his throat and was shaking it, just enough to make him feel uncomfortable. Or like he was full of helium so the spot just under his chest was trying to escape his body. The feeling kept him from calming down, so he was awake before either of his parents and emptied the fridge to make a huge breakfast for everybody.

I didn’t mind the sausage, of course, but his buzzing was infectious. I kept trying to figure out what was wrong, but eventually, I realized nothing was. Nothing outside of Tonio, anyway; his anxiety was using his body to say something’s wrong, fix it, something’s wrong, fix it over and over. But there wasn’t anything to fix, so he was doing whatever he could think of to get the energy out.

His parents woke up, grabbed some coffee, pancakes, and eggs, and groggily thanked their son before disappearing back to work. Mr. Pulaski ran