(ed note: I like it when writers post the first chapters of their novels online. I'm mixing it up a bit and posting the second chapter online. Mostly, I just like the second chapter, like a lot. CITY DOG is narrated by Amy Dodge, a children's book writer in New York, her dog (I bet you can guess) Carlie, and one of the characters of her children's book. Chapter Two is the first chapter narrated by Carlie. I hope you like it.):
Chapter Two
I Don’t Want to Work, I Just Want to Bang on the Drum All Day
This is a book about me!
My name is Carlie. I am a three-year-old West Highland white terrier, which means that I am a small, game, hardy and well-balanced looking terrier. It means that I am the most genial of all the terriers, that I was originally bred for the hunting of both rodents and vermin, and that my ancestors hail from Scotland.
Amy has just returned from being on the other side of the door. We have had our greeting at the door in which Amy smiles at the very sight of me and says in her very nice and very happy voice, “Hello!” And I have responded, in kind, “Hello!,” but she has not heard me. Amy is not the best listener. I have found that remarkably few people are any good at listening, but sometimes I wonder if maybe Amy is especially bad.
Amy and I have gone out for the last walk of the day, the one that is usually an hour or two before Amy tells me she has, “zee bone for zee bed,” and then tells me that, “another day has come to an end,” in the soft voice, the voice that sounds a little bit like singing and makes me want to wag my tail very fast and sleep with my head right up on the pillow. The last walk of the day is always very quick. There is no turning down Second Avenue and walking to Fourth Street and then back up to the Cooper Square street, in the shape of a square, like there is at other times of the day. At this time of night we do not make the shape of a square. It is only straight, there and back, all of it on Fifth Street, all of it business. We are back already, and I have been given a snack treat, which is different from “zee bone for the zee bed” in that it is earlier, and also, not announced.
Amy has gone to look at the white rectangle shape that flips open and glows. A lot of the time she pokes at it, and it alternately clicks and beeps and falls silent. She can stare at it mesmerized for hours, even when I try to talk, even when I give my quick chomp-chomp which translates quite literally to “Stop staring at the white rectangle shape and pay attention to me!” Attention, so you know, is very high on the list of my priorities. Yes. If you watch the Westminster Dog Show at Madison Square Garden on the television, when it is the Westie’s turn, you will hear the announcer say, “The Westie will not be ignored!” The announcer speaks the truth. And then, after some blah blah blah, as the Westie begins to run down the length of the show ring, the announcer will describe her as, “possessed of no small amount of self-esteem.” They say this exact thing, year after year, because it is true. Though that is not to say that simply repeating things year after year will make it so that they are true, because it does not.
Where was I? Right, Amy is staring at the white rectangle shape and could be for a while, so I’ve got some time, and I wanted to let you know, in case you were wondering, that this is a book about me.
Yes, it is a book about Amy. And it is a book about Amy and Jonathan, or at least about the end of them. It is about Robert Maguire sometimes, and Renee and Lara, and Nick and Bonnie, and also someone we don’t like called Erin. But you have not met any of those people yet, seeing as how it is still very early in the story.
Check back soon for The Second Part of the Second Chapter of CITY DOG...
