Little Sinclair (Moonlight Tales Presents)

Over At The Johnstone's

The Johnstone's mansion was two times bigger than the Hopkins'.

Upon arrival, Sinclair felt as if he was walking into a mountain. A mountain full of rich people. The inside of the mansion smelled like something called caviar – as confirmed by Rosy – and wine. A great big chandelier lit up every inch of the massive downstairs living room though all of the furniture had been removed to host a crowd of rich people with too much time on their hands.

The men wore black tailored suits, which Sinclair found boring and repetitive. It was the ladies that he liked to look at. Their choice of fabric was beyond interesting. At some point, a woman's dress had even gone over his head and swept him about ten feet across the hall before it peeled off. Nothing could be more frightening even though the dress had smelled like something he could sniff for as long as his nose worked.

As the evening party began, he met two other dogs, both of whom were longtime friends with Rosy, and Bruce the pitbull, who turned out to be a lot friendlier and sillier than Harry had made him seem. For the first half of the night, he received satisfying head scratches and belly rubs from nearly every attendee, especially the females who found him super adorable; he met the Prestons, the Woods and the Millers, and even reserved Mr Aaron Brooks with his intimidating blue eyes.

Everywhere he jumped, he met a treat in different kinds.

In spite of his freedom to prance about as much as he pleased, he stayed close to Rosy because she knew her way around better and took him to meet all the good people who had scratched him and called him cute. He did find it surprising that Honey and Prim brought him to the party albeit Leah's absence.

The other dogs – Charming, Maxie, Rudi and Bruce – were a lot nice than Harry, but he did notice that they usually made fun of his size and the fact that the sound of ruffling clothes often startled him. That part put a dent in his good time. Also, regardless of the obvious fact that Bruce and Rudi were only slightly taller than he was, Maxie let them hang with the big dogs, possibly because he was the newbie. Even Rosy often left him by himself to spend long minutes with them.

Whilst the humans did their rounds of applause for reasons he did not know, he spotted Rosy scurrying over from the other end of the living room.

"Come say hello to Nicholas, Sinclair." She urged excitedly. "He's finally gotten off his video games. Quick, before he remembers he needs it to breathe!"

He tromped behind her toward a boy in a loose t-shirt and black trousers, his hands deep inside the chocolate fountain. Rosy's bark drew his attention away. When he turned, Sinclair thought he looked like a younger version of Joey in spite of his obvious boyish features.

"Oh, there you are, Rosy!" He exclaimed, half kneeling and instantly noticed Sinclair. "Got a new friend, I see. Wait, is this Leah's dog that Joey was telling me about? Hm, he's cute alright. What his name again?"

He put his hand to his lips then remembered that it was still coated in chocolate and held it out. "Wanna help wipe this off, buddies?"

"Come on, it's chocolate." Rosy encouraged, going over to stand near Nicholas's left hand.

"I've never had chocolate before." Sinclair mentioned warily.

Rosy laughed. "It's delicious, I promise. That's why Nick had both hands in the fountain."

Judging from the way she almost bit off the boy's hand, Sinclair decided to give it a try. After the second lick, he lost track of how many times his tongue swiped up and down before Nick's right hand quickly became spotless. Every trace of chocolate was gone. Nicholas stood up and thanked them before walking away.