Hero the greyhound (Simon's Hero)

Hero the Greyhound (Chapter 16)

"But what if I can't stop sneezing?" asked Simone

"Aw, come on Mum. You're always telling me to 'feel the fear but do it anyway'. What happened to my big brave mother?"

"Oi! Less of the 'big' and yes, of course, I will just have to be brave."

It wasn't exactly like owning a dog but, having won the GK100 quiz, Simon had managed to persuade his mother that a visit to the local dog shelter would be almost as good. He knew his mum was allergic to dogs, cats, horses, rabbits and every other fluffy creature known to mankind but he also knew you could take some kind of tablet which would help with the sneezing. Simone had been to the pharmacy and bought a packet of antihistamine tablets. She'd also bought one of those funny surgical masks which made her look really stupid but if it meant he was going to get to spend some time with real live dogs, Simon certainly wasn't going to tell her.

It was Simon's birthday on the first day of the school holidays. His dad had sent him a cheap card with a picture of a boy kicking a football. The card didn't have any particular number on it, he wondered whether his father actually knew how old he was. He had seen Neil just once since he'd left, when he had come back to collect his remaining clothes and belongings. They'd sat on the bottom step of the stairs, Simon not being able to communicate much and Neil simply not knowing what to say to his silent, serious son. He'd patted him on the head before leaving for good and that night, Simon could hear his mum crying in her room. He didn't go in. He wouldn't have known what to do or what to say so it was best he just stayed in his own room, surrounded by his dinosaurs and trains.

"Right, birthday boy" said Simone "let's do this dogs' home thing." She turned the key in the ignition of their clapped out old banger, muttering the usual prayer 'Please start, please start' and was rewarded with a low, rather uncertain 'Brrrrrrrrr' as Lazarus grumbled to life. "Why do you call the car 'Lazarus' Mum?" Simon asked one day, "Because he keeps dying and then coming back to life" smiled Simone "Google him and you'll see what I mean." She began reversing out of their tiny driveway. "Mum, I don't think you need to wear the mask on the way to the Dogs Trust, only when you get there. Isn't it obscuring your vision?" "Ooh, get you with your big words" said Simone, her voice rather muffled through the mask, "and no, it is not obscuring my vision as you so eloquently put it, I am fine." They both groaned as a scraping noise came from the rear of the car; once again, Simone had managed to scrape the paintwork against the low wall. There really wasn't much room but she preferred to keep the old banger on the driveway, in case the local hoodlums tried to pull off the wing mirrors or scratched their cola can rings along the paintwork. She decided to take Simon's advice, removed her mask and they set off for the Dogs Trust.

Simon could barely contain his excitement and was wriggling like a worm in the front passenger seat. "Sweetie, you're making me feel seasick, could you keep still?" asked Simone, who really was very worried about having some sort of asthma attack at the dogs' home. "Sorry mother" said Simon, "It's just that I'm so excited. Really excited about seeing lots of dogs today. I wonder whether..." "Let me stop you right there" said his mum, "it ain't gonna happen so please don't get your hopes up. We cannot have a dog. Full stop."

Simon went quiet and made a promise to himself. If his mother, by any miracle, met a dog which didn't make her sneeze or wheeze and she, by another very large miracle, let him take it home, he would do something very special for someone else. He would find a way of making someone else's life nicer or something like that. He didn't quite know how he would do this, he didn't really have any friends but if his mum made his life perfect by allowing him to have a non-allergenic dog, he would find a way.

"Look! Look!" he shouted "We're here! We're actually here. Where are the dogs? Where are the dogs?"

Simone had never seen her son so animated. If this was the effect dogs had on him, it was a real shame she had asthma; a dog might just be the ideal companion for her special, quirky son. "Well, I can't imagine they let them run loose, sweetie; there will be all sorts of breeds of dog and they might not all get along together. Let's go to the office and see what's what." She put on her mask and, after locking Lazarus with her key, they set off across the car park to a big five bar gate. The sign nailed to the gate said 'Welcome to Dogs Trust' and another said 'Office this way' with an arrow, pointing to a stable door at the end of a cobbled yard. They carefully closed the gate "We don't want the dogs to get out, do we?" asked Simone, her voice slightly wobbly now that they were almost in the presence of real, live, furry, four-legged animals.