Hero the greyhound (Simon's Hero)

Hero the Greyhound (Chapter 23)

"Mum, Jecko's here!" Simon's head popped around the lounge door just as Gareth was standing up to leave. "We're starving, is there anything to eat?" Simone groaned, it was that time again. She looked up to heaven and explained to Gareth, "I hate cooking. I'm quite good at some things but wielding a spatula is very definitely not one of them." "Alright Mrs Ellis? Don't worry about food or nuffink, I can always get some chips from the chippy later on. I'm glad River's back though." "Hero" interjected Simon, "his real name's Hero and I think he's a real Hero so I've decided to change it back. If that's OK Mum?" She smiled across at her wonderful son and said "He's your dog sweetie, you can call him whatever you like."

Gareth took a deep breath and said "Listen, you lot don't know me from Adam but I feel I've caused you all a lot of trouble today. If you'll let me, I'd like to take you to the pub up the road. It's dog-friendly so we can take Hero in the car and put him on his bed in their garden, he's not up to doing much more walking today is he? They do great pizzas." He smiled at the boys who both looked at each other, licking their lips. "Pizza! Yay!" shouted Simon and Hero wagged his tail to hear his favourite person so excited.

"Well..." said Simone. "Oh Mum, pretty please, can we go for pizza?" begged Simon. "I ain't had nuffink to eat since breakfast" said Jecko, rubbing his stomach in glee. "OK then" she laughed, "let's go for pizza. Thank you very much, it's very kind of you" she said to Gareth "but I thought you were broke after you left your job." "Well," explained Gareth,"I've been freelancing for some time but that phone call was a very happy bolt from the blue. I start my new, full-time job next month. I felt it was about time I got back into a routine and I'm pretty sure I can run to pizza for four today." "That is good news" said Simone, picking up her keys and her handbag, "oh, and out of interest, how did you find us? How did you know Hero lived here with us?" "I didn't" said Gareth, holding the door for her, "I happened to be driving a different way home last week and saw Simon and his friend with Hero. They were crossing the road and I couldn't believe my eyes so I followed them and saw Simon walk Hero up your path. It was a big decision to come knocking at your door I can tell you."

Simone walked down the rather crooked pathway, towards the car. "We'll need to put Hero on the back seat again, I'll open the door and you can bring him out. The boys can walk, it's not far." Gareth coaxed Hero off his bed and attached his lead to his special wide leather greyhound collar. "Come on boy, sorry to disturb you but we're off to the pub now and you're coming too." Hero took a few steps, the rest seemed to have done him good and he walked gingerly by himself to the car. Simone and Gareth helped him up onto the back seat and covered his damaged legs with a tartan blanket. They put his bed in the boot, for him to lie on in the Beer Garden of the Four Ferrets pub. Simone shouted to Simon and Jecko, who were walking ahead, chatting happily. "Make sure you get us a nice table in the shade, it's too hot for River, erm, Hero to be in the sun." They gave the OK sign with their hands and carried on walking and chatting about the day's events. They were happy to go on ahead and in any case, they sensed the grown-ups had more talking to do.

Simone put the key in the ignition and then, paused what she was doing, her hand still on the keys. "If someone had told me my Simon would, one day, have a best friend and his very own dog, I would never have believed them." "Well" said Gareth, gently, knowing it was a special moment for her, "he looks very happy and it's no more than he deserves. He's a fine boy and a real credit to you." She blushed. "Do you think so?" "Yes I do" he said "my sister has a boy with autism so I do know how difficult the whole social thing can be. My nephew is doing quite well but your son is doing brilliantly. It must be wonderful to see him so happy."

They set off for the pub, Simone driving very slowly so Hero wouldn't be forced to move at all. "So, what happened to your girlfriend then?" she ventured, looking straight ahead as if she wasn't really that interested. "Erm, my...erm, girlfriend..." he stammered, feeling a little nervous "well, she decided she didn't love me anymore and then left but not before giving me an earful about how stupid I was and what a stupid dog Hero was for getting himself injured." Simone smiled at the windscreen, "She sounds charming." Gareth looked out through his side of the windscreen and said "She was a user. She fell in love with my wallet when Hero was winning race after race. It was nothing to do with me being me, it was more about the kudos, the fame, the champagne and the high life. Oh, and the handbags. She liked a nice designer handbag, did Donna."

"Handbags are nothing more than slightly posher versions of plastic carrier bags in my world" laughed Simone, "I have one black one, one brown one and one white one. I use them for transporting my phone, my purse, my keys and my lipstick but other than that, they are of no use to me. Same with clothes and shoes. I only wear them so people don't point and laugh at me in public." Gareth laughed out loud and said "We have a lot in common in that case. It never did sit well with me really, making lots of money from dog racing. The others loved the whole experience but I couldn't help feeling something might happen to Hero one day and, I was right, it did and then, the others just walked away from him." "Are you in touch with them at all?" asked Simone. "No," said Gareth, "they really are not my kind of people. They never were." They stopped at the traffic lights. Gareth turned around to stroke Hero "You OK boy?" Simone looked across at him and thought to herself 'Y'know what? He really is quite nice'.

The lights changed to green and Simone drove away slowly, the pub was in sight and the two boys were jumping up and down, pretending to hitch a lift from them. She turned Lazarus into the car park, it was nice and wide so there was no danger of her scratching the back of the car. She put on the handbrake and drew in a breath. "If you're not doing anything next weekend, would you like to come and see us? We could maybe go to the park, take a picnic? If Hero isn't able to walk any better, I'll take him to the vet but we could always drive him there. The boys could always walk to the park and I could....sorry, I'm rambling now. What I mean is, would you like to?"

Gareth smiled across at Simone and said "Do you know what? I think I'd like that very much."