My best friend is a dog.
I don’t think he has a name though… So I call him Dog.
Dog only has one eye.
Dog sits next to the tea shop and waits for me every day, and we walk home together.
Dog doesn’t see anything wrong with me.
That’s why Dog and I are such good friends, you see?
He’s far less complicated than the kids at school.
He pretends like he doesn’t notice my green and blue eyes, the clothes that I swim in, or my messy blonde hair.
My gas mask clunks unnaturally against my book bag, a lot of weight for an eight year old to carry home.
My mum tells me we have to carry them around because of evil German people…
I’ve never met a German person.
I don’t think Dog has either, but he agrees with me that my mum is crazy… ‘cause we don’t think she’s ever met a German person either.
I’ve heard the bomb alarms too, and my mum says that’s the German’s as well.
I think my mum is crazy… The bomb sirens go off ‘cause of the planes.
German’s aren’t planes.
Dog and I often laugh about this, because it truly is absurd.
***
Dog and I have to walk past the pictures to get home, and I see an old man walk from there ever Sunday.
Always alone, and always carrying a fish and chips bag back home.
He nods at me, and I nod back.
Dog looks down at my shoes, not approving.
You can see my toes and its getting cold outside… But I know my dad doesn’t have the money to buy me new shoes.
Dog knows that too, and it’s selfish of him to scold me for it.
I ignore him the rest of the way home.
***
Today Dog and I are talking again, I like talking to him rather than not.
We actually have something to talk about today.
The War, as per usual.
We often wonder if the War will last forever.
I can’t remember no war.
He can.
I think he’s lying.
I get home and my mum scolds me for walkin with a mangy dog again.
She says to me, she says, “Adelaide Foster, if I see you with that disgusting dog eve’ again, I will…”
I never hear the end…
I never tell her that Dog is my friend.
I have a feeling she would hate him just as she hates the Germans…
And she hates the Germans quite a bit.
I don’t think she’d invite a German in for tea…
***
So today, Dog and I have decided not to go straight home.
My mum brought out the broom as to whack him with it…
It’s safer to stay away for a while.
I have a theory I tell Dog about quite often… I think she’s responsible for his missing eye.
He just laughs…
I don’t laugh, it’s disturbing to look at something with only one eye.
I swing on the swing, it gets lonely having your only friend as a Dog.
Dog doesn’t speak much English, you see…
I think he’s a French dog…
But he insists he’s not.
I don’t think Dog’s head’s in the right place…
He’s talking to a human, you know.
It’s crazy.
***
My mum has a theory that she’s really the queen…
I suppose that would make me a princess… but I avoid the topic altogether.
If it were true, my family would have a fit.
We’ve fit eleven in a three room apartment only to find out we’re royalty…
Blimey, my dad’d kill her.
My mum doesn’t seem like royalty though, she’s hardly got the speak for it.
And I doubt the queen would ever hit a dog with a broom.
How would you manage that in a fancy dress you’re not supposed to get dirty.
On the other hand… why would the queen even have a broom?
Dog and I are going to research this new theory.
Dog’s been limping… I walk slower just for him.
I think he lies about his age sometimes…
Neither of us have the heart to tell my mum she’s not the queen…
***
I’ve tried on my gas mask today.
Dog says I look funny.
What the ‘ell does he know?
He’s a dog.
***
I like peanut butter, I like it on sandwiches.
Dog prefers turkey.
I’ve packed one of each today because Dog looks too thin.
He says it’s his new diet…
I think Dog doesn’t eat much.
Mum’ll probably box my ears for taking two sandwiches.
Dog is worth it.
Dog is my friend.
***
My ears hurt.
***
Dog and I are standing at the bus stop.
I am mad at my mum…
I am running away tonight.
I am going to go to France, that’s where Dog’s from, I’m sure.
The problem with Coventry is no one is civilized.
That’s what Dog says…
I don’t know what civilized means.
The bus pulls up and I step on the step…
Dog gets on behind me and the man on the bus says:
“It’ll no do, no dogs.”
I look down at Dog.
I guess we’ll have to leave a different day.
***
Today something bad happened.
Today fire rained from the sky from the black planes.
And when the fire hit the ground everything would explode.
Things that weren’t supposed to fly started to whirr past my head.
Dog tells me to hide.
I didn’t know where to hide.
Dog shows me a crack in between two buildings.
A brick flies past my face.
I’m crying.
I think I want my mum.
He helps nudge me between the two buildings.
I can’t really breathe anymore.
He can’t fit…
I try to scoot over more for him, I try.
I try and I can feel the bricks pressing sharply into my back.
I’m crying, I’m begging Dog to hide with me.
Something explodes but I can’t hear the sound.
Everything goes black.
***
I wake up and I feel sick…
My body hurts…
I crawl out of the crack, my fingers scratched and bloody.
I want Dog.
I want Dog…
I start to cry because I can’t see him.
I can’t see my Dog.
I can see the tops of buildings on the ground,
I can see shoes without people in them,
I can see where the old man should’ve been walking from the pictures…
But I see no Dog.
I cry more, but Dog is probably just hiding.
Probably just hiding from the fire rain…
A woman comes up to me and asks if I’m hurt.
I don’t think she knows what I’m tryin to tell her with my hands…
Only Dog understood me.