The Invisible Dog
家长、老师、孩子都能读。用孩子的思维方式陪伴他们。
（以下为 The Invisible Dog 原文截取部分）
Rupert died when Janie was only two, so she didn’t really remember anything about him.
She knew what he looked like, of course. There were lots of photos of him---on his own, or with Mom or Dad, and one she especially liked, of herself as a toddler sitting on the lawn with Rupert standing beside her.
She was just sorry she’d never known him.
“Mom,” Janie said one day. “How long ago did Rupert die?”
“Oh, let’s see,” her mother said. “He died when you were two, and now you’re seven. So…five years ago.”
“And how old was he?”
“He was eight.”
“That’s not very old for a dog, is it?”Janie said.
“Not for most dogs,” her mother said, “but Rupert was very big, a giant, really. Great Danes don’t usually live as long as smaller dogs.”
“What did he die of?”
“Kidney failure.”
“Were you and Daddy sad?”
“Terribly.”
“Is that why we’ve never had a dog since?”
“I suppose it is, really. We talked about getting a puppy, but somehow it seemed as though no other dog could ever replace Rupert, so we never did.”
“What kind of puppy would you have got?” asked Janie.
“Oh, a Great Dane again, I think. We wouldn’t want any other sort of dog. But they’re awfully expensive to buy and awfully expensive to keep.”
“Shall we ever have another one, don't you think?”
“I don’t know, darling,” Janie’s mother said. “ We’ll see.”
“We’ll see,” Janie knew, always meant “ Probablynot, and don’t go pestering me about it or it’ll be certainly not.” So she thought she’d better drop the subject.
However, the spirit of the late great Rupert must have decided otherwise, for only a few days later Janie came by chance on something she’d never set eyes on before.
She was hunting about at the back of the garage, where her father had his workbench, looking for an oilcan to oil her bike, when she saw something hanging high on a nail in a dark, dusty corner.
It was a dog collar with a leash attached.
Janie climbed onto the bench and took it down.
The collar was very big, broad, and brass-studded, with a round metal disk attached to the buckle. She rubbed the disk clear of dust, and there, scratched on the face of it, was the name RUPERT and, underneath, their telephone number.
Janie put the collar to her nose. It smelled of leather and dog, and just for a moment it made her feel so sad to think that this faint smell was all that was left of the creature whose great neck the collar had encircled. How many hundreds of times in his eight years of life would be have gone for a walk wearing it, with Mom or Dad holding the end of the thick braided leash?
Janie went out the garden gate and wandered up the lane, the loop of the leash in her left hand, the empty collar dangling. She tried to imagine what it must have been like going for a walk with Rupert.
Lost in a daydream, she almost bumped into Mrs. Garrow, and elderly widow who lived alone in one of the cottages at the end of the village.
“Hello, Janie. Taking the dog for a nicewalk, are you?” said the old lady with a loud laugh. Mrs. Garrow’s laugh sounded like nothing so much as a duck quacking.
“Oh, hello,” Janie said. “I was just---” But before she could say “pretending,” Mrs. Garrow put out her hand and patted the air just behind the dangling collar, just where a dog’s back would have been.
“Who’s a good boy, then?” said Mrs. Garrow. “He’s looking very well, Janie. You must be proud of him. Make sure you keep him on the leash, mind. There’s a lot of traffic in the lane these days.” And she went on her way, quacking loudly.
Some people never grow too old for games of make-believe, thought Janie. That’s nice. And two can play at that…
“Heel!” she said, and she walked on, the invisible dog pacing at her side.
After Janie had gone to bed that night, her parents were talking.
“I see Janie’s got hold of old Rupert’s collar and leash,” her father said.
“Yes,” her mother said. “She’s been carrying it around all day. It’s lying beside her bed now.”
“When I arrived home from work,” her father said, “She was so engrossed with it I don’t think she even heard the car. She was walking around the lawn dangling the collar and talking away to an imaginary animal. Every now and then she’d stop and say ‘Sit!’ and then after abit she’d say ‘Heel!’ and walk on again.”
“I know. I can only think she must have avery vivid imagination to play a game like that for so long.”
“Has she been pestering you to get a puppy?”
“No. It would be nice though, David, wouldn’tit? One day.”
“Another Great Dane?”
“Of course.”
“Oh, come on, Sally!” Janie’s father said. “They’re awfully expensive to buy and awfully expensive to keep. I mean these days adecent Dane puppy costs over 300 pounds.”
“You know that, do you?”
“Well…yes, I just happened to notice an advertisement. And as for feeding a growing pup, well, you can reck on on over 600 pounds a year.”
“So we can’t afford one?”
“No. You weren’t seriously thinking of getting one?”
“No.”
“Okay.”
At breakfast the next morning Janie’s parents noticed that the loop of the leash was around Janie’s left wrist as she ate, the collar on the floor beside her.
“Do we have to have that dirty old thing atthe table?” her father asked.
“He’s not a dirty old thing,” Janie said.
“He?” I’m talking about the collar and leash.
“Oh, sorry, Dad. I thought you were talking about my dog.”
“It’s a funny thing,” her mother said, “but Daddy and I can’t actually see a dog.”
“You wouldn’t,” said Janie. “He’s invisible.”
“I see.”
“No, you don’t, Mom.”
“I mean, I hear what you’re saying. By the way, what do you feed him?”
“Invisible food.”
“In an invisible dish?”
“Naturally.”
“Think of the money you’re saving,” Janie’s father said, “never having to fork out for dog food or biscuits. Can’t cost you a penny.”
“Of course it does, Daddy. When we go shopping today, you wouldn’t believe how much I shall have to spend.”
“Invisible money?”
“Of course.”
“Has he got a name, this invisible dog?” her mother asked.
“Well, no, not yet,” said Janie. “I haven’t decided.”
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