Read The Sun Dog for Free Online Page A

have been standing only a few degrees shy of due east or west.
    There was something in the grass at the far left of the picture which looked like a child's red rubber ball. It was inside the fence, and enough behind one of the lackluster clumps of grass so it was hard to tell. file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20...ing%20-%20A%20note%20On%20The%20sun%20Dog.HTM (18 of 119)7/28/2005 9:22:38 PM
    The Sun Dog
    And that was all.
    'Do you recognize anything?' Pop asked, cruising his magnifying glass slowly back and forth over the photo's surface. Now the dog's hindquarters swelled to the size of hillocks tangled with wild and ominously exotic black undergrowth; now three or four of the scaly pickets became the size of old telephone poles; now, suddenly, the object behind the clump of grass clearly became a child's ball (although under Pop's glass it was as big as a soccer ball): Kevin could even see the stars which girdled its middle in upraised rubber lines. So something new was revealed under Pop's glass, and in a few moments Kevin would see something else himself, without it. But that was later.
    'Jeez, no,' Kevin said. 'How could I, Mr Merrill?'
    'Because there are things here,' Pop said patiently. His glass went on cruising. Kevin thought of a movie he had seen once where the cops sent out a searchlight-equipped helicopter to look for escaped prisoners. 'A dog, a sidewalk, a picket fence that needs paintin or takin down, a lawn that needs tendin. The sidewalk ain't much - you can't even see all of it - and the house, even the foundation, ain't in the frame, but what I mean to say is there's that dog. You recognize it?'
    'No.'
    'The fence?'
    'No.'
    'What about that red rubber ball? What about that, son?'
    'No ... but you look like you think I should.'
    'I look like I thought you might,' Pop said. 'You never had a ball like that when you were a tyke?'
    'Not that I remember, no.'
    'You got a sister, you said.'
    'Megan.'
    'She never had a ball like that?'
    'I don't think so. I never took that much interest in Meg's toys. She had a BoLo bouncer once, and the ball on the end of it was red, but a different shade. Darker.'
    'Ayuh. I know what a ball like that looks like. This ain't one. And that mightn't be your lawn?'
    file:///E|/Funny%20&%20Weird%20Shit/75%20-%20...ing%20-%20A%20note%20On%20The%20sun%20Dog.HTM (19 of 119)7/28/2005 9:22:38 PM
    The Sun Dog
    'Jes - I mean jeepers, no.' Kevin felt a little offended. He and his dad took good care of the lawn around their house. It was a deep green and would stay that way, even under the fallen leaves, until at least mid-October. 'We don't have a picket fence, anyway.' And if we did, he thought, it wouldn't look like that mess. Pop let go of the switch in the base of the magnifying glass, placed it on the square of jeweler's velvet, and with a care which approached reverence folded the sides over it. He returned it to its former place in the drawer and closed the drawer. He looked at Kevin closely. He had put his pipe aside, and there was now no smoke to obscure his eyes, which were still sharp but not twinkling anymore.
    'What I mean to say is, could it have been your house before you owned it, do you think? Ten years ago -'
    'We owned it ten years ago,' Kevin replied, bewildered.
    'Well, twenty? Thirty? What I mean to say, do you recognize how the land lies? Looks like it climbs a little.'
    'Our front lawn -' He thought deeply, then shook his head. 'No, ours is flat. If it does anything, it goes down a little. Maybe that's why the cellar ships a little water in a wet spring.'
    'Ayuh, ayuh, could be. What about the back lawn?'
    'There's no sidewalk back there,' Kevin said. 'And on the sides -' He broke off. 'You're trying to find out if my camera's taking pictures of the past!' he said, and for the first time he was really, actively frightened. He rubbed his tongue on the roof of his mouth and seemed to taste metal.
    'I was just askin.' Pop rapped his fingers beside the