When Friendship Followed Me Home by Paul Griffin

of. Flip ran up to old Molly and nipped her neck and took off. The retriever wagged her tail and limped a few steps after Flip, who tore around the yard in circles.
    The next video was Flip at the window in a staring contest with a pigeon.
    Then at noon one of the girls came home from kindergarten and dressed Flip in a doll nightgown and put a bunch of ribbons in his hair, and he didn’t mind at all.
    In the last video, Flip, Molly, and Ginger the cat are sprawled out on the couch. They’re snoring, and Flip is on his back with all four legs out like an upside-down flying squirrel. He wakes up and yawns and shakes himself off and goes to the front door and sits. He cocks his head. Then three minutes later his crooked little tail starts wagging, and a minute after that I show up with the donuts.
    â€¢Â â€¢Â â€¢
    â€œFlip!” Halley said. Pink beret today. The button was a strawberry. She scooped him up and we went into the therapy dog certification place.
    My teacher gave Flip a chew stick, and then she said, “Not yours.” Flip cocked his head, but he didn’t drop the stick. The teacher told me to try. The way I learned it from the library book was to say, “Leave it.” Flip dropped the stick. The teacher put down a cookie. Flip went for it. “Leave it,” I said, and he turned away from it and trotted to me and sat and gave me his paw.
    Halley hooted and clapped and said, “Woohoo Flip!”
    Next was to make sure Flip didn’t freak when he heard a loud noise, like if a kid shrieked. My teacher had me readto Flip. Behind his back she dropped an aluminum pan. Flip spun toward the clatter.
    â€œFlip, I got it,” I said. He turned right back to me and sat and listened to me read. Next time the pan clattered, Flip’s ears went up, but he didn’t spin around. “I got it,” I said, and he lay down.
    Next was the most fun. My teacher’s daughter, seven years old, sat on the floor and read to Flip. He cocked his head every time the girl said, “Right Flip?”
    I got him to do this little trick I taught him. I said, “Flip, who wants a belly scratch?”
    Flip tucked himself into the girl’s lap and rolled over into the upside-down flying squirrel pose. His tail swept the floor probably a hundred times a minute.
    â€œThis guy has the gift,” my teacher said.
    â€œHe’s a traveler,” I said.
    â€œShe was talking about
you,
moron,” Halley said.
    Flip licked the girl’s cheeks, then her lips.
    â€œI can get him to stop that,” I told my teacher, but truth told, I was having a hard time getting him to not make out with every person he ever met.

22
    THE MAGICIAN WHO RIDES THE MOON
    Halley and I got tacos and went to the plaza near the dog training place and watched this skateboarder girl in baggy army clothes do crazy awesome tricks. Halley fed Flip chicken bits. “I swear he’s trying to tell me something,” she said. “Look, you can see yourself in his eyes. Flip, what is it, boy?”
    â€œYou should call her Halley,” I said. “The novella, the girl on the trapeze? Your name’s the most awesome ever.”
    â€œIt really is, isn’t it? Still, it’ll be too confusing. We’ll call her Helen, as in Helen of Troy. You know, from the
Iliad
?”
    â€œI skimmed the SparkNotes.”
    â€œShe was the woman who was so beautiful that all the Greeks and Trojans went psycho killing each other over her. Perfect, yes? I’m not really asking you. Just nod. Good. Now, the electrician dude. Gimme a hero’s name than begins with
B
.”
    â€œBruce,” I said. “As in Wayne? Hello, Batman?”
    â€œI’m looking for classical Greco-Roman tragedy, and you give me comic books. You want to be Bruce, fine. Either way, he’s you.”
    â€œWow.”
    â€œWhat now?”
    â€œI’m flattered I made it into your