The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon

5.  I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him. He was leaking blood from the fork holes.

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy, sad, cross and concentrating. Also, dogs are faithful and they don’t tell lies because they cannot talk.

I had been hugging the dog for 4 minutes when I heard screaming. I looked up and saw Mrs. Shears running toward me from the patio. She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat. Her toenails were painted bright pink and she had no shoes on.

She was shouting, “What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog?”

I don’t like people shouting at me. It makes me scared that they are going to hit me or touch me and I don’t know what is going to happen.

“Let go of the dog,” she shouted. “Let go of the fucking dog for Christ’s sake.”

I put the dog down on the lawn and moved back 2 meters.

She bent down. I thought she was going to pick the dog up herself, but she didn’t . Perhaps she noticed how much blood there was and didn’t want to get dirty. Instead she started screaming again.

I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes and rolled forward till I was hunched up with my forehead pressed onto the grass. The grass was wet and cold. It was nice.