Dog Heaven Read online

Ledward chuckled. “Look the dog. Still hungry.”

  “You should bring your pig over sometime. Let him play with Streak.”

  Ledward nodded. “That would be interesting.”

  We watched the fire.

  I glanced back when the screen door slid open.

  Stella’s eyes were pinned on Streak. When Streak didn’t get up to go jump all over her, she came out and eased the door shut behind her. “Smells good.”

  Ledward painted more butter on the ahi. “Fresh from the ocean today.”

  Streak was locked on the hibachi like a shark on blood.

  Stella looked at me and said, “I just wanted to say your dog isn’t so bad. I mean, it doesn’t make my eyes get puffy. If it stays outside.”

  Was this a trick?

  Stella looked up at the sky. “Nice night.”

  I followed her gaze.

  “It’s just … well … it’s just that you wanted it so badly,” she added, still looking at the sky.

  Huh?

  “Anyway,” Stella said. “Keep that fleabag out of my room.”

  She went back into the house.

  I turned to Ledward.

  He grunted. “She just told you the dog can stay.”

  “She did?”

  “Long as you keep it out of the house.”

  We tapped fists. We did it!

  Before I fell asleep that night, I heard Ledward roll the lawn mower out of the garage. It was pitch-black out. Streak was curled up on the bunk under me.

  I turned over and looked out the window. I could see Ledward’s shadow in the driveway, bending over the lawn mower.

  He pulled the cord.

  Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

  It started! And stayed started.

  Ledward let it run for thirty seconds or so and shut it down. “You hear that, boy?” he called through the screen.

  “It works.”

  “Now you can mow the lawn and I can go home.”

  Ledward rolled the lawn mower back into the garage, came back out, and stood by my window. “That dog in there with you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good night, then.”

  “Good night. Ledward?”

  “Yeah?”

  “I’ll cut the grass.”

  Ledward chuckled, then started up his jeep. He gave the horn a short toot and drove off.

  I listened as the sound of the engine got smaller and smaller and all I could hear were the toads croaking down by the river.

  And Streak.

  Snoring on the bunk below me.

  Hawaii Fact:

  One of the wettest spots in the world is on the island of Kauai. Mount Waialeale consistently records rainfall of nearly five hundred inches per year.

  Calvin Fact:

  Every year around fourteen bugs crawl into your mouth while you’re sleeping. And guess what? You swallow most of them. People study this stuff.

  Graham Salisbury is the author of two Calvin Coconut books: Trouble Magnet and The Zippy Fix, as well as several novels for older readers, including the award-winning Lord of the Deep, Blue Skin of the Sea, Under the Blood-Red Sun, Eyes of the Emperor, House of the Red Fish, and Night of the Howling Dogs. Graham Salisbury grew up in Hawaii. Calvin Coconut and his friends attend the same school Graham did—Kailua Elementary School. Graham now lives in Portland, Oregon, with his family. Visit him on the Web at www.grahamsalisbury.com.

  Jacqueline Rogers has illustrated more than ninety books for young readers over the past twenty years. She studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design. You can visit her at www.jacquelinerogers.com.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2010 by Graham Salisbury

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Jacqueline Rogers

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Wendy Lamb Books, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

  Wendy Lamb Books and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Visit us on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/kids

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Salisbury, Graham.

  Calvin Coconut : dog heaven / Graham Salisbury; illustrated by Jacqueline Rogers. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  Summary: When his teacher asks him to write a persuasive argument about something he really wants, fourth-grader Calvin creates a unique way to express his desire for a dog.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89541-8 [1. Dogs—Fiction. 2. Composition (Language arts)—Fiction. 3. Schools—Fiction. 4. Family life—Hawaii—Fiction. 5. Kailua (Oahu, Hawaii)—Fiction.] I. Rogers, Jacqueline, ill. II. Title.

  PZ7.S15225Cac 2010

  [Fic]—dc22

  2008049871

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.

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