Chapter 1 – the Birthday Party

“... Happy Birthday Dear...,” the boy was only ten years old, but he had already grown tired of how repetitive the Happy Birthday song was. “Happy Birthday to You!”

The boy had no sooner blown at the candles on his birthday cake than he saw Steve dive nose first into the cake. Then with a smile Steve looked at the boy while he licked the icing off of his face. Most ten-year-old boys would be angry if someone tore into their birthday cake before they got a chance, but the boy simply smiled back at Steve and dove into the cake himself. The two of them were soon covered in cake and icing while the boy’s mom tried to contain the mess to the kitchen table. This scene is one that many moms would include in a slideshow at the child’s eventual graduation or wedding, but this particular mom had plenty of such pictures already. The boy and Steve had a great time but it should be noted that no one else at the party got to enjoy any birthday cake.

This was often the way that the boy acted with his dog, Steve. Steve was less like a pet and more like a brother. The two did everything together. They shared everything they had including meals, a bed to sleep in at night, and their secrets. Not many people realize that dogs have secrets, and maybe not all dogs do. Steve, however, most certainly had secrets and only the boy ever knew them. Of course Steve couldn’t speak English, but the boy and the dog certainly spoke a common language. The two of them would speak to each other in imagination and daydreams. As they sat inside of an old cardboard box it would be evident to the both of them that they were in a sailboat on the ocean. And as they lie on their backs and look at the sky, they would each see the same shapes in the clouds even though neither said anything out loud.

As the boy opened each birthday present he would say something aloud and glance a truthful look at Steve. His words came out sounding grateful, but Steve could tell that the boy was not excited about his new toothbrush or his flashcards full of math problems. As the pile of unwanted gifts continued to grow next to the boy he was handed the last present from the table. His mom had jokingly written “From Steve,” on the wrapping paper. She would often indulge the boy’s fantasy by pretending that Steve was more human than he actual was.

Steve let out a loud bark as the boy open his brand new Frisbee. The boy leaped from his crouched position with disc in hand and called to his mom as he ran out the front door to play with his new toy. Steve followed along with equal enthusiasm. The other kids would have felt left out of the party if any other kids had been present that day. Steve was the boy’s best and only friend and the forty acres in the country that the boy’s family lived on didn’t lend itself to neighborhood children. So the adults continued to enjoy each other’s company and the boy’s mom cleaned up the mess the two had made earlier.

The boy wasn’t notably athletic, and he had never been taught how to throw or catch, but each time he would grip the Frisbee and fling it into the air, time would seem to slow. He would

watch as Steve would run along side looking up at the disc, waiting for it to drop to just the right height. Then dog and Frisbee would meet in mid-air with golden fur dancing slowly in the wind and the sun shining through the partly translucent red plastic of the Frisbee. Sometimes people would take a picture of such a scene and put it in a calendar with other impressive feats by dogs, but the boy never took time to think about that. He would simply watch in amazement as Steve returned to the earth with Frisbee securely in his mouth and trot back toward the boy beaming with confidence and accomplishment. Steve was the athletic one of the two.

This game of catch continued until the two reached their tree. The tree that the boy and his dog called their own was no ordinary tree. This tree was alone by an acre in every direction and sat on top of a gradually climbing hill. The grass surrounding it was tall but soft and littered with wildflowers. People would sometimes take pictures of trees like this and put them on postcards, but the boy had never seen anything like that.

There was something magical about the time the boy spent with Steve at the tree. The air was always fresh and the sun warmed them down deep into their bones. The big sturdy limbs of the tree started unusually close to the ground and almost seemed to be arranged to construct a spiraling staircase. They were so perfectly placed that Steve was even able to climb up after the boy and the two would sit in the top of their tree and silently give names to the shapes that the clouds would make.

The boy’s mom called out the back door as loudly as she could assuming the pair were at their tree. As the two ran toward the house, she couldn’t help but think back to the birthday that Steve was introduced to the family. The boy had received the puppy as a present for his fifth birthday. Initially he wanted to name him Blue after the popular children’s show character. His mom reminded him that Blue on TV was actually the color blue and maybe he could pick a better name. The boy chose to name his new friend after another character on that same children’s TV show. This name is not a name ordinarily chosen for a dog, but the boy’s mom liked it better than Blue so she let the puppy’s name be Steve.

Maybe it was because of the boy and his dog discovering so much of life together that they grew so close. The bubbles that the boy’s mother purchased for him on a trip into town became a sense of wonder and entertainment for weeks. The boy would try to figure out how the bubbles would form and float through the air and Steve would try to figure out where the bubbles would disappear to when he would bite them. The two never figured out the answers to their mysteries.

The family was gathered around the dinner table for the boy’s birthday dinner. It had all the fanfare of Thanksgiving with aunts and uncles present and everyone catching up as if they haven’t talked in months. The boy had chosen macaroni and cheese along with mashed potatoes for his birthday meal and the entire setup served as a stark contrast to what the family would usually eat when together for a holiday. As the guests found their seats around the table the boy

noticed a slight grin on each face as they saw what the meal would be. Of course this is the sort of thing you expect when you let a ten-year-old choose the meal.

During dinner the family was informed about the boys exceptional performance at school and his failed attempt at wooing a young girl in his class. These stories were narrated by the boy’s mother of course because the boy was busy making sure Steve was getting his share of macaroni and cheese. The boy was not very sneaky, however, and the guests had a hard time pretending not to notice the spoonfuls of macaroni disappearing below the table. Luckily they had been forewarned about Steve’s love for the dish and expected to see the boy slipping the food beneath the table to his friend. It didn’t make the scene any less comical. When dinner was finished it seemed more macaroni had disappeared under the table than was actually eaten by the boy. The boy’s mother wondered if the dish was actually chosen by Steve.

It was common for the boy to make decisions that he knew would be best for Steve. Passing up a chance at a sleepover to stay at home was a regular happening. So much so that the other boys never even asked much anymore. During routine trips into town the boy would ride in the bed of the truck because that’s the only place Steve was allowed to ride. Steve would make sacrifices too. He didn’t much care for television but if something were on that the boy wanted to watch, Steve would sit patiently by his side pretending to be interested. Even though Steve had his own comfortable bed on the floor in the laundry room he chose to sleep on the boy’s twin size bed to make sure the two would wake up together so as to not miss even a minute of the day together.

The guests began to leave one-by-one and the boy would thank them and hug them and endure the sloppy kisses from his aunts. Then the boy returned to playing with some of the other gifts from his party. Steve lay beside him exhausted from the long day of Frisbee retrieval. It wasn’t long before the boy was tired of his new playthings and as soon as his mother finished the dishes from the party the boy and his dog turned in for the night. They didn’t discuss it out loud but each one of them knew that a great adventure was on the horizon.