Soupy Saturdays With the Pain and the Great One Read Online Free PDF Page A

came up so high we were sure they would hit the ceiling.
    Olive sniffed them. Some got stuck to her nose. But she wouldn’t get into the tub.She growled when Dylan tried to pick her up. “Is she going to bite me?” he asked.
    “No,” I told him.
    “Are you sure?” Dylan asked.
    “Pretty sure. Just don’t try to pick her up again.”
    “Don’t worry,” Dylan said.
    “Maybe a shampoo would work better,” I said, looking at Olive.
    “Yes, a shampoo,” Dylan agreed.
    “Come on, girl,” I said to Olive. “You’re going to like this.” I dug another treat out of my pocket and waved it in front of Olive’s face. She followed me into Mom and Dad’s bathroom. They have a walk-in shower.
    I rubbed some shampoo into Olive’s fur. It smelled nice, like coconut.
    “That’s not enough,” Dylan said. “Olive is a big dog. She needs a lot of shampoo.” He grabbed the bottle and poured it onto Olive’s back. I rubbed it in. Olive’s fur turned white and sudsy. “She smells better already,” Dylan said.

    It was true. She did.
    I showed Olive another treat and she followed me into the shower. But when I turned on the water Olive jumped out withoutgetting wet. I wasn’t so lucky. I got soaked. Dylan laughed his head off.

    Suddenly, the bathroom door opened. The Great One stood there with her hands on her hips. “What are you doing?” she shouted. “And what’s wrong with Olive?” She ran her hand over Olive’s back. “Is this shampoo?” she asked, smelling her hand.
    “Yes,” I told her.
    “Are you out of your mind?” she said.
    Before I could answer—before I could say
No, I’m not out of my mind
, she yelled, “You can’t use people shampoo on a dog.”
    “Says who?” I asked.
    But the Great One didn’t answer. She marched out of the room and yelled,“Mom … Dad … we have an emergency!”
    Mom and Dad both came running.
    “Uh-oh,” Dad said. “What’s happened to Olive?”
    “We were just trying to shampoo her,” I explained.
    Dylan didn’t say anything.
    Mom looked at me and said, “Jake, you’re all wet. Go and change your clothes.”
    So I went to my room. I got out of my wet clothes. I pulled on sweatpants and a hoodie. Then I flew down the stairs in time to see Dad hosing off Olive in the yard. The Great One was wearing rain gear even though it was a sunny day. She was trying to hold Olive still.
    “You better pray Olive doesn’t catch cold and die,” the Great One said to me. “How would you explain
that
to Aunt Diana?”
    I started to worry.
    Dylan said, “Dogs swim even when it’s cold out. What do they care about water from a hose?”
    But I could see that Olive cared. I felt really bad for her.
    “Get some towels, Jake,” Dad called. “We have to dry off this dog.”
    But Olive had other plans. She started shaking the water off her coat. She shook and shook, spraying water everywhere. At Dad, at Mom, at Dylan, and at the Great One.
“Stop it, Olive!”
the Great One shrieked.
    But Olive didn’t stop until she wanted to.
    That night we were playing Monopoly when Fluzzy came out of hiding. He batted around one of Olive’s toys. Then he carried it away in his mouth. “Did you see that?” I asked. “Fluzzy just stole one of Olive’s toys.”
    “Borrowed,” the Great One said. “Fluzzy doesn’t steal.”
    That’s when the phone rang. I answered. It was Aunt Diana. She wanted to know if Olive was having fun.

    “Yes, Olive is having a lot of fun,” I told Aunt Diana.
    “What’s she been doing?” Aunt Diana asked.
    For a minute I wasn’t sure what to say. Then I got an idea. “Today we played dentist,” I said.

    “Dentist!” Aunt Diana said. “Was Olive the dentist or the patient?”
    I got this picture in my mind of Olive trying to brush
my
teeth. “We took turns,” I told Aunt Diana.
    Then I looked at Olive. She looked back at me with those big brown eyes. And I knew that even if she could speak, she would keep our day a secret from