“I thought—” A shadow that was his dad’s face spoke to him through the curtains of the half-open kitchen window, “you said you couldn’t swim because your leg bothered you—”
“Oh, my leg’s fine!” Rolf called back. “It’s been fine for weeks. See you!”
He cycled off.
“That boy…” he heard his father beginning behind him; but the rest of the words were left behind. Rolf wheeled down the street in the morning sunlight; and for a second his father’s words about the new job and family vacation came back to him. His father—of all people! He felt sharply uncomfortable for a second, thinking how he had misjudged his dad. Then, the uncomfortableness was washed away by the thought of the trips. It really would be cool zipping around the world. Wait until he told Rita, and the other kids at school. He would have to ask Baneen how to go about finding the local gremlins in other places, once he got there. He wondered if the dogs in Spain or Japan spoke Spanish or Japanese, or whether he would be able to understand them the way he was still able to understand Shep…
No point in letting the fact that he could see gremlins and talk to animals go to waste.