“Dr. Jake says anxiety is a thing that happens in your brain—like something messes up, so you worry too much. But that, sometimes, it’s also about what’s happening to you. When something is very hard, or I’m very stressed, I can get more anxious. It seems like you are probably anxious, maybe that kind of anxious, right?” Tonio directed this at the judge. She made a pose of confusion. “I mean, you have to worry about all dogs, and about the whole world, and you’re still taking time to worry about me and Buster. You must feel pretty anxious, and I bet … I bet being a dog can make you feel pretty anxious, too. Keeping secrets all the time.”
“Maybe so,” the judge agreed. “But what does that have to do with your decision?”
“Why don’t you all just go to The Farm? Why don’t dogs just leave humans behind, and go do your own thing? Why even live around us if you have to do it like this? It seems so hard. It seems like you have to put so much energy into doing so little.”
Buster’s ears folded back in disappointment. It sounds like he thinks he should go. That everyone should go.
Lasagna was eager to answer. “Different dogs will tell you different things. I think, though, that the deepest truth is that we love humans. We want to make a difference in the world where we can, even if it is small. Even if it’s slow. Dogs and humans make each other happier,kinder, and safer. We don’t have to do those things perfectly for them to be worth it.”
Tonio nodded. He’d figured something out. “Yes, exactly! So if that’s worth it—making a small sacrifice to do a small good—why not just tell humans the truth? Why not try to do more good, even if it’s still not perfect?”
“It could be dangerous,” the judge explained. “Dogs—and humans—might be hurt.”
“Buster helped me. He helped me a little before, and he helps me even more now. I think that was worth it. So … no, I don’t want to go to The Farm. And I don’t want you to send Buster there, either, because I want him around, helping me get better at pushing past my fear.” He clenched the handle in the middle of the teacups and bowed his head at the judge. “I promise we won’t tell anyone, but I think you should.”
They spun in silence. Lasagna wagged his tail and turned to the judge. “I told you. You see? This is it. This is exactly what I’ve been talking about. This boy is perfect evidence. He never would have said something like this before meeting Buster.”
Buster tilted his head at Tonio. That was true, wasn’t it? He had made a difference. Tonio was still going to have panic attacks, was still going to worry, but he believed things could change. His time with Dr. Jake made that obvious, but so did his time with Mia, and with Devon. Tonio was different from how he’d been at the beginning of the summer—he was willing to take risks, to push through things even when they were hard.
Was the judge?
She nodded. “You are right, Lasagna. And I’m glad. What about you, Buster? Do you agree with your human?”
Buster wagged his tail. “I do.” This was a choice he already made when he chose to reveal himself to Tonio and be a Bad Dog. Doing good, even a little bit of good, was better than doing nothing.
The judge nodded. “Good. Then it’s time to tell you the other option.”
Tonio watched the tablet screen, startled. “Other option? What does that mean?”
The judge crossed her paws and shook her head. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but The Farm isn’t real.”
Buster couldn’t tell if he was dizzy from the teacups, or from this news. “What?! But this whole time, you’ve been—”
“A perfect paradise for dogs?” The judge shrugged. “A place humans have never been? Have you seen the way they’ve treated this world? They’re everywhere. You can’t escape them at the bottom of the ocean anymore. No, it doesn’t exist.” She sighed. “Not yet, at least. And that’s because we haven’t tried.”
Giddy energy was beaming from Lasagna. His tail was wagging, and his ears were up as tall and as high as they could go. “I knew it. I knew there was something else going on. Wait until I tell all my lawyer friends, they’ll—”
Sweetie placed a paw on his face. “What I’m about to tell you goes against official Court policy, canine tradition, and Dog Law, so we have to be extremely careful. Can you keep a secret?”
“No!” Tonio and Buster both said immediately.
“Well, you have to, for now. Dogs have been changing the world. We’ve just been doing it quietly, behind the scenes, extremely carefully. The Farm is a program where we send dogs who need to be removed from society, for one reason or another, and train them into agents for the Court. We would like the two of you to be our first human-and-dog team.”
The clips on a briefcase popped. Lasagna pulled out a folder and set it next to the tablet—holding it down so it didn’t blow away in the rotating wind.
“This is a contract. If the two of you agree to be ready when I call you—to help the Court when we need it—you can go back home and live your lives like you did before. We’ll handle the explanations and the publicity.”
“Why us?” Tonio asked. “Why me?
