Josie now had only three days before her daughter and grandson arrived for a probably rather lengthy  stay. The ghost dog still seemed cheerfully entrenched in her apartment. She could tell by the way small, mouthable objects would be picked up and shaken or tossed. She looked everywhere for anything left as instructions but with no success. Tapping on the walls, testing for hollow sounds got nowhere, although she wasn’t completely thorough about that, for fear of stirring up curiosity in neighbors.

She tried talking to the ghost, asking it, when she thought it might be nearby, if it knew anything about what its master intended, but with no success. Aside from this stress, the dog was no problem. She didn’t have to feed or walk it. She did have to pick up slippers and other objects it had strewn around. It occurred to her to try to bribe the ghost—food treats wouldn’t work with something that didn’t eat so she bought a couple of doggie toys. These seemed to be appreciated but[f1]  were not much use for her since she still could not communicate[f2]  with it.

The day before her houseguests were due to arrive, she got a phone call from her daughter which mostly repeated Charlie’s need for peace and quiet. Josie stumbled through the phone call, unable to give her the truth. She did say there was sometimes noise in the building or out in the street, but they’d do the best they could. She did suspect that a lot of what ailed her grandson was the sudden, shocking death of his father, at the hands of a drunk driver, who had been barely injured. But she didn’t feel it right to tell this to her daughter, also still suffering from shock and grief, along with a very demanding job. That evening she broke down in tears, for the first time in decades. And she felt a gentle snuffing at her hand, so she begged the ghost not to upset her grandson. Or her daughter. There was a strange sort of movement of the coach and a licking of her hand, and it took a few seconds before she realized that the dog had jumped up beside her and was cuddling next to her. She almost began crying again at the obvious wish to comfort her. “You won’t scare Charlie, will you sugar?” she murmured. She did wish she had asked the neighbor if the woman remembered the dog’s name, but she hadn’t. Maybe there would be an opportune moment later.

Next day, when her guests arrived, there was no sign of the dog.