When her daughter and grandson arrived early that evening, Josie was shocked at how pale and wan her grandson looked. They rushed him into bed and provided a simple dinner on a tray, of which he ate little. Rather than urging him, they decided to let him sleep. Josie offered a trip to the emergency room, but her daughter shook her head. “I think he’s just very tired. And he’s been so much fussed over by doctors lately. Let’s let him sleep and see how he is in the morning. I’ll be in the same room and will check him frequently in the night.:

Josie frowned. “But don’t you have to work tomorrow.”

Jaime shrugged. “Of course. But this is more important.”

Josie knew her duty. “I’ll sit up tonight. And wake you if it seems necessary.”

Jaime breathed out, obviously relieved. ‘Thank you!”

So they arranged it and Jaime went to bed while Josie equipped Charlie’s room, which had a very comfortable bedside chair and small table, with a large mug of instant coffee, s sandwich and a book.

She wondered if the dog would appear—he usually did at night. She hoped he would. It would give her a chance to try to explain to the dog—although she had no idea how to go about this—not to scare her grandson.

For several hours she read quietly and the child slept. Then the book slipped from her hand and she slept also. It was little sounds of motion that woke her up. The dog must have come for, to her intense relief, Charlie was obviously petting something. And smiling. Well, this was a huge relief. Josie watched them benignly for several minutes. And then there was new motion in the room. She could feel it. And the dog obviously did also, for Charlie’s hand apparently had nothing to pet any more. But Josie heard no sound of dog nails clicking across the floor. She did see some of Charlie’s clothes lifting and dropped onto the floor. Then she heard a distant, strangely resonant “Bruno” and nails on the floor. A whine. “Bruno. Come. Leave the boy. Come.” But Charlie didn’t stop petting the invisible thing.

“Bruno!” The distant sounding whisper-shout sounded irritated and several piles of Charlie’s things were tossed around. Was this new ghost jealousy?  She had never heard the ghost dog’s name from her neighbor, but this must be it. And was this its master? Josie shook her head, groggy with lack of sleep. But she had an immediate problem, for Charlie started to cry. She didn’t want that, it hurt her to hear him. And she certainly didn’t want Jaime to wake up.

She stood up. “Leave Bruno alone. He’s not hurting anything.”

A rolled up pair of socks flew at her. Then a T shirt. And a hair brush. That last actually hit her, not hard, but it didn’t seem so funny. “Stop that” The dog whined, not sounding happy at all about the situation. More clothes flew. Josie snapped. “This is very childish. Very, very childish.” There was a pause in the flying objects and Josie had a chance to think

She drew herself up and said, as impressively as she could while still whispering, “If you don’t want Bruno to make friends with others, you could hand over the instructions you told people about. But I think it is very mean of you to deny your dog’s companionship to a sick child.

A pile of laundry that had started to shift quieted down. She had a strange little sense she could feel some shame in the room. “My grandson has to go to the hospital for a while. A dog no one can see seems like the best help to keep him cheerful there. Obviously, you want to take Bruno with you, although I don’t understand why you haven’t taken these steps already. But anyway, after Charlie is out of the hospital you can give us the instructions and take him with you. Charlie will miss him, of course, but then we can get him a real puppy.”  She felt a spurt of indignation in the room and hastily added, :I mean one that’s still alive like Charlie.”

There was quiet., But she did think she saw a strange tiny patch in the air that looked oddly like an eye winking. Something else occurred to her and she addressed where she thought Bruno was. “Don’t you go licking the hospital people. They have enough problems.” She didn’t think he would bark there. She thought she might have heard a quiet chuckle. Then there was a sense of one less presence in the room