A Dog Called Homeless

When Cally gets home, she finds a note from Jed on the shed door telling her to come to the music shop. Mrs. Cooper takes Cally and Sam on the bus to the music shop so that they can see what Jed is doing. When they get there, a small crowd has formed around a man juggling forks and spoons. He is “wearing a checked shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a nice pair of blue trousers. His beard [is] gone, and his hair [is] cut short, but the sparking eyes [tell Cally it is] Jed” (169). The crowd loves the routine, and people toss money into his hat. He’s performing to raise money to get Homeless back.

Just then, Luke arrives with Rachel; they saw the note on the shed door. Rachel wants to join in, and she goes into the music shop to borrow a drum. The steady beat moves the crowd “like a magnet, like when the Pied Piper made all the children follow him” (170). After a while, Mrs. Cooper counts the money and announces that they’ve raised enough to go get Homeless. Jed promises Cally he’ll bring the dog back to her, where he belongs.

Later, Cally and Sam sit alone, talking about Homeless by spelling messages. Sam insists that Cally talk to Dad about it. Cally wants more than anything for “Homeless to come and live with [them], make [them] a family of four again” (172), but she still isn’t ready to use her voice to do that.

Sam is noticeably down and confides in Cally that he’ll have heart surgery soon. He wants his mom to let him do more on his own, but she constantly worries about his health. As Cally looks at her friend, she can see that he’s worried too. She reassures him that she’ll always look out for him and will even take him swimming once he recovers from surgery.

The days pass, slowly moving closer to Sam’s surgery date. Suddenly, “like a car crash, [there’s] a pileup of people” (177). Luke arrives with Homeless on a leash in the passageway of their apartment building. Just then, Mrs. Cooper emerges from her apartment with Mom’s mixing bowls that Cally gave her.

Mrs. Cooper trips over something, causing the bowls to fall from her arms. When Dad sees them, he gets furious and starts yelling at her for having them. Cally never asked Dad if Mrs. Cooper could keep them. Before Mrs. Cooper can explain, Dad turns to Luke and asks why Homeless is there after he said multiple times that they can’t keep him.

Jed steps forward, taking responsibility for bringing Homeless inside. He explains that he was the dog’s guardian while he looked for the family with whom he belongs: Cally’s family. Dad tells Jed he must be mistaken, so Jed leads the group to the shed. He points to a picture of Mom and tells the group that last year, he found that woman in a car accident. In the car with her was a gray puppy, Homeless. Cally grabs “Dad’s hand, to hold onto him while [her] heart burst[s] open” (180). She can’t believe it; this whole time, Homeless really was their dog.

Jed explains that the ambulance workers sent him away, but he promised Mom to find her family and give them the dog. He spent a long time looking for them and then saw Cally one day and knew that she must be Mom’s daughter. Dad is staring at Jed in disbelief. He asks how they can know he’s telling the truth, and it isn’t one of Cally’s stories. Jed says that it can’t be one of Cally’s stories since she has never said a word to him.

Dad leaves without saying anything, and all Cally wants to do is tell Sam about what Jed told them. She goes inside but can’t find him. He is missing, and so is his swimming bag. Horrified, Cally realizes where Sam must have gone and races off to find him at Swan Lake.

Cally runs through the pouring rain, hoping she isn’t too late. She knows that “even though [Sam is] blind, he would find his way to Swan Lake. Every time [they’d] gone there, he’d felt all the trees and lumps and bumps in the ground” (183). She remembered that he seemed to know where they were when they pushed the stroller, and this makes her run even faster.

When Cally gets to the lake, she sees Sam in the water and goes in after him. Somehow, she pulls him out from under the water, and they both cling to a stump that sticks out of the lake. As Cally looks at Sam, she realizes he probably can’t swim back. He “look[s] weak, and his narrow chest [is] going in and out fast. His face [is] pale and his lips [have] turned blue” (185). The water swirls around them, and Cally knows they’re running out of time.

Cally thinks about Mom, wishing she were there to help. As Sam grows weaker, she knows what she must do. It’s time to use her voice. She tries to call out, but her throat feels scratchy and small. She takes a deeper breath and yells for Dad.

Homeless leaps from the woods and into the lake, swimming toward the kids. They try to swim back together but struggle. Cally calls out again, and Dad arrives, jumping into the water to rescue them. After pulling the kids and Homeless out of the lake, Dad picks up Sam and runs back toward home, Cally and Homeless on his heels.

Cally will be okay, but the doctor wants to keep her in the hospital overnight as a precaution. Dad thanks the doctor and asks if he can speak to Cally alone. Thirty-one days after she first stopped talking, Cally is finally using her voice again. Dad is now more than ready to do what he used to do best: He’s ready to listen.

Cally tells Dad they don’t have to talk about every memory of Mom; they just need to talk about her. They promise each other to get better about keeping her memory alive, together. Dad tells Cally that he talked to Jed more and that Jed spent a lot of time “searching people’s eyes, people’s faces, for the home he had to find, for the promise he had made” (191). During that time, Homeless protected Jed as they faced being unhoused together. Dad admits that Homeless, not him, found Cally and Sam in the lake. Cally asks once more if Homeless can stay with them and be part of their family. This time, Dad says yes.

Sam is at the hospital but is in worse condition than Cally. When Cally is feeling better, she goes to visit him, and Mrs. Cooper tells her to talk to him. Cally speaks to Sam, using her voice, for the first time since they met. Sam “spell[s] out, ‘Are you talking now?’” (193), and Cally says yes. Sam and Mrs. Cooper are grateful to finally hear Cally’s voice.

The next week, Cally stays home with Dad and finally unpacks her boxes, paints her room, and checks on Sam at the hospital. He’s getting stronger, but because he has a heart murmur he needs special medical attention. When he’s finally released to go home, his mom and Cally’s dad leave the doors to their apartments open so that Homeless can go back and forth between the apartments. Slowly but surely, it’s starting to feel like home.

Later, Jed visits Cally, and Cally thanks him for bringing Homeless to them. Jed says, “I never heard you speak before […] Lovely eyes, lovely voice […] Just like your mom” (198). He then tells Cally that he got a job at the music shop; Cally can tell he’s proud of himself, and she’s proud of him too. She invites him to the farewell concert. Now that she’s speaking again, she decided to sign up and participate.

Jed agrees to come and then pulls out one final gift. He gives a small box to Dad. When Dad opens it, he finds a new guitar pick inside, engraved with three words “Love always, Louise” (199). Mom had bought it for his birthday the day she died. Now, this guitar pick signals that it’s time for music to bring the family together once again.

For the farewell concert, Cally decides she wants to sing her solo from Olivia!, which she would have sung last year if she had kept the role in the school musical. Mr. Crisp is delighted to have her join and finds the sheet music for her. He smiles at Cally and then sends her off to practice her singing.

The night of the concert, Dad surprises Cally by accompanying her on guitar for her song on stage. Cally looks “into his loving eyes. He look[s] at [her] like she [is] everything” (202). Cally then looks off to the side of the stage, where she sees Mom one final time. She isn’t wearing the red raincoat anymore, and she finally gets to hear Cally sing again. In the audience are her friends and family: Luke, Rachel, Homeless, Jed, Mrs. Cooper, and Sam are all there to support her. Cally has found her voice again and a new community to call her own.