The Secret Dog by Joe Friedman Page B

he’d seen a flash of light coming from the edge of the woods – but when he stared at it, there was nothing. Just a reflection from some wet leaves, he decided.
    He turned off the MP3 player and started to open the padlock.
    ‘Yes it’s me,’ he said. He glanced back at the woods. Still nothing. It must have just been his imagination.
    ‘Just a week to go,’ Josh told Reggae, as she jumped up to greet him. ‘And you still have lots to learn. Let’s go.’

 
    Chapter 20
    Josh felt unusually alert as he entered his English class the following day. For once, he was prepared – he’d listened to the play three times and even had a tutorial from Yvonne about it.
    ‘As you all know,’ Mrs Margolies began, ‘this play takes place in two realms: in the human realm and in fairyland.’ Josh recognised his teacher’s joke – she knew full well most of the people in the class hadn’t even glanced at the play. ‘Today we’re going to concentrate on fairyland. Who knows how Oberon seeks to punish Titania?’
    Josh raised his hand eagerly. Mrs Margolies looked surprised, then annoyed.
    ‘Josh, couldn’t you have gone to the toilet during the break?’
    ‘I don’t want to go to the toilet,’ he replied indignantly. ‘I want to answer the question. Oberon punishes Titania by getting Puck to rub her eyes with a flower that will make her fall in love with the first person she sees.’
    ‘That’s right,’ Mrs Margolies said, looking surprised. ‘And why did he do that?’
    ‘Well, he thought she’d fall in love with an animal in the forest, and be shamed by it. The idea was thatthis would make her give him the boy who’s acting as her page.’
    ‘Very good,’ Mrs Margolies said with pleasure. ‘And now, as you’re doing so briliantly: why do you think Shakespeare introduced fairies into his story?’
    Josh thought for a moment. He really liked the way the mischievous spirits threw everyone’s plans into confusion. He remembered the way he’d thought Yvonne had dropped him for Eric. It was like for a moment, actually quite a few moments, everything he thought and felt had been turned upside down. But wasn’t this a bit like what the spirits did in the play?
    ‘I don’t really know,’ he said honestly. He heard a guffaw from Kearney and Angus, his sidekick.
    ‘Quiet you two, or you’ll get a detention,’ said Mrs Margolies sharply. She turned back to Josh. ‘You were saying  . . . ’
    ‘The thing is, what you feel and think can just change, in a moment, for no good reason. I think Shakespeare has fairies in the story to show how random life is, how we think we know what we’re doing, but we don’t.’
    Josh heard Kearney whisper to Angus, ‘He’ll find out how random life is  . . . ’ Angus chuckled maliciously.
    ‘Detention for both of you,’ Mrs Margolies snapped. ‘For today and tomorrow.’
    Suddenly, Josh wondered if he’d been talking nonsense. But Mrs Margolies was looking at him differently.
    ‘That’s very good Josh. It’s as good an explanation of Shakespeare’s fairies as I’ve ever heard. Well done.’
    Josh looked down at his desk in embarrassment. He couldn’t ever remember a teacher talking to him like that. He looked up to find Yvonne’s shining eyes on him. He mouthed ‘thank you’. She blushed.
    As the bell rang, Mrs Margolies said, ‘Kearney, Angus and Josh, I want to see you before you leave.’
    Josh put his copy of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in his rucksack and went up to the desk, where Mrs Margolies was scribbling detention notices for Kearney and Angus. They didn’t seem bothered.
    They went off, joking and laughing. Mrs Margolies pulled out a card from her drawer and started writing on it. ‘Have you been studying?’ she asked as she wrote.
    ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘And I’m getting help too.’
    ‘But that answer didn’t come from someone else  . . . ’
    ‘No,’ Josh said. Then he admitted. ‘I don’t know where it came