“Not really,” Samantha confessed.

  I sprawled out on the cool floor, glad for a break.

  “We use ropes all the time here at the fire department, mostly to tie Nance down so he’ll quit cooking. And rope means knots: bowline, clove hitch, half hitch, overhand safety knot … Let’s start with the clove hitch.”

  Samantha looked surprised. “Okay,” she agreed. She reached a hand to me and I licked it in assurance.

  I took a nice nap, and when I woke up, Samantha and Willets were still playing with ropes. I did Bring Me the Rope, just like I was supposed to, but Samantha didn’t seem excited when I dragged a loose rope to her unasked.

  “Now that’s a perfect bowline.” Willets took Samantha’s rope out of her hands and held it up. “You, Sam, can tie anyone up in knots.”

  Samantha was happy, so I dropped my own rope and wagged.

  That was one of the days when I went home with Samantha after spending time at Captain Bee’s house. “You’re getting comfortable at the fire station,” Mom observed during dinner.

  Ben often came to our house for dinner, but he wasn’t there today. I figured he probably didn’t like the thing called meat loaf that Mom was serving.

  I loved meat loaf.

  Samantha shrugged. “It’s really only hard when both the truck and five forty—the rescue car—roll and the place is completely empty. But then I just take Ripley and go see you in your office and I’m okay,” she replied.

  “Listen to you. ‘When five forty rolls.’ You’re practically a member of the fire department.”

  Samantha grinned. “They’re ten-fifty-two much more often than ten-seventy.”

  “Uh-huh.” Mom laughed. “Okay, and in English?”

  “They do a lot more rescue calls than fire calls,” Samantha translated.

  Sometimes I stayed with Ben at Captain Bee’s house and sometimes I stayed with Samantha and Mom at our house. But the best times were when I’d be with Ben at Captain Bee’s house and Samantha and Mom would walk in and I could rush over and greet them with pure joy.

  Samantha loved it at Captain Bee’s house too. I could tell. “Hey, Sam,” everyone would call. “Hi, Sammie,” Roxie always added. Then all the people might get busy helping Alvis wash trucks, or cleaning the house, or eating food with generous sharing for a good dog. (This last was my favorite.)

  “Hey, Sammie, want to learn how to save lives?” Roxie asked one day.

  “Sure!” With a curious expression, Samantha tagged after Roxie, and I of course tagged after Samantha. We entered a back room and there, lying on the carpet, was a man … No, not a man. It wore clothes and was shaped like a man, but its smells were all plastic.

  I decided we were all supposed to believe it was a person. People are always trying to fool dogs, but our noses know the truth.

  “I’m the certified CPR instructor here at Station Five. Do you know CPR?”

  Samantha cautiously shook her head.

  “Well, it’s not hard to learn. When we’re finished, I’ll give you a certificate. Something to add to your résumé when you apply for a job,” Roxie offered.

  Samantha’s grin was enthusiastic. “Great!”

  They played with that not-person all morning. They gave it tummy rubs and kissed it and Roxie showed Samantha how to push on its chest with two hands. Samantha was intent, but I was bored. Why weren’t we doing Search or Bring Me the Rope? Those games involved treats. There were no treats here.

  I lay on the floor and sighed heavily and waited for Samantha to pay attention to her good dog once more.

  Roxie and Samantha only stopped their game when the tones rang and Captain Bee shouted, “Rescue!” Then Roxie ran away and Samantha and I went to nap in the other room, where Mom sat.

  Well, I napped, anyway.

  When Roxie and Ben returned, Samantha and Ben and I began work on a new and harder variation on Search. Samantha would hide out of sight, so Ben wouldn’t know to click when I found her.

  “Make him paw you,” Samantha suggested to Ben, after we tried this new Search a few times. “You said he’ll be wearing a mask, so barking will be hard. Have him paw you, instead.”

  “Wow, you’re right. How do we do that?”

  Over the next few days, Samantha taught me Shake, which meant to slap at her palm with my front foot. She must have told Ben about it, because when we played Search at Captain Bee’s house, Ben asked me to do Shake before he’d click and treat me when I returned to him.

  Then he stopped saying Shake, but he wouldn’t remember about the treat until I pawed at his arm anyway. Humans are very forgetful, but that’s all right. They have dogs to remind them about things like treats and walks and ear rubs.

  When Samantha pulled a bunch of blankets over her during Search, I sniffed at the blankets, a little confused. I could smell her but couldn’t see her, so I went to Ben for help, remembering to try to hit his arm with my paw. He gave me a click and a treat and then followed me to the blankets and uncovered her. They were both very excited and told me what a good dog I was, which I loved hearing. Of course there were clicks and treats too.

  The game was changing all the time, but I loved it!

  Then it became even harder. Samantha hid under a pile of coats that smelled like Willets and Nance and Hutch—a jumble of odors. But her scent was as recognizable to me as anything I’d ever encountered. I hurried back to Ben and smacked him with my paw and he followed me and gave me a click and a treat.

  “Good dog, Ripley!” Ben and Samantha always told me. I liked being Good Dog Ripley as much as I liked the treats that came with it.

  One night, when the air was sharply cool, Samantha secured a blanket of some kind to my back and I answered the door with Mom when children we didn’t know yelled, “Trick or treat!”

  “I love the dog’s costume,” several small humans told me.

  We didn’t visit Captain Bee’s house every day, but I began to learn that there was a certain rhythm to our appearances. A day or two would pass with me at home, playing with Samantha and Mom. Then we would go to Captain Bee’s house, where Ben would be waiting for me.

  On those days, I spent the night in the room with the snoring man that everybody angrily called Nance. That was just what the men wanted to do.

  I liked Nance. He was often in the kitchen fixing meals, and he’d make sure to reward me for keeping him company. He had sharp, thick hair growing from the backs of his hands, down his wrists, and by the end of every day a rough coating of stubby whiskers protruded from the lower part of his face. Samantha’s face was always smooth, but Nance’s face changed all the time, becoming scratchier and scratchier.

  “Teaching Samantha to make ice cream out of snow. Snow ice cream, don’tcha know,” Nance said one time as he stood in the kitchen stirring a wonderfully sweet concoction.

  “Nance speaks!” Willets exclaimed. “You know, for someone who makes so much noise in his sleep, you sure don’t say much when you’re awake. Must be Samantha causing you to go all jibber-jabber.”

  When I was doing Search with Samantha and Ben, Mom sat in a room with a machine that must have been driving her crazy because it clicked and clicked without any treats.

  “Should we start with the mask, or should we go with other people for Ripley to search?” Ben asked Samantha.

  I heard my name and Search and looked hard at Ben’s face, but he didn’t seem to want me to go find Samantha. She was right there talking to him, after all. But sometimes people use meaningful words without any real purpose to them.

  Samantha pondered this. “I think the sooner we try the mask, the better. If he can’t smell anything with it on, there’s not really any point in going any further.”

  “For sure! I hadn’t thought of it that way, but you’re right, Sammie.”

  A short time later Ben put something on my face and strapped something else to my back. I immediately dropped to my stomach. I could tolerate the weight on my back, but this game of sticking a toy over my eyes and mouth was not acceptable.

  I dug at the thing on my face with my paws. I rubbed my face on the floor. How was I supposed to get this off? I could see through it, but my vision was distorted. And it sent an odd, hissing blast of air at my nose.

  “Oofda, he hates the mask,” Ben commented.

  “And with it over his face like that, I don’t see any way to give him a treat,” Samantha observed. “How about if, instead of strapping it in place, we just sort of hold it there? Then we pull it off and give him a treat. We can hold it there longer and longer, give him time to get used to it. We can keep the air bottle on his back—that doesn’t seem to bother him.”

  I hated the object they called my “mask,” except the thing sure was good for a steady supply of treats. Pretty soon I would wag and drool as soon as Ben pulled the mask out of a cupboard. The day I saw Ben stand back, holding up his hands, while the mask remained in place on my face anyway, I just watched approvingly as he dug into the treat pouch with two fingers.

  Ben took the mask off and gave me a click and the treats. Alvis had come up to watch and I stared up at him in wonder.

  “So, is he housebroken yet?” Alvis asked Samantha.

  Samantha frowned. “Ripley? Of course!”

  Alvis grinned. “Nah, I meant Ben. Anyway, Samantha, a couple of us got together and boughtcha something. You wanna come see?”

  Seventeen

  Samantha was tense, but not in the usual way—there was no fear springing off her skin, just an excitement. It reminded me of how Ben and Roxie reacted when we were driving in Roxie’s loud, fast car. Ben walked behind us as Samantha followed Alvis and I followed Samantha.

  Alvis gestured toward a rope coiled on the floor as we passed it. My nose picked up a strong odor of water. “You know what that is, Sam?”

  “A hose?”

  “You betcha. I’m gonna teach you to wash the fire truck. You know why that’s important?”

  Samantha shook her head.

  “Cause a clean fire truck’s a happy fire truck.”

  Ben snorted, but Alvis ignored him and continued. “Same with a floor. You needs ta be able ta see your reflection in the floor. Well, that’s fer later. Come on.”

  Nance, Roxie, Willets, Mom, and Captain Bee were in Mom’s room when I walked in with Alvis and Ben. Everyone was grinning.

  Willets picked up a box and set it on the table. It was smaller than my crate, but not by much. “Roxie wrapped it,” he said. “Otherwise it would look as bad as Nance’s lasagna tastes.”

  Nance raised his heavy black eyebrows but didn’t reply to this mention of his name. I’d noticed he didn’t talk much and wondered if he was afraid his sharp whiskers would cut his lips.

  “Oh,” Samantha murmured shyly.

  “Yah, go on, then, unwrap the dang thing. Suspense is killing me,” Alvis drawled.

  “You’re just in a hurry because you want to get back to mopping the floor,” Willets told him.

  Everyone leaned forward expectantly when Samantha hesitantly pulled at the box, ripping paper. This made no sense to me. We could all smell there was nothing to eat in there.

  “It’s a case of toilet paper!” Willets announced triumphantly, when all the paper was removed.

  “Oofda, don’tcha listen to that bozo,” Alvis told Samantha. “We had to find a box big ’nough, is all.”

  Everyone was excited as Samantha opened the box. I wondered if it contained a dog toy.

  “Oh!” Samantha exclaimed. She pulled out a coat with an odor that matched all the other heavy coats people wore around here.

  “Can’t very well be an intern with the fire department without the proper gear,” Ben informed her, beaming.

  Samantha pulled out a hard, shiny hat and bulky gloves and even some pants with boots already in them. Then she clomped around the room and hugged everyone, even me. She hugged Ben the longest, but I was the only one she gave a treat.

  When we left Mom’s room, Samantha was wearing all the clothes from the box. I noticed Hutch watching sourly from atop one of the big trucks as we trooped past.

  After a while Samantha took off the heavy clothes because we were about to play Search, this time with my mask on. I could find Samantha no matter where she was hiding and always ran back to punch Ben with my foot for a treat. I understood now that I might get a click, but no treat, until I actually showed Ben where Samantha was hiding, but that I was Good Dog Ripley regardless.

  Also they had to take my mask off to give me the treat. Both of those things made me very happy.

  “We’re ready for the big test!” Ben declared happily. “Okay, Ripley. Remember Willets?”

  I wagged up at Willets, who had come to play too. I was happy not to be wearing the mask in case Willets decided to lean down from way up there to hand me a treat, as he often did.

  “Of course he remembers me. I’m the nicest man in the department,” Willets told Ben, lowering his fist for me to sniff. No treat. Still, interesting smells, at least.

  “Fair enough. Start out easy, in one of the back rooms,” Ben requested.

  I watched curiously as Willets walked away. “Okay. Ripley?”

  I snapped my attention to Ben.

  “Search!”

  I stared at him in confusion. Samantha was right here!

  “Search!” she encouraged me.

  Her, too? It was another case of humans completely changing their minds on something. Just when we’d decided on the rules of Search, Samantha was standing next to me, and no amount of pawing at Ben’s arm earned me anything approaching a click and a treat.

  “Let’s try this,” Samantha suggested. She put a leash in my collar. “Ripley? Search!”

  Well, I knew what a leash meant. It meant we should walk. It was strange to take a walk indoors, but apparently all the rules were changing today.

  We walked away from Ben, heading down the back hall. We passed the room where Mom was clicking, with no treats. I smelled Willets in the next room and halted hesitantly.

  “Good dog!” Samantha praised me. So there was something about this room that made me a good dog. I liked that, so we walked into the room. Willets was standing with a grin on his face, his head up by the ceiling. “Good dog! Good dog!” Samantha told me, with no treats. I wagged hard. I liked being Good Dog Ripley for Samantha, even when it was a bit confusing.

  Then she ran with me back to Ben, who waited expectantly. Everyone was tense, probably because the treats were there in the treat pouch and not in his extended fingers. Impatient, I pawed at him.

  “Yes!” Ben beamed. I got a click and a treat! At last!

  It took me a while to understand, but eventually I figured it out. It wouldn’t always be Samantha who was hiding when we played Search. Sometimes it would be Willets, and sometimes it would be Nance, and sometimes it would be Alvis, but it would not be Hutch—he was never lost. Instead, he sat at a small table and wrote papers and frowned at me whenever I passed by him.

  I didn’t get the sense that Hutch liked me very much, but that wasn’t my fault. I had always been very friendly to him.

  I was disappointed but not surprised when the mask came back out—my least favorite toy, stuck on my face, the air whistling up my nose. Day after day, we played Search with Nance and Willets and Alvis and Roxie while that mask was in place—in fact, everyone completely forgot how to play without it.

  Humans are just much less reliable than dogs.

  I liked Search. I liked how excited everyone was when I was a good dog. I liked the treats, of course. And I liked it when Ben followed me to the hiding people. I always preferred it when all the humans were together.

  My favorite time at Captain Bee’s house was when the men sat at a table and ate. Sometimes Mom would prepare the meal, which made them all very happy. “You’re such a better cook than Nance, Lizzy,” Alvis told her. “Oofda. Every time he cooks I get appendicitis.”

  “You men are so easy to cook for,” Mom replied, smiling.

  “Remember Nance’s tuna noodle casserole?” Willets demanded. “Worst hot dish in the history of mankind. I’d rather eat roadkill. I’d rather eat road alive.”

  Nance merely shook his head.

  Most of the time Mom and Samantha weren’t there at mealtime, and that was a bit sad. Roxie and Nance and Alvis and the others handed down treats to me, trying to cheer themselves up.

  “Please don’t feed him,” Ben would say, and then people would be unhappy with me for some reason and would stop sharing for a little while. Then somebody’s hand would come down with a little piece of food, and once again I would know that everyone at the table loved me.

  Well, everyone except Hutch.

  The air outside had turned cold and smelled dry and clean. Often when Ben and I arrived at Captain Bee’s house, Alvis would be shoveling snow out of the driveway. “You don’t have to do that all by yourself,” Ben observed once.

  “Nah.” Alvis shook his head. “I’m the only one ta do it right, don’tcha know.”

  I missed my girl on the days when she wasn’t there, but often she and Mom would come visit. Then one morning Ben came to pick me up at Samantha’s house and told Mom, “Station’s closed all day. We’re doing training.” He focused on Samantha. “Today Ripley’s going into his first fire.”

  I snapped my attention to Samantha, who drew in a sharp breath. “What do you mean?” she demanded. “He’s going into a fire? Already? What’re you talking about? You said he needs more training!”

  Ben regarded Samantha soberly. “He does, and today’s part of it. The state owns a building that’s pretty much indestructible—all cement and steel. We put wooden framing in it, build in some closets, things like that, and then we burn it and practice putting out the flames. All the fire departments use the same building, so we don’t get to go there very often, but today’s our day.”

  Samantha put a hand on my back. Ben knelt, so that he was looking directly into her eyes. I gave his face an appreciative lick—I liked that he was trying to help Samantha.

  “Sammie. I know how you feel about fires, and I can’t pretend they aren’t dangerous, even deadly. All I can do is promise I’ll do everything I can to keep Ripley as safe as possible. Going into fires is what we do.”