“Lauren, I want you to play with Jeanie this morning.” Lauren’s Mom was talking with Lauren over breakfast. “I have no idea what you did to that poor girl, her father said you had her in tears.”
“Nothing. I told you, I just left her in the tree house ...”
“Anyway. Be nice to her. She’s the closest thing you have to a real friend right now. And her parents are such nice people.”
Lauren felt beaten. She pushed her half eaten toast and jam around on her plate.
“Yes, Mom.” Coco looked up from lying on the floor and gave Lauren a giggle.
“Are you laughing?” her Mom asked Lauren.
“No.”
“Could have sworn... anyway. Jeanie will be here soon. I have some cake and cordial for you both. So what do you think you girls will do?”
Lauren bit her tongue as she was about to say something mischievous.
“We could sit in the kitchen and eat cake and drink cordial?” she grinned.
Her Mom shook her head and shooed Lauren outside with a tea towel.
“Go and play. Be nice.” She called out to Lauren.
“Come on, Coco,” Lauren said. “Let’s wait for Meanie in the back yard.
--
Lauren and Coco decided they would play hide and seek in the back yard until Meanie Jeanie arrived. Lauren sat on the lawn and stroked Coco’s head while explaining how to play.
“You have to count to twenty, OK?” she said and Coco nodded. “While you are counting, I will hide. When you finish counting you call out “Here I come” and you have to try and find me. OK?” Coco nodded again happily panting.
“So can you count to twenty?” Lauren asked. Coco nodded and then stopped panting.
“No.” He looked sad. “Does that mean we can’t play?”
Lauren laughed and hugged him. “No, we can come up with something. Let’s see.” She held up her fingers and started counting.
“One. Two. Three...” and then she stopped and frowned. “You don’t need to know the names of the numbers,” she said happily. “Do you have names for each of your toes? Like I call this finger my jam finger,” she held up her right pointing finger. “Because I stick it in the jar to get more jam and lick it.”
Coco got excited and wagged his tail.
“Yes! I have names for all my toes. This one,” he held up his left paw and licked the longest claw in the middle. “This is for scratching the ear I sleep on, I call it “scratchie”. And the one next to it is “little scratchie”. And the one on the other side of scratchie is “baby scratchie”. And this one ...”
Lauren laughed and hugged him.
“That’s perfect. Now when we play, you have to go over to the tree in the corner of the yard, cover your eyes and say to yourself so no one can hear, the names of all your toes. And when you are finished you have to try and find me. But, if I get to the tree before you find me, I win.”
“Ah,” said Coco. “So that’s how you play.” Coco panted and wagged his tail.
“Ready?” Lauren asked and Coco nodded. He trotted over to the tree in the corner of the yard and lowered his head. Lauren ran off to a hiding place, giggling.
Coco finished counting and turned around. Lauren was nowhere to be seen. He walked steadily from bush to bush sniffing. He put his head up and listened hard. Then he ran with his tongue hanging out to the side of the garden shed and found Lauren.
He barked and Lauren giggled.
“Well done. You’re good at this,” she said and hugged him. Just then Jeanie arrived at the front gate. She threw Lauren a mean look and walked into the back yard.
She wandered in through the front gate, poked out her chest and walked as tall as she could.
“Mom says I have to play with you. So what do you want to play?” Jeanie put one hand on her hip and gave Lauren a mean stare.
“How about we all play hide and seek?” Lauren asked, indicating to both Jeanie and Coco.
“What? With a dog, too?” Jeanie folded her arms and shook her head. “Uh, uh.”
“It will be fun. Come on. Coco, you’re in.” And Coco trotted up to the tree at the corner of the yard and closed his eyes. Lauren ran off and hid calling out to Jeanie.
“Hurry. He’ll finish counting soon.”
Jeanie stayed standing where we was and stared at Coco in disbelief.
“It’s a trick. Dog’s can’t count.” She said but began to walk backwards anyway.
“Hurry,” Lauren whispered. Jeanie watched Coco, who had his head down and was wagging his tail.
“But dogs can’t ...” she mumbled again.
“Hurry!” Lauren hissed. Just then Coco lifted his head and barked.
“Arf, arf AAAA-AAARF!”
Jeanie opened her eyes wide in surprise and quickly turned to run. She jumped behind the garden shed and peered back around to see what Coco was doing. Coco held his nose up and took in a sniff. He smiled because he knew straight away where Lauren was hiding.
He looked under the house, behind some bushes then walked into the middle of the yard, appearing to not know where to look next. Then he suddenly jumped over a low green bush and licked Lauren’s face while she hid lying on the grass.
“You know,” Lauren said. “I’d have thought a clever dog like you would be able to find me more easily.” Coco panted and smiled.
“See if you can find Jeanie,” she whispered. Coco trotted from behind the bush to the side of the garden shed. He looked up at Jeanie, panted and barked.
“Woof!”
Jeanie stared back in amazement.
“It’s got to be a trick. You can’t teach a dog to play hide and seek?” she asked in a whiny voice. Lauren shrugged.
“He’s a smart dog. Come on my Mom has some things to eat in the kitchen.”
“No,” she said. “I want to see it again. I bet he can’t.” She had such a mean voice that Lauren wanted nothing more than to prove her wrong. Lauren headed back to the tree in the corner of the yard.
“One ... two ...” Lauren had closed her eyes and started counting. To Jeanie’s surprise Coco ran off to hide.
“It’s a trick,” she said. But when she heard Lauren count to eighteen she panicked, turned and jumped behind a bush.
“... twenty, here I come.” Lauren turned to see everyone was hidden. She smiled because she remembered telling her Dad that she would pretend not to find Meanie and go inside leaving her. She walked to the middle of the yard and was deciding whether to leave Meanie or not when she got a fright. A bolt of lightning struck the large tree in the corner of the yard. The same tree she had been counting at.
The smoke cleared and to Lauren’s horror, there stood a leprechaun. This leprechaun looked mean, had long wavy brown hair under his green hat and was very muscular.