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  I’m feeling and thinking all of these things at the same time. They are crashing down on me. I feel as if my brain is being wrung out like a rag, my heart is blowing up like a balloon, my legs have turned to rubber. Seeing how Toulouse is something that just can’t be is changing me. I’m pretty sure I’m going to faint. Yep, here I go.…

  “You okay?” Toulouse asks, bracing my arm with his gloved hand.

  I jerk awake. I look at him. I really look at him.

  And it’s okay. I’m okay. More than okay. I feel proud. Proud that Toulouse showed me who he is. Proud that I was the first to see him. Proud to be his friend. I hope I am for a long time.

  This will depend on who else discovers what he is. Imagine if Garrett found out!

  No. No one must find out.

  One thing’s for sure. No one will ever find out from me.

  “I’m okay,” I say to Toulouse.

  “Good,” he says.

  He dives into his sandwich. He doesn’t chew. He swallows his food whole, pink foot and all.

  Patrick Jennings

  Patrick Jennings is the author of many popular novels for middle-schoolers, including Guinea Dog, Lucky Cap, Invasion of the Dognappers, Guinea Dog 2, and Faith and the Electric Dogs. Guinea Dog won the 2013 Kansas William Allen White Children’s Book Award, the 2011 Washington State Scandiuzzi Children’s Book Award, and received an honor in the 2013 Massachusetts Children’s Book Award. That novel also appeared on the following state lists: the 2011 Colorado Children’s Book Award, the 2010-2011 New Hampshire Great Stone Face Book Award, the 2012-2013 Florida Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award, the 2014 Washington State Sasquatch Award, the 2014 Hawaii Nēnē Award, and the 2014-2015 Indiana Young Hoosier Book Award. He lives in a small seaport town in Washington State.

  You can visit him online at www.patrickjennings.com.