A Dog Called Homeless

Cally’s grandparents pick them up and drive them to the cemetery where Mom is buried. The family doesn’t say anything since “Dad says it’s too hard to talk about her” (5). As they stand in a circle around Mom’s grave, Cally notices something: She sees Mom in her red raincoat. She realizes that one shouldn’t be able to see dead people, but she does, and she isn’t afraid. She asks her grandma and Auntie Sue if they can see her, but they can’t, and they chalk Cally’s comment up to a symptom of grief. When she asks Dad if he can see Mom, he snaps at her that he can’t and says she should stop talking about it.

In science class a few days later, Cally learns about the solar system. The lesson makes her think “of the day when [their] family had gone to visit a big old cathedral. Inside […] was one of the oldest clocks in the world” (11). The clock was painted with the earth in the middle, and the sun revolving around it. Cally remembers Mom telling her that back then, people didn’t know it was actually the other way around: The earth revolves around the sun. Part of the lesson involves spinning around in circles like planets. Cally, lost in thought, gets caught up in her spinning and bumps into another student. The teacher, Miss Steadman, scolds her and tells her to go back to her original circle and stay put.

Cally has music class next, which is one of her favorite classes because she loves singing. She gets her love of music from her parents. Mom loved singing and the way it brought everyone together but wasn’t very good at it. Dad, meanwhile, was talented and would play “the guitar for her and […] in a band down at the pub on Friday nights” before Mom died (14).

Cally’s music teacher, Mr. Crisp, announces that they’ll be doing a concert at the end of the term. Cally and her friend Mia put their names down to sing, but Cally is caught off guard when she overhears Mia in the bathroom talking to another girl, Daisy, about how they should sing for the concert together instead. They make fun of Cally, whom they bump into immediately after. The girls brush off their comments as a joke, and Mia tells Cally she’d rather sing with Daisy for the concert. They leave, and Cally knows now that if she wants a spot in the concert, she’ll have to go for it alone.

The next day, Miss Steadman makes a special announcement after taking attendance. She tells the students that their “school [is] going to raise money for a charity called Angela’s Hospice” (17), which helps sick children. They’ll raise funds through a sponsored silence, which will require three students from the class to volunteer to not talk for an entire day. For every hour the students stay silent, the sponsors will give more money. While Miss Steadman asks for volunteers, Cally gets distracted, and the other kids tease her for not paying attention. When Miss Steadman asks for one more volunteer, Cally decides to prove her classmates wrong once and for all: She’ll do the sponsored silence.

Mrs. Brooks, the teacher assigned to help students who have disabilities or behavior issues, asks to see Cally. At the appointment, Mrs. Brooks tells Cally she’s noticed that she has a harder time paying attention in class and sometimes talks too much. However, she remembers when Cally was in third grade: “You were a lovely little girl who used to get along with people. You worked really hard to remember all your lines and songs for Charlotte’s Web” (26). Cally has changed since then. She was supposed to play the lead in the school show last year, too, but “because the show was only two days after the accident when Mom died, everyone said [she] shouldn’t. Daisy stepped in” (27). Daisy took Cally’s role, and now she has taken her friend Mia.

As Mrs. Brooks keeps talking, Cally sees something out the window. Mom is there again, wearing her red raincoat. Cally asks to go to the bathroom so that she can run outside to find Mom. When she gets outside, Mom is standing next to a big Irish wolfhound dog. One of the teachers, Mr. Brown, chases after Cally and yells at the dog. He might not see Mom, but the dog is certainly real. Mrs. Brooks follows Mr. Brown, and the dog runs off as Mrs. Brooks takes Cally back to the office. Cally can’t stop thinking about the dog that Mom brought to her and how he instantly felt like he belonged to her.

At home, Cally’s 13-year-old brother, Luke, signs the sponsorship form for her. Luke enjoys his peace and quiet and often plays video games. He’s excited by the prospect of Cally being silent; it “won’t cost him much [and will] be worth every penny” (32). When Dad comes home, he pays little attention to the kids and instead sinks into the couch to watch TV. He signs the sponsor form, but when Cally tries to tell him about seeing Mom again, he tells her to go to bed.

The morning of the sponsored silence, Dad comes into Cally’s bedroom. He asks if she’s ready for the day of silence. Cally is glad he remembers, since Dad has become forgetful since Mom died. These days, Dad “forgot he had to do the ironing. He forgot to shave. He forgot to pay the phone bill” (35). Cally tries to remember how he was before Mom died, when he had fun with her and Luke, helping them with their schoolwork. She most misses how he used to listen to her.

Cally asks Dad what she’ll do if she’s unable to stay silent the whole time. Dad tells her to do her best and that’s enough for him. Cally is hurt, seeing this as a sign that he doesn’t believe in her, just like her teachers and friends at school. In that moment Cally decides to stay silent, not just for the fundraiser but indefinitely.

Cally stays silent all day. As the hours pass, her teachers seem impressed that she hasn’t made a sound. When the school day ends, Cally is proud to find she’s “prove[n] them wrong: Miss Steadman, Mia, Daniel, and all the rest of them who didn’t think [she] could do it. And it should have been over at three o’clock” (38). However, Cally realizes that the people at school seem to like her better when she doesn’t speak. She didn’t get in trouble, her friends didn’t tease her, and everyone generally left her alone.