Lucy and the Rocket Dog – Will Buckingham
Lucy was outside in the backyard, hammering as hard as she could, when her mom called her in for dinner. It was six o’clock on a November evening, and the sky was already dark. While Lucy worked, her dog, Laika, sniffed around the yard in a friendly way. Overhead, tens of hundreds of thousands of stars winked and winked again. “Lucy!” shouted Lucy’s mom. Bang, bang, bang, went Lucy. Laika went on sniffing. The stars went on winking. “Lucy, come in now!” Bang, bang, bang. It was not clear whether Lucy had not heard or whether she was not listening. Sometimes, when you are concentrating very hard on something, you sort of half hear and half don’t hear, or you hear but you don’t realize you hear; and when people later ask you, “Weren’t you listening?” you don’t know what to say because the answer is no and yes at the same time.