001Chapter 36. Books by Heart. I couldn't remember what day Metalhead had arrived. I didn't know if he'd seen Reading Buddies in action. All I could think to say was, "You wouldn't happen to know any books by heart, would you, Metalhead?" Metalhead looked from me to Quinn, then back at me, then back at Quinn. Finally, he opened his mouth and said, "I am Sam. Sam I am." When Quinn heard this, his eyes grew large. His hands flapped as he jumped up and took off like he was chasing a deer. Chapter 37. Something big. When Quinn came back, he was clutching a book. He ran straight to cage 92. With Mr. Molinari and management on his heels, Quinn sat down and looked at Metalhead. And Metalhead looked right back. Quinn opened Green Eggs and Ham and turned
002the pages as Metalhead said the words, "That Sam I am. I do not like that Sam I am." It wasn't the way it was supposed to be with the kid reading and the dog listening. But one look at Metalhead and Quinn scooted up close to each other and it was pretty clear something had happened. Something big. Chapter 38. A metal heart. After that, I figured Metalhead would get over his boohoos and settle down like the rest of us. Boy was I wrong. The next time I saw him, he called out, "What about your humans chance? Don't you want to go home?" This was not the kind of question Dog Town Dogs asked each other. If a dog wanted to talk about how she ended up at Dog Town, that was fine. But you didn't ask
003a question that broke a dog's heart to answer. How do you explain kindness to a machine with a hunk of metal where his heart should have been? I really didn't know. Chapter 39. Mixed feelings. There had been complaints about Metalhead. Not everybody liked that Quinn had chosen him. And because I had the run of the place, I was the dog who handled dog fights when they arose. So I hopped over to his cage to have a talk with him. Before I could open my mouth, Metalhead repeated his question. "What about your humans? You're not locked up. Why don't you go find them?" "It's complicated," I explained. "What's complicated about going home?" he asked. "Everything is black or white for a dog machine. A one or a zero. There's no room for nuance. No understanding of
004delicate situations. And mixed feelings, forget about them." Chapter 40. Fake fleas. Metalhead turned over and began scratching his belly. See, this was the weird thing about metal dogs. They came with fake fleas you attached with Velcro. Humans paid extra to see a robots robot dog scratch his fleas off. Then when company came over, the humans attached the fleas and the metal dog scratch them off again. Fleas? Seriously? It's like building a robot dog that farts. It made no sense. Metalhead eyed me again. I don't understand your resistance to speaking with the little guy on my behalf. He pointed his clunky metal paw to the knot hole corner above cage 91. Talk to him yourself. He doesn't pay attention to me, Metalhead said. I wanted to say none of us do, but I tried to be
005polite. Look, the other dogs are a little jealous that Quinn picked you. That is not my concern. I know. I just think you should keep a low profile is all. His light blinked blue. You still planning an escape? I asked. Yes. I shrugged this off. No use in giving airtime to nonsense, and there was no way I was going to get Mouse involved. Mouse was roughly the size of a tennis ball. How was he going to help a clunky beast like Metalhead? I changed the subject to what I'd come to to his pen to discuss. You can't ask dogs about why they're here. Why not? Because it's a sore subject, he shrugged. Do you know what that means? I asked. No answer. But when I looked in his glass eyes, I saw a flicker I
006hadn't seen before. Metalhead was trying to understand, was it possible he had a heart he didn't know how to use?