Chapter One Abby are you ready to give your presentation to the class Mr Timothy Abby’s fifth-grade teacher asked Abby took a deep breath and reached down to put a hand on Amigo’s head But Amigo wasn’t there Amigo had been Abby’s service dog since first grade but for the last month she had been going to school without him Amigo was ten years old which was seventy in dog years Lately he’d been acting kind of sleepy and slow Abby’s mother a veterinarian had diagnosed him with a heart murmur and given him some medication She had said it would make him feel more comfortable but it wouldn’t cure him Amigo was just getting old It had been a hard choice but Abby had decided not to take him to school anymore That was a big change and Abby didn’t like change She liked routines She even had a chart on the wall in her room that helped remind her of her morning routine from brushing her teeth to making sure her homework was packed If anything unusual was happening that day like a field trip or a doctor’s appointment Abby wrote it on her chart the night before Abby even liked to have the same breakfast every morning a banana peanut butter on toast and a glass of orange juice If they were out of bananas or only had apple juice Abby’s day just didn’t feel the same Putting on Amigo’s service dog vest and getting him ready to go to school each morning had been Abby’s favorite part of her routine Not
having him with her felt a lot worse than having apple juice for breakfast instead of orange The reason Abby had a service dog was because she had autism which meant she sometimes had trouble communicating her feelings and reading other people’s emotions She also got anxious about things like loud noises or crowds of people or having to look people in the eye when she talked to them Having Amigo around helped keep Abby calm and gave her something to focus on when it felt like the whole world was melting into a meaningless blur of color and sound I’m ready Mr Timothy said Abby even though it was only about 60 percent true She gathered her notes and walked slowly to the whiteboard at the front of the class Abby knew some other people with autism like Jack from her playgroup when she was younger who didn’t talk at all but pointed to pictures to communicate Abby could talk just fine according to her three sisters she often overdid the talking In fact most people probably wouldn’t have known that Abby had autism at all
Sometimes that made things harder because people didn’t understand why she got so anxious about some things like school presentations Of course that might have had nothing to do with autism Abby’s friend Miriam didn’t have autism and she was even more nervous about presentations than Abby was Earlier that year Miriam had had to read her book report on Charlotte’s Web in front of the class When she’d opened her mouth to begin her voice had come out as a little squeak like a mouse It had been really funny but Abby hadn’t laughed because she’d known Miriam hadn’t thought it was funny at all Back in first grade or maybe even second Abby probably would have laughed But she’d learned a lot since then If Amigo was beside her now Abby would have imagined that everyone was admiring him instead of looking at her And Amigo was such a handsome dog that it probably would have been true Since he wasn’t there Abby decided to imagine that she was already grown up and a famous scientist giving a lecture to her colleagues This is Dr Abby Ramirez she began The class rippled with laughter Abby blushed She hadn’t meant to share what she was imagining with the class Mr Timothy put a finger to his lips and then to his ear telling the class to be quiet and listen
I mean this is Abby Ramirez she corrected My report is on the training of sled dogs for the Iditarod The Iditarod is a one-thousand mile race from Settler’s Bay to Nome in Alaska In 1925 there was an outbreak of diphtheria in Nome but bad weather prevented trains ships and airplanes from delivering the serum that cured the disease Relay teams of sled dogs however were able to cover the distance and deliver the medicine to Nome The modern Iditarod is run in commemoration of that event As Abby went on she felt her tense muscles relax She realized that she’d been flapping her left hand in rhythm with her speech which she
