The Introverted Thinker is seven and her sister is four. They live in Dryden Road, New York.
One day her mother has to do an errand in the afternoon. "I won't be gone long." says her mother. The IT is in charge.
There are men outside with machines. The IT and her sister call them digachugs. They are digging a long narrow hole, a channel. The IT is not sure what it is for but she really wants to watch. She wants to go outside on the porch to watch.
She tells her sister that she can't go off the porch and has to sit by her to watch. The dog wants to come too. He doesn't listen or if he does, he won't do what she says. She gets a rope and ties one end to his collar and the other end to the porch.
She and her sister and the dog watch the men with the machine dig. It is a small digachug and sort of cute and they like that it's red.
Her mother and father get home. "Oh!" says her mother. The IT worries. Her mother is untying the dog, angry. "You shouldn't have tied the dog up on the porch," she scolds IT. "If he had fallen in the hole, he could have died! Hung!"
The IT is horrified. She didn't think of that. She tried to keep her sister and the dog safe. She doesn't let any of it show on her face though. She remains stoic, because otherwise her mother will make it into a story, the mistake she made and how she almost killed the dog and then cried.
She doesn't cry until later, in bed, in the dark, alone. Where it is safe to cry.
ire