The Dog Outside the Shop

On Tuesday a small brown dog sat in front of the bread shop. It did not move when people walked past. It watched the door and waited.

The woman in the shop asked her customers, but nobody knew the dog. At noon she put a bowl of water outside. The dog drank and sat down again.

In the afternoon a boy came down the street. He did not run to the dog, and the dog did not run to him. They looked at each other for a moment.

The boy said that his name was Kemal. The dog had waited there every Tuesday for a year. His grandmother had bought her bread in that shop on Tuesdays. She had been ill since the spring.

The woman said nothing for a while. Then she gave Kemal a loaf and did not take his money. On the next Tuesday the dog was there again, and so was the boy.