A Boy Called Bat: Chapters 16–18

“Okay,” said Mr. Grayson. He pushed the stack of papers to one side and pulled his laptop from his satchel. He opened it and logged on.

When he pulled open the heavy glass door at the front of the brick building, Bat was overwhelmed by smells and sounds.

If there were this much ruckus at school or the playground or anywhere else at all, Bat would definitely need his earmuffs. But here, the sounds and the smells didn’t bother him.

“It’s my cat, Pickles,” the lady said. “He’s not feeling one hundred percent.”
“What are his symptoms?” Bat asked.

“Well, he has indigestion and he hasn’t been very hungry lately.”

Then he followed Mom through the door that separated the waiting room from the back and watched as she took her white coat from its hook. She put it on, and then Mom was Dr. Tam. A veterinarian. Better than a superhero.

One day, Bat would also have a jacket, just like Mom’s. It would be white, and it would have five buttons, and it would have the words “Dr. Tam, DVM” embroidered just above his heart.

“We can fix that,” said Laurence, and he looped the fabric into a knot behind Bat’s neck to shorten the sling. “There,” he said. “Now you’re a marsupial Bat.”
“There are no marsupial bats,” Bat said. “Marsupial infants need to have strong arms and claws to climb into their mother’s pouch. Bats have wings.”

Then Laurence got to work, slipping Jeff’s head into a restraint so he couldn’t jump out of the tub, then turning on the faucet and running his hand under the water to check its temperature before he started spraying down the dog.

“Good eye,” said Laurence. He shut off the water and began massaging shampoo into Jeff’s curly pelt. “The other one was getting rusty, so I ordered this new model.”

“Are you okay?” Bat asked, but he didn’t climb down from his perch. His first priority was keeping the kit safe and dry.

Thor woke from his nap just when Laurence was finishing the last bath, which was for an inky spaniel named Webster.

Bat pulled open the sling and gently extracted the kit from it, holding Thor’s warm, wiggly body up to his cheek.

If Bat had his way, he would wear Thor in the sling all the time. But Mom made him take it off at bath time and bedtime. She was willing to compromise at dinner.