A Short Story by John Daly
Copyright © 2009 by John Daly
This revised version was originally published in The Fiction Writer and Other Short Stories, which is copyright © 2007 by John Daly. No part of this story may be used without permission of the Author.
Now that David’s business was doing so well his son felt he could stop working and concentrate on his studies. His grades immediately began to improve, and soon he was a straight A student again. Billy Joe has always been a straight A student. Mr. Sampson had told him in their earlier conference that he needed to participate in more outside activities to be seriously considered for a college scholarship. There were many school activities that interested him. He had never participated in them before, mostly because of inertia. Much to his surprise, the more activities he joined the more they became interesting to him and the more he participated. The more he contributed his time and effort, the more people looked up to him as the leader.
Magic was with him everywhere he went at school. He waited patiently outside in the school grounds while Billy Joe was in the classroom. After class he followed him to the athletic field, and any other activity that would permit dogs to enter.
His classmates loved Magic. He was as popular as Billy Joe. Without his even knowing how it had happened, Billy Joe realized that he was the President of every organization he had joined, and was also the captain of every team he played on.
One day he said to Magic, “Since I met you my grades have gotten better and I am now the head honcho of every activity I have joined. Did you do all that? Is your popularity running over to me and making me more popular? If it is, I thank you. I just hope it has an effect on my getting a college scholarship. Dad still needs all his money to invest in his new business. Incidentally, while we’re on that subject, dad thinks you had a great deal to do with his getting his own business. Is that true? Did you?’
Magic just smiled and wagged his tail rapidly.
(To be continued…)
