“Wait!” he said. “Oh no …” He jumped out of the car, leaving the door open. The dogs. How long had it been? He ran across the street and down the block, his stomach spinning. The dogs, the dogs. He knocked on the front doors of the two houses where he had fed them. No answer. He looked in the first-floor windows. No one. The owners had not come back. Zeitoun went back to the tree. His plank was still there, and he leaned it against the trunk. He climbed up to his usual perch and then pulled the plank up. He stretched the plank across to the house on the right and walked to the roof. Usually
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