Chapter Two: Chandler's New Friend

Chandler's dream did not return that night. Or the next night. Or the next. Friday came and went and Chandler spent Saturday with Joe and Geoffery, playing in the nearby park. If Chandler noticed the massive dog again, he didn't mention it to his friends or his grandparents. Another week passed and the dreams still did not return. Chandler was beginning to feel wary. He could remember a few times, perhaps once or twice a year, when he had gone a whole night without his dream, but two weeks was unthinkable. He hadn't realized how much he depended on that little bit of reliability. The dream would always be there. His dog would always be there.
By the third week, the dream hadn't returned and Chandler was beginning to notice the large dog. Once his attention was directed, Chandler started spotting the canine everywhere. It was watching him get off the bus in the afternoon, lying under a tree in the park when Chandler went out with his friends, even wandering by Chandler's bedroom window in the afternoon when the boy was working on his homework. Once he mentioned it to his grandparents and they claimed not to have seen it. Probably a stray, Chandler's grandfather suggested.
A month had passed. The dog stuck around, though Chandler never noticed anyone feeding it. In fact, he never noticed anyone else having anything to do with it. Another Saturday, another day in the park, another sighting of the dog. This time, Chandler decided to point it out to his friends.
Big mistake.
"What? Where? I don't see anything."
"He's there. Under the tree. Right. There."
"You are seeing things, Chandler. You sure you passed your eye exam?"
Chandler guffawed at the other boys. He was not seeing things.
Smirking, Joe motioned to Geoffery. "Come on, let's leave Chandler with his little doggie." Laughing, the two ran off, leaving Chandler feeling more alone than he could ever remember feeling. Well, at least since he had had that nightmare, almost a month ago.
So alone with his thoughts was Chandler that he didn't even notice that another had joined him until a large wet nose bumped his hand. Jerking away, Chandler looked down. There he was, the dog, so huge that Chandler could have ridden on his back and his feet wouldn't have touched the ground. And the dog was looking up at the boy with those wide puppy eyes that dogs have, the ones that make them such favorite companions for their humans. Wherever this stray came from, he had those eyes down pat.
Hesitantly, Chandler reached over to scratch the dog lightly behind his hears. The dog's eyes closed. He liked that. Kneeling down, Chandler continued to give his companion a scratching. As he did, he took the time to really look at the dog. And the more he looked, the more he became convinced that he knew this dog. This was /his/ dog, straight out of his dreams. The dreams he was no longer having.
Even at ten years, Chandler knew that that didn't make sense. Dogs didn't just walk out of dreams into the real world. Did they?