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“Yeah, he’s improving with leaps and bounds,” Harriet agreed as she dug her teeth into a hamburger patty.

“I think it’s because he’s finally reconciled himself with his position in life,” I ventured as I enjoyed the taste of a piece of chicken filet.

“And what is his position in life?” asked Dooley, who was nibbling a meatball.

“Being the town doctor, of course.”

We all glanced up at Tex. I still felt a little bad about the way I’d treated him, when all he tried to do was help me get rid of that diamond. Then again, it’s hard to control a bowel movement.

“I’m sorry, Tex!” I cried, not for the first time, I might add.

Tex raised his tongs in recognition. Even though my words eluded him, I think he grasped my intention. He’d forgiven me, I like to add, which just shows what a good-hearted man he is.

The rest of the family were all gathered around the table set up in Tex and Marge’s backyard, and thoroughly enjoying the feast.

“So what happened to Johnny?” asked Gran.

“Ancient history,” said Scarlett with a careless wave of her hand.

“Too attached to his ethically challenged partner?”

“Too needy,” Scarlett said as she pronged a potato and bit off a tiny piece. “After our second date he was talking wedding plans. So I told him I don’t do marriage, and I don’t do cohabitation, and when he kicked up a fuss I kicked him out.”

“Good riddance,” said Gran.

“Johnny is a nice person,” said Marge. “He just hangs out with the wrong crowd.”

“He is the wrong crowd,” said Gran.

“So what’s going on with Loretta?” asked Charlene.

“I was chatting with her last night,” said Odelia. “She’s in Khemed right now, and things are going great. Bab El Ghat rolled out the red carpet for her and her grandparents and installed them at the palace for the duration of their trip. He wants to make amends, and show them that he’s not like his dad. Also, he’s asked Loretta to advise him on some necessary changes to the archaic nature of certain Khemed customs. Like polygyny, the right of any man to marry multiple wives.”

“Next thing she’ll become the Sheikha,” said Uncle Alec as he savored his cold beer.

“So who’s this Loretta you’re talking about?” asked Ted Trapper.

“She’s the writer of this fantastic book,” said Marge, and handed a copy of The Sheikh’s Passion to the Trappers.

Marcie took it and nodded.“I read this. It’s great. I saw the other day that Hollywood has bought the rights. They’re turning it into a TV series.”

“Oh, I wonder who’ll play Sheikh Bab El Ehr,” said Marge excitedly, “and Loretta’s mother.”

“I don’t care who plays them, as long as they stay true to the book,” said Marcie. “Too often they change the whole story and I hate that.”

“So how are things with Fido?” asked Uncle Alec.

“He’s doing fine. His old customers have all returned,” said Marge, nodding. “So all’s well that ends well.”

“I’m not so sure,” said Gran. “When I went in there yesterday he was telling me this whole story about how the earth is actually hollow, and how strange creatures live under our feet.”

“Oh, dear,” said Marge. “Looks like we’ll have to have another talk with him.”

“And wean him off the YouTube. For good this time.”

“YouTube is overrated,” said Brutus. “Tik Tok is where the action is.”

I laughed.“Are you into Tik Tok now, Brutus?”

“You bet. Harriet and I made our first Tik Tok movie yesterday. Wanna see?”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I said indulgently, as Harriet fired up the tablet Odelia leaves lying around for us to play with.

Moments later we were all watching a short video of Brutus and Harriet moving to ABBA’s Waterloo and doing a funny little dance.

“Cute,” said Rufus as he yawned, showing us he wasn’t particularly impressed. “But you should see my Tik Tok.”

“You have a Tik Tok?” asked Brutus.

“Of course. Me and Fifi made it together,” he said.

“We love our Tik Tok, don’t we, Rufus?” said Fifi.

“Absolutely. We make a great team.” He instructed Harriet to surf to their channel, which was called Ru-Fi, and soon I had to admit Rufus was right: the short videos they’d posted—or that Marcie had posted for them—were fun. They jumped through hoops, played fetch with Ted, and generallydid the kind of stuff dogs are good at: basically what their humans told them to do.

“I like Harriet’s video better,” Dooley whispered in my ear.

“Me, too,” I whispered back.

“Why don’t we start our own Tik Tok channel, Max? I think it could be a lot of fun.”

“Yeah, why not? Odelia can film us and put everything online. But what could we do that would make people watch?”

“I know,” said Dooley. “We’ll solve mysteries.”

“Solve mysteries in under three minutes? That’s a stretch, Dooley, even for us.”

“Oh, I know, we can dance and shake our tushies, just like Harriet does. People love that stuff.”

I arched my eyebrows. Dancing and shaking my tush is not exactly my thing. Then again, if it made my friend happy, why not?

And to show us how it was done, Dooley now hopped down from the swing, and demonstrated a little dance he’d seen in another Tik Tok video.