After he saves ten dollars, a thirteen-year-old boy seeks to purchase a puppy for the expensive price of three dollars. He asks his mother, who gives him an un-encouraging shrug. He considers asking his sleeping father who has struggled with bankruptcy. His brother speaks some sense into him, and condescendingly asks how he will provide for the pet. Still determined, the boy goes to the house where the dogs are, which is in a neighborhood an hour away; one that is totally different from his own. While there, he looks at the puppies and feels embarrassed that he came all the way only to realize that he didn’t want the puppy. The dogs were marketed as a brindle bulldog, which refers to the color of the coat of dog and not a different type of bulldog. The boy, who doesn't know a thing about dogs, concludes that these puppies do not resemble the tough looking bulldogs he saw in the Encyclopedia, but simply look like average brown dogs. Unsure of what to do, he turns to the woman. He never looks her in the face. She has long black hair and a strong neck, and a sheer gown that exposes her breasts. She strips and has sex with him, and marvels at how she can’t believe he is only thirteen years old. He leaves with a puppy but doesn't remember how he got the dog, and realizes he didn’t even pay her the money. He remembers that her name was Lucille. He brings the dog home, and when his mother bends down to feed the puppy, he feels embarrassed as he thinks of Lucille. His mother becomes attached to the puppy very quickly. One day, she bakes a chocolate cake. As the dog convulses and foams at the mouth from eating the entire cake, the boy calls the ASPCA who takes the dog away, and they shun the boy and mother. He sits and deliberates whether he should call Lucille, and thinks of a web of lies to appease her and avoid telling her about the accident with his dog. He is filled with lust as he thinks about Lucille, and exhausted from the tiresome mental gymnastics. He sits at the piano and invents chords, and straddles between a chord that is both harmonious and discordant. His mother, a trained piano player, is delightfully shocked at his playing. He hovers there, aware that he has a secret newness in him that cannot be revealed to his family, and continues to play, unsure if he will ever be able again to play so beautifully again.