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I stuck my earbuds back in and waited for us to land. When we pulled into the gate, I grabbed my bag and got off the plane. Cassidy had to wait to go back to get hers. If she’d been smart, she would have gotten Brook’s bag and not been delayed getting off the flight. We were all catching a connecting flight home. Instead, I sent a text to Fritz to meet me at the car-rental area. I followed that with a text to my mom and dad, telling them that I would have him drive me instead. I needed the time it took to drive home to think.

◊◊◊

The highway billboard coming into town showed a picture of Duke, with the little ones and me piled around him, and the tagline, “Dog’s Best Friends.” The photo was from when we’d shot Coby’s picture for the magazine.

As we drove into town, there were different signs with captions from our brainstorming session. I was a little embarrassed at all the different pictures they’d found of my hound. Someone must have raided my cloud photo storage. It put a grin on my face to think that our goofy idea was working out.

I’d turned off my phone for the trip because I wanted to think, and without interruption. Mom had gotten smart and figured out that Fritz had his phone on him. She’d sent him a text to tell him that we should meet at the office in the strip mall.

When we walked in, I saw that the campaign ‘brain trust,’ which included Brook, was milling around. It appeared that Mary Dole had put together a deli tray, and everyone was eating sandwiches. Out of the back came my grandmother and dad with Ms. Dixon. Grandma Dawson got everyone’s attention.

“As you may have noticed, we’ve blanketed the community with campaign signs. We’ve also posted David’s campaign ad online. For those of you that haven’t seen it, I’ll play it now.”

They’d brought the TV from the conference room into the office area. The TV was linked to the Internet, so Grandma opened my David A. Dawson YouTube channel and selected the video. I’d decided to go the positive route in my one-minute ad. The opening scene was Duke farting around in the back yard with my voice-over.

“Would you feel safer with Duke on the job?”

You could hear Precious yowl, and Duke’s head snapped around, and the hair on his back rose.

“Protecting your loved ones is job one.”

The scene switched to him working at the hospital as he loved-up patients.

“Would you feel better with Duke on the job?” I asked.

One little boy grabbed him around the neck and put him in a bear hug. Duke’s tail was going a hundred miles an hour.

“You only wish you were as perfect as your dog thinks you are.”

I showed him getting loved-up by Yuri’s and my grandmothers.

“Would you feel better with Duke on the job?” I repeated.

He rolled onto his back and let them rub his tummy.

“Ear, chest, and belly rubs sure help.”

The last scene was with me talking into the camera with Duke sitting next to me, my arm around him.

“I know I would feel better with Duke as our mayor.”

Duke licked my face and then turned to the camera as my last voice-over played, telling everyone to vote for Duke. I’d gotten Dad to help me get Duke to look at the camera by him pulling out Duke’s favorite tennis ball. We had to do a few takes because Duke wanted to jump up and play ball. That was why I had my arm around him. He surprised me when he licked me. It was a good ending.

When the video was over, Grandma Dawson stepped in front of the TV. She had Caryn and Megan hand out packets.

“We’ve worked up press releases that will begin to go out tomorrow along with the ad. In the back are talking points in case you’re asked any questions. If they want to get more details, direct them to Ian or me.”

Brook’s dad stood up and waved to everyone. Apparently, he forgot that we all knew who he was. Then Ms. Dixon came to the front of the room.

“As we predicted, Mr. Fox has asked the court to strike Duke’s candidacy. He has asked for an emergency injunction to keep Duke off the ballot based on the incredible revelation that Duke is a dog,” she said as she rolled her eyes.

Everyone chuckled when they heard that. From Ms. Dixon’s expression, it was apparent she wasn’t impressed with that approach.

“He’s also challenging the signatures. We have enough that I’m not concerned about this tactic. Something interesting we discovered is that Mr. Fox may not have submitted the requisite number of signatures for him to get himself on the ballot. I guess he was a jerk with the Supervisor of Elections because she shared his screw-up with us. Under normal circumstances, they would give him some time to rectify the situation. I plan to ask the court to invalidate him as a candidate.