The Whistle

My brother puts two fingers in his mouth and whistles, and across an entire parking lot, a dog turns around. I've seen a man whistle down a cab.

I put two fingers in my mouth and it sounds like a man blowing on soup.

I've tried three finger positions. I've tried the tongue folded back, the tongue forward, the lower lip tucked under. I watched a video eleven times. The man in the video said, “Just relax.” I am relaxed. I do it at the back of the yard where the neighbors can't hear, so I'm relaxed and alone.

Pepper hears it. She comes across the yard at a run, ears flat, and sits at my feet looking up like I've said her name.

She comes every time. Once my brother did the real whistle from the porch. She looked at him for a second and lay back down.

She doesn't come to that one. She comes to the soup.

I'm told the soup is not a whistle. She hasn't been told.