Once again, the older brother found himself hoping his younger brother could come to his rescue. Even with his mental capacity impaired somewhat by a combination of canine instincts and supernatural trickery, Jared knew that Wepwawet's orchestrated trial was not going well for him.
When court returned to session, Kevin approached the witness stand with some hesitancy, prompting Jared to bark out a show of support. "You've got this, Kev," he barked. "I believe in you."
"No coaching from the defendant," Wepwawet complained. "Your honor, please!"
The judge admonished Jared. "I have been extremely lenient to grant this additional testimony," she said. "Don't make me regret it."
Jared whimpered a pouty protest but didn't attempt to communicate again with Kevin.
Wepwawet began by asking Kevin to explain why he felt responsible for his brother's transformation. Kevin looked across the court at Jared in his shaggy form watching from the defendant's dock. He told the story of how they had first encountered the magical amulet. In a lowered voice, he also confessed to tricking his older brother on a couple of occasions into taking the sheepdog's form.
"I've always wanted a dog," Kevin explained with a turn of his head to address the judge.
Glittering eyes almost glowed beneath her hood. "Well, now you have one," she said. "What's the problem?"
"But I didn't want my brother to become my dog," Kevin blurted out. "Well, not really."
Wepwawet smirked. "Your honor, may I show a video?"
"Another one?"
"It's relevant."
She agreed with a weary wave of a bony hand that reached from under the sleeves of the robe.
A recent moment in the Webster household played out on the screen after Kevin rejoiced at the news that his big brother could change into a dog.
"Woah, now. Hold on there. Nobody can know about this. It's our secret, okay?" Jared told him.
When Kev looked so downcast, Jared relented slightly. Specifically, he offered to be Kevin's best friend instead of his big bro from time to time.
"Do you mean that?" Kevin asked.
Jared saw his screen self nod. "Whenever you want I will become your dog, so long as you keep this just between the two of us, okay?"
Kevin's screen self readily agreed to the unexpected offer.
Jared barked and explained he had made the offer to persuade Kevin to keep the secret.
The judge looked ready to rebuke his interruption, but Wepwawet beat her to it.
"Is that so?" The deity asked.
Jared barked an emphatic yes.
"So, you didn't enjoy your time as a dog and secretly want to feel those carefree, happy feelings again?" Wepwawet asked perceptively. "Is that what you expect us to believe?"
Jared felt hot, and not just from the thick, shaggy coat that now permanently enclosed him. He started to pant, which caused him to drool, too.
"I believe the court would like an answer," Wepwawet said.
"It doesn't matter," Kevin jumped into the fray. "I used the medallion to change him while he was sleeping, and then I used it to save him from this woman who wanted to take him away as her pet. Then, when that messed up everything, I used the amulet to separate Jared and Shaggy into separate beings."
The judge looked skeptical. "How did a human, a mere boy..."
"It boggles the imagination, but I will grant the accuracy of his testimony, but none of that changes the arrangement the defendant made, quite willingly, with the new and improved Jared William Webster." Wepwawet finished with a flourish toward the impostor, who embarrassed himself with his entanglement with Susan Reynolds. They had been making out in a corner of the court since Susan's earlier testimony.
Wepwawet glared at the impostor, but recovered. "Your honor, despite this child's misplaced loyalty, I believe I can demonstrate that the defendant has been an unreliable and poor example of a brother."
"That's not true!" Kevin exclaimed.
The judge sighed, but Wepwawet countered. "He has always treated you fairly?"
"Yes, he has," Kevin said stoutly.
Wepwawet gestured toward the screen. "How much footage do you have of this tedious family?" The judge complained.
On the screen, Kevin looked like a little boy, no more than five years old. His mother held him in her lap while his father listened.
"Jared and his friends made fun of me," Kevin wailed between sobs. "They called me a baby. Jared told me to go away and stop bothering them."
Mrs. Webster tried to comfort the kindergartner. "How old are you, Kevin?" She hugged him closer. "Well?"
He held up a hand and spread his five fingers. "This much, mommy."
"Well, that's not a baby, is it?"
Kevin snuffled. "But Jared said..."
"Your father and I will talk to Jared," she said.
"You can bet on that," Dad said, looking put out. "Your brother was being thoughtless, but he didn't mean it. He will see the error of his ways."
Kevin looked mollified and the screen froze.
"He made you cry," the deity said. "He called you names. Is that a good brother?"
"No, but... well, I mean..."
"Later, despite his assertions he didn't want to experience canine form again, he agreed to the exchange with the former sheepdog," Wepwawet said. "Is that not so?"
Kevin scrunched his face. "I never did quite understand why he did that," Kevin admitted.
"He tricked me!" Jared barked.
"Your honor, I propose this child had been traumatized by years of abuse and neglect on the part of the defendant until he had become so eager to please the defendant that he will say anything to gain the approval so cruelly denied him," Wepwawet said.
"That's not true!" Kevin said, joined by a flurry of barking from the defendant's dock.
"Enough!" The judge raised her voice. "I have heard enough."
She dismissed Kevin back to the gallery. She stood to her feet and left her seat and loomed over the defendant's docket. "Testimony indicates you have been a poor excuse for a son, a brother, and a friend. I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn you're a pathetic dog, too."
Jared cringed and whined at the tone of her voice. "But my personal beliefs are not relevant," she said. "You made an agreement, of your own free will...."
She paused and turned to a Wepwawet on the verge of triumph. "What were the details again of that agreement?"
"Your honor, the new Jared William Webster could inform you better than I can," the deity said.
She ordered the impostor to his feet. "Spell out the nature of this agreement for me, so I can put an end to this misery and render my decision."
The impostor looked nervously around the room. His parents, Susan, Billy and Greg, everyone had their eyes on him.
"It was about a frisbee," he said.
"A frizz-bee?" The judge asked.
"A cheap toy," Wepwawet said. "You toss it through the air in a game with friends."
"So, he gave you this frizz-bee and you gave him your canine body?"
Jared barked furiously. "That's not how it happened!"
She rounded on him. "Did anyone address you?"
A detail came to light in Jared's desperate mind. He cringed and put on a very proper display of subservience. Everything depended on debasing himself to gain a chance to play his hunch.
"Please," he whimpered. "Can I make one point? Please?"
The judge looked at the back of the court, her eyes falling on the executioner who had finished sharpening his ax and now stood silently with the rest of the audience.
"Very well," she said. "If you're trying to make a fool of this court, it will go very badly for you."
Jared whimpered and tried to pull his thoughts together. "This is what happened, your honor."
He recounted the events leading to his human self on his belly, begging the sheepdog to toss the frisbee.
"Your honor, that impostor promised to throw the frisbee for me if I would let him have my body," Jared barked out his statement of importance.
"Yes," she said. "We've been over this."
Jared barked again. "Your honor, he never threw the frisbee."
The judge looked stunned. "Are you telling me he did not live up to his part of the arrangement?"
Jared barked. "It's the truth," he said. "Ask him!"
Kevin clapped his hands together. Most of the audience looked to be on the edge of their seats, but the impostor made a dash for the door. The judge ordered the executioner to seize him, which was efficiently accomplished.
"Bring him here," the judge ordered.
With dog and human in front of her, she spoke clearly. "It is now apparent to me that the arrangement whereby Jared William Webster agreed to give up his human body is null and void as the agreed upon exchange was never fulfilled." She brought down her gavel and in a flash that left both boy and dog with serious headaches, they found themselves in their respective bodies.
Wepwawet muttered something about meddling kids and disappeared, transporting everyone back into their proper places in the universe. In the Webster yard, Jared, Kevin, and Shaggy stared at each other.
"Crap!" Jared complained. "They couldn't send me back with clothes!"
The naked teenager felt Kevin throw himself into him, nudity or not. "Jared, I am so glad to have you back," Kev declared.
They both looked down at Shaggy, who looked quite content to wander over for a rest in front of the doghouse. "Do you think he remembers any of it?" Kev asked.
Jared shrugged. "I doubt it," he said.
The brothers walked back to the house, which caused them to miss the spooky gleam that animated Shaggy's eyes. A gleam that, a second later, vanished when a nearby squirrel distracted the big, shaggy English sheepdog.
The End?