How It All Goes Down
- Cue the Judge Judy theme music, because it's the day of the trial.
- Enzo isn't privy to the trial's proceedings, so he makes them up.
- To be fair, Enzo is a good storyteller, so the telling is quite dramatic.
- In the meantime, Mike and Tony take care of Enzo, and he finds out about the trial later.
- Enzo finds out that when Annika got on the stand to speak, she says she knew she was playing a game with Denny, but as a girl she didn't know what she was getting into.
- Later that day, Tony gets a call from Mike to tell him there's been a recess, and Tony and Enzo rush to the courthouse.
- While Tony and Enzo wait outside, Enzo has a dream that he, using a voice processor from Stephen Hawking himself, may address the court as the only witness to the evening in question, and he defends his Denny.
- Stephen Hawking would be proud, to be sure.
- We also want to know if a machine like that is possible, because we would definitely pay to know our pets' thoughts.
- Someone please set up a Kickstarter for this technology.
- When Enzo wakes up, Denny is there, with Mr. Lawrence and Mike.
- Enzo finds out that Annika recanted her story, the charges against Denny were dropped, and Denny is free.
- Thank goodness.
- Cue collective breath of relief.
- On the heels of this good news, the Evil Twins drop the custody charges, and Zoë is free to come home.
- Thank goodness, times two.
- Denny is making oatmeal cookies the night Luca Pantoni calls him back, and he lets Luca know that now that the trial is over, he can come work for Ferrari in Italy.
- Zoë is also excited to go to Italy, knowing it will be a new adventure.
- Pantoni reveals that he has chosen Denny as his mentee because Luca's wife died as well, and his predecessor at Ferrari showed him the same kindness and opportunity he is offering Denny.
- This scene, we have to say, is as sweet as the oatmeal cookies Denny is making.
- Okay, here we go. The moment we all knew was coming and still tried to avoid.
- Do you have your box of tissues with you?
- Good.
- So, we're back in the present now, after all of this has been said and done.
- Denny is making breakfast—pancakes, yum—in preparation of Zoë's return home, and Enzo knows it's his last day on earth as a dog.
- We're crying already.
- Enzo thinks about how people are afraid of death because death is the end, but because of that Mongolian dogumentary he watched, he knows that death will be only the beginning for him.
- Enzo is ready to become a human and to take what he has learned from his doggy life into his next one so that he can be a good human and contribute to the world around him.
- Enzo also decides that death is a choice, part of your car going where your eyes go.
- Denny sees that Enzo isn't doing well, and he doesn't even have enough strength in him to eat some pancake—which is a real shame, because pancakes are delicious.
- At this point, it's clear that Denny knows Enzo's not going to make it, and he tells Enzo that it's okay: he can go if he wants to.
- That's it. We're crying.
- Denny and Enzo sit together, remembering the life they shared.
- Denny tells Enzo he knew they belonged together, and that Enzo has always been his Enzo.
- Enzo loves Denny so much that in a moment of sadness, he misses Denny, and Zoë, and wishes he could see the next chapter of their lives in Italy.
- Enzo foresees that Denny will become a Formula One champion like Ayrton Senna or Michael Shumacher. As long as they give him a shot, he will be up for the task.
- Enzo realizes with a pang that he won't see his Denny shine in his future career, and he wonders if he's wasted his dogginess in waiting to become a human. Did he focus too much on the future he wants to care enough about the present?
- We don't think so, Enzo. We think you've been a wonderful dog.
- Enzo remembers the dogumentary again, which told him that dogs' souls, once released, are free to roam and play and feel the air and wind and sun before they are reborn, and he starts to see that field.
- The field with its wide expanses and lush grasses sounds beautiful, but it doesn't make us any less sad.
- In his last moments, with Denny by his side, Enzo thinks of this field, a wide, open field where he can run, faster, and faster, and faster.
- Enzo thinks of Denny, who taught him that speed was only half the battle of racing, and that racers are selfless and don't think of themselves in the present, but instead as part of a collective whole.
- Enzo steps out into that collective whole, with the breeze through his coat and good smells all around him.
- Denny tells Enzo he loves him, and that it's okay for him to go.
- And Enzo goes, running into that field, faster, and faster, and faster.
- We tried to be humorous here, honestly we did, but our tears got in the way.
- But nope, that wasn't the end yet.
- Gather up your used tissues—you might need them again.
- This chapter is from Denny's point of view.
- As Enzo predicted, Denny's a Formula One champion, which people think is miraculous, "nothing short of a fairy tale" (59.1).
- While reflecting at a coffee shop, sitting quietly by himself, a young woman who can only be Zoë comes up to Denny with a father-and-son pair in tow.
- The young boy, whose name is Enzo, has a passion for racing.
- The boy tells Denny that your car goes where your eyes go.
- See? Those extra tissues came in handy, didn't they?
- Denny thinks the boy reminds him of someone (we wonder who), and Denny offers him his card, with the promise that when the boy is old enough and feels ready, he will offer him the opportunity of driving instructions and lessons.
- Yes, we feel incredibly warm and fuzzy inside, too.
- But we're still crying.