When I looked up, Thea stood just ahead.
She was being very patient. It’s not like her to run
away. She just got scared, that’s all.
in the back seat, and locked the door, and drove
away fast.
She looked at me with her big eyes and
started wagging her tail. Then she turned and ran
on. I followed where she led.
What I remember about being in the man’s
car is a blur. He sounded angry, but not as mean
as I thought. My voice called for help even after
the rest of me gave up. I must have fallen asleep
that way, because when I woke up I was inside my
house again. I opened my eyes and saw the man
looking down at me. There were two ladies there,
too, but not Mommy.
I followed Thea’s swishing tail for a long
time. She weaved through the trees like Lassie did
in the movies. If I had to be alone in the forest, I at
least wanted to be with her. After a minute, her
tail started swishing slower, and her brown fur
“Dad asked me to take care of her, and I
turned gold in the sunshine. I knew where she was
hate it, but I don’t think we can do it anymore,
going now. I had an instinct. And when she turned
Kate. She’s doing this more often now, and it’s alher head to look back at me I knew it was true.
ways the same thing,” the man said.
She had taken me to where we
“I know. I wish we had
could cross the road to the little
I opened my eyes and another option. I just can’t imaggrocery store! Where Mommy
one of those homes.
saw the man looking ine Mom inrun from you, too,
was! The thoughts of the bad man
Does she
floated right out of me, because I
Pam?” one of the ladies asked.
could even see the light ahead down at me. There were
“Sometimes she seems to
where the trees got thin. The little
two ladies there, too, but catch a fright, yes, but nothing
dirt road was just past them.
quite like this. I hate it for the
Thea started running fastnot mommy.
poor thing. She’s seeing things
er again, right through the thin
again, isn’t she, Doug?”
trees and into the open sun. Finally, out of that
“She seems to be. She’ll never tell me
dark forest! Finally, almost to Mommy! I stood at
what it is when she’s in that state, though.”
the edge of the road and waited to cross over.
When my eyes adjusted to the bright, though, it
“It’s always the same place she goes to?”
wasn’t a dirt road at all. It was a grey one. It must
the woman named Kate asked.
have been concrete, like the ones in the city. Even
“Always the same place. She seems to
worse, the place where the grocery store should
know where she’s going. Most times I can catch
be was empty. It was like no store had ever been
her before she reaches the road, but since my surthere at all.
gery I can’t do much of anything.”
“This isn’t right, Thea,” I said. She wouldn’t
“She’s gotten awfully violent, too. She
take me here. We must have been lost. When I
broke that china, and before she threw a picture
looked around for her, though, she was gone, too!
right off the wall,” said Pam.
Instead, a blue car waited at the side of the road.
It was the man’s car. I saw his face, but it was too
“I’ll start looking for a good place to take
late to run again. My legs wouldn’t let me, and he
her,” Kate sighed.
grabbed me, just like he wanted to all along. I
Pam just shook her head and looked down
screamed and screamed, and his rough hands
at me. “Poor thing.”
squeezed tighter around my arms. He was pulling
me towards his car, and I couldn’t even feel the
ground on my sore feet anymore. Then he put me
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