‘Flower and James’ amazing crazy huge ginormous ocean and highway adventure’
James and I were on the deck alone. Then James bumped into the gate with his big brown head. The gate opened. James went down the rocky and bumpy steps.
I barked, “No, James. Let’s stay home.”
I’ve always been the good dog.
But James went anyway, and I had to follow him, of course, to supervise. James is an irresponsible dog.
Outside the gate, in the ocean and playing in the sand, I have to admit, I had fun. We swam in the cold ocean, but didn’t notice because we both have nice, warm fur. We’re Labrador retrievers and used to the water.
I said to James, “We need to go home.”
“But Flower, where is home?” James scratched his head with his wet paw.
I looked around to find our pawprints in the sand to get back to our house. But the tide had washed away all our tracks.
“Uh oh. We’re lost.”
“I’m sure we’ll find a way out.”
“Thanks, James. Great help. OK, don’t talk anymore. Follow me.”
I walked for a long time, in silence. I was mad at James.
The sun was going down. James and I were very hungry. James put his nose in the air and sniffed.
“I smell food. Let’s go up those steps and try to find it.”
“Seriously? I’m going to trust you now?”
“What do we have to lose? We’re already in trouble.
“I’ll go first so you don’t lead us the wrong way again.”
At the top of the steps, there was no food to be seen. One more time, I was disappointed. I still couldn’t trust James. But the smell of food was still there. This time I followed my nose. The smell came from a house with people inside. But no one came out to feed us, so we walked on.
We walked a long time beside the road, afraid to cross. We were still lost, with no idea if home was to the left or the right. Maybe it was straight ahead. But there was the road.
The sun was going down. There were not too many cars going by us. The first stars appeared. James said, “My belly is empty, Flower.”
“You got us into this mess. You get us out of it.”
James got an idea, which is never a good thing. He walked into the road.
“No, it’s too dangerous.” But James didn’t listen.
He made it across with no problem. I followed and only one car was in sight, far away.
We entered a big field, empty of everything but weeds and dirt. Both James and I were frightened, afraid of bad people coming to take us, of never seeing our own home again, of how dark it was getting, of other animals. James worried most about his tummy.
We made it across the big field without anything bad happening. We were relieved to be alive, and happy not to be alone. James and I had each other.
We weren’t sure we were headed in the right direction for home. But right in front of us was another road, much bigger than the road we already crossed. The cars on this road were going really fast and there were a lot of them.
Maybe this was the way to go home. Inside the cars were people who might help us. But the cars were going by so fast that we could barely stop.
“James, it’s too dangerous. Let’s turn around.”
“You stay here.”
“What are you planning on doing?”
“I’m going to get help.”
“How are you going to do that?”
James didn’t answer.
He stepped on the road.
I was terribly scared. James might be goofy, but I love him. And he was in the road!
The first car flew by like a fast bird, making an awful wind. The second car did the same, but even faster. The third car went by so fast that I blinked and it was gone. And James was still in the road.
But the man inside the fourth car saw James at the last moment. The car skidded sideways, wheels screeched on the road, smoke came from the wheels, and I smelled burning rubber.
Then the car stopped just barely one half inch from James.
I stayed on the median, running back and forth, barking and barking for James to get out of the way.
Suddenly, all the cars stopped in a straight line. The man who’d stopped first got out of his car. He came in my direction. He looked kind and nice, and I thought he might be the one to save us. His voice was soft.
I let him pick me up and put me in the back seat of his car.
But James got scared by all the noise and smoke. When the man went to pick him up, James took off up the green hill. I watched out the car window while the man chased him down. I barked as loud as I could, “He’s a nice man! Stop running!”
James must have heard me because he slowed down. The man scooped him up and brought him to the car. The whole time, all the other cars waited in a straight line, silent and watching, to see what would happen to the two dogs who were loose by the road.
When James was in the back seat with me, I said, “You almost got killed. I was frightened.”
James puffed out his big brown chest.
“I saved us.”
“What?”
“I stopped all the cars. And look. We’re safe. Nothing bad is going to get us.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I want to be like my dad. He’s a world champion. And.”
“And what, James?”
“And I love you.”
The rest of the story went by as fast as one of the cars. The nice man took us to his home in Point Dume. He had an awesome family, even a little boy to play with. They fed us and we slept safe and sound through the night.
In the morning, the man called the veterinarian in Malibu to say that he’d found two dogs, one white, one brown, near the road. The vet said he knew those two dogs. And he knew their owners, who had reported the dogs lost.
That morning, the nice man drove us to the vet. Our family waited for us there. James wagged his tail, really happy to see them, but I said, “No, James. We’re safe now, but you were bad. And I followed. So I was bad.”
Our family was so glad to see us, but James and I didn’t wag and we didn’t jump. We were ashamed of ourselves. Well, mostly me, because I’m the good dog.
But even though we were bad, everybody else was so good. The nice man who found us, the people in their cars who waited in line without honking to make sure we would be saved, the vet, the family who took us in, our family who were so worried and called everybody in Malibu and looked for us for hours and hours.
And crazy, bad James, who was so brave.
Thank you all. I’ll be good now, forever. I promise.