3 Heads & a Tail (35 page)

“
No,
”
I say, telling
a little
white
lie.
“
I was thinking about food!
”

“
You and your big bell
y!
”
she voofs at me, raising her eyes to the sky
and wagging her tail.
“
We only just ate.
”

“
A dog can dream,
”
I say, grinning and showing all of my teeth. I know she likes it wh
en I smile. She
'
s wagging her tail now. See,
I
'
m
so
right
about that
!

I
'
m
wonder
ing
where we are. This street is quiet. It
'
s lined with trees
and very clean. Seems like a posh neighbourhood, so maybe
we
'
ll get some posh food here. A woman
is walking
out of her house to put her rubbish into a bin
. She
'
s looking in our direction
.
She
'
s staring
... for too long. Now she
'
s waving!
How odd. I
glance
at Mimi and she
'
s looking
surprised.

The woman starts shouting and waving at us.
“
Mimi! Glen!
”

I step backwards
in shock, sensing
dange
r. We need to get out of here and f
ast. Mimi
is nudging
me
to ignore
the woman. She
'
s turning and
sprinting
down the road,
back
the way we came. I
'
m
duck
ing
my head and f
ollow
ing.
We
'
re
run
ning
as fast as we can
and we
'
re not looking
back.

How
does
that woman know our names? I
'
m sure I
'
ve never seen her before in my
voofing
life. We
'
re
sprint
ing
down a few streets and then stop. We
'
re panting. I feel the heat suddenly like a slap in the face.

“
Have you seen her before?
”
asks Mimi, breathing heavily and looking nervous
.

“
No, never,
”
I say.
“
I was thinking
about it while running. N
ever,
I
'
m sure.
”

“
Me n
either. H
ow
does
she know our names?
”

“
No idea.
We better keep going. Get as far away from here as possible.
”

At that moment
a big
red bus stops right by us and
Mimi moves away from the edge of the pavement. It
'
s one of those small buses. I look up and realise we
'
re standing at the bus stop! How funny. The driver cranes his head ou
t of the window, grinning from ear to ear
.
“
Do you need a lift?
”
he asks.

I
'
m
wonder
ing
if this is a joke and
I
cock my head, but the bus doors open. All of the passengers are looking at us, smiling. Why not, I think. I look at Mimi and she seems to agree. We hop on to the bus while the passengers clap. My
tongue lollops out of my head
and I
'
m wagging my tail. Mimi
'
s is going pretty fast too, and two women are taking it in turns to give her a fuss. She
'
s such a pretty dog.

The bus driver looks roun
d, waves
and starts driving
. And w
e
'
re off.
It
'
s a bit jolty
a
nd weird, but I get used to it
though I
'
m struggling
to balance. Sticking my tail out
seems to help
. Just have to be careful not to swish people
with it!
We
'
re
pass
ing
trees, streets, people and
we
keep
going. By the time the bus is almost empty
, we
'
re still on
it
, balancing and
watching the world go by – it
whizzes past. If I squint it
sort of blurs into a
rush of colour
. Shoo
m!

“
Do you
have any idea where we
'
re going?
”
voofs Mimi.

“
No idea,
”
I say.
“
But if we go far
,
we won
'
t get found so soon.
”

“
True,
”
she says, pushing herself closer to me.

T
he bus
is stopping
and
doesn
'
t move again. The
driver
jumps
out of his little windowed seat and heads in our direction. He
'
s patting
us on the head.

“
That was the last stop
,
folks
. This is as far as I
'
m going. Hope you
'
re not going to get lost now,
”
he says, and opens the doors. He steps on to the pavement and we jump off behind him.

To our left
there is just a line of trees; t
o the right, a small shop and a row of houses. The owner of the shop has kindly left
out
a bowl of water
– a
sign
saying
'
F
or dogs
'
has
an arrow pointing down
to it.
I
'
m
overwhelmed with thirst
and I see
Mimi running
straight for it
.

I look up at
the bus driver and
cock my head. Wish I could wink or something, but that would freak him out
,
so I just wag my tail.
“
Voof.
”

He pats my head like he
knows I
'
m saying thank you.
“
This is Bedrin Woods,
”
he
announces,
as
if he
knows
I understand
,
a
nd then he wanders off into the shop.

I
pad over to
Mimi and
lap up
some
water. It
'
s no longer cold, but still refreshing. I flick my head so some of it lands on Mimi. She kicks me lightly and runs back to the pavement. I
chase
after her. There are no cars coming either way – I
'
m
remember
ing
my Green Cross Code and
'
Sit
'
command, Ben – so we run quickly across. The forest looms
, big and green
.
It
'
s the
largest
mass of trees I
'
ve ever seen
. I
'
m not sure
I
'
ve ever been in a forest
before
. From the look on Mimi
'
s face, I can tell
that she hasn
'
t.

“
Maybe w
e shouldn
'
t go there,
”
I say.
“
It l
ooks a bit scary.
”

“
I was thinking the same.
Hope you don
'
t think I
'
m a scare
dy
dog
,
”
she says, her head drooping.

“
Nah
,
w
e can go another time. Let
'
s stick to the streets and houses,
and
what we
'
re used to. Maybe there
'
s a small park around here.
”

“
Voof,
”
s
he says, wagging her tail. I make
her happy. Sometimes it
'
s the simple things. We check there
'
s no traffic and hurry back across th
e road. It
'
s time to find some food
.
I
'
m wondering how many old ladies live in this neighbourhood.

“
Ben, it
'
s Josie,
”
she said
after
he answered the
phone
.

“
I know,
”
he said,
“
I can see your name!
”

“
Glad you haven
'
t lost your
sense of humour.
Is Ms Hill with you?
”

“
Yeah
, she came over again for coffee. It helps her. She
'
s brought over a new photo album.
”

“
Cool,
”
said Josie.
“
We
'
ve had some news. A woman called in
to say
she had seen the dogs!
”

“
Wo
w!
”
said Ben, standing up. Wobbling a little, he sat back down.

“
What is it?
”
asked Ms Hill, he
r eyes full of hope.

“
They
'
ve had
a sighting,
”
he said.
“
W
here
, Josie
?
”

“
Another town
, Ebston
. They walked quite a way
. I
t seems they headed west. This wom
an was putting out her rubbish and
saw them. She shouted their names and waved, but they ran off.
”

“
Did she run after them?
”
asked Ben.

“
No, but she called us. This happened earlier today. So we
'
re runn
ing the story again this week with a
n update. We
'
re going to put a map of the route we
'
re guessing they took, along with some more photos.
”

“
That
'
s great, Josie!
”
cheere
d Ben. Ms Hill
wiped her eyes
, smiling
.

“
My editor is making it the cover
story!
”