Man's Smartest Friend

• Kaitlin Collins, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2017

Man’s Smartest Friend

So what makes my dog better than any other dog? Well, that’s simple, he can read minds.

I discovered it when I was helping Mum by hanging out some clothes. A huge gust of wind came by and ripped a pair of pants out of my hands.

Out of nowhere, Chucky bounded out with his tail wagging. He snatched the pants from the air.

“Don’t you dare,” I thought, when I saw the pants dangling from his teeth. I was stunned when he stopped and tilted his head to the side. I stared at him and he stared back. Surely he couldn’t have understood my thoughts.

“Come here boy,” I called. He didn’t move. “Give me those pants,” I thought.

As if he had read my mind, he trotted over and dropped them at my feet. I tried out thinking a series of instructions. I tried; sit, roll over, shake hands, turn around.

They all worked!

In one week I had taught Chucky to cook porridge, change channels on the TV, make my bed and carry my bag to school. It was like I had my own secret butler on four legs.

Everything seemed perfect, until one afternoon I noticed that we were being watched. A man in a white jacket stood at the bus stop across the road glaring at us as we walked home from school.

“Hey you, I need to talk to you about your dog,” he called in a hoarse voice.

Chucky and I didn’t stick around to hear what he had to say. I already knew what he wanted. He was after Chucky, and I wasn’t letting anyone take him.

I knew we had to lay low for a while so we hurried to an old abandoned house just out of town. The ceiling was peeling, the doors were off their hinges. As we crept inside, I kept looking over my shoulder.

That was when my foot when straight through a broken floor board. I heard a sickening snap and knew I’d broken my leg.

“Get help!” I just managed to think to Chucky just as I blacked out.

When I woke up, there was a doctor at the end of what I quickly realised was a hospital bed.

“You’ve broken your leg,” he said. “Your parents are downstairs.” He nodded towards the door where the strange man in a white jacket was standing. “This was the man who found you. I’ll fetch your parents,” said the doctor as he left.

“I’m sorry if I frightened you. My name is Tim and I am a scientist,” the man began. “I wanted to warn you not to use your dog’s power in public. I am responsible for what he can do. I just want him to have a happy life.”

“So you’re not going to take him away from me?” I asked.

“No, you can keep him on the condition that you always keep his powers hidden.”

I agreed.

So you see, my dog is definitely better than all other dogs, but it’s just not safe for me to prove it.